A 6-panel cartoon drawn in black and white, arranged in three rows of two. Panel 1: A drawing of a spiky headed character with glasses sitting in a small boat in water, with eye gaze looking toward the second panel. Text reads: "Used to be, people talked about Truth like an expedition..." Panel 2: The eye gaze is continuing into this panel from the first one, and lands at a giant 'T' which appears to be on the shore at the edge of the water. Text reads: "...or perhaps more of a destination or discovery at the end of a journey." Panel 3: The same character from panel one is shown in three different positions around the large T - which is now shown large in the center of this panel. The character seems to be navigating it by looking up, climbing over and around it. Text reads: "At very least, Truth was a thing to be found," Panel 4: The facial features of the character, with one eye slightly squinted, appears in the middle of this panel. Text around it reads: "navigated, and figured out through a process." Panel 5: Another character is poking in from the side of the panel with arms up and out as if giving a proclamation. A speech bubble coming from their mouth simply says: 'T.' Other text in the frame reads: "These days, it is more often treated as a matter of fact." Panel 6: The speech bubble with the 'T.' in it now appears big in the middle of this final panel. Text around it reads: "Without the edges, splinters, and corners...there just isn't much left to hold onto."

A little cartoon sequence that popped out during the Quare Practice writing group this past weekend. Thanks to @mcjay.bsky.social for the prompt! 🌈

Image: A single-panel cartoon inside a thick square frame. Top title: “SPECTRUM” (in large, striped letters), “by A Girl Named Earl” (written sideways to the right). Inside the frame: a drawing of a person with spiky hair and glasses and a confused expression, holding a piece of paper, and with a thought bubble above their head with a question mark in it. Words written to the right of this character, typed (as if showing what is on the paper), read: "Congratulations! You are pre-approved! You are invited to join a thing that would benefit us and not you! Act now to take advantage of this time-limited offer! The sooner you act, the sooner we can start to take advantage of you!" Cartoon subtitle: "Exclusive Opportunity!"

📣💥Congratulations! You are pre-approved to fall further into debt in order to line other people's pockets and uphold predatory lending systems! Act now! Before this exclusive opportunity disappears! (Or before the end of the world - whichever comes first!) 💥📣

Image: a one-panel cartoon. Top title: “SPECTRUM” in large, striped letters, “by A Girl Named Earl” written sideways Panel: A big faucet with the word “CAPITALISM” is pouring out water. Seven people are in the water, barely keeping their heads above the waterline while an eighth person who is already sinking only has one hand raised up, fingers outstretched for help. One of the people in the water has a word balloon and is saying, “What is the world COMING TO? It’s like nobody wants to TREAD WATER anymore!” Bottom caption: Steeped

💦💦💦💦💦💦💦🚰
(And not a drop to drink.)

A six panel cartoon drawn with black ink on paper (arranged in three rows with two panels each). Panel 1: the spiky headed Earl character is lying down with legs crossed and arms up in the air on top of the word "Framing" which is in striped block letters. Below, a quote bubble coming from the character's mouth reads: "... can be so important." Panel 2: Earl is now shown from the back, standing on some jagged lines and arrow squiggles, holding up a ruler edge toward the top right corner of the panel as if measuring. Text in the panel reads: "It can help us look at hard situations from a different angle." Panel 3: girl is now shown holding hands above and below her face as if looking through a camera lens. Text above reads: "This is true..." Panel 4: the same hands from panel 3, showing angles as if looking through a lens, are now shown from the other side. Squiggles appear in the middle of this area and around the edges. Text at the top reads: "metaphorically..." Panel 5: a drawing of a spiral bound sketchbook with some cartoon panels on it, one of which shows the oral character with a split head with squiggles coming out of it. Text below reads: "...and literally." Panel 6: the Earl character, smaller and even more cartoony, stands in the middle of a mess of angled squiggles looking confused. The arrows from this configuration of squiggles cross back into the last panel to point at the sketchbook, as though the character is thinking about what was drawn on that page. At the top is written: "...!?"

