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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · 6h

part 36 of 42

“Sketchbook Comic: Book 2” is my personal sketchbook, where I juxtapose my art with writing about my experiences as a non-binary, chronically ill person.
read the whole book on my website, or support my patreon - links in bio!

The strange thing about gender is, text starts, and particularly about non-binary. Drawings of a wooden shoe stretcher fill the page. Seeing little details of its unfamiliar but very foot-like form. The text continues: is that non-binary people themselves / spend so much time thinking about it.

Two shoe stretchers, left and right, the strange notches near the tip, the hinge near the middle. Text says: they are reconceiving / they are analyzing / searching inwardly.

The notches continue through to the other side of the toe, it is clear from seeing the underside a little. And the hinge can make this foot bend unnaturally, like its split in half. Text says: and you bring this to someone else / and they might not have thought about it at all.

A knob at the top of shoe stretcher seems to be where you turn to extend or retract. The careful drawings show very clearly the way the hinge moves and the smooth textures over it all. Text says: so you hand them your thoughts / and these thoughts are not theirs / they are yours / they dont fit.

Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · 7d

post 2

On this page theres only one panel, a nude self portrait which shows my body entirely. My hands are behind my back a bit bashfully, giving a feminine feel to the drawing. Text says: so I asked and got responses which / werent perfect / but were good / and generous / and maybe they got it.

Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · 7d

part 35 of 42

“Sketchbook Comic: Book 2” is my personal sketchbook, where I juxtapose my art with writing about my experiences as a non-binary, chronically ill person.
read the whole book on my website, or support my patreon - links in bio!

Self portraits of me dressed up in a fairly masculine look, but with some feminine touches. A hat, glasses, a jacket and sweater. Text says: I spent yesterday finally asking / asking the question I needed to know. Then in quotes it says: am I a man to you?

The self portrait is spit in thin panels with words between each. And on the bottom Ive taken off the hat and have long wavy hair coming down on one side. The text reads: I let it build up in my mind / that those I love didnt believe it / that they were humoring me.

I have taken the jacket off and am just in a t shirt with pants. My hair coming down on one side. And then I have taken off the top, and my nipple and slightly round stomach can be seen. Text says: I asked Lucas and Laurel / who I love so much / and that guy I was flirting with, ha / and.

I put my arm across my stomach, as if Im trying to hide it. I take off the pants and now its just my bare back with too broad shoulders and underwear. Text reads: I just needed like / someone yknow? / just a core of people who / really see me that way.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · 14d

post 2

Its all going through the motions, text says, not really understanding. Figures gather something, stand looking away, hold up a hand to the light. Text continues: not seeing you as you are.

And if they get one thing, the text reads, they usually dont get the other. Figures move, and one stands kind of sadly and awkwardly. Text says: its lonely.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · 14d

part 34 of 42

“Sketchbook Comic: Book 2” is my personal sketchbook, where I juxtapose my art with writing about my experiences as a non-binary, chronically ill person.
read the whole book on my website, or support my patreon - links in bio!

Text starts the page: kindness is strange. A melancholic pencil and marker drawing of a person sitting, followed by a person moving towards the reader. Text continues: when I say I cant do something / because of my health / people are usually kind.

I dont know what to think of it though, text says at the top of the page. Half formed figures move in contemplative ways, or like they are just about to say something. Text reads: its just / its not them understanding / its them being understanding.

Feet clearly from the point of view of a person lying down. Text says: and when people use your pronouns / or are respectful of your gender / I feel like its the same sometimes. Knees of a figure sitting up in bed. The momentary gaze of a person holding the bar on the subway.

A tall panel shows a person holding their closed hand up to their mouth, a frown on their face. They are feeling uncertainty or doubt, maybe. Text says: people dont get it / its hard to get / its so different from their lives / but they are kind about it.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · 21d

part 33 of 42

“Sketchbook Comic: Book 2” is my personal sketchbook, where I juxtapose my art with writing about my experiences as a non-binary, chronically ill person.
read the whole book on my website, or support my patreon - links in bio!

A stark, thick black line comes down in the middle of the first panel, with scratchy bending lines in passionate anxious colors next to it. Text says: I fall in love too easily. In another panel, warmer and smoother lines dance above black gashes. The text continues: sometimes I feel like / I am in love with everyone

In the panels on this page, the colored lines start to separate and define space and shape of some unknown landscape. The black becoming blotches that grow and get lighter as they expand. Text says: earlier this week / a guy I had sort of known for a while online / we suddenly were talking / and.

