I’d recently uncovered a time capsule in my storage unit. A dusty shoebox containing the master copies of Lucille Brawl #1, a cut & paste comic created in May/June of 2006. Not knowing what I was doing at the time, I just started drawing my little cartoons with grey watercolors and pen nibs. It was glue stick versus packing tape, and I fumbled over layouts, texts, and dialog bubbles drawn with a ballpoint pen. Then I made the mistake of printing copies at Staples. So many details of the water-colored art were lost in washed out in photocopy toner.

What remains after all these years is an embarrassing and grimy as hell DIY comic book.

What’s more cringe is that for a while I would LARP/cosplay my own character out in the electric Chicago nightlife of the early aughts. Yikes.

There are a few copies currently for sale at Chicago Comics on Clark Street.