For the past 3 years I had written my letters as personal blog posts – it used to be in comics form for the public. Will it ever return to that old format? Who knows?
2022 was a bit of a strange adventure.
I didn’t get to check off most of the resolutions – mostly because I got hit with very bad Seasonal Affective Disorder, in the middle of my Freelance Hell. A lot of cool things happened regardless: Alexander Comic getting award nominations (and winning an award in the form of a brick) and an exhibition feature, TCM Vol II and My Aunt is a Monster released, The God of Arepo popped.
A lot of 2022 was building the foundation for my 30s: applying and getting acceptance for my Masters, another two years in Melbourne, looking physically more like myself, new book pitches, killing my workaholicism, surmounting my social anxiety/public speaking nerves, wrapping up this late-twenties era.
I still haven’t finished that work – this is going to be ongoing until I finally hit the big three zero. Half of it involves a slightly vertical pivoting of my comics career, which I have hinted a few times in previous blog posts. I want to move towards organising, teaching, mentorship, critique. I would like to pursue writing about comics: I have two major projects for this.
The other half is about dissociating making comics from making income. For the past 5 years I have been incredibly grateful and lucky to be able to create comics full-time, but now I just want to earn the income elsewhere, while still doing comics. I am realising there’s only so few books left in me to contribute to traditional publishing (I only have My Aunt is a Monster as a series maybe and a couple of YA pitches) – yet I have tons of unmarketable, untraditional, probably unmonetisable stories. I need time for these, especially for The World in Deeper Inspection, which means I have to find alternative work elsewhere.
Which is all fine, because I am also realising that I need to do something else that doesn’t trap me inside the walls of my home all year.
The Masters is meant to bridge that transition, and to formalise what I am already doing for the dayjob. I am also hoping to meet more scholars and practioners of not just comics but across disciplines. That’s my thing.
I am wary of speaking more, given the jinx. I consider art and life in progress (not at a stage where I am sure it will eventuate) as sacred, as things meant to be private and witnessed by myself, so I often don’t talk about or document these (which is why I haven’t spoken much about Alexander Book 2: it’s still in that ghost stage).
On the personal side, I am catching up on the thousands of things I want to be, to please both my past and future selves. I returned to tap-dancing (an old love) by taking sean-nos lessons. I took care of my hair texture better via a modified Curly Girl Method, and now my hair is healthier than ever. After many years of not caring at all, I started caring a little bit about my physical appearance. Just enough to ensure I cultivate the mind inside to show on the outside – in addition to embracing the fact that my entire physicality belongs to the side of darkness and character, not sweetness and prettiness.
I will probably blog more, since my career goals involve blogging to some degree. So yes. Hello. Welcome to my blog. I am writing more?????????
Happy 2023 everyone.
Reimena Yee is a graphic novelist, artist and flamingo enthusiast.
She writes and illustrates quite a few webcomics and graphic novels. When not making books, she lulls away her time with essays on craft, life and experiences in the publishing industry. Some of her thoughts of art and life are rather unstructured and will evolve over time as this blog matures, as they should be.
Currently committed to being Alexander the Great's death doula. Is a nerd for all things spooky and historical.
Melbourne / Kuala Lumpur
CAFKL, June 3 – 4
PCAF, July 29 – 30
Australian Cartoonists Association, October