Read the comic in the cartoon edition of SevenDays VT, published July 9, 2025 HERE!
After spending some quality time with my neighbor Debra at as many protests as I could this winter/spring, I pitched this comic for Cartoon’s annual issue to editor Dan Bolles of SevenDaysVT. I interviewed my neighbor Debra while I was walking, wrote this comic, showed it to her for feedback, edited it again for clarity and correctness, turned it in, and went to Italy (with my dad and kids) and Greece (to study archeology at Kenchreai and Mud House Residency) for two months. I got back to VT just in time to see it in print. Attending these protests, especially with Debra’s humorous, practical, and hopeful attitude, and standing/marching alongside so many people willing to brave the cold and then the rain, gave me energy and a sense that resistance is worthwhile and necessary for change. The fight against the current regime needs printed documentation, not only on the Internet, and I am glad to have the opportunity.
I’m proud to be in the edit with CCS alumni (students from my Thesis Seminar class) Clover Ajamie and Kristin Shull, as well as national cartoon heroes Harry Bliss and Alison Bechdel. They both have new books, You can never die and Spentthat I am reading alongside the joy and delight of inhabiting their worlds for the moment. Spent’s endpapers show the same red shakos and blue hokas I wear, another way to walk in Alison’s (cartoon) shoes.