BLOG: Seven Years Later (Patreon)

I made a comic for the upcoming Portland Zine Symposium anthology! The event is celebrating their 25th anniversary, and they asked zinesters to contribute a page to their book project sharing a cherished memory from previous years. Since PZS was the thing that jumpstarted my art career, I wanted to share that part of me!

I quit art during college because I thought I wasn’t good enough, and I resolved to do something else with my life (though I didn’t know what that would be?) Despite my earliest memory being drawing at daycare, despite selling doodles in elementary school for $.25, despite reading every manga in my middle school library, despite attending Baltimore Comic Con and wanting that life, despite drawing every day until I graduated high school… I got a 3 on my AP Art exam and it made me quit forever lol. After all, I needed to make money, right?

Well, I guess it wasn’t forever. I could never stay away from my one true love.

I always talk about how going to the Zine Symposium showed me there’s no one right way to make art. It showed me that there is an audience that will value art at any skill level, and there’s no barrier to entry. You can just make stuff and put it out there. Everything that was on my table, I printed myself at the IPRC, another invaluable resource that was available to me in Southeast Portland. I probably made like $30 at PZS that year, but that kindness from attendees of the show was enough to keep me going forward. It’s so cool to reflect back on how far I’ve come!

Come see me at the Portland Zine Symposium this weekend on Sunday, November 9th at PSU! It’s my true last event on the schedule until next year, so I hope you stop by!

Portland Zine Symposium, 2018 vs New York Comic Con, 2025