Catalina R

New York Travel Zine

from June 2023 

A Place of my Own (2019)

A comic about the anxiety of living forever at my parents' house.

I have my own place now with my husband, which rules! I'm truly grateful that I'm able to pay the rent with my job. 

GAS pencils

Disorganized Thoughts on Wet Moon by Sophie Campbell

I thought I would start the new year with a rambling blog entry about a work that will surely influence everything else I make: the Wet Moon series of graphic novels. They were done between the years of ~2002 with the most recent pages completed in 2015, a scope that encompasses dramatic shifts in style and in the comic industry as a whole. I'm not familiar with Sophie's other works, most of it being...

Nightmare

a future sequence from Grasping At Straws 

Hair Cut

Some rough pages from later on in the book I did for 24hour comic day, October 1. 

Early concept sketches

More finished pages

Guided Meditation

from the new thing, completed page 

Some pages from the new graphic novel coming out later this year

The Amazing Jenny (edited and reworked from the story)

Sorry for the long gap between updating. I got married and started a new job. I'll try to update more on weekends as I get adjusted 

Detox Mansion ch. 5

Lita had been spending so many days with Winston that he was creeping into their dreams. They were typical, at first. Winston coming over for family dinner, or going to a new part of the city together to explore. But Lita woke up at the start of a new week of therapy from a heartwrenchngly romantic dream.

It was fading from them now as they got ready for the day, but a few images lingered, resistant to leave. On one of their night rides home Lita collapsed into Winston’s arms, not wan...

Detox Mansion ch. 4

As June turned into July, the mellow warmth gave way to oppressive heat. These were the days where a younger, pre-disorder Lita would yearn to go swimming at the Y. Lita was not at all a good swimmer and had a crippling fear of being submerged under water but they still loved the feeling of being in the water. Whether it was the icy, salty New England coastal waters or the chlorinated turquoise of a YMCA pool, Lita loved the sensation of water against their skin and of temporarily being able ...

Detox Mansion ch. 3

Winston sat at his desk on Friday night after Group, typing on an old desktop Mac. “Proposal for Lita’s recovery”, the document was titled. He’d make a list of activities that would function as mild exposure therapy. Experiences with different kinds of food, activities to draw Lita out of their shell a bit. Next to him were some brochures from the Thoreau Center explaining different eating disorders. Off the top of his head he knew that anorexia was starvation, bulimia was a cycle of ...

Detox Mansion ch. 2

Going forward, it's safe to say every chapter of this project comes with a warning for use of dieting/eating disorder language, along with references to other substance use disorders. 

++++++++++++

Lita was disappointed to learn that their dinner did not meet group guidelines. They were missing a carb, protein, a dairy, and a dessert. The program didn’t have food groups per se, rather groupings of essential categories for balanced nutrition. So Lita reluctantly s...

Detox Mansion chapter 1

Trigger warning for smoking and eating disorders.

Trying out a prose concept to turn into a graphic novel along the way. 

I'm not a prose writer by training so this isn't polished by any means, just a way for me to have fun telling a story! I recommend listening to some Warren Zevon while reading. 

+++++++++++++++++

Outside of the Thoreau Center for Addiction in Concord, Massachusetts, Lita took out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. They still hadn’t gott...

Wedding planning

Birthday Extravaganza!

In honor of me turning 29, I'm going to give YOU more gifts! 

Part 1 is an exclusive Patrons only preview of a comic I'm making for an anthology about Gnomes, The comic is done but the anthology won't be released until later in 2022. 

Here are the first 5 pages (of 7) 

2022-03-08 12:48:15 +0000 UTC View Post

Wedding Dress

This is from October, btw. It's unusual to buy the wedding dress and shoes online since a classic part of wedding planning is to go to the bridal boutique with the wedding party to try on several dresses. But this being a Pandemic Wedding, I'm thrilled that I found the right dress for me online. 

As the date of the wedding gets closer I'll have more of these comics to share! 

Comic about lecturing

On December 6 I got to do a guest lecture to some students at Monserrat College of Art about agents and the traditional publishing process (traditional=major book publishers)

it was really great and I hope to be an adjunct professor there! 

Shirley Goes to Therapy (almost full comic)

Been slowly working on this for ages and really happy with it! I think these are all going to be made into an even bigger book...

Ideas for childfree zine

Lots of valid reasons for not wanting kids. and that it’s possible to love them and be in a position like teacher or pediatrician without the desire to be a parent. Personally, I’m a mix of panels 3,4 and 5. 

From a discarded idea

...called "Sharon loses the V-card"

I felt like I was losing the thread of the purpose of this comic, but it was a fun diversion 

2-page comic about Someone

Aka the real life inspiration behind Sharon. 

Religious Trauma (1 of 2 comics)

Continuing on the precana tangent is one of 2 comics about some of the awful crap I learned in religious school. 

Two comics about the Beatles

I made the comic about Sharon and Shirley, and then one about my real life which inspired it. I still listen to Abbey Road sometimes :)

Choosing to be childfree

I realized that in this comic I didn't explain what Pre-Cana is. It's a mandatory 2-day marriage prep workshop. As we all know the CC is incredibly medieval in what it expects women and AFAB folks to comply with. Because of this I consider myself now to be eclectic pagan. And I want to work with kids as an educator/nanny, but otherwise am a Childfree adult. 

A text from Shirley

So...My scanner interpreted the marker colors a little differently which is why Shirley is blue and Sharon is pink. Either way, pleased with how this turned out. 

Sharon's Tattoo

Enjoy, had lots of fun with this one :) 

Another Vent Comic (I swear it's related to the main comics)

This is about the real-life person who inspired Sharon. Though in a sense Sharon is kind of inspired by aspects of myself too. And this person was a lot like me. Hmm...Maybe sometimes it's harder to be friends with people who are too similar to ourselves because we see our own flaws reflected in them like a mirror? Something I'm thinking about as I make the Sharon Comics.