[BLOG-EXCLUSIVE NOTE: hey y’all! I’m going to be using this blog more often as a place to post sketch comics, newsletters and life updates in general from here on out. Social media sucks, and I need to get more into using the personal sites I already have set up. Let’s gooooo…]
Hello everyone! It’s been a bit, I know, apologies. During the start of February, I was rushing to finish any last minute work I had before I left for Tokyo for the rest of the month, so while I got an Archive Edition out (more on that later), I didn’t quite have enough time to bang out a newsletter. What a trip, though! Two weeks and change of sights, sounds, flavors and experiences I’ll be reminiscing on for a long time. I’d share more, except I actually kept a journal comic of our whole trip that I’ll be releasing over on my blog once I finish cleaning it up. Below is a little excerpt, about a conversation I had with one of the stewardesses on the flight there:
Journaling during the trip was really fun! It reminded me that writing shit down helps me remember stuff better later– a pretty obvious lesson, I know, but my memory is shit and I’m not the biggest shutterbug, so when I go on trips my memories of them often melt into a few standout moments or hazy anecdotes. Offloading memories onto something I can reread later makes me feel like I’m not just throwing those days away, like golden coins tossed one by one into a dark well. It makes me want to keep doing autobiographical sketch comics, a genre I’d previously worried was too navel-gazey and uninteresting to market. It’s okay to want to make things for me, though. And, shit, getting down any kind of record of what life is like right now is probably a good thing, jeez.
So hey! Look forward to that soon, and until then, we’ve got a bunch of other stuff to talk about!
TENTATIVE SPRING EVENT SCHEDULE, BARRING INTERNATIONAL CATASTROPHE
I said 2025 was going to be an “ON” year for events, and though getting into events has been a little odd (I can’t believe I got snubbed from Anthrocon! Maaaaan!), I’ve got an exciting docket of shows coming up, and I only might have to cancel one of them due to fear of getting blackbagged at the border by our psychotic fascist government! Check it out:
APRIL 19 – YCH MARKET, Courtyard City Center Hotel, Portland, Oregon (part of the YCH Party, a furry kink event)
MAY 1-31 – NIB & INK FEST, online, with the Cartoonist Cooperative
MAY 2-4 – SEATTLE EROTIC ART FESTIVAL, Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, Seattle, Washington
JUNE 7-8 – TORONTO COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL, Mattamy Athletic Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I’m trying to go to a broader range of local and online events these days– it’s less expensive, it’s less exhausting, and it’s a great way to connect on a more personal level with attendees than at some monolithic megacon. I visited ECCC on Sunday for a few hours this weekend, and like… just the quick peek really cemented my total lack of desire to do that con again unless something major changes. It’s so bullshit that they make independent artists shell out so much for convention floor real estate, just to put them through the wringer for four days straight. (Also, as a side note: we’ve gotta be hitting market oversaturation for fan art prints, right? I get that they lead to easier impulse buys than original comics and art, but holy shit, there were so many print walls in the Alley this year. It feels creatively drab, especially the artists who basically do carbon-copies of one single pose or style over and over with various celebrities or pop culture characters. Sure, it makes a buck now, but in five years, in ten years, will they still be churning this stuff out? Do they feel creatively nourished? I know, I know, I’m a hater, and this is way too long for a parenthetical aside. But still! Wow! Where are all the comics at this show?!)
There are still other events I’d like to go to later this year but haven’t been confirmed for yet. Seattle Pride and Trans Pride in Capitol Hill, BWPcon at Books with Pictures in Portland, and Biggest Little Fur Con in Reno, Nevada are all shows I’d love to check out. DVS7 is still in early planning stages, but that’ll be another fun online event. I can’t do as many shows as I used to when I was younger and less [take your pick: busy/bone-tired/existentially vulnerable], but I still love getting out and saying hi to readers new and old. It’s nice to feel like I’m not throwing my work into a big hole, y’know? So long as they don’t throw me into an actual hole trying to get into Canada in May, ahahaha! I hate my stupid country so god damn much. Please come to these shows and say hi so we can both remember what joy feels like.
