I couldn’t sleep so I knocked out a couple more ITMFL studies this morning and that really turned my mood around.

I need to be making more comics. I’m not saying time to work on comics would fix me but it would put a smile on my face.

Everyone should adopt a stable of artists at $5/month.

I'm very excited for TCAF and in my ongoing quest for transparency/financial literacy in comics I'm reporting the estimated cost to exhibit (fees, travel, hotel, food, etc) not counting production or overhead costs is... $1943 USD! So, you know, don't be shy about supporting artists.

I love drawing. I love writing. I love comics! I'm so lucky to have my meager shining little life. (excited to see all my comics friends at TCAF)

The poll for my next virtual book club is live! Steering the Craft / Making Comics / The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud! You don't have to be a patron to vote so get in there and let me know what we should read next. patreon.com/jmarshallsmi...

Can't wait for TCAF!

I don't remember if I every posted about this on here but you can sign up for a whole year of original drawing giveaways directly in my shop if you're not interested in the other patreon benefits. www.jmarshallsmith.com/shop

A silly little comic I did about dreams, love, fiction, and food for this year's @bettysbooksstl.bsky.social anthology zine:

Finally reading the Bluest Eye and you know what, Morrison could write!

Okay, I’ll confess to being anxious about it, I don’t do a lot of interviews, but apart from disliking the sound of my own voice I think this was good. Listen if you don’t care about Testament spoilers and want to hear about process, inspiration, etc.

I haven’t listened yet and I don’t know if I sound like an idiot, so if I do don’t tell me. I’ll find out when I listen.

Last day to register to vote in the Eisner Awards! You need to work in some fashion in the expanded world of the comics industry, and having previously voted doesn't give you a pass for this one. Applications to vote close today!

I haven't made a self indulgent sad sack diary comic in a while. Here is one from a couple weeks ago about when my dog died.

this was so beautiful i'm genuinely in tears

Historian of abolition here, history tells us how we got here, to put it succinctly “John Brown was hanged for treason and Robert E. Lee was not.”

GOD. Spicy is a baby-talk ass designation deployed specifically to express discomfort about sex

Now that im finished getting married and my day jobs are winding down for the semester, i want to do more book promo. Have you got a favorite bookstore you want me to do a signing at?

It's wild how John was executed, yet the Union let Confederate slavers live (to terrorize Black people) when they had every moral justification to give them all the rope. "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood".

I've been married for one week.

I am very grateful anytime someone orders something from me. At the same time, some folks really do not understand that I am one person packing orders nights and weekends after my day jobs. I can't offer next day delivery. Also after I take it to the post office I lose all control over an order.

The "out of the way swine" comic is great but this is the best comic strip of all time

I’m getting married tomorrow! May Day wedding!

Do you like my humble little comic Testament? Do you like this sweet robot? Do you want this original drawing of them? Sign up for my patreon! I'm giving this away tomorrow.

When will we see those in power encouraging a change in the system so that we are not all burning our candles from both ends? It will benefit everyone in the long run.

I absolutely hate this framing. The fact that the US press has refused to so much as glance in the direction of progressive Christians over the last thirty or so years doesn't mean anyone was sleeping, it means we have an incredibly lazy press.

Talk about not understanding Lord of the Rings but more importantly not understanding your customer base! No one should use AI for anything but even if you disregard ethics for a minute a sketchbook/notebook company using AI demonstrates a hilarious disconnect from the people buying their product.

I think it will be kind of interesting to see if the tenor around gun violence changes after this, when like 25% of the mainstream media has now survived an active shooter event. I mean I won’t hold my breath but it will be interesting

Sketchbook

I like to say that God loves me so much he protects me from the sin of wealth. At the same time it would be nice to make more than $20k between all the expensive colleges I teach at, my comics, and my freelance work.

ive always loved this piece. i think the storytelling is great

In the Mood For Love study. Part of a sketchbook batch I recently posted on Patreon.

Everything is bad now because kids get their taste in music from algorithms instead of from trying to impress the older girl you know who looks like the Bombchu Bowling Alley Operator

Oh fuck yes. I mean Primus/Waits ruled. All Waits rules. So.

Signing and shipping some comics

Come celebrate 5 years of Blind Alley with me! There'll be an art show with many great cartoonists, a live reading of secret Blind Alley comics, and some exclusive merch/zines.

some pages from THE VANISHING MAN that I did with @jmarshallsmith.bsky.social 🌼

probably my most annoying artist bullshit thing I say is that Good Girl Laika is not about the actual Laika. I think this is addressed several times in the comic but it is also an unavoidable part of having a dog in space named Laika, but then saying "not that Laika" is annoying. I'm sorry.

The third edition of Good Girl Laika is printed and ready to go!

Thank you!

Another patron drawing. I want to do more white on black drawing like this.

My latest comic is up on my website! www.jmarshallsmith.com/shop

Thank you so much to the jurors of the Cartoonist Studio Prize for short-listing Testament by @jmarshallsmith.bsky.social! @cartoonstudies.bsky.social

Public post with a sign up for my May 15th virtual book club for Taiyo Matsumoto's Cats of the Louvre, among other things:

Really racking up these SPX lottery rejections year after year. I try to be a grown up about these things but with the new book out I was really hoping I could get in this year.

Midnight Diner giveaway sketch. Dropped this with a new comic page, MoCCA report, zine production and book club notes over on patreon a few minutes ago.

This is not a library sponsored event but it is happening in the library building and I just... What are we doing? And by we I mean higher education and scholarly research.

I guess boycotting Harry Potter feels pretty trivial to me, because I'm an adult. if someone told me I shouldn't eat Gerber's baby food, I'd be like, that is no problem. I'm way ahead of you

One of my favorite signing sketches in someone’s copy of Testament today