Good news for anyone who read L.Y.C.C. while it was coming out: you can now buy it in its entirety, bundled together in one PDF! This new downloadable version of the comic contains all of L.Y.C.C.—everything that’s been published on this site, and which will still be free to read forever—in addition to some new, unpublished material. First, there’s the proto-comic, a six-week proof of concept I did during spring semester of sophomore year, when I was first getting into autobio comics. Then there’s Last Summer, a short series of black and white autobio comics I made over this summer, as well as a few pages from my sketchbook. Finally, there’s a quick step-by-step description of my process for making the L.Y.C.C. comics.
So if you want a more convenient way to read the comic, if you want to monetarily support the comic and the creation of more things like it, if you want to read some brand new Francis Bass scribbles, go buy it! It’s available at Gumroad and Itch.io for $5, or more if you’re feeling generous.
(Also if you want to see some more Francis Bass scribbles for free, you can follow me on Twitter, where I’m drawing a different animal for each day of Inktober.)
This is the last one! More info on what’s next for the blog below!
Want a more convenient way to read this comic? Want to monetarily support this comic and more things like it? Want to read some brand new, previously unpublished Francis Bass scribbles? Great! You can buy a downloadable, PDF version of L.Y.C.C. at Gumroad or Itch.io. In addition to all of L.Y.C.C., this book includes “Last Summer,” a shorter series of comics made over the summer following my graduation, as well as older proof-of-concept comics and a quick step-by-step description of my process for creating L.Y.C.C.
Transcript
This is the last Last Year Comic Chronicle comic. I really can’t outdo the thematic weight of L.Y.C.C. 32 and 33 here, so I won’t try. I have no big concluding revelation for you.
All I can say is, first, I think L.Y.C.C. has been successful. Everything important from this past year of my life, from college in general, has made it in here somehow. Wait.
Okay there, now its all in here.
And second, thank you for reading! This is the most transparently personal work I’ve ever published, and I’ve cherished all the support and enthusiasm you’ve shown me.
So let the last words of the Last Year Comic Chronicle be, yay!, thanks!, and The End.
Blog housekeeping: Whew! That was a lot, huh! I may end up releasing an ebook version of LYCC with some extra stuff, or this may be its final form. Regardless, what’s online now will always be available for free, and I will hopefully do more sequential art stuff sometime in the future. That could mean a year from now, or five, but it’s definitely something I’ve enjoyed, so yeah. This isn’t the last of my comicking! I may also post sort of doodley little one-off autobio comics and drawings on twitter from time to time? so maybe follow me there? And in case you missed it, I posted the proto-version of LYCC up there a couple months ago, so you can check that out if you want a little more autobio comic content right now.
As for the blog itself, it will be on hiatus for the next couple months, and will return August 2nd with the project we’ve all been waiting for: the second half of The War of Paraguay! A heads up, finishing TWOP is the last major series I have planned for this blog, after which weekly updates will stop and new posts will only show up sporadically for the indefinite future. So yeah, that’s what’s coming down the pipeline. Thanks again for reading, and stay tuned for some 19th century Rio de la Plata war and diplomacy content!
Want a more convenient way to read this comic? Want to monetarily support this comic and more things like it? Want to read some brand new, previously unpublished Francis Bass scribbles? Great! You can buy a downloadable, PDF version of L.Y.C.C. at Gumroad or Itch.io. In addition to all of L.Y.C.C., this book includes “Last Summer,” a shorter series of comics made over the summer following my graduation, as well as older proof-of-concept comics and a quick step-by-step description of my process for creating L.Y.C.C.
Transcript
LISA: Well, with that said. This is the last class.
LISA: I know it feels like, it feels like the first class was just days ago, doesn’t it?
LISA: It has been wonderful …
LISA: … to go. Go see New Play Festival shows, and I will see you all at the reading!
Want a more convenient way to read this comic? Want to monetarily support this comic and more things like it? Want to read some brand new, previously unpublished Francis Bass scribbles? Great! You can buy a downloadable, PDF version of L.Y.C.C. at Gumroad or Itch.io. In addition to all of L.Y.C.C., this book includes “Last Summer,” a shorter series of comics made over the summer following my graduation, as well as older proof-of-concept comics and a quick step-by-step description of my process for creating L.Y.C.C.
Transcript
TEXT: me:
TEXT: also me:
FRANCIS: Whoa! What is he doing? What is that? He’s not gonna hurt himself, is he?
