hi again

it's me, your bad friend the thing

Hi Everyone,

It’s your bad friend Liana. Yes, you all know the one. The friend who doesn’t answer a text for nine weeks. The friend who doesn’t keep her promises. The friend who doesn’t tell you when you have banana scum between your teeth.

But here’s the thing.

JK I’ve been watching too many Instagram videos by men’s coaches and whatnot and am starting to talk like them. Stupid little fragments. Like this. And then a “here’s the thing.” A thing that is inane if not outright fallacious. Followed by more fragments. Like this. Followed by more inane things. The evil of banality. Gnash gnash.

Before I️ got carried away gnashing my bananas over social media I️ was going to say that in all earnestness I️ do feel like a bad Substacker. I️ don’t actually read Substacks tho I️ subscribe to a few (thanks, The Internet, for my minuscule attention span) but I️ feel like the vibe of a good Substacker is of a kind friend who sends thoughtful, smart, curious emails and trusts her readers enough to really engage with them. Someone with a considered mug of plain tea in front of her. Someone who reads books. Hardcovers. I’ve been insecurely going for this vibe from different angles this past year or so, trying to grow my brand or whatever. Having been encouraged to.

But here’s the thing, folks. Even though I️ like the Substack vibe so very much, I️ can’t shake the truth that it’s not who I️ am. And I️ believe you know.

Another way to put it: Substack comes from journalism. I️ come from cartooning. Journalism and cartooning have had such a nice relationship over the years, but a cartoonist is not exactly a journalist. At the end of the day, we are outsiders.

Who is a cartoonist, if I️ may lump all the real ones together? A cartoonist is a feral creature who draws and draws and is a different person every moment, every drawing. Who I️ want to be on the internet is someone who posts drawings as they come to me, without aiming for a more cohesive narrative, without aiming to hook you in. Good years, it’ll happen naturally. Bad years (and this was not a good year), it won’t. But it’s not my job to force it. In fact, it’s my job not to.

Whoever you are, I’m grateful to you for being here.

Here’s to more clarity in 2026, and less guilt. I’ll pass on the best advice I’ve gotten all year: put away your phone while you’re working, when you’re reading, and whenever you can. You think you can’t function without a podcast? Wrong. The phone is the reason you feel that way at all.

I’ve been working on a graphic novel all this blessed vacation (favorite weeks of the year, when I️ have childcare that is; love not being Christian, and phoneless) but I️ spent a day drawing out some of the ideas that have been floating up that I’ve been too harried (bad) and immersed (good) to put on paper.

I’m going to post two lil drawings every weekday this month - one for all subscribers and one for paid. I’m prescheduling them, so if I️ don’t respond to the latest horrors in the world that’s why.

Not promising this EXACT pattern and mode of posting is forever, I️ do react intensely and embarrassingly to “the numbers,” which is why I️ pivot so often —- plus, it’s fun to mix it up, and without a ginormous business incentive not to, why the f not??? But I’m so darn grateful to have this lovely and unhorrible little window to show my work to you, regardless of the work is. THANK YOU again.

Hope you’re entering 2026 with some hope and some sparkle —— let’s get it where we can. Feeling hopeful to have a hopeful mayor, and his illustrator wife.

And without further ado. Today’s two drawings. The first one is something a true journalist would have gotten you four days ago.

one more topical one, too late

oh yeah and as usual, you can buy my pRiNtS.