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Madeleine Jubilee Saito . Tumblr . Com

@madeleinejubileesaito / madeleinejubileesaito.tumblr.com

Hello, I'm Madeleine!

⭐️ If enjoy my work and want to keep up with new stuff I make, I send out a free little newsletter every month with a short comic + updates on my work:

(Subscribing to my newsletter + forwarding to a friend who you think might like my work is one of the most helpful things for me right now, as I'm trying to build a home base for readers that exists outside of social media.)

Context: In 1977, Exxon researchers gave executives a definitive report that burning fossil fuels was causing climate change. Exxon went on to spend at least $30 million funding public skepticism about climate change and lobbying against federal action. 

More than half of the world’s industrial carbon emissions have been produced since 1977. ExxonMobil’s 2018 earnings were $20.8 billion.

I drew a set of Stations of the Cross for my community. You can find all of them at thestations.net This is the first one, Jesus in the Garden of Gesthemane.⁣

I’ve been obsessed with the Stations for a while—I love constraints in comics, and the Stations of the Cross are a comic that has been drawn and redrawn by cartoonists in the Christian tradition for at least a millennium and a half. (I’m using the word “comic” broadly—I define a comic as any series of images designed to be read sequentially.)⁣ ⁣ The last month has been a hard, strange time, and I’ve spent most of it indoors, drawing these hard, strange pictures. I have found a paradoxical comfort in sitting with the violence and horror of Jesus’ humiliation and death. I think they mean that God is intimately aware of our fragility: he knows what it is to live in a soft, fragile body and anticipate painful death; he knows physical pain; he knows unjust political systems that bring death to the innocent. He is not a stranger to all our fear and pain and sorrow. He has held all that and more in his own soft body.

My new favorite thing: People making their reusable elastomeric respirators beautiful! (Usually the Dentec P100 or the Dentec N95, which are NIOSH-certified and reusable.)

(Above is the artist @nickelpin)

I've been collecting as many of these customizations as I can find, and I think they fall into a few categories:

  1. The first is the colorful distraction, where it seems like the aim is to make the mask colorful and cheerful — less scary — which distracts from the apocalyptic / gas mask vibes, while still being simple enough for everyday wear.

2. The second is make it fashion, where the aim is to just make something that looks so incredibly cool that you feel beautiful wearing it, and it feels like a stylish accessory. These use lots of shiny elements and swirling patterns (all of the below by @nickelpin)

3. And the third is punk where the mask customization embraces and enhances its non-conforming / resistance undertones. My favorite in this category is by @andrewshumate, who installed a CO2 monitor and set it up so the filters change color based on the CO2 levels in the space.

Talking about materials: @nickelpin has mentioned that she uses Angelus 2-Hard or Angelus leather paint.

A lot of others are using Posca paint markers.

I have been daydreaming a lot about designs for a customized Dentec P100 or N95!

(my daily masks are either my Dentec P100 or the comfy 3M Aura N95, and I'd like to have a reusable respirator that looks less intimidating for everyday walks etc.)

First, some cheerful patterns. I actually like the cloud one a lot, I might do it. I think the high-contrast sunflower design is super effective at distracting the eye from the respirator shape.

I’m also really into this night sky version. Feels more beautiful / mysterious / subtle.

These are not my style, but I'm reeeeeally into the idea of bootleg Louis Vuitton designer masks. (This is like, the opposite of punk, lol)

Just thinking about how wearing a respirator (like KN95, N95, or the pictured elastomeric N95s and P100s) is very cool and my personal experience is that everyone thinks you're cool and attractive when you do it.

Project N95 is a nonprofit that sells these and other respirators for relatively cheap, you can find them here: link .

I got a question about reusable masks that look less apocalyptic but still work.

I'm not a mask nerd (just a normie who wants to stay alive another week + live in solidarity with disabled people), so first I want to recommend The People's CDC as a resource. Their latest info on masking is here, and they also have a weekly COVID weather report newsletter that I love here.

So: If that's you, I'd recommend the Flo mask. It's not NIOSH-certified yet, but it does seem to work like an N95 from what we can see (results here and here). It also has kids' sizes!

And you can do cool mods like adding spikes or decals. (Artist and designer Nickelpin has an online shop where she sells Flo mask decal stickers like the sparkly star below — that's here.)

My new favorite thing: People making their reusable elastomeric respirators beautiful! (Usually the Dentec P100 or the Dentec N95, which are NIOSH-certified and reusable.)

(Above is the artist @nickelpin)

I've been collecting as many of these customizations as I can find, and I think they fall into a few categories:

  1. The first is the colorful distraction, where it seems like the aim is to make the mask colorful and cheerful — less scary — which distracts from the apocalyptic / gas mask vibes, while still being simple enough for everyday wear.

2. The second is make it fashion, where the aim is to just make something that looks so incredibly cool that you feel beautiful wearing it, and it feels like a stylish accessory. These use lots of shiny elements and swirling patterns (all of the below by @nickelpin)

3. And the third is punk where the mask customization embraces and enhances its non-conforming / resistance undertones. My favorite in this category is by @andrewshumate, who installed a CO2 monitor and set it up so the filters change color based on the CO2 levels in the space.

Talking about materials: @nickelpin has mentioned that she uses Angelus 2-Hard or Angelus leather paint.

A lot of others are using Posca paint markers.

I have been daydreaming a lot about designs for a customized Dentec P100 or N95!

(my daily masks are either my Dentec P100 or the comfy 3M Aura N95, and I'd like to have a reusable respirator that looks less intimidating for everyday walks etc.)

