I once felt as though the universe was actively trying to deny my existence as a living, breathing person.

Four, five, however many years ago, when I first moved into a dorm at ETSU, I was the loneliest I’d ever been. I knew only a few people on campus, and of those people I only got to see or speak with one or two. I never spoke with any of my classmates, professors would forget my name, my roommate and I hardly acknowledged each other. Plans with friends would be forgotten by them, canceled after sitting for hours waiting on a phone call that never came. Never picking up when I called them, wondering what was going on.

Things improved, as they tend to do. But that feeling still comes back every now and again, the need to validate myself and prove that I exist, and that, grouped in with a number of other things, is what led to this single page comic.

I get uncomfortable when I start addressing personal issues in my work, and it‘s even harder to talk about them afterwards. I have to try and distance myself from it a little bit, and in multiple cases I’ve found that applying these issues to a female character’s perspective helps me feel more comfortable exploring these issues, and in some cases helps amplify them. But it also feels like the change in perspective could lead to misinterpretation. I was worried that I'd get some ugly backlash for this, but then, I was always worried about backlash for certain part of Other Sleep, which never came.

I'm hoping to do some more comics like this. Let me know what you think!

[Brett]