Meredith McClaren's Blog, page 86
January 13, 2021
2020: The Year That Wasn’t, journal comics from a most unusual...
2020: The Year That Wasn’t, journal comics from a most unusual year. Available as a physical copy (on preorder) or right now (as a PDF) on my storenvy.
Description: One big illustration showing me, looking haggard, surrounded by balloons and confetti. I should be celebrating. Instead I am drained. The following pictures are sample pages from inside the book.
January 7, 2021
Description: A nine panel comic that shows me working, then...
Description: A nine panel comic that shows me working, then reading my phone, going back to work, getting more distracted by my phone, until I finally can’t work anymore.
January 4, 2021
Working on a thing.Description: A comic page with four...
Working on a thing.
Description: A comic page with four panels.
Panel 1: We see a young woman approaching a forested area.
Panel 2: She pushes past the branches to enter the woods.
Panel 3: We see the back of a single sheep. It is looking in the darkened wood.
Panel 4: The camera turns so we can see the sheep’s face and the woman coming up behind it.
December 31, 2020
I know we all like to preach the evils of social media, but...
I know we all like to preach the evils of social media, but I’m so grateful to have all of you an arm’s length away.
Description: A cartoon of me sitting in bed, holding my phone close with hearts floating by my head. Text reads ‘Y’all keep me going.’ My cat sleeps by my feet.
I feel like this encapsulates the end of the year pretty well. ...
I feel like this encapsulates the end of the year pretty well. And feelings going into the next one.
PAGE 1
Panel
1: I am lying in bed awake.
CAPTION: It’s
the day after Christmas, and I am anxious. It’s
probably just a culmination of everything this year has been. Maybe
it’s money. It
might be money.
Panel
2: The shot moves in closer to show me slightly more anxious as I listen to the radio in the distance.
RADIO: ‘Will
Trump veto the new stimulus bill?’
CAPTION: Most
pressingly, it’s money.
PAGE 2
Panel
1: A close up of me putting on my tennis shoes.
CAPTION: I
promised myself I’d drive out to the Superstition’s today. To take a moment and be quiet by myself. It’s little treat, becoming temporarily
unavailable.
Panel
2: An illustration of the Superstition Mountains.
CAPTION: If you
were going to disappear, the Superstition Mountains are a good place to do it.
Panel
3: An illustration of a bearded miner with desert in the background.
CAPTION: The
mountains are most famously the home of the lost Dutchman’s mine. According to legend, a German miner named
Jacob Waltz discovered a vein of gold in the mountains.
Panel
4: The miner is shown, swinging a shovel back, preparing to hit another miner in the head.
CAPTION: Some
think he even killed for it.
PAGE 3
Panel
1: A well worn tombstone.
CAPTION: But he
wouldn’t reveal the location until his deathbed years later, and only then to
his caretaker Julia Thomas.
Panel 2: Another shot of the mountains.
CAPTION: But
she never found it.
Panel 3: A hiker is shown with a metal detector on one of the mountain trails.
CAPTION: And thousands
have looked for it. Continue to look for it. Of any
of the mines found since, none have been verified as the ‘Lost Dutchman’s.’
PAGE 4
Panel
1: I hike alone along the trail.
CAPTION: But
there are other stories here. The
Apache’s believed there was a hole here that led to the underworld. And their history here is bloody. Pima
Indians reported strange sounds, and mysterious deaths. Some
still see strange lights in the sky. And
always, always, always hikers go missing.
PAGE 5
Panel
1: I walk and talk through my problems.
CAPTION: I can
see the allure in disappearing away from a year that has left me so jaded and
sad and overwrought.
ME: It’s not even like I don’t have the money. I just reached the transaction limits.
Panel
2: I crawl into my car.
CAPTION: The
trick is making such a disappearance temporary.
ME: I
have an hour before I have to get back.
I’ll just take a little nap.
Panel
3: I jolt awake in the car.
CAPTION: 40
minutes later.
ME: I
need to get kitty litter.
Panel
4: I stand at the entrance of my home, carrying a box of kitty litter. I am looking down at my cat, who waits for me.
CAPTION: You
have to find something small to come back for.
ME: Hey
there.
Panel
5: I lie in bed with my cat.
CAPTION: Even
if it’s only hope.
ME: I can get by for at least one more week.
December 30, 2020
A parting gift from 2020Onion
bread pudding~5
cups of scrap...
A parting gift from 2020
Onion
bread pudding
~5
cups of scrap bread (white, wheat, whatever)
-2 tsp
of green onions, chopped
-½ a
white onion, chopped
-½
tsp of thyme
-2
large eggs
-3
cups of milk
-½
cup of shredded cheddar cheese
1. Cut and cube the scrap bread
and mix in a large bowl with the green onions, white onions, and thyme.
2. In a separate large bowl whisk
the eggs with the milk.
3. Take a 9 by 5 inch bread loaf
pan and butter the bottom and sides.
Sprinkle 2 tbsp of shredded cheese along the bottom. Fill the pan with ½ of the bread
mixture. Sprinkle 2 more tbsp of cheese
along the top. Spread the remaining
bread in the pan and top it off with the remaining cheese.
4. Pour the egg and milk mixture
in the pan, gently pressing the bread down so it all soaks. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the
refrigerator overnight.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Fahrenheit. Sprinkle the top of the
bread with salt and bake for 50-60 minutes or until the top is brown
and crispy.
6. Let cool, cut, and serve!
December 27, 2020
December 25, 2020
Description: A three panel comic. In the first panel I am...
Description: A three panel comic. In the first panel I am crawling into bed as the cat yells at me. I tell her ‘I know, I know.’ In the second panel I am settling in and telling my still yelling cat to ‘Let me get settled and then we can talk.’ In the third panel we are snuggled together. I remark ‘There we go.’
December 24, 2020
Your Xmas Eve spooky.A black and white comic.Panel 1: A photo...
Your Xmas Eve spooky.
A black and white comic.
Panel 1: A photo on the fridge of a woman and her young child. Text on the photo reads ‘Mommy and Mia.’
Panel 2: In the kitchen, Mommy is reading a magazine. She looks up when she here’s a small ‘mommy?’
Panel 3: The small ‘mommy?’ comes again as Mommy peeks into the hall, a bit confused.
Panel 4: Big panel. The front door of the apartment. From the other side comes a speech bubble ‘i got locked out.’
Panel 5: Mommy rushes forward, asking ‘How did you even get-’
Panel 6: Her hand stops just short of the door handle as another ‘mommy?’ comes. This time from behind her.
Panel 7: Mommy pauses.
Panel 8: Mommy slowly looks back behind her.
Panel 9: Mommy looks in bewildered fear at Mia, who is still in the apartment. Meanwhile from the door comes another ‘mommy?’
Panel 10: An all black panel that reads ‘let me in.’ in white text.
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