2022 Year In Review

Wed Dec 28 2022 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Well, that's another year in the books. I've neglected this blog for the entirety of the year, but mostly for sake of being so busy throughout it. I wanted to take a second to recap the year that I've had, since it was one for the books!

Early in the year, the collected Cinnamon trade paperback came out, and was well recieved. It won a REMMI award for "Best Animal in Comics", which is a total win! It was also a close runner up for "Best Independent Comic", but it's all a popularity contest and I'm just glad readers enjoyed the ride. Cinnamon was, and continues to be, a fun time for me.

I kicked it with a cabin full of cartoonists led by M.S. Harkness for a week in both Winter and again in the Fall. I learned a lot about myself as a cartoonist and creator. Being surrounded by so many talented people, who were all working in at least adjacent field and mediums, was exactly what I needed. Maybe it's the fact that most of my artistic context comes directly from an academic environment, but I thrive on comparison to my peers. Not in a "who's better or worse" way, but it can highlight the defecits in my process or output to simply see how others are doing it. I can't recommend it enough, rent a cabin for all your industry friends and just work together for a week.

I sold at a handful of events this year. The CCAD Art Fair, SPACE, The Philly Comics Expo, and Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. And CXC certainly can't be mentioned without also mentioning the honor of being the Emerging Talent Awardee for 2022. Besides a comically large check, it was extremely validating to be seen for my work, and valued for what I was putting out. Columbus, and Ohio as a whole, has become my home, and I couldn't imagine making comics anywhere else. If you haven't had the chance, try and make it out for CXC and see for yourself!

I put out a self published book, so far I've averaged one per year, and this year was "BIBLIOWARE: comix to update ur phone to". It's some fictionalized science fiction autobio with a religious trauma bend. I'm so proud of it for being the polar opposite of what I usually write and draw, but it was a critical book at a critical time for me. I will cross my fingers and hope that I can get my online shop up soon so that the larger world can dive into it.

Another highlight of the year was my relationship with the Franklinton Arts District kicking into high gear. In January I had my first solo gallery show, Parasocial Activity, at the Bridge Gallery. It was a great opportunity that segued to the larger one, being the Featured Muralist at Scrawl 16. I designed the poster, helped with merch design, and got to paint one of the first large scale murals for Scrawl, a 40' wall on the side of 400 W Rich in Columbus. Go check it out if you are in the area, it's the largest exterior mural I've done to date.

In freelance land, I had a good year as well. I did my first variant covers, for MFKZ #3 and for Space Lady #1. In an editorial capacity, I was the layout designer for Happy Tank's Redman series. I contributed to several anthologies, like a dope ass pinup for Ryan Alve's bootleg Batman book, The Nice Place distro's "Indulgence" anthology, and Nosebleed Mag #1 that's set to print early next year.

Last but not least, I can't end 2022 without mentioning Halftone Hospital. I started HH as a free and open repository of comic resources and digital tools. Honestly, I didn't expect it to take off like it did. I had a ton of already packaged resources that I developed as part of the visual style of Cinnamon and Templar Vitae, and the initial thought was it would be so easy to just throw them up online for others to get use out of. It was an easy way that I could give back to the community, taking some pages out of the open source handbook and trying to foster positive growth and all. Well it has gone better than I could have hoped. Halftone Hospital has become a global hit, with nearly 10,000 unique people downloading something in countries . There are already books in the works using Halftone Hospital resources, and I couldn't be happier with the response. So keep making comix! 🤘

Favorite movies of 2022:

  1. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
  2. The Menu
  3. Barbarian
  4. Three Thousand Years of Longing
  5. Bodies, Bodies, Bodies
  6. The House
  7. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
    HM: The Handmaiden
    HM: I, Tonya
    HM: Possessor
    HM: The Favourite

Favorite Games I played:

  1. Noita
  2. Factorio
  3. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
  4. Kirby and the Forgotten Land
  5. Splatoon 3
  6. Trackmania
  7. Return of the Obra Dinn

Favorite Books I read:
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
Shadow and Claw by Gene Wolf

Favorite Comics of the Year:
Perry Midlife by S.R. Arnold
Lure by Lane Milburn
Plaza by Yuichi Yokoyama
Joseph Smith and the Mormons by Noah Van Sciver
Trots and Bonnie by Shary Flenniken
Acting Class by Nick Drnaso

Have a great 2023!

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// victoria douglas 2023 ++