Books | About the Author | Work-in-Progress | Blog | A Rational Arrangement | Contact and Privacy Details

Inspired by Sophie Yanow's "A Gentle Comics Habit"
I cannot do anything in 1 minute so my version has been just "do it quickly and resist the urge to fix most errors."

I plan to do this until it starts feeling like a slog. We'll see how long that takes!

I wasn't going to post them to my website because ugh I'm not installing Wordpress or a comics manager, everyone I know who does that hates it, and then I thought "but html is easy and I could just make a gigantic list of images."

Sure. Let's go with that. We'll see how long this lasts, too.

0. This one was for "Make a Terrible Comic Day" 2026, but I'm putting it here because it uses the same characters/setting. I didn't track time on it, probably 90-120 minutes?
A comic showing Zhenshay, a demonic-looking man with long purple hair, and Moon, a one-eyed white cat. 

Zhenshay: “Mmm. Needs a pinch of griffon’s wort--” 
Moon: *knocks griffon’s wort bottle off the counter* 
Zhenshay: “Yes, that” *bends to pick it up* 
Moon: *jumps after it, grabs with all four paws, glares at Zhenshay* 
Zhenshay: “Or not?” 
Moon: *gnaws on bottle* 
Zhenshay: “Not, then.”

1. (8 minutes)
Off-panel:
Voice 1: This cat bed seems a little big for her. Voice 2: She has a big spirit. Center of panel: simple single-color cartoon shapes of a white cat curled up in a very large O-shaped orange cushion

2. (17 minutes)
Single panel of a vantablack man with horns, a tail, and long purple hair curled up in/around a wraparound oval pillow. The oval is too small for him and his legs and arms stick out both above and beneath it. A white cat is curled up by his front, atop the pillow. Dialogue: Voice 1: Okay it's DEFINITELY too small for you. Zhenshay: Some people are never happy

3. (24 minutes)
Reflection in an oval mirror of a cartoon woman with curly black hair and brown skin, and Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with purple hair and horns. Very simple sloppy images. 

Woman: Sometimes I wish I looked a little less, y'know, boring 
Zhenshay: I have potions for that! 
Woman: I said A LITTLE

4. (25 minutes)
Simple colored drawing of Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, lying on a bed, back against a big orange body pillow, face towards the pillow. Moon, a one-eyed white cat, is standing with her paws on his shoulder and ears splayed in dismay. 
Zhenshay:

5. (40 minutes)

Simple colored drawing of two figures talking across a counter: Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, and a feminine person with light blue skin, long ears, and wings, wearing a dark blue dress with frills.

Blue person: The other day, your cat made a potion for my garden
Zhenshay: Moon's not my cat
Blue person: --your familiar--
Zhenshay: Yeah not that either
Blue person: Anyway, it worked great! Can she make more? All my friends want it 
Zhenshay: Have you considered asking Moon directly?

6. (19 minutes)
Close-up of simple drawing of a blue woman with dark curly hair, wings, and pointed ears, with one raised hand.

Blue woman:

7. (29 minutes)
Simple colored drawing of two figures talking across a counter. Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, faces the viewer, while a feminine person with light blue skin, long ears, and wings, wearing a dark blue dress with frills, has her back to the viewer.  


Blue woman:

8. (33 minutes)
Simple colored drawing of two figures talking across a counter, in profile to the viewer. Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, and a feminine person with light blue skin, long ears, and wings, wearing a dark blue dress with frills. There's barely-visibly bite marks on her hand.

Blue woman:

9. (50 minutes)

Simple colored cartoon. First panel has Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, seated and reading a book. Second panel has Zhenshay with one hand raised while Piper, a feminine person with brown skin and dark curly hair, peers into the panel.

Dialogue: 

First panel:
Piper: Zhenshay? Zhenshay? Hey, Zhenshay, you home?

Second panel:
Zhenshay, shouting; ARGH yes what is it?
Piper: Ooh, sorry, didn't realize you were studying. New magic tome?
Zhenshay: No, new novel
Zhenshay, muttering:I just got to the good part, too...

10. (20-30 minutes? I didn't track it)

Simple colored cartoon. Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, is seated at a table. A book is open before him, near to the end (if read right to left). Moon, a white cat, is sprawled over it. He's petting Moon.

Dialogue:
Zhenshay:

11. (too long)

Simple colored cartoon. First panel has Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, speaking with Piper, a plump woman with brown skin and dark curly hair. 
Dialogue: 
Zhenshay: “So what’s up? 
Piper: “The river. It rose and your house is way too close to it now. I thought you should know.” 
Zhenshay: “Huh. Is it?” 

