Hi!
I’ve been at the coast with my parents, husband and kids for a long spring break weekend and it’s been so nice. We’ve been hot tubbing and beach combing and taking in sunsets and yes, watching college basketball.
I don’t turn it on, but I’ve been watching when it’s on. I wonder if I’m slightly more interested this year because of my cat basketball comic? There really is so much drama and story woven into sports, I’m glad they exist, even if they are a little silly and come with a fair share of problems (injuries, corruption, etc).
When watching a college game that I’m not super invested in, I like to have an anecdote ready. “I wonder if Bill Murray will be at this Illinois game?” (He was!) “UConn, that’s my agent’s team” (hi, Alex!). Or my most impressive, when I spotted commentator Bruce Pearl, “He was the coach at my alma mater1 my senior year and took us to the Sweet Sixteen for the second time in school history!2 ”
That year was the only time I went to one of our college basketball games. I went with my buddies from my painting class, and our friend Nate had screenprinted us t-shirts that said “Bruce is My Homeboy.” It wasn’t our usual scene, but it was some of the most fun I had in college, honestly. It felt really good to be part of a team (and yes, I’m talking more about my art class friends and less about the actual sports.) This was almost 20 years ago!
My brother texted me recently and asked if I was following Caitlin Clark, and I said I haven’t watched her games but I still cheer her on as the GOAT. My brother asked if I think I could’ve taken her on when I was in my prime (by that he means 8th grade). I said no, lol. This weekend my dad asked me what was my favorite memory from my basketball days (again, 8th grade). I tried to think for a bit and told him the same thing I told my brother: “I don’t think I was actually ever that great of a basketball player.” I was treated like a team-leader, but I probably never scored more that 2 or 3 shots a game. I was a point guard, I ran the plays, and I was very generous in letting everyone else score the points. By that I mean I was too timid to drive to the basket myself, too fearful of an injury or, worse, missing the shot. But I was well-liked. I was a cheerful player and a chipper loser. I was not competitive and I don’t regret that. I liked being part of a team. I miss that!3
Making comics can be lonely, solitary work. I make a big deal about working with an agent, an editor, an art team, a colorist, because it feels a little more like a team effort that way. It is a team! But I still have to make the bulk of the work alone. I envy folks who have shared studio space, although I’m sure that has its limitations too, not least of all the expense. But the shared creative energy, that I felt in my eighth grade basketball games, that I felt with my college painting classmates, how can that be recreated?
The past few years I’ve been on a casual quest for a hobby. My latest experiment is with embroidery, not working from a pattern or design, just letting the colors and textures emerge as I push thread through fabric. I am gloriously an amateur. I might be terrible, by embroidery standards, but I find it a really soothing activity. It’s fun and liberating to play around when the stakes and expectations are so low.
My kids are very intrigued by it, probably because it’s very unlike my usual work. They pop in to see my progress and get really excited, the way you might be excited to watch your 41-year-old mother suddenly figure skating or blowing glass or any other surprising new skill. They cheer, they anticipate, sometimes they participate. Maybe it’s not all that different from basketball. Maybe that’s a stretch.
I led a comics workshop at the library at the start of the month, and we ran a little long, which cut into the next event: the crafting club. I apologized to the people who were waiting to set up their needlework, but they were chill about it, and I found myself wanting to stay longer and chat with them about their techniques. I had just purchased my punch needle the week before, but hadn’t used it yet. I’ve since started using it and can’t stop. Maybe a craft club is just the team I need right now. Or maybe it’s a shared cartooning studio. Maybe, surprisingly, it will be sports. But I gotta find it, somehow. I’m a team player, and I’m ready to play!
***
It’s been a quiet month as far as updates/announcements/events go. Not much to report, so maybe I’ll close with one of those “What I Enjoyed This Month” segments… here we go:
Film: We watched both of the Oscar’s best screenplays, Anatomy of a Fall and American Fiction and I really enjoyed them both. We saw Dune Part 2 in the theater and it’s so loud and expansive and sandy and I was into it.
TV: I think the only thing we watched this month was Mr. & Mrs. Smith which hit my sweet spot of spy-meets-action-meets-cynical rom-com. I’ll watch anything Donald Glover and Maya Erskine make.
Music: Maybe this disqualifies me as a list-maker, but I’ve been loving the new Ariana Grande album Eternal Sunshine. Even if I find it hard to believe that Ariana was into that movie the way that we art kids were.
Games: I beat Tears of the Kingdom! How did I not lead with this?? My kids were once again cheering me on, it was so exciting. Quite a battle. I’ve only ever beat 4 video games and 3 of them have been Zelda. The other game we’ve been playing this month is the new Moomin game, Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley. It’s very gentle and sweet and exactly what you’d expect of a Moomin game, with music by Sigur Ros to boot.
Thanks for reading this rambling March recap! I’ll be back in April with more comics!
<3
Breena
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Go Panthers?!
I actually said it was elite eight… my anecdotes are not always 100% accurate, I’ll admit.
Let the record show, though, I was a killer at softball. That was truly my sport.
I feel you on the comics making alone all the time 🥺 I think you’re on to something though! I also do other projects not comics related and it definitely helps! And getting involved in art communities too! 💕
Thank you for sharing, I agree creative work can be a bit lonely, specially if you are in those timezones that the rest of the world is asleep. And it got super worse during the lockdowns…
But this ends with joy as I discovered the comiclab community, and it not only brings joy but it reminds us that we can do that little magic trick of making someone smile
heres to the storytellers that draw in napkins!