A YEAR'S END
from da dome
It’s the end of 2024… I’m too lazy to look in the past and sum up my year so this is gonna be all from da dome.
This year, I kinda naturally stopped doing stand-up comedy and as a side-effect of that, stopped hosting my comic reading/comedy show. That’s a little disappointing, considering how much I loved hosting Pizza Party, but I was able to find a lot of time for other projects as a result.
One of the projects I was proud of this year, is my ME SHIRT video. I kicked off this video thinking that I would continue the year doing similarly comedic/creative stunts. I even had a list of related projects that I could tackle. Unfortunately that effort was very short lived.
Rather than spending the rest of the year sharing my work and expressing myself to the world, I decided to prioritize my heads-down time, working on comics and my career.
I felt that I needed some time to re-think a lot of my old habits. Virality and vanity had always been a persistent motivator for my work. I was starting to fear that my desire to share and go viral was exceeding my desire to create, so I took a step back from posting on social media and making videos about my personal life.
I thought it would be a more noble mission to tell other people’s stories rather than my own for a change. This started with a project I made for my dad’s birthday, where I drew comics of my funny childhood memories of him.
This one is about him teaching me what testicles are:
I counted up my balls every night since then.
Being able to visualize my memories was such a weird but magical feeling. It was so cool to put my memory in front of my eyeballs. In the spirit of telling other people’s stories, I thought maybe I could share this magic with others. At the time, Julia, my lil sister, told me that content series’ engage audiences really well, so thats when I started my Memories series.
Anyways, this blew up and I grew my instagram account to 20K+ followers (ironic lol). It’s honestly such a privilege to connect with so many people, but I try to focus on the opinions of those who shared their memories with me. It’s important that I draw their moments accurately.
I still have 6 more memories to go before I can move onto my next personal project (I promised myself I’d make 10 of these), but starting off the new year mid-project is great. I know exactly what I should be working on.
It’s hard to get the ball rolling, so here are some of my manifestations for the new year:
IN 2024, I WILL FINISH MY “MEMORIES” SERIES. I WILL AFFORD AND RENT A PERSONAL STUDIO SPACE AND START AN ART BUSINESS OF SORTS LOL. I WILL INVEST IN MYSELF AND MY WORK MORE SERIOUSLY. I WILL PAINT A BIG WALL OUTSIDE. I WILL MAKE VIDEOS AGAIN BECAUSE I LOVE THEM SO. I WILL FINISH MY COMIC STORY I’VE BEEN WRITING LOWKEY ON THE SIDE. I WILL CREATE FREELY WITH ZEST FOR LIFE.
Hold me accountable ya’ll. We’ll check in on this next year.
Some sketchbook scans
I’m getting back into drawing IRL, not only digitally lol. I forgot how natural this feels… although I still be double tapping the paper when I want to undo -_-
John’s Rec of Da Year
Of all the music I’ve listened to this year, of all the movies and TV, this takes the cake…
The Sopranos
This show is the GOAT show of all time. I binged the whole thing and immediately started rewatching. All of my free time is spent watching Soprano’s related content. It’s easily my favorite show of all time. There’s something about it. Madone. I can’t have this conversation again.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year. May all your dreams come true <3