ARCHIVE EDITION: TRY EVERYTHING ONCE
February marked a very special day in personal history: the 20-year anniversary of my first webcomic’s launch! To celebrate, I went down to the sub-sub-basement of my archives and dug up that first webcomic in its (near-)entirety. TRY EVERYTHING ONCE is the earliest thing you’ll ever read from me, and it’s a wild look at what’s changed in the two decades since (and, er, what hasn’t). If you haven’t already, subscribe to my Patreon for just $5 a month and check it out! Just, if you do, please. Be kind to my ambitious little teenage self…
PARADISE LUST AVAILABLE IN PRINT NOW!
For those of you who missed the crowdfunding campaign, rejoice and be glad! Hardback and PDF copies of BOOK OF SHADOWS: PARADISE LUST are available in the Fortuna Media online shop. PARADISE LUST features an all-star lineup of illustrators riffing on the concept of angel sex in forty beautiful spot-color illustrations. The book itself is designed by co-editor Hye M., and features a wraparound white-on-white UV spot gloss cover by other co-editor Nero O’Reilly. I’m co-editor number three! We’re all very proud of how this book came out, and we hope you’ll enjoy it too– just make sure to nab yourself a copy soon, as remaining quantities are limited.
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DISTRESSED EGG SEXUAL FUN ZONE: SYBIL #3 AVAILABLE IN PRINT NOW!
More printed smut news from my kinkier, yiffier alter-ego Distressed Egg: Print copies of THE SCANDALOUS SYBIL THROAT #3: “SLEEPWALKIN’!” are now available to order in the Iris Jay Shop! Magic, music and hypnosis collide in this sexually explicit adventure in Sin City, starring everyone’s favorite mad scientist Dr. Sybil Throat and her hapless hench Laura “Sparey” Perry. Each beefy 52-page copy comes with a free bookmark featuring Perry, too! Discerning sickos WILL want to grab a copy for their library. Go take a look!
D.Egg work has become enough of a component of my job that I feel like it’s weird to not include it in these newsletters. If you’re under 18 or you’re not into wilder smut, just keep scrolling– I’ll never make you look at anything you don’t want to. I’m not going to apologize over this side of my art existing, though! There are so many ideological and political forces out there right now that would love for all trans-positive erotica to vanish from the world along with trans people in general, so I feel like being open about this counts as an act of spiteful resistance.
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MEDIA BLAST: HOOOOOOOH SHIT HAVE YOU HEARD THIS NEW DARKSIDE ALBUM?
NOTHING. That’s what it’s called. I doubt it’ll be good SEO, but I doubt Jaar, Harrington and Esparza give a shit. This album mixes buttery neo-disco and dub with juddering electroclash and noisy textures, and the result sounds like a peak-era LCD Soundsystem album fed through a wood chipper and glued back together. Lead single “Graucha Max” is a riotous highlight that flips inside-out two-thirds of the way through, turning into an ass-shaking club remix of itself that I really hope will get a full 12″ release in the future. This is a strong contender for my album of the year. Go listen to it, jerk!
Also while we’re here, I’d also like to rep my friend Sam Keeper’s long-running STORMING THE IVORY TOWER blog, where she posts trenchant mechanical and social analysis on a variety of media. She just posted a new article in her “Hey Look At This Comic” series while I was typing this newsletter, and I’m using it as a little motivational “treat” to get me to blast through finishing it before reading, because they’re always so well-written and funny, and they never fail to make me think about comics in a way I didn’t previously expect. As social media continues to melt into a wet, gloppy pile of shit, blogs are the past and future of self-expression on the Internet. Give Sam’s a try!
That’s all for this month. Next month: more Crossed Wires (hopefully), some interesting project announcements (ideally), and more pissing and moaning about the state of things (most definitely). The horrors continue, but so do the little zines. Love each other, don’t give up on tomorrow, and don’t forget to DRINK WATER and CHECK YOUR EMAIL, everyone!
-IJ