A two panel cartoon arranged vertically, meant to be a play on the popular "buttons" meme, where the guy is trying to choose between two options and sweating about which button to push.  In this variation, the buttons are at the top and colored in red, as usual, with a finger poised as if trying to figure out which one to push. The words above the left button read: "Save the planet and its people." The words above the right button read: "Save the systems that got us here." In the bottom panel, instead of the usual character shown in the buttons meme, it is a cartoon drawing of Uncle Sam with the top hat and stars and blue coat and red bow tie. He is sweating and holding a handkerchief up toward his hat. There are red stripes as part of the background, and he is clearly sitting in the control seat. (Words along the side of the cartoon, in small letters, read: "a man named sam, by a girl named earl")

Decisions, decisions.

Flyer for an upcoming zine club meetup. There is a character made up of paper, scissors, and writing utensils - arranged to look like a face. Words on the flyer read: The next meet-up of the Paper Play Zine Club will be on Sunday, April 19, 2:30 to 4:00 at the Lexington Writers Room. 271 West Short Street (second floor above Frank and Dino's). Open to LWR members and their guests. Questions about zine club? Contact Erin at agirlnamearl@gmail.com Questions about LWR? Find out more: lexwritersoom.com

Image: A single-panel cartoon inside a thick square frame. Top title: “SPECTRUM” (in large, striped letters), “by A Girl Named Earl” (written sideways to the right). Inside the frame: Drawing of a person sitting in a news desk, hands folded in front of him, reporting the news. A red, white, and blue banner that says "BREAKING NEWS" appears at the top of the panel. Two speech bubbles are coming from the reporter, one above and centered, and one at the bottom right of the panel. Words inside the top speech bubble: "We've traced the propaganda." Words inside the secondary speech bubble: "It's coming from inside the House." Cartoon subtitle: "Chamber of Horrors"

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

Image: A 3-panel cartoon inside a thick square frame. Top title: “SPECTRUM” (in large, striped letters), “by A Girl Named Earl” (written sideways to the right). Top left panel: two versions of the Earl character (glasses, dark spiky hair) appear in the panel interacting with each other. One one is on the couch staring forward. There is an arrow pointing toward where they are on the couch, and in parentheses are the words "my dread." The other version of Earl is standing up door and looking at the dread doppelganger on the couch. There is an arrow pointing toward this version of Earl with the word "me" in parentheses. A quote bubble above reads: "Stop holding me hostage" Top left panel: the same scenario from the panel before, only now the standing version of Earl is grabbing the door knob and waving goodbye to the dreaded Earl on the couch. I quote above reads: "You can sit here in dread if you want. But I am getting on with my day!" Bottom panel (which covers the full lower area of the square): we now see a split screen of the two characters, with the door in the middle of the extra wide frame, having just been slammed. The Dread version of rural is still sitting on the couch on the left side in the shadows. The other version of the character is now on the other side of the door, in a lighter colored area, having moved along with their day.  Thought bubbles above each of them have the word "Sucker." Cartoon subtitle: Dread Ringer

I have been trying to reckon with the toxic relationship between myself and my dread.
(I know I can do it...but I'm going to have to pack a lunch.)

Image: a single-panel cartoon drawing inside a thick square frame. Above the frame, the title "SPECTRUM" is drawn in block letters with stripes throughout. Written sideways next to that: by A Girl Named Earl. Inside the frame are two simply drawn characters - one sitting in a chair with legs crossed and holding a clipboard, indicating a therapist. There is a framed certificate on the wall behind her. The other is the character Earl (spiky hair and glasses) lying on a couch, as if a therapy client. Background is colored light blue. Speech bubble of therapist says: "Remember when I used to think you were just being paranoid?" Speech bubble of Earl says: "Ah, yes those were the good ol' days." Cartoon subtitle: "Beyond Recall"

🤔💭💭💭💭💭💭💭

Drawings with black ink on paper. Random absurd images of people and critters with electronic devices in place of heads: A body in a suit with a cell phone head and carrying a briefcase, and holding a human head in the other hand smiling back at the phone. A woman body dancing with a radio tower overhead. A baby with a TV head, holding a fish in one hand and a smiling baby head and the other. An alligator or lizard-like creature with a laptop for a head. A body lying on the ground with a satellite head, holding a keyboard with music coming out of it above the body.

