Don't Become a Decoy

Showing up as yourself

Hello, River Walkers!

Do you know this Charlie Chaplin story?

confused mallard has
imposter syndrome watching
rubber duck parade

The bare bones of the story are these: Thanks to the popularity of his movies, Charlie Chaplin was one of the most famous people in the world. He entered a Charlie Chaplin look-a-like competition at some point near the pinnacle of his fame, and depending on the source you find, came in dead last or at least outside of the top 20.

While most biographers handle this story as a humourous aside, I wonder what effect it had on the man. How do you cope with a caricature of yourself being the real star?

One of the ways my anxiety manifests itself is that I worry about getting stuck in a rut. I’m afraid of my art becoming increasingly derivative of my earlier work—a horror of recursion.

The trick is to make sure I show up to work each day as myself. In a world with endless data and stats, that can be tough. Do I try and make more comics like the ones that are big hits? For me, that is a dangerous path. I can only make the art that I feel is true at that moment.

If I’m honest about what I see in my mind’s eye and share that vision, I can avoid becoming a Jason impersonator.

Artist Note

Today’s comic is an homage to Eric Carle. On Monday, I wrote about picture books, and Priya Iyer mentioned how much she loved Carle’s book, Dream Snow. This got me in the mood for Carle’s work. Today’s post is specifically an homage to my favorite Carle book, 10 Little Rubber Ducks. This is my second comic that is a direct homage to Carle’s work, You can see the first one here:

I am almost finished with a new zine. It’s going to be a regular series called Weirdoku. Each issue will have 36 haiku comics. Each issue will have a theme. Some months the haiku might be traditional, like in issue number one, and sometimes the haiku might be more experimental. The first issue is all about the ocean and will feature 18 comics you’ve seen in the newsletter and 18 that have never been published anywhere before. Paying subscribers will get a free PDF version. Both digital and paperback versions will be available for purchase. I’m working to make the Weirdoku as affordable as possible, while still allowing myself to get paid for my work. Here’s a look at the cover of the first issue:

I will let you know the publishing date next week!

Be the weird you want to see in the world!

Cheers,

Jason