Sarah Andersen Big Mushy Happy Lump Event Recap

I am so fortunate to have attended Sarah Andersen's book tour event to celebrate her new book, Big Mushy Happy Lump, on Monday, March 20, 2017. It was the perfect way to start of the first day of spring. The event was held at the Harvard Coop and Cambridge, MA was the first stop on her book tour. I got to the bookstore about 35 minutes prior to the event and there weren't too many people there but literally after 15-20 minutes, all the seats were taken and there was only standing room left.

Sarah's Sarah Scribbles collection of comics have always resonated with me. I can relate to almost every comic that has been posted online or included in books. It's like me in a nutshell. Sarah started the event off with showcasing some of her favorite comics that she drew. Of course she posted the one with how she spends money...mainly on books and the Big Mushy Happy Lump one. My current favorite is the one about the wacky weather we've been having and how the world is dying. The next section was a Q&A. The audience asked some very good questions.

One person asked about the materials she used to illustrate. For the Sarah Scribbles collection, Sarah uses a Cintiq tablet in Photoshop. Normally her comics take 1-2 hour(s) to finish but that doesn't include her 5-6 drafts per idea. She found her style through her inspiration of Ponyo. I can totally see this when looking her comic design for the main character. Also, she loves silly expressive characters.

Sarah has always created comics but she had to decide when to post them online for everyone to see them. In sophomore year of college, she had a lot of stuff happening and she started documenting her life through comics. She also draws comics based on her friends and family as well. Originally, her work was posted on her tumblr. For Sarah drawing comics is similar to keeping a diary.

However, she also likes to illustrate fairy tales. Sarah decided to include a bunny in her comics because she had a childhood rabbit and also the bunny represents a sense of normalcy. Sarah refers to the character in the comics as "her" or "she." This character is Sarah and she speaks for Sarah. It's like conveying the inner self.

When she first started to post her comics online after tumblr, she went with GoComics because she worked with them before and also because they included Calvin and Hobbes comics. Most of her "rejected work" are puns. Perhaps in the future Sarah will release some of these puns online or in a book. Who knows?

After the Q&A, everyone lined up to meet Sarah and to get their books signed. It was a pleasure to meet Sarah and Sarah told me about the different types of printing for her books. Apparently for Adulthood is a Myth, the second printing has the glossy pages. I actually didn't notice that I had glossy pages in my copy of Adulthood is a Myth and matte pages in my Big Mushy Happy Lump book. My life is complete to finally meet Sarah! She is awesome and super nice!

Currently, Sarah is working on her third book of Sarah Scribbles collection. Some of her upcoming comic con appearances include Kansas City Comic Con and most likely New York Comic Con. I hope you get to meet Sarah during the Big Mushy Happy Lump Book Tour!