How it Feels to be Published

We are live in a new lit mag

Jul 23, 2026

They day has come. My first published long form comic is LIVE and I’m here to tell you allll about it.

But first, *here it is* on the brand new Lit Mag called IN REVIEW MAGAZINE: https://www.inreviewmagazine.com/articles/deep-listening

How did this come to be? Really it’s a lesson in what I’ve been telling you all the long: Always Do the Thing.

I was approached in February by my editor (a phrase I’ve always wanted to say) LJ Jensen after we took Susanne Reece’s Graphic Memoir class at SVA to make a piece for the new mag they were editing, In Review. The magazine is all about criticism and how we reflect and respond to pieces of work. I had just responded strongly to a piece of work that I was dying to draw out, so the timing was perfect.

So, now that i’m extremely established and famous1 I will break down all the steps of my (untrained, learned by doing) process of:

HOW TO MAKE A COMIC

You have to experience. Live life, say yes, always do the thing. But while you’re doing it you have to also have a second track in your mind about how you could draw everything you’re feeling under the surface.
Try to draw what you can on site. For me this was hard because it was dark but I got this in before the lights went down:
Something about drawing from life always has so much more energy than from a photo for me
3. Before it all slips away into the folds of your brain, jot down a bunch of notes and quotes and sketches. I like to do this in the morning when I’m fresh or at night when I’m too tired to overthink.
4. Map out the words, pacing, and rough action. I use illustrator because it’s what I’m most comfortable in, then print and edit by hand. My millennial visual brain can’t think without a piece of paper.
Sometimes you have to map it out to realize the ending isn’t working
5. Pencils: Sketch more of an exact drawing of what will go in the panel with edited text from step 4. At this point I also check in with my editor to confirm we like the story before I go further. They have great suggestions and I edit accordingly.
6. Inks: Make it official, however you are comfortable. I could use my iPad but I just prefer the look of hand! I use this pen on this paper and trace over my pencils with a light box. I also hand write all the text because I haven’t made a good font yet and maybe never will.

Add depth: This could be color, ink, or more line texture. First you gotta get it all laid out. I scan it all and separately scan panel boxes, this part is so boring to describe but satisfying to do. For this piece, I did go ahead and fire up the iPad to finish it up. I used Procreate and added greyscale values under my line art.
remember her?
This isn’t an official step but I have to mention that at every step I check in with my Comics Mentorship group led my my favorite cartoonist Vanessa Davis through SAW. How lucky am i?? I cannot work in a vacuum and Vanessa and the group are so helpful to talk through ideas with every week.
E Voila! A Comic is Born. Last step was to show it to the guy I was going out with and make sure he didn’t feel really weird which he didn’t but then he sort of broke up with me a few weeks later so who’s to say!