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!
This is beautiful. What a lovely read to start the day. Thank you Sarah!
Love!!! And thank you for reminding me :)
Sarah, this couldn’t have come at a better time for me! I started reading Sauceome a couple of years ago, at a time when I was trying to overcome a lot of issues with my body image and confidence. I feel silly when I get down on myself now, because like you, I have so many things to be happy about.
Thanks for the reminder–I’m bookmarking this to look at when my inner critic yells too loudly. Glad to hear that Sauceome is back on a semi-regular basis!
Thank you so much you guys!! It feels good to be back. :D
SO GOOD, SARAH. I love that last panel.
This is great, and I definitely relate to the “things I thought I was done with” part of it. I recently found myself dealing with some appearance-related insecurities that snuck up on me, and just as bad as the insecurity itself was the sense of feeling like I should know better/shouldn’t feel like I was feeling. And yeah, mostly I do know better, but like you say, we are so bombarded with messages from companies trying to sell us things, and, yep, it is in the interest of those companies to make me feel, for example, like more femme = better, and more femme = caring about hair and shoes and clothes and makeup and jewelry. (Not that being femme is bad, and not that hair, shoes, clothes, makeup, and jewelry are bad, and not that caring about those things is bad or can’t give some people joy/pleasure/self-expression … but I personally mostly have other things I prefer to spend my time and money on, and that’s OK.)
Sarah! That’s the very reason I don’t ever shop at the MALL any more. Everywhere I look, a picture is telling me I am not thin enough, not young enough, not pretty enough and not rich enough! Why let them scream lies at us?! I shop at places that stand by themselves, and avoid a lot of that junk.
That last panel is perfect. I needed to hear that. Great comic, I’ve missed ’em =3
Thank you :)