MONTANA DIARY is a comic journal by Whit Taylor, detailing a summer’s road trip across “Big Sky Country”.

Whit’s journey across Montana is beset with anxiety. First from being a Black traveler in a very white, very red state (where Whit sees Confederate memorabilia on display at a gift shop).

Then from nature itself. An imagined stalking bear turns out to be a territorial grouse (their fears weren’t unfounded, they would later encounter a bear on the same hike).

Whit’s anxiety comes across as does the irony of not being able to breathe in Big Sky Country. Eventually, Whit manages to be more present with her surroundings and this is where the zine digs into the history of Montana and its indigenous people as preserved by museums in various National Parks.

This reference to National Parks is why the zine is on my mind. National Park employees have been laid off en masse under the guise of “government efficiency” but is really nothing more, as far as I’m concerned, than a longer term play to privatize public lands and turn the Grand Canyon into a casino and Big Sky Country into a tar pit. I wish more people would call these layoffs out for being just that. I can’t be the only one who sees this, can I?

Whit’s zine ends with some tender watercolor observations that feel bittersweet. They remind me beautiful places exist and make me glad National Parks exist.

Purchase MONTANA DIARY at Silver Sprocket.

Avy Jetter, who posts on IG as @nuthingoodat4, does a drawing a day every February in honor of Black History Month. At the end of February these portraits are matched with a short biography and collected in a zine, I picked up this one a number of years ago.

I had this James Baldwin drawing on a pin I kept on my brown corduroy jacket but some young filmmakers borrowed my jacket for their wardrobe and lost it (the pin, not the jacket). I need to get a replacement.

I love pen and ink crosshatching drawings and Avy gets some really good tones in her work.

The zine provides a good cross-section of historic and modern figures and seeing that this project has been running for seven years (or longer?), there’s always something new to learn. Here’s one of my favorites from this year:

You can see process videos on Avy’s YouTube. Certain portraits are available to buy from her Etsy.

This zine is so good. I’ll let the reviews on the Silver Sprocket website (where you can and should buy the zine) do the talking but I’ll add that the punchline ending is heartbreakingly good. Absolute perfection.