First, some cheerful patterns. I actually like the cloud one a lot, I might do it. I think the high-contrast sunflower design is super effective at distracting the eye from the respirator shape.

I’m also really into this night sky version. Feels more beautiful / mysterious / subtle.

These are not my style, but I'm reeeeeally into the idea of bootleg Louis Vuitton designer masks. (This is like, the opposite of punk, lol)

Just thinking about how wearing a respirator (like KN95, N95, or the pictured elastomeric N95s and P100s) is very cool and my personal experience is that everyone thinks you're cool and attractive when you do it.

Project N95 is a nonprofit that sells these and other respirators for relatively cheap, you can find them here: link .

Because my comics have gone around the internet, many people have asked if I’ve “gotten better yet”. The answer is a firm NO because that’s not how post-viral illness triggered by an infection that causes organ and brain damage works. Please consider your behavior and who you are leaving behind.

Check out the People’s CDC here where they provide weekly updates on the COVID situation in the U.S.

ID in alt text and below!

ID: a 10-image black-and-white cartoony comic.

The 1st image is titled Pandemic Year 3 and dated January 2023. The drawing shows a masked boy with fluffy hair, Joey, surrounded by unmasked people. The text reads: At some point, the people around me decided that the price of me staying alive — a few small inconveniences for them — was too high. In image 2, Joey sits at a table with his drawing tablet looking concerned. The text reads: The world, many loved ones included, is actively hostile to me continuing to live. How do I cope with that? I don’t have the answer. I’m just really alone.

Joey, stressed and frightened, clutches his laptop. The text reads: And I mean really alone. A figure on the laptop screen says: High-risk people will take care of themselves. Joey yells: How?

This image is split into two panels. The first one reads: How do I keep myself safe when the store, work, and school, is a death trap? For each word, a triangle displays that maskless environment. The second panel shows Joey’s sad face in a Zoom window. The text reads: I’m taking my final semester of undergrad online to the displeasure of many.

Joey lays face down in a pillow. The text reads: If you’ve been following me for any time, you know I got Covid in February 2020 at 19 years old and have become disabled by long Covid. Everything smells and tastes like rotting meat, I can’t keep anything I eat down, and I’ve started randomly fainting after years of dizziness.

Joey is shirtless and masked and hooked up to an EKG. The text reads: I’m one of millions of Covid survivors for whom re-infection is much more dangerous. Not to mention everyone who was already high-risk.

Joey lays on the couch and looks at social media posts where people are posting photos of themselves maskless in crowds. The text reads: The general public is very happy to isolate high-risk people from society if it means never having to think about us ever again and continuing with the actions that kill us. That’s eugenics, by the way.

This image is split into two panels. The first one shows Joey laying down, clutching his heart, and crying. The text reads: And it’s not just the people who don’t see us. The second panel shows Joey looking disheveled. The text reads: The cognitive dissonance is unlike anything I’ve seen. A speech bubble says: Are you sure you won’t do indoor dining?

Joey holds his hands lovingly under his face and raises his arms. Hearts are around his head. The text reads: If you’re here with me and isolated from the rest of society while being continually told that your life doesn’t matter and that you’re crazy, I see you. I love you. You’re not alone.

Joey is shirtless and looking down at the portable EKG attached to his chest. The text reads: To the rest of you, I’m here asking for my life. I’m 22 and deserve to not only live but live joyfully. How much death and suffering is acceptable to you? The week of writing this, January 11th through 16th, at least 3,907 Americans have died of COVID. Recorded deaths have been over 2,500 weekly for months. Data from the People’s CDC. Recorded deaths are an undercount as many places stopped collecting or reporting data. End ID.

for Trans Day of Visibility I wanna tell you all about my wonderful partner Kimball Anderson and their work! @earnestattempts is a disabled, chronically ill nonbinary artist who makes poetry comics I can’t get enough of. they say they make comics for people who fell off the conveyor belt of life.

these are some comics of theirs I love! you can read them for free on their tumblr or website (in the source link), which I’ll link in the reblogs because tumblr punishes people sharing links, haha. 

where you can read all the comics pictured above:

  1. Pencil comic of Kimball putting on a mask - Covid Comic (free on Kimball’s patreon)
  2. Stamped box full of mini comics - Patreon Sampler, which has comics inside it but also IS a one-of-a-kind comic :O
  3. Photo comics from The Light Today
  4. Comics with pencil drawings of a mouse on brown paper - pages from Sketchbook Comics, Book 3: The Line from their website, you can also read on tumblr here
  5. Comics with colored pencil and graphite pencil trees on white textured paper - pages from Sketchbook Comics, Book 2: Gender, read on tumblr here

It’s Kimball @earnestattempts birthday! Let’s read their beautiful comics to celebrate 🎐🪶🐁

happy birthday kimball! ✨✨✨

Interrupting the stream of November comics to let you know I made a free printable liturgical calendar, for the liturgical year fans out there. (Happy Advent!)

For folks who are new here: I'm a UX designer and a liturgical calendar nerd and I think a lot about how different tools shape our perception of time. I think the way we experience time is deeply linked with the ways that capitalism warps our souls, and I'm interested in tools and rituals that invite us outside of "productive" time and into sacred and communal time.

I designed the calendar to be split up by liturgical seasons, rather than calendar months, with Sunday (Christian sabbath & reminder of resurrection) as the core of the week.

Happy new year to all who celebrate! You can download the 2022–2023 liturgical calendar here.