Early morning brain party.
👔📱💃⚡🐟📺👶🖥️🐊📡🎹👞

Image: A 2-panel cartoon inside a thick square frame. Top title: “SPECTRUM” (in large, striped letters), “by A Girl Named Earl” (written sideways to the right). Top panel: Two blobby human figures, colored in bright red, are pointing down toward a gray blobby human figure lying on the ground. One of the red figures has a foot on top of the one on the ground, holding them down. There are jagged lines in the panel and the background is a lighter red tone. Words inside the panel read "Keeping each other down" Bottom panel: One blobby human figure colored in green is leaning down and extending a hand to help up the gray figure on the ground, who is reaching up a hand and seems to be trying to get up. There are smooth, gentle lines throughout the panel and the background is a lighter green. Words inside the panel read "Helping each other up" Cartoon subtitle: "Choice of Priotities"

How we might spend our precious energy.

Image: A single-panel cartoon inside a thick square frame. Top title: “SPECTRUM” (in large, striped letters), “by A Girl Named Earl” (written sideways to the right). Inside the frame: Drawing of a giant hand hovering at the top of the frame, positioned like a puppeteers hand holding strings. Below, hanging from the strings, are two grey blobby human figures pointing and yelling at each other. A jagged speech bubble coming from both of them has the words: "Stop spreading propaganda!!" Each of the blobby figures has a plug into their back which winds back up and over and i to the puppeteer hand at the top of the frame. Words on the hand: "Media Machine" Cartoon subtitle: Media Machine (working as intended)

⚡🖥️⚡📶⚡📺⚡📡⚡📻⚡📱

Image: A 2-panel cartoon inside a thick square frame. Top title: “SPECTRUM” (in large, striped letters), “by A Girl Named Earl” (written sideways to the right). Top panel: several gray blobby human characters are pointing fingers at each other from different sides of the panel, over a red background filled with orange jagged lightning bolt shapes. A pointy quote bubble in the middle, pointing to all of the figures, reads: "Gotcha!" Bottom panel: more gray blobby characters, but instead of pointing fingers at each other and waving hands around, these figures are showing supportive gestures. (Hugging, helping someone up from the ground, reaching hands out toward each other.) The background is green with yellow flowy lines. A quote bubble pointing to all of the figures in this panel reads: "I've GOT YOU." Cartoon subtitle: "Choice of Priorities"

Who am I? Who are you? Who are WE? 💜

Image: A single-panel cartoon inside a thick square frame. Top title: “SPECTRUM” (in large, striped letters), “by A Girl Named Earl” (written sideways to the right). Inside the frame: Drawing of an underwater scene, with two fish looking at three bits of fishing line coming down with sharp hooks with bright red angry worms hanging off of them. Two speech bubbles are coming from the turquoise and purple fish on the left. Words inside the speech bubbles: "Don't do it, Bob! Remember LAST TIME??" The orange and yellow fish on the right has its mouth open and sharp teeth ready to bite at one of the worms on one of the hooks. There are several other hooks already sticking out from this fish's face and body, apparently from previous times of doing the same thing. A thought bubble is coming from the orange fish, with the words: "But I'm so HUNGRY...and BORED..." Cartoon subtitle: "Taking the (Rage) Bait"

Don't do it, Bob!
🪝🪱🐠💥🎣

Image: A single-panel cartoon inside a thick square frame. Top title: “SPECTRUM” (in large, striped letters), “by A Girl Named Earl” (written sideways to the right). Inside the frame: Drawing of a person sitting in a news desk, hands folded in front of him, reporting the news. A yellow banner with the words "BREAKING NEWS" (in bright red) appears at the top of the panel. Two speech bubbles are coming from the reporter, one above and centered, and a smaller one at the bottom right of the panel. Words inside the top speech bubble: "Dangerous ICE STORM threatens safety across the U.S. Millions of people at high risk of loss of power." Words inside the smaller, secondary speech bubble: "(Also, there will be some inclement weather moving in over the weekend.)" Cartoon subtitle, written underneath the frame: "Imminent Threat Alert"

🚨 Imminent Threat Alert!! 🚨
(Also, inclement weather.)

