Sunday mornings have long reigned supreme for one reason: the Sunday comics.
Maybe your grandfather handed you the funny pages before settling into his recliner to read that morning's news. Perhaps you prefer your comics to include superheroes like The Incredible Hulk or Wonder Woman instead of anthropomorphized animals like Snoopy or Garfield.
Whatever your connection to comics may be, the unbridled joy and laughter this humble artform brings to the world is unique, while also serving as an entry point for many aspiring artists and illustrators via its two-dimensional line drawings.
That's why local artist Mallory Battista urged illustrator Michael Stearns to revive Spokane Sequential, a comic magazine founded in 2016 that had been put on hiatus in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. The duo met while contributing to the publication and now serve as the publication's co-editors.
"We were at Zine Fest in [spring] 2023, and we kept saying that we wish someone would bring Sequential back because we missed having a comic publication in town," Battista says. "I kept telling Michael that he should be the one to do it."
Stearns immediately took up her advice.
"Mallory gave me some paper and a clipboard, and I went around collecting email addresses from as many artists as possible right then and there at Zine Fest," he says.
Next Stearns got in touch with Spokane Sequential founder Derrick Freeland, who'd since moved to Portland.
Freeland, who ran the publication for its first four years, was entirely supportive of Stearns and Battista working together to bring back Spokane Sequential. He gave Stearns access to its Facebook and Instagram accounts along with a list of artists' emails he'd gathered over the years.
BOOM! Spokane Sequential was on its way back.
To say reviving the magazine was a labor of love is quite an understatement.
"The beginning was a lot of waiting," Battista says. "And also worrying if anyone was going to submit."
In October 2023, the first issue of Spokane Sequential hit stands since its hiatus.
Aptly named "It's Alive, Again!", the edition featured seven comics by local and regional comics including Stearns and Battista.
On Feb. 10, the latest edition of Spokane Sequential came out.
Contributor Kiara Lime says her submissions this time around are based on self-love and memories with her boyfriend. Each issue has a suggested theme, the latest being love.
"My first piece is just three panels," Lime says. "It doesn't have words, it's just three scenes that capture three different forms of love: me hanging out with my sibling, me with my boyfriend at the Jonas Brothers concert and then me just hanging out by myself at a cafe."
Lime's second piece details how she and her boyfriend met. She says it details herself at her lowest, thinking she would never find love and then stumbling across her now-boyfriend on Tinder.
"Comics sort of had a bad rap for a long time because they were seen as lowbrow," Lime says. "There's nothing wrong with liking lowbrow stuff. Comics are accessible, especially to new artists. This project is free to join, free to take and read. I think more people need to appreciate the creativity that goes into comics, and Sequential is aiding in that."
Spokane Sequential wouldn't be possible without Spokane's creative community. Stearns and Battista have had significant help from Spokane Print and Publishing Center and local printer National Color Graphics.
"It's really zine-style," Battista says. "We're camped out at the copy machine at the Print and Publishing Center, cranking out copies by hand."
This time around, the duo printed 200 copies to distribute to local bookstores, comic book shops, cafes, libraries and more.
Stearns is hopeful that Spokane Sequential will continue to publish quarterly for as long as local artists continue to be interested in submitting their work.
"My hope is that people will use it as a platform to try out new things," he says. "There's an audience that exists and wants to read this stuff. And it might not be a huge audience, it's not gonna make you or break you, but it's exciting to see your work in print."
"It's really important to give people a platform and to cultivate the talent that we have locally," Battista adds. "We're still figuring out how we fit into that and how we can best support the community, but it's a pretty magical and rewarding experience to get a group together and release something that people can find and enjoy in the wild." ♦
READ SPOKANE SEQUENTIAL
Spokanesequential.neocities.org
Facebook: Spokane Sequential
Instagram: @spokanesequential
FIND IT AT
2nd Look Books
Auntie's Bookstore
Atticus Coffee
The Comic Book Shop (Division)
First Ave. Coffee
Giant Nerd Books
Lunarium
Merlyn's
Monkey Biz
New Love Coffee (Francis)
Page 42 Bookstore
Rocket Bakery (Garland)
Spark Central
Spokane Art Supply
Spokane Print & Publishing Center
Wishing Tree Books