The blotches of darkness expand into a hazy gray that colors move through, first like scattered twigs, sticks, then just smearing into the haze itself. The writing reads: he always asked everyone about gender stuff / always so confused about it / this time I explained my stuff to him / and he was kind about it.

The color becomes the haze and gray squiggles move through like minnows under the surface of water. The text continues: ha, and we flirted / and kind of like each other / life is nice sometimes.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · 22d

Eudaimonia is all posted! So this month I'm just posting this little two page comic I liked.

A scribbly figure with a mottled texture sits on the edge of a bed, beside a nude figure lying there looking away. The lying one asks: what do you love about me? The other answers: your soft hands, and we see a rough and pained hand. Oh, the lying figure replies, you can have them. The seated figure continues: the curve of your hips. The lying figure replies: ah, take it.

We see a scribble of body with noodly arms and legs. The seated figure continues: the elegant shape of your arms and legs. The lying figure says: take them too. Your chest, your eyes, the seated figure continues. They are yours, the lying one declares, and then asks: but tell me, is it enough? we see the lying figure, just a head, and shoulders over empty space, and a scribbly of stomach. Is it enough yet? They ask.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · 28d

I’ve been having RSI issues with my hands this year, soo I drew this with my foot! And actually the squiggly, messy style plus a playful and emotional bit of writing made for a good zine! You can get it on my patreon $20 tier (or $1 discounted slots, while they are still there).

A black and white zine lies on what seems like the top of a picnic table. The weathered, faded texture contrasting with the mostly white zine. On the cover, a scribbly, barely recognizeable drawing suggests the shape of a foot, and something held between the toes. Computer text says: drawing with my foot, kimball anderson.

A pale hand holds open a spread of two pages on the gray surface of the table. On the left, wobbly lines make a sort of circle, with an indent near the top, and dashed marks. Text says: an orange. And it sort of looks like an orange. On the right, two jagged lines run parallel and then explode into messy squiggles in all directions. Text says: a tree. Yes, the parallel lines were the trunk and the squiggles the branches.

Another spread of the zine. On the left, the image becomes less legible, just sharply bending lines. The text says: hurting my hands because I cant sit still. Oh, yes, the drawing kind of looks like a hand with the fingers tensed up. On the right, lines come down and then form into loops and ladder-like shapes. Text says: the world that wont let me sit still. With the text, there are almost shapes of people walking by, as if on a sidewalk. Almost.

The back of the zine. Another scribbly drawing of a foot with something stuck between the toes.

Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · 28d

part 32 of 42

“Sketchbook Comic: Book 2” is my personal sketchbook, where I juxtapose my art with writing about my experiences as a non-binary, chronically ill person.
read the whole book on my website, or support my patreon - links in bio!

Detailed drawings of a yellowjacket, its complex and alien shapes and patterns rendered with yellow colored pencil and graphite. Text reads, ha, and then theres a part of me / that just wants to buck everything / to just / rebel.

The face of the wasp with its mandibles and antennae, the wasp in flight, the wasp from below. Text reads, I will be ugly and sick / I will be awkwardly non-binary / Ill be what I want / I dont care.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Sep 18

part 31 of 42

“Sketchbook Comic: Book 2” is my personal sketchbook, where I juxtapose my art with writing about my experiences as a non-binary, chronically ill person.
read the whole book on my website, or support my patreon - links in bio!

Text on this page reads, I am my shame / just like I am my grace / in any moments I have it / and in the moments I dont. Graphite self portrait fill the two panels on the page, which have the texture of waves washing up on the shore imposed on top. Sea foam bubbling over the form of the face.

Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Sep 11

part 30 of 42

“Sketchbook Comic: Book 2” is my personal sketchbook, where I juxtapose my art with writing about my experiences as a non-binary, chronically ill person.
read the whole book on my website, or support my patreon - links in bio!

Thin branches of trees end with sparse orange leaves, like in late fall. Spindly winding twigs. Text says, when I put to bed my alternate reality self / I think I wanted to put to bed my lump self too.

Red leaves on the ground rendered delicately in colored pencil. Text reads, I wanted to take all my hopes and shames / and just let go / let myself be this new ideal. Fiery orange leaves on a far off tree that rises above still green leaves.

I couldnt be that though, it says next to another sparse tree, and a fallen yellow leaf. Text continues, I cant separate myself from shame that way / I have to love my weakness / not distance myself from it. A drawing of a streetlamp with these fall leaves behind it.

That same streetlamp again, in a tall panel. It seems like it goes up so high, but the branches and smattering of light orange leaves are even higher. Text reads, I am my weakness / more than I am my strength.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Sep 4

Orange and blue heart shaped leaves, fallen leaves, delicate leaves. Text concludes, its an act of destruction of your self / its rewriting former selves / its shame.

Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Sep 4

part 29 of 42

“Sketchbook Comic: Book 2” is my personal sketchbook, where I juxtapose my art with writing about my experiences as a non-binary, chronically ill person.
read the whole book on my website, or support my patreon - links in bio!

Panels filled with leaves with blotches of different colors on them. At first just one leaf, then others, then a twig with many. Text reads, I believe theres a thing I call / the lump self.

Bright colors define shadows and veins on the leaves. Writing reads, the uselessness / the shameful creature / the self I am when I am exhausted / and have to be in bed all day.

As colors pass over the leaves, they seem to shimmer. Handwriting reads, and I believe its important to love it / to love the lump self / because its artificially split from you / because you are that self. Cool and warm colors like light and shadow.

The veins showing through the leaf a big wide leaf as light goes through it. Text says, but when you get better / when you feel better / you disavow that self / you simply forget it. An iridescent maple leaf.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Sep 2

issue 15 part 3

It all swirls around a glimmering bright center.

Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Sep 2

issue 15 part 2

The light stripes across the wall, even parallel lines.

The light flows like the surface of the water. Text says: like the light / I am here to / let you grow

A bright spot covers the bottom of the page.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Sep 2

issue 15 part 1

“Eudaimonia” means “the good life”, not just contentment but a deeper and more complex state of being. This is one chapter of a series that explores different aspects of the concept.
patreon link in bio - no pressure, but any little bit helps!

The texture of a wall with little spots of sunlight on it.

$The light on the wall splits into shapes, refractions that carry little bits of rainbow color at the edges. Text over the image that seems to be caught by the light itself says: like the light / I am warm and quiet / flowing through / giving$ $The refractions stretch across the wall, making thin bands of light.$ The light swirls, arching out from a rainbow stripe.

The light swirls, arching out from a rainbow stripe.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Aug 28

Figures contemplate, communicate. Text says, I was trying to believe I was well. he hunched back of a sad figure. but I also was just / not as ashamed of myself as I used to be. A drawing of a hunched, sad figure. Text continues, not as ashamed of myself as I used to be.

The swirls cover the face of a figure as the colored lines become harsher. Text reads, so I did / and he was gone / and it was just me left. The figure faces away as sharp colored lines pass through it.

Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Aug 28

part 28 of 42

“Sketchbook Comic: Book 2” is my personal sketchbook, where I juxtapose my art with writing about my experiences as a non-binary, chronically ill person.
read the whole book on my website, or support my patreon - links in bio!

Loose, swirly figures wander through swirls of colored pencil. Handwriting reads, a few years ago / I was coming up on 10 years disabled / and / I was doing better in my life. The figures seem dazed as the lines move by them.

Two figures seem to converse, one with orange line coming out, and one is intersected by blue lines. Text says, I was going outside, meeting people / I was doing art / sharing art / being a person, finally. A troubled figure grasps their chest anxiously as jagged lines come out of them.

The figures seem to be basking in this loosely defined world. Text reads, and I thought that it was / time to put this alternative reality self to bed / that I did not need him in my head. Many figures gather along a horizon line.

Bits of these beings are seen, an oval head, troubled hands. Text reads, he was causing me harm / he was this idea of / something I could never live up to / something to measure my failure by. A figure lies on the ground. as swirls of color pass by over head.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Aug 25

Laurel coming in to say that Walking Sim is a sweet, funny 44-page full-color comic! I'm biased but I think Kimball really nailed the "easily distracted streamer goofs off with chat doing marge impressions instead of actually playing the game" vibes haha. Sign up this week to get a copy in the mail.

Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Aug 25

A long weird zine this month! It’s about a streamer playing a walking sim, and just talking all over the heartfelt stuff. But it’s sort of about how we connect with art!

You can get it on my patreon $20 tier (or $1 discounted slots, while they are still there).

A zine sits on the ground, amid dead leaves and new green grasses. On the cover there’s a muted pixelated haze behind the image, with colors changing to inform space. There seems to be the UI of a game streaming service, showing the page of Oatmeal which ends with a bunch more of the letter L. The livestream is named: Will it be sad? New walking sim. And the game is called Long Lost. Below, where categories are usually described it says: walking sim comic by kimball anderson. Above, the stream itself can be glimpsed. Legs appear to be walking on the ground in the game near an abandoned yo-yo and toy dinosaur, which is all rendered in simple lines. The face cam shows a long haired person with headphones, and is rendered in much more detail.

