About

Effed-Up Comics!

Tales of Self-Loathing!

Awkward Social Encounters!

The Funny Side of Depression!

 

The comic:

Three characters navigate the ups and downs and further downs of melancholia, helped along by their personal embodiment of depression. Each character’s story is a separate comic, with differing art styles, but they often overlap, much like life, in confusing and messy ways.

 

The creators:

Andrea Zarzycki: a photographer, living in Detroit. Sometimes makes crepes. Often causes trouble. Responsible for storylines and digital inking and blobfish.

Sarah Zagacki: freelance graphic designer and art director, living in Ferndale. Likes wildlife. Wants to be a hawk. Dreams in chocolate. Writes and digitally illustrates and corrals unicorns.

Justin Stenson: also freelance designer and art director, also living in Ferndale. Likes garage rock. Owns a beard. Might be a timelord. Pencils and publishes and pushes around superheroes.

 

The background:

Andrea initially approached Justin in 2010 about creating a funky little self-published indie comic book about how much she hates everything. That didn’t quite pan out, but a few years later, they decided to try again, this time as a semi-weekly webcomic. Mainly because coming up with 22 to 24 pages a month seemed like daunting challenge. Also, Sarah discovered a long-lost diary from when she was a kid, and the entries were so honest and dark that they just had to be turned into a comic strip.

 

The process:

We all get together once a week and bitch about stuff that has happened, kinda like group therapy, only with a bar tab. Andrea discusses possible plotlines for Atlee, which Justin pencils and Andrea inks in Photoshop. Sarah talks about childhood trauma, and Andrea and Justin provide punchlines, and the Sarah whips up a comic strip for Sadie, completely rendered digitally in Illustrator. Justin plumbs the depths of his soul and consults a spreadsheet of stuff that happened to him six or seven years ago, then translates it onto the page in the form of comic panels featuring Wes.

The stories are not based directly on people, places or events per se, but are definitely informed by our real life experiences, good and bad. Mostly bad.

Updated whenever we get around to it. Probably on Tuesdays, because Tuesdays are the worst.