On Becoming a Comics Journalist

And finally showing my work

Art by Arielle Duhaime-Ross

I'm fairly good at faking confidence. I've had to do it a million times throughout my career as a podcast host and TV correspondent. And over time, I’ve found that faking it for long enough means that I'll eventually end up feeling truly confident about whatever I'm doing. It’s a fun trick.

But when it comes to comics, I’m definitely still in the “faking it” stage. And I expect to be in this phase for some time. Maybe forever! That said, after spending the last year and a half studying comics – I'm currently enrolled in the one-year comics certificate program at SAW, the Sequential Arts Workshop – I think I'm ready to start "faking it" publicly.

Also, I can’t keep these comics to myself forever. So here goes. (content warning: pandemics, animal death, family separation)I

A human wearing PPE, including a face mask, is holding a chicken up in front of some cages. The chicken says "Hey mom, remember how we said I'd visit this summer? I think I should come sooner." — I made this comic for a SAW assignment. (This is not comics journalism.)

The same person carries the chicken by its feet down the a ladder by the cages. the chicken continues talking: "But bird flu is hitting pretty hard in the states." In a small panel in the corner, the chicken's mouth is held open by human hands, while a swab is inserted in its mouth. Still talking, the chicken says "farmers have had to kill millions of infected chickens."

The swab is removed from the chicken's mouth. the chicken says "But it keeps spreading. Pelicans, ducks, geese... Millions of wild birds are 'falling out of the sky.' In the panel below, a dead goose is lying on the ground.

two panels at the top of the image show a cow being milked and a cat getting ready to eat a meal in a bowl. below those panels, we see two people in full PPE. One person is holding the chicken from before by the wings. The other person is putting the swab, and presumably the sample, into a tube. The chicken says "And people are catchign it, too. It really feels like this thing is gonna be around for a while, mom."

This page has three panels. The first shows a human walking away from a chicken enclosure. They are removing their mask but still wearing goggles. The chicken that we can say in the background says. "it's not spreading human to human right now. But every time a veterinarian, farm worker, child, or backyard chicken owner gets this thing, there's a chance that could change." The person says "Ok, I'm out. Seal it!." in the next panel the person starts to remove their goggles. in the third panel we can see the person's eyes. They are red and bloodshot. it's conjunctivitis, a sign of a bird flu infection.

Four panels in this page. All take place in the chicken enclosure. In the first panel, we see three chickens by a fan. one of the chickens says "I'm worried." In the second panel, the fan has stopped. "I don't want them to shut down the borders again," the chicken says. in the third panel, the shutters close on the fan, cutting off air circulation. the chicken says "I don't want to not be able to see you for another year, or more." In the fourth panel, we see a thermometer. The temperature in the chicken enclosure is above 100 F. The chicken says "So yea.. I think I should visit sooner."

Final panel is broken down into two views and moments. First we see an excavator hauling a load to the dump. we don't know what the load is yet. Then below that we see the excavator from the side. it's dumping dead chikens into a huge dumpster full of dead chickens. a single bubble reads "... Just in case."

If you got this far, thank you for reading! Showing my work is the next big step toward fulfilling a dream I’ve had since grad school: to be a comics journalist.

It’s mildly terrifying to acknowledge this dream publicly. But I’m also excited.

I have every intention of continuing the work I already do and love: writing articles and hosting podcasts like Altered States. But now you’ll also see me post the comics I make more regularly. And maybe one day an editor will pay me to report a story and tell it in a comic.

-ADR

Editor’s Note: Writing a newsletter is entirely new for me, and I don't know how often I'll publish new posts. But there will be more. And for now I don't plan on charging anyone for it, so if you’d like to keep up with my work and my comics progress, subscribing to this newsletter is a good way to do that. And if you have any feedback for me, email me at newsletter@arielleduhaimeross.com. Thanks again.