Want a more convenient way to read this comic? Want to monetarily support this comic and more things like it? Want to read some brand new, previously unpublished Francis Bass scribbles? Great! You can buy a downloadable, PDF version of L.Y.C.C. at Gumroad or Itch.io. In addition to all of L.Y.C.C., this book includes “Last Summer,” a shorter series of comics made over the summer following my graduation, as well as older proof-of-concept comics and a quick step-by-step description of my process for creating L.Y.C.C.
Want a more convenient way to read this comic? Want to monetarily support this comic and more things like it? Want to read some brand new, previously unpublished Francis Bass scribbles? Great! You can buy a downloadable, PDF version of L.Y.C.C. at Gumroad or Itch.io. In addition to all of L.Y.C.C., this book includes “Last Summer,” a shorter series of comics made over the summer following my graduation, as well as older proof-of-concept comics and a quick step-by-step description of my process for creating L.Y.C.C.
Transcript
FRANCIS: Alright, since I’m feeling stressed out by all the things I have to do, let me just draw out the month to come and see what I’m really looking at. Maybe its not so bad.
Want a more convenient way to read this comic? Want to monetarily support this comic and more things like it? Want to read some brand new, previously unpublished Francis Bass scribbles? Great! You can buy a downloadable, PDF version of L.Y.C.C. at Gumroad or Itch.io. In addition to all of L.Y.C.C., this book includes “Last Summer,” a shorter series of comics made over the summer following my graduation, as well as older proof-of-concept comics and a quick step-by-step description of my process for creating L.Y.C.C.
Agggh! This book has sat on the floor of my bedroom since September of last year—basically for my entire senior year thus far—going unread! I made one cursory pass at it sometime during the fall semester, wasn’t really hooked by it, was kind of put off by the art style, and then abandoned it. Well, good thing I didn’t just return it to the library, because now I have read it, and it’s fantastic. (SIDENOTE: I am not a monster. Although my honors student status allows me to check out books for the entire school year without having to renew them, I normally don’t do so unless the book a. is incredibly obscure and clearly not in any demand or b. has multiple copies available. Radtke’s book [probably because she got her MFA here] has multiple copies at the UI library.)
Imagine Wanting Only This is a graphic novel memoir mainly focusing on a period of Kristen’s life starting with her undergrad career and ending shortly after leaving graduate school and moving to Louisville, Kentucky—the “stuck in them 20-somethings” period of life, to borrow a phrase from SZA. As the book moves between major decisions and life events in these years—moves, break-ups, illnesses—Radtke returns again and again to the themes of loss, deterioration, decay, the desire for something more, something new—and the way all these things conflict within her. Is it possible to hold onto the old and gain new relationships, new experiences? Is it possible to hold onto anything at all, when everything is so transitory? What is the value of preserving a ruin versus letting it fall into rot? The strongest through-line of the book is ruins. The urban decay of Gary, Indiana, the devastation of the Peshtigo fire, the volcanic destruction of a town in Iceland, even the mold and water damage in Kristen’s sad college apartment. These images hold the book together, link one event with another, and keep the book feeling cohesive despite the lack of any straight-shot plotline throughout the whole story.
I think one of the things that initially put me off about the book was Kristen and her boyfriend Andrew acting like such creeps (“Really, you can’t say the word ‘yes’ without invoking James Joyce,” Andrew opines at one point), and being unsure whether or not I was supposed to relate to them and feel like their grody behavior was romantic. Because I know these students, anyone getting a liberal arts education knows these students, and they’re the kind of students who I don’t care to be around because I can’t connect with them through their wall of irony and aggressively performed insightfulness. That said, it pretty quickly becomes clear that no, Radtke is not trying to romanticize (for example) the way these two descend on Gary, Indiana in the most exploitative, ruin-pornographer manner. It also becomes clear that a lot of their pretension and surety about the world is covering deep insecurities and internal tensions, which allowed me to relate to them in a way I’m sure I could never, I’m sure they would never let me, if I met them when they were that age at UIowa.Read More »
Want a more convenient way to read this comic? Want to monetarily support this comic and more things like it? Want to read some brand new, previously unpublished Francis Bass scribbles? Great! You can buy a downloadable, PDF version of L.Y.C.C. at Gumroad or Itch.io. In addition to all of L.Y.C.C., this book includes “Last Summer,” a shorter series of comics made over the summer following my graduation, as well as older proof-of-concept comics and a quick step-by-step description of my process for creating L.Y.C.C.