The hand holds another set of pages open. On the left, a sedan seems to pull out and drive away. The streamer rambles as this goes on: you are going to see the veins on the leaves, chat. You are going to see into peoples pores. It’s going to be gross, guys, you are gonna love it. On the right page, the perspective seems to pull back to show the back of a figure looking out the window, watching the car go, with crossed arms. The streamer asks: is that us?

The zine is held open by a pale hand. On the left page, we look down at simply drawn legs and the streamer says: hey I have legs! Then they seem to try to dance around until the legs get janky looking. The streamer says: look at me go! On the right page, the corner of a table appears next to the legs. The streamer says: oh, look. Look at the reflection in the table. See, you can see this game doesn’t have raytracing. The table is still simplified, so we see nothing that the streamer is discussing. They continue: see that? The glass is all blown out when you look at it like this.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Aug 25

A long weird zine this month! It’s about a streamer playing a walking sim, and just talking all over the heartfelt stuff. But it’s sort of about how we connect with art!

You can get it on my patreon $20 tier (or $1 discounted slots, while they are still there).

3

Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Aug 21

part 27 of 42

“Sketchbook Comic: Book 2” is my personal sketchbook, where I juxtapose my art with writing about my experiences as a non-binary, chronically ill person.
read the whole book on my website, or support my patreon - links in bio!

Sea shells delicated drawn in graphite. Spiraling shapes. Text reads, as I grew up I grew up / alongside an alternate reality self / this boy, growing into a man. An oyster shell is covered with a rough pearly sheen.

Writing says, I imagined him at school / doing well, maybe / struggling maybe, Speckled shells, broken apart and bored into by tiny creatures until they are just barely holding together.

The complex texture of another oyster shell, channels and ridges all over it. Then a little hunk of ridged, wavy coral. Text reads, entering uncomfortable situations / facing things I am afraid of / being so much more than me. An indiscernible piece of some shell.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Aug 14

Everything that defined his life / the life of me as a boy, text says. One person wears a bag over the shoulder, and two people in streetwear pass by. Text continues, was gone / his story was ended.

People shown just in chunky shadows, an endless crowd. Writing says, I dont know how different this is from other peoples lives / its a normal time to change / but maybe its strange that I / just respected him. Men passing by, their bodies as they are seen for a moment.

Just shapes and shadows of people. Text says, he was just different than I was / I envied him slightly / I had a relationship with him. A feminine person with a purse goes by and you can see the vague forms of a face looking up.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Aug 14

part 26 of 42

“Sketchbook Comic: Book 2” is my personal sketchbook, where I juxtapose my art with writing about my experiences as a non-binary, chronically ill person.
read the whole book on my website, or support my patreon - links in bio!

when I got disabled I was 13 / and it was a strange time for it handwriting reads next to boxy drawings quickly suggesting the form of peoples legs as they walk by. The text continues it split my life / cut away being a teenager. Next to two figures that seem to be talking as they walk.

Everything before then / was like a dream / I want over and over it, rewriting and rewriting. text says. A tall panel shows a crowd of people walking to and fro.

Angular choppy bodies pass by. Text says, it was all I had to think of / it was the relationships I had. A more finely detailed drawing shows more walking figures, one wearing cargo shorts.

Thin, wide panels show little glimpses of crowds, parts of walking bodies, heads looking down. Text reads, but then after long enough / my life was so different / none of the sights and sounds / none of the feelings. A larger wide panel shows various feet all coming to and passing by.

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Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Aug 7

part 25 of 42

“Sketchbook Comic: Book 2” is my personal sketchbook, where I juxtapose my art with writing about my experiences as a non-binary, chronically ill person.
read the whole book on my website, or support my patreon - links in bio!

Scratchy graphite stick abstractions fill the panels. Shadowy shapes in a hazy world. Text says I think I was male when I was younger / whatever that means.

I did normative behaviors / played like a boy it says next to a vague forms like two weary travelers trudging along. In the next panel it is almost like a figure stands and looks straight at you through the fog. Text continues war games / lasers

The panels on this page are like the rolling waves at night, with a black horizon barely seen. Text says I am not that person anymore / I feel like I cant speak for him.

Kimball and Laurel @counterintuitive.bsky.social · Aug 5

issue 14 part 3

This page is filled with echoes of text from other pages. At the top three overlapping iterations of the words: I kept building even as. At the center of the page it says: there with you. And then it reads: just quiet / temporary. Curved shapes of giant text are too big to be properly read, but might be the n and l of the word sunlight.

A small block of text reads: You laughed at nothing in particular, and smiled. I had never seen a smile so pure and joyful. Underneath the words are echoed again in pale yellow. Below it says: sunlight / just quiet. At the top of the page a swirl of yellow marks might make up part of the letter s from sunlight.