Failure Monopoly

A comic about peak grief insomnia.

Liz as a fruit. “Name’s Colada, Penis Colada. Want Some?”

It was 2020, early pandemic, and I was bored and lonely searching for constructive ways to ward off depression and fill the endless hours of waiting for it all to be over. “Oh, it’s gonna be over soon.”

Gulp.

I found sweet solace in the books of artist and teacher Lynda Barry, MacArthur genius and regular old human genius. I worked my way through the exercises in Making Comics to see if drawing out the story of my horrible miscarriage might be a fruitful way to a healing path.

Barry’s exercises are approachable and silly in the best possible way - draw yourself as an astronaut, as a fruit, and animal, for instance. Below is the result of one exercise. I forgot about this work until stumbling upon it last week. If there’s one thing I can recommend on the healing journey it’s to cultivate a sens…