Guest Host Sage Coffey

Welcome to the Stone Soup Weekly Digest! This is where I share what I'm up to and some of my favorite things from around the internet. Subscribe to Stone Soup to get this in your inbox every week.

This week, Sage Coffey is taking over the digest! Sage is the creator of Wine Ghost Goes to Hell, a comic about a boozy, chaotic ghost navigating the hell of complicated, hurtful friendships – at the same time, she navigates the hell of, you know, Hell. I loved this surprisingly tender, extremely funny book. It explores the way disastrousness and pain can feed on each other and the vulnerability of internal chaos with extreme honesty and compassion.

Wine Ghost Goes to Hell by Sage Coffey

When Wine Ghost was alive, she was a booze-soaked train wreck. Now that she's dead . . . well, to be honest, not a lot has changed. But when an old friend from her days among the living unexpectedly turns up in Hell, she's faced with a lot more responsibility—and self-reflection—than she's used to dealing with! Fortunately, if anyone knows how to handle life after death, it's Wine Ghost. She learned the ins and outs of Hell a long time ago, but it's her pal's first days down in The Depths. And boy howdy, are they both in for a wild ride!

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That’s all from me for this week. Take it away, Sage!

- Gailey

Sage Coffey is a trans nonbinary cartoonist in Chicago who is best known for their work with The Nib, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker. Since 2016, Sage has edited Sweaty Palms Anthology: The Anthology About Anxiety and has contributed to many other comics anthologies, including Be Gay, Do Comics and Comics for Choice! They love their old cats, watching wrestling, and drinking orange blossom tea.

TV, I Say w/ Ashley Ray

When I'm drawing, I'll occasionally put on a podcast or some TV; truly, I feel like TV I Say with Ashley Ray is the perfect combo for both! Having grown up in front of my TV, shows will always have a special place in my heart, and I feel like Ashley is one of the only podcasters who covers everything from new sitcoms to docu-series to indie animated shows. Plus, she has excellent taste in special guests.

Solrad

I really enjoy reading Solrad for its unique comics, essays, and short comics! It's a smaller press outlet but one with a ton of heart, and I'm not gonna lie, reading it makes me feel smarter sometimes, hahah.

Laneha House Open Mic

The Laneha House Open Mic is run by Lawrence Lindell (Blackward) and Breena Nuñez (Pandemic Diaries), providing monthly short comics by other indie cartoonists! They just released a wonderful short with Shannon Wright (Twins, Holding Her Own) about the impact teachers can have on our lives. On top of that, they have some incredibly helpful how-tos, an online library of wonderful comics, and host the Kinnard Awards!

Streamers

I watch a tiny handful of streamers, most of them being other artists (SODAjerk4, Yapico), but an even tinier handful are game streamers. Even though he's pseudo-retired, I still really like to put on a Jerma985 stream. It's nice to sit back and see a fellow weirdo just be happy and do what he likes!

Sage Is Reading: 

We Will No Longer Have to Cover Each Other’s Wounds by Siyuan Wen

Estranged from his mother after a frightening incident in childhood, Wayde now struggles to come to terms with her death. We Will No Longer Have To Cover Each Other's Wounds is a masterful examination of broken relationships, generational trauma, and the need for connection.

Processing: 100 Comics That Got Me Through It by Tara Booth

In the grand tradition of underground women cartoonists like Julie Doucet and Eileen Kominsky-Crumb, Booth draws a horned-up woman laying rose petals on the bed to distract from the bedbugs before her hookup arrives. She bears witness to the reality of wearing a t-shirt with no bra—when you stretch, your boobs, sometimes, pop right out. This is all just life, but we don't often see it on the page. Undaunted, Booth draws it.

When advice from spiritual gurus like Tara Brach and Ram Dass just aren't cutting it, take solace in the genuine arms of Tara Booth: a fearless cartoonist who is unafraid to put her existential angst, blemishes, and stains right on the page, and who--with relentless relatability--makes us all feel a bit more at home in our too-human vessels. With color that vibrates and fluids that impose, Processing lays Booth bare—literally and figuratively.

Barnes & Noble | Bad River Website | Local Library | Find an Indie Bookstore

GLEEM by Freddy Carrasco

A boy becomes bored at church with his grandmother until he tries a psychedelic drug. A group of friends are told that they need a rare battery if they want any chance of reviving their friend. Street style and cybernetics meet and burst into riotous dancing. Kindness and violence might not be as distant from each other as we think. GLEEM unsettles with a confidence that could make you believe in anything.

Barnes & Noble | Bad River Website | Local Library | Find an Indie Bookstore

Featured New Release: Influenca by Jade Lft Peters

Two years ago, the apocalypse started for the seventh time.

As the number of zombies rise, so do the ranks of influencas: professional zombie hunters who post their lives online. When Dodie and Beatriz, the accidental founders of the movement, are trapped in their bunker by a persistent horde, what else is there to do but take a romantic vacation?

A graphic novel told through the lens of interviews, social media posts, and nostalgic reminiscing, Influenca is a glimpse into a day at the end of the world, past and present, and what life looks like when the apocalypse becomes predictable.

Barnes & Noble | Bad River Website | Local Library | Find an Indie Bookstore

Thanks for taking the wheel this week, Sage, and congratulations on the release of Wine Ghost!

—Gailey