11/09/2018

Sally Ingraham here – I am traveling at the moment, going to birding festivals (which are a lot like comics expos!) in TX and NM. I am seeing rare and interesting birds, meeting amateur and professional naturalists and ornithologists and quite a few “bird artists”. When I walk the floor of the vender show at these birding festivals, I see similarities to the small press comics community – but I am one of the few people who plays in both sandboxes. Increasingly, I am a “bird comics” maker.

Right before this trip I gathered all of my birding comics into one place – check them out on Instagram by following me at @duck_hollow_comics. My work is documentary and verging on journal comics, especially when I make them on the fly, in the middle of a birding trip, as seen below:

Typical “rare bird” behavior! Incidentally, the Golden-Crowned Warbler, which we DID NOT see, is a Central American warbler that has ventured a bit further north than it usually does. The Buff-bellied Hummingbird which you see in the comic above – one of the birds that we DID see – is not a rarity for South Texas, but it is not a species I ever see in my usual haunts of Western PA! (Apologies for my bird nerd moment!)

I met another “bird comics” maker at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival yesterday – Rosemary Mosco, who became well known for her web comics Bird and Moon. Science and nature cartoons!

I have been a fan of her work for awhile, and it was terrific to meet her and immediately find a kindred spirit. Just briefly we touched on the interesting and historic significance of science comics, and the relationship between female artists and nature, and the overlooked impact of amateur female naturalists on science, etc. Great stuff.

Check out Rosemary Mosco’s work and if you haven’t already, be sure to follow me on Instagram too.

See you out there, on the road or somewhere in nature!