Decorative page with spirals and doodles dividing the space diagonally from the right top corner down to the bottom left. The top/left portion of the page has a pale yellow background and a few decorative blips, and includes the following handwritten words: "In: - spirit of exploration and curiosity - making lists - making stuff in general (small scale/DIY) - being present in the current moment - meeting people where they are, without undue judgment - reasonable expectations and goals - JOY" The right/lower portion of the page has a pale purple background and a few decorative blips, and includes the following handwritten words: "Out: - pursuit of certainty - shutting down from feeling stuck - overthinking production barriers - being distracted by past or future concerns - approaching interactions with a pre-decided agenda or outcomes - reasonable planning, leading to disappointment or self-sabotage - DREAD"

A few highlights from my In/Out list for 2026. ✨

Ink drawing of a giant abstract zigzag shape, with tiny scribbly stick figures climbing and standing and lounging around in the crevices and along the edges, and with various punctuation marks included around the figures.

New sketchbook friends.
⚡!⚡...💥...⚡?⚡:

A 6-panel cartoon drawn in black and white. Panel 1: Drawing of a person with spiky hair and glasses is seen peering from behind a laptop, apparently looking at the screen. Text reads: "I tend to keep online privacy settings tight" Panel 2: Drawing of the same character is now shown from behind, so just the spiky hair shows up, but you can now see the computer screen. On it are two rectangular tabs. One says "Accept all cookies" and the other says "Confirm my choices." The latter button is highlighted with lines coming out from it as though that is the one being chosen. Text above the image reads: : "... In an attempt to dodge any algorithm of targeted ads." Panel 3: Drawing of just the eyes and glasses and eyebrows of the character, looking sideways in a suspicious manner. Text above the image reads: "And although I know it is probably all a mirage (to believe I have any actual control over anything)," Panel 4: Image shows a computer screen with words as if from advertisements popping up on the screen, which include: "Meaningful Beauty!!" ; "Reshape your body!" ; "$!" ; "Celebrity Cruise!!" Text above reads: "I still get a strange satisfaction when the ads I see are way off base for me." Panel 5: Image shows the same computer screen, but now with different words from advertisements popping up on the screen, which include: "Sensible shoes!" ; "Best treads!" ; "Comfy footwear!" Text above reads: "But the other day, something different started filling my ad 'feed'...and all I could think was..." Panel 6: Drawing of the same eyes and glasses as in panel 3, but now with a surprised or shocked expression. Text around the inage reads: "OH NO!! The jig is up!! They finally got me!" With a drawing of both a scared emoji and a laughing emoji right next to the quote.

OH NO!! The jig is up!!
👟🥾👀💭👁️‍🗨️🗼😬😂

Image: A single-panel grayscale cartoon inside a thick square frame. Top title: “SPECTRUM” (in large, striped letters), “by A Girl Named Earl” (written sideways to the right). Inside the frame: Drawing of a wet-dry vac, an upright vacuum cleaner, and a broom and dustpan all lined up against a wall. A thought bubble is coming from the vacuum cleaner, near a couple of knobs that look like eyes. Words inside the thought bubble: "What am I doing here?" Cartoon subtitle: Existential Vacuum

A four panel cartoon arranged in a grid. Top title: "SPECTRUM" written in the large block letters with stripes throughout. Written sideways and to the side of the top title: "by A Girl Named Earl" Panel 1: Drawing of a "wiggly" doodle (squiggle of curves) with a sort of grid over it, representing a net. Text reads "The net has thus become one of the presiding images of human thought." Panel 2: Drawing of the same "wiggly" doodle from panel one, but on its own, with no net or grid. Text reads "But it is always an image," Panel 3: Drawing of the planet Earth on the left side with a line across the middle where the equator would be, then dangling off the side in squiggle form, like a piece of twine. To the right of the Earth is drawing of a package wrapped in brown paper. Behind both of these images is a sea of dark blue with complex color and texture patterns, indicating the universe. Text reads "and just as no one can use the equator to tie up a package," Panel 4: Drawing of Earth and sky/universe slipping through the net, coming out fluid on the other side, without definition or boundaries, pouring out like liquid. Text reads: "the real wiggly world slips like water through our imaginary nets." Text below the frame: "- excerpt from 'The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are' by Alan Watts. (The "wiggle" drawings in the top two panels are rough recreations of drawings included in the book.)"

