I wrote some diary comics for a class assignment earlier this year. I’d never previously had much interest in diary-anything, but I found the exercise really interesting and helpful so I’ve repeated it a few times since.
I have mixed feelings about the results. For instance, I find it really hard to walk the line between self-censorship and over-sharing. It’s a narrow line, at least for me, and much easier to navigate in fiction. But I keep coming back – one of my classmates told me it all read like a sort of profile, which I liked – so here are some entries, and you can find the first set on my Instagram.
marianchurchland.com 
the soft light of your lantern, and the edgy cough of mono, seems to bring the winter into being marian. i hope you’ve warm blankets and hidden chocolate bars to make it through. also i enjoyed lobster, but it is a strange one after all.
-kim
I love to be the harbinger of winter!! And yes, totally – I was very into its weirdness.
I really enjoy reading these.
Yay! Seeing segments from your book is definitely one of the things that made me want to keep trying it.
Why do you consider this different than what you used to do with hchom?
Especially in context of a blog post, it doesn’t seem very different to me? Except it feels a bit dryer here.
I guess those posts tend to be more object oriented and this is more subject (you) oriented? But mainly in the phrasing.
Your post from 05/17/2017, has images of you in 2 versions, and then you talk quite frankly about how your attempt to evolve actually meant you lost touch with some of your weirder more colorful aspects.
That sounds like a diary comic to me? Maybe one that’s more focused on reflection then rote documentation.
Anyways, maybe this comes across as really judgey, but I meant it more like, appreciate what you’ve already accomplished :D
This is a reasonable question! You’re right, I’ve made lots of self reflective posts. By “diary”, I do mean some degree of rote documentation – mood-of-the-day – rather than those more personal blog essays which I’d think about for a week or more ahead of time in order to make them as objective as possible (which wasn’t very, especially in retrospect). So the approaches feel distinct, even if the results appear similar.
This is different from what I used to do with Hchom because I’m not communicating through an intentional, fictional mascot or avatar – and the 2017 cartoon human version of myself was definitely still a mascot. Maybe you could argue that self-illustration always produces a separate avatar, but again, it think it goes back to intention and approach. And I understand how that would mean a lot more to me than it does to a reader!
And none of that is to say that the goblin is something I’ve finally evolved beyond – far from it. This just feels correct right now. I’ve thought about approaching diary comics with more of a monster self – maybe the goblin, or maybe something else – so I’m sure I’ll try that at some point, or switch back and forth, or who knows.
This is great, Marian. I’ve never really had the patience to do a visual diary like this – it’s usually either drawings OR text for me; if the drawings aren’t cartoony and doodly, I’ll spend too much time on the drawing and commit too much desire to make it a “finished” drawing. But I’ve always envied your ability to combine the two in a way that seems effortless and organic to me.
Sorry that you’ve been sick; I hope you’re feeling human again.
I love that you played up the atmosphere in your 1920s D&D game! The first few times I ran Call of Cthulhu I did the same, using candles or a lantern and trying to get some atmosphere going. Of course, this was pre-internet and smartphone so it was more of the default back then. But atmosphere does wonders for immersion, I think (and is vital if you’re going to play a horror game like CoC).
Thank you, I am feeling more or less human again!
And totally – you’re right, atmosphere does so much. It was just the one light, so the GM would turn it off when the in-game setting went dark, and the eeriness was palpable. It would have been totally different in a well lit room, and everyone with their phones on hand, etc.
Longtime reader, first-time commenter: these are really wonderful. Your drawings have this incredible quantum-both-states feeling of seeming casually tossed-off with brio and simultaneously being painstakingly, thoughtfully rendered. I love them. (And a merry Christmas to you!)