Square Comix by Ian M

[Ian M]

Hi
I'd rather have the name Square Comics than Comix, but at an early point, someone had already snapped up that title, and I decided to aim for consistency in the digital world.

I make comics for myself. Sometimes a lot in a year, sometimes a little. I've decided to share some here, which people can read or easily ignore. I like doing one-pagers, so I want to share some short strips, and then I'll share some longer ones, and keep it in one thread so as to not spam up the forum. 

I'll start with one of my favorites, a poem of sorts, nearly four years old. Enjoy.

[bhanu]

This is great Ian. That last panel is just beautiful. I look forward to more comics here!

[Ian M]

Appreciated! I'm going to pace myself, but I'll put up a few pages a week, old and new.

[Ian M]

Another older one, but a favorite. The only comic work of my own that I hung on the wall.

[Ian M]

Here's another, one from this year. I've done plenty of autobio strips, for myself, to figure out where my head is, and for my daughter so she'll know who her father is, and later, was.

[Ian M]

An image from Inktober of 2020, probably the first successful year I did it. I'd done it a few years, but I don't care for prompts, so I struggled to fill up a month of images. Last year, I went with a theme based around the couple from a longer story I've been doing, and filled the month with scenes from their relationship. This was by far the best image.

[Ian M]

Here is the last one for now. I make my comics regardless of an audience. If people read it and like it, that's great, but I'm making this for myself first and foremost. 

If I were relying on audience clicks and interest, I would have given up years ago. I prefer to think of making art as simply a healthy activity, along the lines of eating healthy and exercising.

There's a spelling error here, can't change the digital version, but the printed one was corrected.

[lonyowdely]

I spent a year of my childhood in Tokyo. The comics you've posted about moments of life in Japan really bring me back. Thank you for making and sharing them!

[bhanu]

Here is the last one for now. I make my comics regardless of an audience. If people read it and like it, that's great, but I'm making this for myself first and foremost.

Yeah, Plus it's not like comics or at least indie comics is really a stream where it makes sense to do it for an audience. Even the best paid or 'known' people couldn't be considered as minor celebrities, and at maximum are leading squarely middle class lives. That's not some shit to sellout for really. Better to get a corporate job for the money, or some better media for fame.
I like how comics are niche enough for people to keep doing their own thing.

Lovely stuff btw.

[Ian M]

Finished working on a very silly project, Batman Year One by Seth

[Ian M]

A new comic... not nearly mainstream enough for the mainstream, not artsy enough for the art crowd.

I might do a bootleg Marvel book one day, just pages and pages of pathos from before superheroes comics started being targeted at grownups.

[Ian M]

[Ian M]

12 pages into the new story, about backpacking in the boonies. It's looking to be 30-40 pages, so I just have to hunker down and work through the summer on it.

[Ian M]

I'm happy to share that my new story will be up weekly on Solrad.co for the next few months. This is inspired by gekiga, in particular Yoshiharu Tsuge's short stories. It's about a guy wandering around for a day in a small rural Japanese town
solrad.co/solrad-presents-kitajima-1


I finished that book off last week, and have been super busy getting comics prepared for an upcoming zine show. I decided I was too busy for Inktober, then decided I should do it anyway. I wanted to draw plants, but worried they were too boring, and wanted to draw Kang the Conqueror, but worried my art is goofy enough without that... then decided to just do both, and have done a color Kang, and a black and white plant each day, both with brush and ink.

I hate inktober prompts, but committing to daily drawing really gets some nice results.