South Beloit Journal

Over the winter of 2010-2011 I found myself at the lowest point of my life: Twice divorced, heartbroken, mentally insane, and living in poverty and isolation in a cold, grey cinderblock apartment in a small, gritty town in Northern Illinois… South Beloit. One of my projects at the time was illustrating a book about suicide, The Next Day, for the Canadian publisher Pop Sandbox. As I trimmed the pages to size, I found myself with ninety-one 2” x 6” scraps of Bristol board. They looked perfect for a comic strip, so I began drawing upon them one little diary comic per day. I tried not to censor myself (though sometimes I still did), but to just let the ink spill without preconception or prejudice. What follows are those comics. I hope you enjoy them more than I enjoyed making them!