〰️〰️🌌🌎🥅💦💦💦💦〰️〰️
(Reminder to self.) 💚
Text from an excerpt of 'The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are' by Alan Watts. (The "wiggle" drawings in the top two panels are rough recreations of drawings included in the book.)"

Image: a poem with Doodles and pictures accompanying it. Images include a roller skate, a cartoon person skating, a face with a nervous expression, a disco ball, curves and twists and turns and sparkles.  Text (written into the picture): Oh, to go back in time  to the roller rink  with its twist and turns  its faces and laces.  Music pipes  from sparkly  speakers, filling the air with  bubblegum magic and  mysterious interactions  between  those who want  and those who are wanted.  Oh, to want  to be wanted  like that again,  naively hoping for  some happily ever after.  How strange to hold, at once,  such a desire to be invisible and such  a longing to be seen.  Looking down at the floor when the boys skated by,  holding my mouth just so.  How wrenching, when they glided on past.  What a relief, when they glided on past.

A doodle poem that emerged from a prompt about nostalgia yesterday evening. ✨🛼✨

Image: a single-panel cartoon inside thick square frame, full color. Top title: “SPECTRUM” in large, rainbow letters: “By A Girl Named Earl” written sideways in black. Inside the frame: in the lower left corner is a drawing of a loudspeaker with squiggly lines coming out of it toward the center, as if making loud noise. The squiggles are then going toward a green bubble wand, and a large bubble is coming out on the other side of that bubble wand. There are other bubbles in the air as well, and the background is a sky blue with a cloudy texture. Block letters inside the largest bubble in the middle read: "Y'all means ALL." Inside all of the lettering and the loudspeaker shape are stripes of colors from the inclusive pride flag.

Image: A 4-panel cartoon arranged in a grid inside a thick square frame. Top title: “SPECTRUM” in large, striped letters, “by A Girl Named Earl” written sideways to the right.   Top left panel: At the top in a box with a pinkish tint is the time stamp "Day One." Earl, a character with spiky hair and glasses, is standing with hands on hips looking at another person with a blank expression. Another character (to Earl's right), wearing a checkerboard style outfit with gold and green and white squares, is handing over a paper with a bunch of writing on it. A quote bubble pointing to that person reads: "Hello. Here is a fact sheet about who I am and how this works." Top right panel: The same two characters are shown, but the time stamp above them now has a greenish tint and reads "Day Two." In this exchange, both look friendly on our waving at each other and smiling. The character on the right is now saying, "Friend! You're back! Woohoo! Let's play!" Bottom left panel: The time stamp above them still has a greenish tint, but now reads "Day Three."  Apart from that slight change, this is the exact same panel as the previous one, depicting the friendly exchange.  Bottom right panel: The time stamp above them is now back to a pinkish tint and reads "Day Five." The scene is otherwise the exact same as in panel one, as if the two have never met.  Cartoon subtitle, written underneath the frame: "(Wordle be like...)"

😐😃😃⏳🗓️😐
(I can't decide if Wordle is teaching me a valuable lesson about continuity in relationships, or gaslighting me.) 😳😂🙃

Image: A single-panel cartoon inside a thick square frame. Top title: “SPECTRUM” in large, striped letters, “by A Girl Named Earl” written sideways to the right. Inside the frame: Earl, a character with spiky hair and glasses and wearing a black t-shirt, is holding up a large lavender heart. Background in the panel is light yellow. Text inside the heart: "Your life has value & you are loved." Cartoon subtitle (written just below the frame): "Dear Autistic Community"

❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙🌈

Image: a four-panel cartoon, arranged in a square. Full color. Top title: “SPECTRUM” in large, striped letters, “by A Girl Named Earl” written sideways   Top left panel: Two characters are arguing. One in yellow holds a sword and shouts, “!!!” while one in purple holds a page with writing on it and shouts, “!!!” Behind the two, a big red monster or demon is grinning with glee. Top right panel: The person in yellow waves their sword and shouts an image that is the written piece of paper covered with a red circle with a slash through it. The person in purple waves their document and shouts an image that is the sword covered with a red circle with a slash through it. Behind them, the red monster has doubled in size. Bottom left panel: The two characters are now waving their objects - the sword and the document - in each other’s faces and they are shouting a stream of grawlix – symbols representing cuss words – at each other in a jagged burst of orange. Behind them all that is visible is red monster body.  Bottom right panel: The orange grawlix argument has gotten bigger, but the two arguing people look tiny now because the big red demon monster has grown to the size of a mountain. Bottom caption: Meanwhile . . .

