Meanwhile… 051
Meanwhile… 051
When I left off the last episode I was in a very grim mood, caught in the thick of depression. It had been creeping in for some time now - worse than usual - but then my beloved cat, Orlando, passed away, and that depression ran deeper. So much so that I’ve upped my antidepressants - something I haven’t felt need to do since beginning them 9 years ago.
I wasn’t sure where this instalment of “Meanwhile…” would go, but I did know the last was veering away from social artistic commentary and simple one-off absurdist gags and deeper into something else, as stated by the drawing child in the last episode.
With the momentum of this comic series running from the final panel of the previous episode (as is the style of this series) I wasn’t sure what it would entail, but did know it had something to do with that sinister shadow first seen in Episode 23 and again in the previous episode.
As I often do when depressed, I felt the need to ground myself in art, writing and other creative pursuits, and I realised that “Inktober”, a yearly event of daily prompts to inspire illustrating, was again at hand. Several things then occurred to me…
Firstly that it was a good activity to bury myself in (albeit late to the game, it now being well past mid-October/Inktober), secondly that my depression was as much a character engrained in my reasons for making “Meanwhile…” and thirdly that the Inktober Day 3 prompt of “Vessel” was fitting for this episode with that sinister shadow having hidden in various other previous instalments, having made vessels of them and myself.
Depression will always be a passenger in the vessel that I am. Now it has a face.
What that means for myself, Grace and other characters in “Meanwhile…” time will tell.
Note: For panel references read “Meanwhile…” episodes 8, 22, 23 and 50.
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