Toonstack Confessional

Diaries

Did you know that cartoonists, much like humans, are often feeling and thinking and seeing things? And because cartoonists are born with a pen permanently adhesed into their dominant hand, it is fairly common for us to write and draw about the things that happen to us. This week, I, Sofia, asked the toonists to show me their diaries, and now I am showing them to you, just like when Serena Gencarelle read my diary and then told the whole sixth grade that I had a crush on Dave Northup, which was horrible because he was a baseball player and I was a nerd and of course nothing could ever be and he was sort of weirded out by it but I still had to sit next to him in science class for the rest of the year and it was soooo awkward SERENA I TRUSTED YOU

Hilary Campbell

I am obsessed with diaries. I have so many from age 8 on and I like to imagine myself on my deathbed surrounded by them, sifting through the memories like they’re playing cards. I’ve recently been reading my mother’s diary from 1972 and it’s so comforting to know she’s always been herself. Even when she’s 22 she’s upset there’s no ice in her water.

If you’re as obsessed with diaries as I am, maybe you’ll consider purchasing my new journal What Did I Do Today?

Kendra Allenby

This is my favorite sketchbook page I’ve ever drawn. On a thru hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, I liked being able to show my sketchbook to other hikers when they asked, but I realized I was becoming my own jailor by letting that eventuality guide my line and content, even just a bit. I like to channel this Nasty Mussy Cussy Kendra at times. She’s great. And you don’t get to see what she gets up to. It’s for her.

Peter Kuper

“ I’m not clenching my teeth, I’m smiling.”

Here in Oaxaca, Mexico I go a little sketch diary crazy. Enough that I have a book called Diario de Oaxaca that came out in 2009 from the Mexican publisher Sexto Piso and PM Press in the US (a co-printing in Spanish and English) and had a new edition in 2020 updated right to the pandemic.

 Another thing I love in Mexico (and in general) are the insects. Ants, bees, butterflies and on and on including the cochineal that creates the red dye they use in tapestries.

Ariella Elovic

Three years ago I almost finished Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, and have been a compulsive Morning-Pager ever since. Morning Pages is a practice of three pages of stream of consciousness journaling each morning–ideally before doing anything. And now I’ve become a person that has stacks of journals in a drawer in her bedroom and that makes me feel like a character in a Hallmark movie whose great granddaughter will one day connect with her through these “texts.” This is the type of thing she’ll find:

Olivia de Recat

I’m an avid journaler and write pretty much every day, rain or shine, in sickness and in health, as long as I shall live. You could say I am betrothed to my journals, but *I* certainly wouldn’t say that, because it’d be weird!

A couple of years ago, I tried to get into the habit of writing my dreams down, and occasionally, when I have the time and when they are particularly image-rich, I’ll draw them. There’s another layer of the unconscious that gets revealed as you try to recreate what you saw in a reverie.

(Tangent: I have a friend who lucid dreams and told me once that, if you realize you’re asleep, you can ask the people in your dreams what they represent and they’ll tell you. Anyway, one night she dreamt of a guy she went to middle school with and she asked him what he symbolized and he said: “Your fear of teenagers.”

I think, maybe, in the end, everything represents our fear of teenagers.)

Soumya Dhulekar

Here’s an excerpt from Flash Valley, a diary comic I made of a road trip with my family to Toronto. You can see more of my comics, drawings, and other random stuff in my newsletter, House Party!

Ellis Rosen

Are not all cartoons diary entries? Do they not represent the experiences, thoughts and feelings of the artist, boldly baring all, championing unfiltered thought and emotion? Dare I say, the cartoonist is the bravest soul within the arts, striding forward confidently, declaring “this me! This is who I am!”

I’m just saying, keep all that in mind next time I post a cartoon about a farting squirrel.

Johnny DiNapoli

This is me! This is who I am!

But yeah, I like journal-writing. It all goes in the same notebook I doodle and come up with cartoons in, which is fun and keeps me humble. One page is heartfelt, vstream-of-consciousness contemplation of my soul, the next is a couple ducks on a game show.

The above piece is not from my diary, but the High School Diary of Johnny Appleseed, which you can read here.

Sofia Warren

Don’t try to pretend you don’t also live robust, sweeping lives in the intervals between texts. I remember drawing this to distract myself while waiting for a response from a flirty text, but the real ending to the story is that he never responded. At least, I don’t think so, because now I can’t even remember who this was about. Love is fleeting and art is forever: there’s a moral for you. Another moral is: just because it’s autobio doesn’t mean it’s true.

ToonStack NewsStack

• Newsletter palooza! Check out Ariella’s newsletter, Snack Time, Olivia’s Olive It, and Soumya’s House Party!

• Hilary’s guided journal, What Did I Do Today? , just came out!

• Amy Kurzweil teaches cartoon classes on Patreon! Sign up now to get the recording of every past class!

• Check out Jason Katzenstein’s NEW PATREON!

• Pre-order Ellis Rosen’s new book, Dink!: Pickleball Facts, Fictions, and Cartoons

• Be sure to check out Shelby Lorman’s newsletter, Please Clap!

• The same goes for Sofia Warren’s advice newsletter, You’re Doing Great!

• See more cartoons from Ellis Rosen’s weekly Junk Drawer!