I think you're sauceome.

Ok, so full disclosure, I’m definitely biased in favor of pretty much anything Matthias Merges does. But we managed to score a reservation at the soft opening for A10 in Hyde Park, and it was incredible. The chicken liver mousse was sublime, and it came with these delightful pickled mushroom bites and house-made saltines. The scallops were perfectly seared, and the risotto was so rich and complex it almost made my head spin. The carbonara was probably my favorite dish of the whole night, it was topped with a delicate 60 minute egg that we stabbed so the yolk could coat all of the deliciously al dente house-made noodles. We tried both the sausage pizza and the eggplant pizza, and they were both fantastic, but the eggplant blew us out of the water.

We tried so many other dishes too, too many to fit on this page. But the desserts were phenomenal, especially the cannoli soft serve. It’s made with a ricotta base, and it’s amazingly rich and smooth and it has this fantastically tart underlying taste that’s like nothing else. The entire meal was amazing. Hyde Park is a long and complicated commute from where I am in Logan Square, but it’s absolutely, 100% worth the trip.

OTHER NEWS: I’m collaborating with 5th House Ensemble for their spring concert! I’ve been working my tail off for this thing lately. It’s going to be called Luna de Cuernos, and it’ll be great. You can read about it and see the trailer here. The story is inspired by Caribbean creation myths and an old Puerto Rican folk tale, and it involves a fantastic garden, a brave dog, a clever cat, and a demonic goat-ghost-monster thing. The music (I’m just about done finalizing the playlist) will be amazingly beautiful. There will be multiple performances of it, and some of them will be free!

OTHER, OTHER NEWS: I was too busy to do Inktober last month, but things are calming down a wee bit now, so I’ve issued myself my own personal challenge to draw a different picture of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu every day! I’m calling it 30 Days of Kyary. You can follow their progress on my blog or on my facebook!

Guys!! I am so sorry. I never meant to stay away from this for this long. I think I must have burned myself out a little on Sauceome, but I’m recharged now. In the meantime, I’ve been really busy the past few months!

- I’ve been doing regular watercolor paintings for Yusho’s newsletter, and there’s a whole gallery of them here,

- I’ve been making comics with my sister Beckie for Tales of Cartozia, which is currently running a Kickstarter to fund the next ten issues,

- I’ve killed Shortpants Press, and moved all my store things here, and added a few more prints to the shop,

- I’ve been making fun posters for Chicago restaurant Fat Rice,

- I drew a bunch of candy and a whole Montréal travelogue for Saveur,

and of course, I’ve been working on my new graphic novel, which I am calling “the tornado book” until I can think of a clever title. So, phew! lots is going on. I’m still working my full time job, too, of course, and we’ve recently launched a few sites that I’m maybe inordinately proud of.

But through all of this, every now and then little Sauceome-ish ideas would pop into my head and I’d promise myself that I’d draw them when I get around to it, and it kept falling by the wayside. Like this one! I’ve actually had a little bit of a hard time of things lately in this department, and I’ve been battling a lot of the same old dumb ideas echoing in my brain, things I thought I was done with. I guess that’s wishful thinking – stuff like this is more of an ongoing battle than a tidy little conclusion. Anyway, I was feeling particularly down about it recently, and thinking some particularly awful things about myself, when I realized, what am I really upset about? I actually have things pretty good. Look at all the things I like about my life – it’s pretty much all of the important ones. How on earth did I let myself get talked into the idea that I wasn’t happy?

Well, partly because that message is absolutely everywhere, on every bus shelter I pass, on every billboard, on every TV show and movie and on every magazine in every supermarket checkout lane. It’s inescapable. But once you realize it, that businesses can sell you so many more things if they can convince you you’re not happy as you are, and it is in their best interest for you to be unhappy, the smiles on the models in magazines and ads seem more than a little hollow. It’s like finding the magic sunglasses from John Carpenter’s They Live. Ha. Is that a random enough reference for you?

Anyway! I won’t be posting new comics here as often as I was before, but I will probably be posting at least once every week or two. And I’m hoping to get a few Sauceome minicomics printed soon, so I’ll keep you guys up to date on that too!

Whooooooaaaa so many feels, you guys. So many feels. First off, seriously, nothing is over. While I have been thinking of this moment in my head as “I’m ending Sauceome”, I’m not ending it. And even just the other day, Niles and I were at Longman & Eagle‘s pop-up sausage stand and all I could think about was how to turn the experience into a Sauceome comic. So nothing’s over.

But my schedule is packed, and it’s gotten to the point where every waking moment is spent working on something, and even WITH that, I’ve been sitting on the script for this new book for over a year and haven’t drawn a single page. I just need to free myself up from the schedule – I went from posting a comic five days a week, then three days a week, then two… I still want to keep Sauceome around, but I want to start making a Sauceome comic when I have something that I really want to write about, and not just to fill space every Monday and Friday.

I’ve had so many stressed out evenings trying to figure out what to write a Sauceome about lately that I kind of thought I would just be relieved, but all last week as I was making those sketchbook comics I felt very raw, very emotional, and I am not ashamed to say that I cried once or twice. This comic has been so important to me. All of you awesome people and your amazing support has been so important to me. When I started this three years ago, I really didn’t think it would be anything more than a personal vanity project. I never imagined the response it would get. These comics have been therapy for me. All of you have been therapy for me, and I’m so incredibly grateful for it all.

I want to say especially, everyone who emailed me privately about this comic, telling me that you were recovering from an eating disorder and that reading the comic was helpful to you, I LOVE YOU. Your emails changed me, and if my dumb little drawings helped you in any way, I can’t imagine a better feeling. I’m simultaneously extraordinarily comforted that I’m not alone, and blindingly enraged that almost every woman out there thinks awful things about her body, and feels like her body is the most important thing about her.

I don’t know why I feel like this is goodbye because it’s not! It’s really not. I’ll be posting a lot less often, probably, but I’m hoping that also means I’ll be posting a lot higher quality work. It’s a transition, I guess, and we tend to get navel-gazey and reflective about transitions. And Sauceome has been such a huge part of me for three years now, it’s hard to change anything about it without it feeling like an earthquake, I guess.

Niles just told me he thinks I should conclude this post by telling all of you to “Stay Sauceome.” It’s not bad advice? But I think I will end it with just one more reassurance that NOTHING IS OVER. Check back every once in a while for updates, or follow me on Twitter or Facebook, because I’ll link to new things there. I’ll still be here. :)