Kat Verhoeven's Blog, page 16

Meat and Bone Page 204. Jane is goals.Truly, if I could embody...

Meat and Bone Page 204. Jane is goals.

Truly, if I could embody her in myself, I’d be a happier person! I always admire people who can achieve this kinda self love.

Anyhow, I’m very sorry this page is coming along on Sunday instead of Friday. I had a medical scare and wound up spending 8 hours in the hospital with my Oma Friday-Saturday, but everything is fiiiine. I guess I’m not a cartoonist who can function on only a few hours sleep, but here’s the comic at last. This bring up another problem that’s been creeping up on me, which is the total demolition of my buffer. I’ve had a really hard time focusing and spending time on M&B since I’ve been working as my Omas caretaker. I’ll keep trying to have updates up on time on Tuesdays&Fridays (though I’m thinking Mondays&Thursdays might make more sense for me…). 

twitter | instagram | follow | ask | one time donation

Please support this comic by reblogging and sharing!

If you’re struggling with body image, there is help. Email info@NationalEatingDisorders.org or call  1-800-931-2237 to talk to someone.

Meat and Bone Page 203. Skin and bones is not the title of this...

Meat and Bone Page 203. Skin and bones is not the title of this comic.

As all you tumblerinas and inos and inexes probably know, tumblr had a GREAT meltdown the last couple days! Themes lost, left and right! So many casualties! Well I really needed the push to fix up some problems with navigation. Go ahead and give it a spin, you can now move forward by clicking the page, and if you jump in via the archive you won’t be left without navigation. Phew! Much improved.

In truth, I’d been holding off on making the website fixes because I was sure they would be complicated, and I had submitted Meat&Bone for the Hiveworks open pitch - if I’d been picked, a site overhaul would have been in the works. Responses were sent out last week, and I never heard head nor hair, so I don’t think I made it in! Which sucks but is fine. The bump in publicity would have been great, but nothing is gonna slow me down. See you Friday!

twitter | instagram | follow | ask | one time donation

Please support this comic by reblogging and sharing!

If you’re struggling with body image, there is help. Email info@NationalEatingDisorders.org or call  1-800-931-2237 to talk to someone.

Meat and Bone Page 204. Skin and bones is not the title of this...

Meat and Bone Page 204. Skin and bones is not the title of this comic.

As all you tumblerinas and inos and inexes probably know, tumblr had a GREAT meltdown the last couple days! Themes lost, left and right! So many casualties! Well I really needed the push to fix up some problems with navigation. Go ahead and give it a spin, you can now move forward by clicking the page, and if you jump in via the archive you won’t be left without navigation. Phew! Much improved.

In truth, I’d been holding off on making the website fixes because I was sure they would be complicated, and I had submitted Meat&Bone for the Hiveworks open pitch - if I’d been picked, a site overhaul would have been in the works. Responses were sent out last week, and I never heard head nor hair, so I don’t think I made it in! Which sucks but is fine. The bump in publicity would have been great, but nothing is gonna slow me down. See you Friday!

twitter | instagram | follow | ask | one time donation

Please support this comic by reblogging and sharing!

If you’re struggling with body image, there is help. Email info@NationalEatingDisorders.org or call  1-800-931-2237 to talk to someone.

Meat and Bone Page 202. Did you think he was gonna hold a...

Meat and Bone Page 202. Did you think he was gonna hold a grudge?

Drawing Ryan always feels like coming home. He’s my oldest character, a worn and well fitted glove, someone I can slip into and write without thinking. Every now and then I think about doing a Brothers Bell side story, mostly as an excuse to explore Ryan and his relationships more - but then I remember about all those tattoos, and I’m like… NAH.

Happy Weekend! 

twitter | follow | ask | one time donation

Please support this comic by reblogging and sharing!

If you’re struggling with body image, there is help. Email info@NationalEatingDisorders.org or call  1-800-931-2237 to talk to someone.

Meat and Bone Page 201. twitter | follow | ask | one time...

Meat and Bone Page 201. 

twitter | follow | ask | one time donation

Please support this comic by reblogging and sharing!

If you’re struggling with body image, there is help. Email info@NationalEatingDisorders.org or call  1-800-931-2237 to talk to someone.

