What is Processing?
A Preview of the Comic
Hello friend.
I’d like to chat with you today about Processing, a comic that I’ve been working on. Here’s a preview page! Or specifically, the first cover and a couple of pages:
Dark, Surreal, Existential - easiest to define as a “Comic”
I’ve rewritten taglines for Processing a hundred times now.
It’s not that I’m unclear on what it is (a comic) or some of the key themes (psychology, mental health, belief systems) that make Processing what it is. It’s not that I don’t have a feel for the genre (dark comedy). More than anything else, Processing jumps between genres to portray an emotionally evocative story. I think “Comic” will have to suffice, until readers can help me define what it is that I’m doing here.
For now, here’s the ‘synopsis’ that I wrote - for an idea of what the fuck this is.
Processing is a graphic novel that explores the death of Clyde, and his experiences after. In the world of Processing, every after life that has believers exists. Every heaven, every hell, every karmic playground or spiritual existence. Clyde, having believed in nothing after death, was sent to the Processing Department, where he has been given a second chance at finding his own heaven, exploring different belief systems so he can do what he failed to do in life - build a set of values that he can abide by for all of eternity.
This book explores mental health, grief, identity, existential philosophy and societal issues through a dark comedy that borders on memoir at times. Inspired by other creator owned works such as Sex Criminals, Y: The Last Man and Southern Bastards, this fantasy series is at times exhaustive and elusive.
Does that seem like something you’d like to read? I certainly hope you’ll stick with me, as I start releasing it on October 24th. If this is something you believe that other people would enjoy, please share this newsletter with them!
A Few Words of Warning
Since most of you know me in real life, I wanted to mention a couple of things.
First of all, this comic can get pretty dark at times. It explores depression, suicide and mental health with empathy but also an irreverence. This is a trigger warning and please do reach out if you need to talk. Creating this has been deeply therapeutic and I hope that this is not lost on others.
Second, decisions were made on how people look based on just how auto biographical this thing will be at times. I believe this will be most alienating to my closest friends, but I couldn’t imagine this story any other way. It also makes things way easier for me to create quickly, since I can very easily snap a reference photo on the fly. Having experienced a lineage of family members that weren’t open about mental health, I wanted to be authentic and ‘own my feelings’ in this story. It was a difficult choice that I hope readers understand.
Next week, I’d like to dive into an unrelated comic that I put together, and I’ll talk more about the creative process / format. Thank you for reading.
Cheers,
Clyde