Next panel: A very large house bult into a slope. A river laps gently around the foundation on most of three sides, with the front steps partially submerged. 
Dialogue: 
Zhenshay: “Yeah, we should probably do something about that.” 
Piper: “Mm. Can I get a towel? I had to wade to get here.”

12. (idk 45 minutes)

Simple colored cartoon. Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, is lounging against a wall. He's speaking with Piper, a plump woman with brown skin and dark curly hair, who's got propped one foot on a chair so she can dry it with a towel. 

Zhenshay:

13. 50 minutes. Sure, let's go with that.

Simple colored cartoon. Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, stands beside a window showing a river and trees on the opposite shore. He's speaking with Piper, a plump woman with brown skin and dark curly hair, Their backs are to the viewer, facing the window. 
Dialogue: 
Zhenshay: “It’s weird that the river rose this much; there’s been no rain recently.” 
Piper: “Yeah...” 
Piper: “Is it just me or is the house shaking?”

14. Gave Officially giving up on the timer thing now.

Simple colored cartoon. Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, is speaking with Piper, a plump woman with brown skin and dark curly hair. First panel has just Pipers face as she says, “Crap, your house is sliding into the river!” 
Second panel shows the house exterior with the two on the slightly-submerged front porch. The river laps at the threshold.
Zhenshay:  “No. Not sliding. Walking.”
The house has bent black legs visible all around the foundation*, walking into the river.

15.

Simple colored cartoon. Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, is speaking with Piper, a plump woman with brown skin and dark curly hair. They are both in a river, with Zhenshay braced as if trying in vain to push an entire gigantic house back out of the river. 
Piper: Why is your house walking into the river?? 
Zhenshay: How should I know? 
Piper: Maybe it wants to be a houseboat 
Zhenshay: It's gonna be a submarine at this rate

16.

Simple colored cartoon. Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, is up to his waist in a river, trying in vain to push an entire gigantic house back out of the river. He is talking to the house.  The second panel has a close up of his face, looking up in desperation. 

Zhenshay: Stoppit, house, come on. Don't be this way. Please! 

Second panel: 
Zhenshay: I promise I'll mop more often! 
Zhenshay, screaming: You don't have to take a bath!

17.

Simple colored cartoon. Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, is up to his waist in a river. First panel, he's leaning forward, startled as the house backs away from him. Second panel, he and Piper, a plump brown-skinned woman in a pink dress, are standing alone in the river.
Dialogue:
Zhenshay: “Ah!”
House: *scurry backwards*
Piper: “Wait, that was it?”
Piper: “It was actually trying to take a bath because you don’t mop enough?”
Zhenshay: “...that or it woke up Moon.”
Piper: “Oh.”
Piper: “I hope it’s the mopping”
Zhenshay: “Me too.” *muttering* “I’ll need to mop after this either way.”

18.

Simple colored cartoon. 
First panel: Zhenshay, a reflectionless black figure with horns, a tail, and long purple hair, is mopping the floor while the house is trembling. 
Second panel: Zhenshay wrings the mop into the sink. House still trembling. 
Third panel: Zhenshay mopping again. He mutters, “Look, I know you're upset, house, but you've only yourself to blame. You knew Moon was napping.”

19.

Simple colored cartoon. 

Piper, a plump human woman with black hair and brown skin, outside the window: “Hey, Zhenshay! I found Ember, do you still want her help drying out the house?” 
Zhenhay, a reflectionless black man with horns and long purple hair, sticking his head out the window: “Yes, please” 
Piper: “Ember says House has to promise not to go for another swim first” 
Zhenshay: “I think House has learned its lesson now, thanks”

20.

*Jingle* from one side of first panel. Zhenshay’s head in frame: “Hello?” 
Smol voice from under counter: “hi...?” 
Second panel:  
Zhenshay: *leans over counter* “Ah, hello there. Shall I come around and crouch, or would you prefer uppies?” 
Smol child raises arms: “Uppies please”

21.

Zhenshay, holding smol child in his arms: “So, where are your parents?”
Smol child: “Ma’s home. Da’s coming.”
Zhenshay: “Coming?”
Smol child: “Da slow.”
Zhenshay: “Why didn’t you wait for him?”
Smol child: “Da slow”, with heavy emphasis on the word slow

22.

Smol child, now standing on counter before Zhenshay: “Da says witches live here. Are you a witch?”
Zhenshay: “No, I’m a warlock.”
Smol child: “What’s a warlock?”
Zhenshay: “Like a witch, but a boy.”
Smol child: “Boys can’t be witches?”
Zhenshay: “No, they can. I just think warlock sounds cooler.”

