In March 2020 the Coronavirus pandemic hit home. My employer told me to work remotely. A quarantine was called. Strict social distancing practices were advised. Stay home, limit contact, keep your distance. This condition was not so hard for me, an introvert living on a river acre. My family baked bread and planted gardens. I walked my dog. I drew comic art. For others, social distancing was hard. Many had to adapt to working from home from the first time, while looking after children. People lost their jobs. Some families were packed in urban apartments. Perhaps it was most difficult for people living alone, with only their shadow for company.
Just then I was a reading a book about shadows and perception of the natural world. In Becoming Animal, David Abram observes our common misperception that shadows are flat. Yes really, our shadows are not flat but have depth. If a bee flies into my shadow the bee goes dark. It struck me that a person alone in isolation might take the time to reflect on their shadow, and to correct different types of misperception.
This insight inspired me to create a work of comic art, Me and My Shadow: Social Distancing 2020. Early on, there was confusion about whether people should go outdoors at all. Jay is led outdoors where he encounters shadows in nature, people, and his heart. Shadows are explored on a cosmic level, witnessing the pandemic lunar and solar eclipses.
Like many events during the pandemic, I failed to anticipate Black Lives Matter, the uprising in response to the police killing of George Floyd. While the protest is not the focus of this work, I did not miss the connection with the black and white imagery in my shadow comic. Of course no human is truly black or white. The only accurate use of those labels is to identify the oppressor and the oppressed. We are one race, the human race.
The work was originally a limited release of 50 print chapbooks, under my alias, Jan Andreas. Now on the eve of the eclipse of 2024, I release it as a free e-book, below. Also available as a download.
Published on April 7, 2024