Transcript
TEXT: Dichotomy Paradox: If something is to move 1 meter, it must first reach 1/2 a meter, then 3/4, then 7/8, then 15/16, and so on.
That’s how I feel about the end of college.
After 17 years in school, I’m finally leaving. And I keep thinking, damn, it’s really almost over, and yet it’s still not over. I keep reaching new halfway points, and it feels like the end will never arrive, and I’ll go floating through this parade of ever more awkward fractions forever.
TEXT: But Zeno’s paradox is solved. And though I don’t understand the solution, I know how to walk 1 meter.
I don’t understand the solution to reaching graduation. I have trouble imagining myself as a 30-year-old, a 25-year-old, a 22-year-old. And yet, I know, with factual certainty, that that’s where I’m going.
TEXT: I made it to the start of junior year, to the start of senior year, the 2nd semester, and now to Spring Break, which I’m guessing will be followed by a rapid drumroll of weeks I can hardly get a handle on until graduation.
TEXT: Last year last year last year.
TEXT: I don’t even know how to end this comic see how bad at endings I am hahahahaha.
Heh.
Want a more convenient way to read this comic? Want to monetarily support this comic and more things like it? Want to read some brand new, previously unpublished Francis Bass scribbles? Great! You can buy a downloadable, PDF version of L.Y.C.C. at Gumroad or Itch.io. In addition to all of L.Y.C.C., this book includes “Last Summer,” a shorter series of comics made over the summer following my graduation, as well as older proof-of-concept comics and a quick step-by-step description of my process for creating L.Y.C.C.
Transcript
MOTION SENSOR: Hmm.
MOTION SENSOR: I see no movement.
MOTION SENSOR: No humans in sight. LIGHTS OUT!
FRANCIS: God damn it. Again?
MOTION SENSOR: Ah! Hello human! Would you care for some light?
FRANCIS: I am so tired of proving I still exist to a robot.
Want a more convenient way to read this comic? Want to monetarily support this comic and more things like it? Want to read some brand new, previously unpublished Francis Bass scribbles? Great! You can buy a downloadable, PDF version of L.Y.C.C. at Gumroad or Itch.io. In addition to all of L.Y.C.C., this book includes “Last Summer,” a shorter series of comics made over the summer following my graduation, as well as older proof-of-concept comics and a quick step-by-step description of my process for creating L.Y.C.C.
Want a more convenient way to read this comic? Want to monetarily support this comic and more things like it? Want to read some brand new, previously unpublished Francis Bass scribbles? Great! You can buy a downloadable, PDF version of L.Y.C.C. at Gumroad or Itch.io. In addition to all of L.Y.C.C., this book includes “Last Summer,” a shorter series of comics made over the summer following my graduation, as well as older proof-of-concept comics and a quick step-by-step description of my process for creating L.Y.C.C.
Transcript
TEXT: I HAD MY WORKSHOP THIS WEEK.
NIKKI: I love how theatrical this is!
ELIN: It could be just me, but I didn’t expect this to be so soft.
L.Y.C.C. is back, and will once again be updating weekly until I graduate!
Want a more convenient way to read this comic? Want to monetarily support this comic and more things like it? Want to read some brand new, previously unpublished Francis Bass scribbles? Great! You can buy a downloadable, PDF version of L.Y.C.C. at Gumroad or Itch.io. In addition to all of L.Y.C.C., this book includes “Last Summer,” a shorter series of comics made over the summer following my graduation, as well as older proof-of-concept comics and a quick step-by-step description of my process for creating L.Y.C.C.
Transcript
TEXT: “… I like you …”
FRANCIS: I guess I knew that would happen.
But also I didn’t.
And this will grow back anyway, so—
FRANCIS: Ow! That actually stings!
Why does—ow!
What the fuck?
Good news for anyone who read L.Y.C.C. while it was coming out: you can now buy it in its entirety, bundled together in one PDF! This new downloadable version of the comic contains all of L.Y.C.C.—everything that’s been published on this site, and which will still be free to read forever—in addition to some new, unpublished material. First, there’s the proto-comic, a six-week proof of concept I did during spring semester of sophomore year, when I was first getting into autobio comics. Then there’s Last Summer, a short series of black and white autobio comics I made over this summer, as well as a few pages from my sketchbook. Finally, there’s a quick step-by-step description of my process for making the L.Y.C.C. comics.
Francis Bass 