In 2021 I made it my goal to create a real, paper minicomic every month. This is my reflection on that experience.

By the numbers: This minicomic project resulted in 12 publications, roughly 144 pages of art, one title per month. Each comic was a black-and-white quarter-page size mini, a format that I adore. I hit all of my deadlines, so in this raw sense I did what I set out to do. That feels good.

The mix: I didn't have any rules for what sort of comics these would be at the start, but along the way I picked up the goal of making each one stand alone. No recurring characters or continuity. This had benefits and drawbacks. I was uncommitted and could follow whatever whim each month. Which is great if I have a good whim. But the flipside was that each month was a new beginning, one of the toughest parts of a project, with no story momentum to build upon. Not that it's an outrageous feat of creativity to come up with a new idea each month, but it led to a more herky-jerky work flow as I would start from a standstill each month, grind my gears until an idea popped out, and then hustle to execute it.

My year of minis encompassed a variety of story types and techniques. Autobio, wordless, single-panel gags, fantasy, satire, harangues, and lots of little technical options along the way like, "this month's comic won't have panel borders." The variety and surprise in this pile of minis is fun. On the other hand if I had just serialized a consistent thing all year I might have a coherent graphic novel to collect.

Methods: I drew all of these comics start to finish using Procreate on iPad. I'd dabbled with digital drawing previously but this was the first time I committed to it for print comics. I got a lot better at using that set of tools and developed some work flow techniques that are comfortable. As much as I enjoy the sensations of scrawling with smelly, erratic, real pencils and ink, the iPad takes away a lot of the pain points of making comics on a schedule.

Coming up with the idea for each month's comic involved a lot of useless clenching at my desk, sometimes for weeks, before an ember would kindle while I cooked dinner, or showered, or listened to a podcast, etc. I was terrible at brainstorming in an organized way and all of the ideas were born of desperation and distraction. It leaves me with questions. Should I try harder to enforce a regular writing practice to become more effective at deskbound brainstorming? Should I give in to or try to hasten the serendipity of distraction? Should I even be trying to make comics before I know what I want to say?  Hmm.

Take it to the limit: Another unexpressed goal of this project was to experiment. I'm giving myself a fail/incomplete grade on that one. Yes, I used a new drawing tool, and tried lots of new little drawing and narrative bits. Stuff like an unusual panel layout or reversed silhouettes or a different shape for word balloons. Little choices. But in terms of bigger experiments I didn't push it. Even at times when I intended to strictly impose a different drawing style ... it all came out looking like my drawing. And the stories all feel like the sort of comics I tend to produce. I attribute some of this failure to the monthly deadline but that doesn't get me all the way off the hook.

So what does that mean? Am I calcified and doomed to repeat myself from now on? Does it even make sense to try to draw in a way other than how I draw? Do I have a conservative nature holding me back? Am I not seeking enough variety of experience in life and my art is reflecting that? I am frustrated that this many years into the journey I still have such unsophisticated confusion on artistic progress. Anyway, I'm working on it.

Conclusion and beyond: I'm happy with how this project went. Even the frustrating bits were illuminating. I hope that some of you out there agree that I made some pieces of paper more interesting to look at.

I paused Patreon charges for January because I do not intend to produce a minicomic this month. Instead I am assessing and recalibrating how I want to use my comics energy. I intend to resume producing comics ASAP and I will restart the Patreon. It's just a matter of what format the project takes. Maybe I want to work in color. Maybe a longer story. Maybe it won't be that different than what it was before. As I write this I just finished the December mini and haven't given the next project much thought but I'm excited by the possibilities. I'll let you all know!

Thank you all so much for hanging in there with me. I endeavor to continue being worth your attention.

JF