Hourly Comics Day 2025
Simultaneously my favorite and least favorite day of the year
Every year on Feb 1, cartoonists from around the world participate in a day of making comics— usually about their days. I love reading everyone else’s, and invariably feel extreme imposter syndrome upon posting my own. Of course, weeks and months later I look back on my hourlies with much more tenderness and appreciation. That hand is drawn weird, but it adds a certain je-ne-sais-quoi! I used to hate that panel but now it’s one of my favorites! I used a cheaper pen than I wanted but it looks more punk that way! Etc.
Drawing in a cartoonish style has never been my favorite, and it has been a weird year, so I opted to do something a little different this time, with very little text written on-the-fly and only drawing what I actually see, rather than imagining myself doing some kind of activity from afar. I think I like the result? It gave the whole thing a slightly dreamlike feel (possibly also because of the poor camera focus/unintentional blurring effect)
Anyway: today I woke up late after watching a movie with a friend the night before, went to the dog park and the gym, made some food, sent a lot of emails and wrote recommendation letters for my students, ate two squares of chocolate and went to a Jamie xx concert with my friend M, visiting from out of town.
Also, found some old hourlies from years and am pasting them at the end of this post in case of interest. Enjoy!
Some old hourlies:
2014, my first hourly comics day: the year I was drawing Soviet Daughter, living in a weird brownstone owned by a roommate’s mom. On this day I worked on the graphic novel, cooked some meals, met up with friends to see Imamura Shohei’s Black Rain at Asia Society, had drinks, and went to the Secret Bookstore (RIP)
2017: the year I was newly married, finally published Soviet Daughter, finally finished the dissertation, taught at Brooklyn College as an adjunct, and applied for jobs (to no avail). On this day I got some job rejections, did a lot of emailing, cooking, and laundry. You can tell this was fresh off the first Trump election because we were all repeatedly calling senators! Also I had recently gotten my first tattoo.
2019: the year I actually got a bonkers amount of interviews, landed the fanciest tenure track job of the year, and moved from NYC to Philadelphia. I also had to bring my dog in for weekly chemo treatments because he had Stage 4 Lymphoma. (He was in remission just a few weeks after these hourlies!) On this day I had two Skype first-round interviews almost back-to-back, practiced my job talk for the umpteenth time, and watched Bong Joon-ho’s The Host at a friend’s place. I ended up getting a mysterious and ambiguous email from Penn that really was like a proto-job-offer but I didn’t realize it! I also did laundry, and it occurs to me that I’ve done laundry in almost every hourly comic since 2014…
2021: Pandemic hourlies, ugh. Like everyone, I spent this year on zoom. My dog passed away after being in remission from two forms of cancer. It was a rough few months. On this date it snowed. I didn’t have to teach but did have a ton of zoom meetings. I met a grad student for the first time and ended up chairing his dissertation committee (and he successfully defended just a few months ago! Yay Matt!)
2022: It’s interesting, you can kind of tell I’m about to get a divorce from the hourlies themselves. Anyway, on this year I did a lot of zooming and teaching and stressing out and also moved to LA for my sabbatical. On this day it had also just snowed in Philly; I spent the day in meetings. But hey I adopted a cute new dog!
2023: Ah, hourlies in Los Angeles. I moved back to Philly after my sabbatical ended in July but on this date I had drum lessons, diligently wrote my book, saw a friend recite poetry on zoom, went to a great roundtable at the SIJCC on antisemitism, switched off cars with my ex-husband-now-good-friend, and played with my dog.
2024: The year I moved back to Philly I generally had a chaotic and difficult time, which, oddly enough, I think comes out in the linework. Anyway, on this date I finished an article translation (now forthcoming in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies!), read a single plateau of A Thousand Plateaus and discussed it at a book club while my dog played with my friends’ dog, went on a little hike at the Heinz preserve, and ate some takeout.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed these scribbled blasts-from-the-past. Here’s a squinty photo of my dog from a few years ago as thanks for making it this far. Until next time! xo-J