Meat and Bone Page 200. What a milestone to finally reach! And...

Meat and Bone Page 200. What a milestone to finally reach! And 150 pages to go. 

Meat and Bone Page 199. Marshall has been such a mess of a...

Meat and Bone Page 199. Marshall has been such a mess of a character to explore. Anne is so mild and wilting, it’s really interesting to explore someone shameless and fiery. Marshall makes me feel a lot more vulnerable in my depictions of her, she’s so externally raw compared to Anne’s internalized problems.

I remember when I started writing Meat&Bone I had this point list of all my experiences that I wanted to turn into a story, and I went down the list point by point…but it was dry to write that way. At some point I decided FUCK IT and started improvising and adding more scenes just based on what I felt would fit, making them more dramatic, more heartfelt….idk. The last couple scenes have been showing that more, and it often makes me nervous sharing them because I worry about people having strong reactions to all this suffering. But that’s the point, isn’t it!

twitter | follow | ask | one time donation

Please support this comic by reblogging and sharing!

If you’re struggling with body image, there is help. Email info@NationalEatingDisorders.org or call  1-800-931-2237 to talk to someone.

Meat and Bone Page 198. That which must not be spoken!Stuff at...

Meat and Bone Page 198. That which must not be spoken!

Stuff at home is feeling alright right now. I just want to say a huge thanks to everyone who’s send words of kindness and support, it has helped so much. It’s weird and hard being separated from my friends (my chosen family!), but those little bits of encouragement have made it easier. My Oma’s first chemo was today, and it went well. She’ll be getting about 6 months of treatment, so now I know I’ll be here at least that long.

Sending love

twitter | follow | ask | one time donation

Please support this comic by reblogging and sharing!

If you’re struggling with body image, there is help. Email info@NationalEatingDisorders.org or call  1-800-931-2237 to talk to someone.

Meat and Bone Page 197. An odd couple, a likely confrontation.If...

Meat and Bone Page 197. An odd couple, a likely confrontation.

If you’re not following my main blog, I’m trying to do more personal/autobio comics in my spare time, when the fire fills me. I have a 6 page one up there now kind of playing off my recent talks about anxiety, uncertainty and all that. It’s called Birthday Comic and you can read it HERE.

I pitched Meat&Bone for Hiveworks and I’m anxiously waiting to hear back from them. If they want the comic I’ll probably pad the story out in some places - with the current finished script, Jane doesn’t get as much time as she deserves. Also how great would a site with actually functional navigation be??? I know this tumblr theme isn’t the most versatile. Maybe you’d prefer to read Meat&Bone on TAPASTIC?

twitter | follow | ask | one time donation

Please support this comic by reblogging and sharing!

If you’re struggling with body image, there is help. Email info@NationalEatingDisorders.org or call  1-800-931-2237 to talk to someone.

If you’re struggling with body image, there is help. Email...

If you’re struggling with body image, there is help. Email info@NationalEatingDisorders.org or call  1-800-931-2237 to talk to someone.

Meat and Bone Page 196. And this closes the arc! FOR NOW. Hijinks ensue on Tuesday, when I’ll be back with more Meat&Bone, as ever.

Anne wants so much more from Marshall that Marshall is willing to give, it seems. Every page in Meat&Bone is some metaphor for my own problems, some more literal than others, and Marshall is a particularly metaphorical character. My own eating disorder and attachment issues are mirrored in her story, even though it’s been fictionalized so much it’s unrecognizable. Still, working through the most honest scenes in this comic can be very hard for me, bringing up a lot of memories from when I wasn’t eating, or from when I was locked in a fast & binge cycle, which was a lot more common for me. These cycles have always been triggered by emotional episodes over my relationships, every time.

I’ve been reading the comic “I Don’t Have an Eating Disorder” by Khale McHurst, and it’s really made me question the honesty of Meat&Bone. Khale tells her story with such raw and unfiltered imagery. I wish I was better at being vulnerable and straightforward with my experiences that made me need to tell this story. Maybe it would affect people more then. Measuring my self worth with the popularity of a comic is a terrible thing to do, and kinda impossible not to do when I see every note and reblog. I wonder if I was better at exposing myself, if this would be a more relatable story.

twitter | follow | ask | one time donation

Please support this comic by reblogging and sharing!