I don't actually have an answer, but I'm finally drawing comics again as of December 2025 and other updates

What's on my plate

Hey, thanks for being here! I don't plan on sending these out more than once a month, so I hope you'll stick around.

TL;DR because time is preciousssss:

• I'm working on a new comic, Cold Hands, Cold Heart
• I have a new zine and prints in my Ko-fi store​
• Some of my friends are doing things you should know about
• I'm tabling at Oakland Creates Art, Comics and Zines Fest on Dec 13

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Future comic: Cold Hands, Cold Heart

I am currently working on a new comic titled Cold Hands, Cold Heart. It is literally inspired by a friend's husband doing jazz hands in the background while I was talking to her. Gotta love supportive partners who sneak up on Zoom calls holding a Mason jar full of water for their better halves.

It is a prequel to a longer graphic novel that I started working on a few months ago titled Infernally Employed.

The entire story of how Infernally Employed and Cold Hands, Cold Heart is a little too long for an email, so I have put it all together in a blog post.

(If you needed a little more incentive to click through, there is a cheeky little preview of half of Chapter 1 on my blog!)

Read more on my blog

New shiny things in store

In September, I visited both the Edward Gorey House on Cape Cod and The Gloomy Gallery exhibit Edward Gorey exhibit at Harvard. So naturally, everything I've created as of late is heavily inspired by his work.

The Disadvantageous Demises

​The Disadvantageous Demises is an art zine containing all of my illustrations for Inktober 2025, originally done with micron pens on Bristol paper.

I based it on Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies, but this time the adults are the ones dying hilarious deaths since I have no idea how to navigate laws around depicting dying children.

If you're looking to detox from social media, this spiffy art zine will sit comfortably in your hands as you read it on the bog.

Buy the zine on Ko-fi

A yōkai garden in two prints

Every year the Edward Gorey House hosts a themed contest where people draw on envelopes and mail them in. This year's contest is themed around evil gardens, inspired by the book of the same name by Gorey himself.

My original envelope is already on its way to the Edward Gorey House. But if pigs can fly and it turns out you want a copy for yourself, each illustration is available as a print in my store.

For those of you into yōkai (Japanese supernatural creatures) lore, the bamboo garden features an akagashira on the left and ayōkai-mannendake on the right. The tree with the heads is a jinmenju.

Buy the prints on Ko-fi

Paying it forward

I have some amazing cartoonist friends doing hard things that I don't want to shut up about:

• ​Zareen Choudhury is selling art prints at Sealevel Holiday Bazaar in San Francisco from Dec 12-21. If you want to meet her personally she'll be there on Dec 14 from 3-5pm. (I'll be popping by at that time, see you there too?)
• ​Matthew Shultz aka toadyco has launched Teeny Weeny Zineys, and if you sign up you'll get a microzine each month of 2026 in the mail from him.

Let's meet IRL

Oakland Creates Art, Comic and Zines Fest (Dec 13): I'm tabling all day so come by any time between 11am-5pm at Oakstop, 1721 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612.

​Facebook event | Oakland Creates on Instagram​

Thanks for reading till the end! I'll see you all in 2026.

-Mariko