MOOD.

Image: a four-panel cartoon, arranged in a square. Top title: “SPECTRUM” in large, squiggle-striped letters, “by A Girl Named Earl” written sideways Top left panel: Earl is drawing something with lovely squiggles on it. In a thought bubble, Earl thinks, “This is so much fun! I am LOVING this new project!” Top right panel: Earl looks surprised and has an exclamation point in the air next to their head as a word balloon comes up from their drawing, saying, “I love you too!” Bottom left panel: The view closes in on Earl’s eyes as they say in a word balloon, “Okay, listen – before we get too FAR IN, I need to tell you something. I am POLYCREATIVE. I love you. Truly.” Bottom right panel: Earl’s word balloon comes from outside the panel as we close in on one edge of the drawing. Earl says, “. . . but there will ALWAYS be other projects.” In a word balloon, the drawing says, “It’s cool. As long as your love is TRUE.” Bottom caption: POLYCREATIVE LICENSE

It's complicated. (Don't judge me.) 🙃

Image: a one-panel cartoon Top title: “SPECTRUM” in large, striped letters, “by A Girl Named Earl” written sideways Panel: Earl is looking at a computer screen with twisted eyebrows and a concerned look. The computer screen appears to show a social media website with lots of text. A red lightning bolt goes from Earl’s right eye to the computer and a yellow lightning bolt from Earl’s left eye to the screen. A massive amount of red and yellow lightning bolts are exploding from Earl’s head. Bottom caption: Hyperempathy Meets Hyperconnectivity

The stream. The feed. The spectacle. It's all too much to process. This is by design. The function is to distract us from the systems and people in power, and to aim our frustrations at each other. And it is working precisely as designed.

Image: a single-panel cartoon inside a thick square frame Top title (just above the frame): “SPECTRUM” (in large block lettering with rainbow colors throughout); “by A Girl Named Earl” (written sideways to the right) Inside the frame: in the top half the background looks like a muted American flag, with the silhouette of something that resembles a gnarly tree. In the bottom half of the frame is a bunch of interconnected odd shapes in various colors of LGBTQIA+ flags, woven together like a root system. Cartoon subtitle: Underground Network

Keep your people close.
🍄❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🩵🤍🩷🍄

Image: a single-panel cartoon inside a thick square frame Top title (just above the frame): “SPECTRUM” (in large block lettering with rainbow colors throughout); “by A Girl Named Earl” (written sideways to the right) Inside the frame: Background colors are muted rainbow stripes. Earl, a spiky-headed character with glasses and wearing a black t-shirt, is holding a big red heart in front of them. On the heart, written in white lettering, are the words "YOU DESERVE LOVE & JOY." Cartoon caption (below the frame): "You are loved. You are valued."

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🏳️‍🌈

Image: a 2-panel cartoon arranged vertically inside a thick square frame Top title (just above the frame): “SPECTRUM” in large block lettering with rainbow colors throughout; “by A Girl Named Earl” written sideways to the right Top panel: in the left side of the panel are three characters smiling and standing together with fists in the air in front of a rainbow background. All three characters have the words "LGB only" on their clothes. Above them is a quote bubble with the text: "Finally! Someone is getting rid of that pesky T! Now we can focus on OUR rights!" To the right of them is a door that has flown open, and another character is holding on to it, their body sideways as if being sucked out of the space by an outside force. The character being forced out of the space has a light blue outfit with a pink letter "T" on it. To that character's right is a giant fiery vortex which, seems to be pulling them into the spiral. Bottom panel: At the top left corner of the panel is a yellow highlighted box with the text "Soon..." Below that is a scene of the same rainbow space with the door flung open, but this time, the three characters with "LGB only" on their clothes are now being sucked out of that space by the same vortex. A jagged frantic quote bubble coming from those characters contains the text "Wait WHAT?!" Cartoon subtitle (written just below the frame): "Gatekeeping Backfire"

If you are advocating for the scenario in panel one, and you don't foresee the scenario in panel 2, you are fooling yourself. (Among other things.)
#yallmeansall