23.

First panel: Zhenshay: “So what brings you to the house of witches and/or warlocks?”
Second panel: Smol child bends to get something from backpack, now on table: “Oh! Puppy's sick.” 
Third panel: Smol child holds out stuffed dog with a rip and stuffing coming out at the neck seam. “Can you cure her?”

24.

First panel, inset: Zhenshay’s hand, reaching for the stuffed animal. “Aww. Sure, let me have a --” 
Second panel: Zhenshay falls back from a snarling, angry, full-sized wolf, bleeding from the throat, which now stands on the counter beside the smol child. “-- look?” 
Smol child: “Puppy! Be good!”

25.

Zhenshay, still startled, clutching his chest. Puppy is a plushie again, fallen to the counter while smol child bends to pick her up. 
Zhenshay: “Did that --” 
Smol child: “Puppy din’t mean to startle you.” 
Zhenshay: “I was more concerned whether she intended to bite my hand off, to be honest.”

26.

Da, a stout human man with pale skin, wearing a green shirt and brown pants, enters from a door on the left. Zhenshay stands in the middle. Smol child, now identified as Luian, stands on a counter on the right. 

Da: Luian, you shouldn't run so far ah -- what is that??? 
Zhenshay: Do you mean me or Puppy? 
Luian: Da, this is the warlock. 
Luian, in an undertone: Da already knows Puppy. 
Da: Oh, sorry, you look more like a demon than a witch. 
Zhenshay and Luian, together, with emphasis: Warlock.

27.

Closeup cartoon of two hands shaking. Da's arm is thick, orange-pink, and hairy, while Zhenshay's is reflectionless black, long-fingered, and more slender. 

Zhenshay: “Let’s try this again. I’m Zhenshay.” 
Da shakes his hand: “Good to meet you, sir. I’m Chuin. You’ve already met my son, Luian.” 
Luian: “Da I tole you I’m a girl!” 
Chuin: “...so you can tell why we came. Can you help him?” 
Zhenshay: “By all means. Mr. Chuin: please stop referring to your daughter as a boy.”

28.

Chuin and Zhenshay in profile, talking. Zhenshay towers over the other man, almost a full head taller.
Chuin: “But he is a boy! If you saw him naked, you’d --”
Zhenshay: “Are you seriously suggesting that I should strip a child naked in preference to taking her at her word when she states her gender?”
Chuin: “...okay when you put it like that it sounds bad.”
Zhenshay: “Does it now.”

29.

Cartoon shows the characters mostly from the bust up, with Zhenshay the tallest and between Chuin and Luian. Luian is still standing on the table, with Puppy dangling from her hands.
Zhenshay: “Look, I get it. You think ‘this is a label to describe a reproductive role based on visible anatomy.’ If someone says ‘no, I’m a different label’, they must be wrong.”
Zhenshay: “But, first, society ascribes a gajillion things to gender that have nothing to do with reproduction. If it only mattered for reproduction, we’d never talk about a child’s gender.”
Zhenshay: “Second: it’s pretty easy to change visible anatomy. I used to look as human as you or your daughter.”
Luian: “Really? You’re human?”
Zhenshay: “Really.”
Luian: “So I can look like you when I grow up?”
Chuin and Zhenshay, together: “No.”

30.

Top-down view of the three characters talking.
Zhenshay: “Third: using magic to alter someone’s mind is difficult, unreliable, and immoral.”
Chuin: “Immoral?”
Zhenshay: “Do you want to be a boy, Luian?”
Luian: “NO!”
Zhenshay: “Immoral.”

31.

First panel shows Chuin looking thoughtful and saying: “So you’re saying you can change her into a girl? And that would be ... better?” 

Second panel is Zhenshay, with their eyes crescent-shaped, maybe smiling, saying, “No, I’m saying she already is a girl. You don’t need a witch or a warlock to do anything.” 
and thinking: (Well, other than explain it to you, anyway.)

32.

Chuin has moved to the counter to pick up Luian. Zhenshay is standing back, resting one hand against the wall.

Luian: “Why can’t you change me into a girl now?”
Zhenshay: “You already are a girl. If you want transformation magic when you’re older, we can work on it then.”
Luian: “Mph. Okay.” muttering: “I din’t wanna sit to pee anyway”
Zhenshay: “But for now, Mr. Chuin, just let her be a girl. Don’t call her a boy, or tell her she needs to dress or act or be a certain way because you say she’s a boy.”
Chuin: “Huh.”
Chuin: “And that’s all you want, Luian?”
Luian: “Uh-huh!”
Chuin: “Well. All right, then.”