Seen on tour in Portland, Oregon: a particularly bitchin’ memento mori.
Let them say it for you
When I’m writing in my diary I like to draw one of my memento mori comic characters and let them say the awful words floating in my brain.
I do this with many bad thoughts, especially my Bad Editor voice. (“This is terrible,” “you suck,” etc.)
It’s a silly little trick to get the thoughts out of my head and no longer feel any responsibility for them.
None of us know what will happen
The threat of nuclear war has been with us for over 70 years, and dreading the end of the world is an ancient human activity, but recent headlines have put it all all top-of-mind again, petrifying many of us. (The upcoming solar eclipse isn’t putting me at ease, either.)
We all deal in different ways. For me, it’s drawing comics full of skulls — little memento mori that keep bubbling up from some dark vat of goo in my brain. I’ll keep drawing them as long as they keep visiting me.
For this comic, I thought the skulls could illustrate a mini pep talk by Laurie Anderson I heard on the “Producers” episode of Meet The Composers:
The world may end. You’re right. But that’s not a reason to be scared. None of us know what will happen. Don’t spend time worrying about it. Make the most beautiful thing you can. Try to do that every day. That’s it. You know? What are you working for, posterity? We don’t know if there is any posterity.
Emphasis mine. More skulls on my Instagram.