50: Year's End Review

"Next year will be a great year / I just can't wait, dear." - Loudon Wainwright III

Goodbye to You, 2021

This silly-ass nonsense concludes a year of Music of the 80s. It’s been an interesting ride.

When this started a year ago I thought one thing would happen: a straight biographical/musical story from memory, remembered and shared in order. That lasted till the summer, when the reason for the biographical aspect showed itself clearly and I was able to put away a certain compulsive aspect of recounting my childhood. The personal growth moment seems to have been a true development - I’ve changed in a way I really like. I sleep better. I’ve stopped mulling over old pains. I’m measurably calmer. I like it.

I still like following my unconscious - that’s manifested since The Change with the Mouse/Ball/Robot DJ-booth Submarine Spaceship nonsense. I have no idea what that’s about, but it’s fun to surrender to. If you can bear it, cool. And I will continue to delve into the music of my youth and pull out gems to share each week going forward. Beyond that, no predictions. Life is bonkers.

Progress or Whatever

After a year, Music of the 80s has 25 subscribers and between 50 and 75 people read each post. Some posts are more widely read than others - the What Happened to You post was well-read with about 180 visits (funny cuz it had zero music in it). The most read post was about Adrian Belew - over 400 people read that.

I don’t worry much about numbers, but admit I am pleased: prior to this newsletter experiment I was happy to see 7-10 reactions per comic. But I do it mainly for myself, for fun - like most people who make art.

This year I also started another newsletter called Are We Here Yet? which I do with my partner Marjan. We started that just to share our incredible trip across the continent (and so we wouldn’t smother Facebook in jealousy-inducing photos - we know we’re lucky to be doing this, especially now). That’s got way more readers and is equally fun to write.

More recently I restarted an old blog called A Different Fish, also as a Substack newsletter, as a means for me to get out all the thoughts I have about teaching. Now that we’re not travelling constantly I hope to make that a priority; I can never write about teaching when doing it, so this year-off is the time.

My last printed comic book - the tenth issue of JepComix, How About a Nice Big Cup of Climate Grief?, received a pretty great review this year from Optical Sloth. It sold a remarkable zero copies, but that’s what I get for working in a marginal part of a marginal art form and talking about weird shit. There’s no section in comic stores for indie autobiographical explorations of political/economic/social situations (except for at Quimby’s - the section is called DESPAIR, lol), and nobody wants more climate grief than they already have.

Despite that, I think it’s the best thing I’ve created yet, and it really helped me process this real-time real-world disaster. It’s for sale online at Quimby’s in Chicago and Atomic Books in Baltimore if you want one. It does have hope in it. Thanks to those stores.

Lastly, there’s always money in the banana stand, if by money you mean comics and music and art, and by banana stand you mean www.misterjep.com. Put another way, I’ll quote Napoleon Dynamite: “There’s plenty more where this came from, if you go to the dance with me.”

Souvenirs

To finish: a couple of fantastic New Year’s songs. (The only one from the 80s is the first one.)

Here’s to 2022, whatever that means at this point. Love to all y’all. Stay groovy.

love,

jep