Isaac Cates
@drisaac.bsky.social
“Senior Lecturer” (UVM English) in poetry, comics, writing, etc.; sometime drawer of comics, sometime writer of poems; trying to return to the world
Some projects here:
#DailyKrazyDetail
#FourActorFactor
#OrwellVsChatGPT
#WILtVG
Some projects here:
#DailyKrazyDetail
#FourActorFactor
#OrwellVsChatGPT
#WILtVG
Come get one at the Non-Fiction Comics Festival at the Fletcher Free Library! Look at all these minicomics my students have brought!
November 15, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Come get one at the Non-Fiction Comics Festival at the Fletcher Free Library! Look at all these minicomics my students have brought!
The rest of “Why I Love the Vermont Green.” After this I’ll quote some previous posts with process images, in case you’d like to see those.
November 14, 2025 at 6:47 PM
The rest of “Why I Love the Vermont Green.” After this I’ll quote some previous posts with process images, in case you’d like to see those.
If you want to read “Why I Love the Vermont Green,” I’ve taken pictures of the little zine for you. Of course it’s nicer if you can hold it in your hands. But here’s the zine in full (1/2)
#WILtVG
#WILtVG
November 14, 2025 at 6:47 PM
If you want to read “Why I Love the Vermont Green,” I’ve taken pictures of the little zine for you. Of course it’s nicer if you can hold it in your hands. But here’s the zine in full (1/2)
#WILtVG
#WILtVG
Handed out my first sixty copies (mostly to my students) today! Here’s sixty more, waiting to have their covers collated, their paper folded, and their binding stapled.
Come get them at the Fletcher Free Library on Saturday! UTFG
Come get them at the Fletcher Free Library on Saturday! UTFG
November 13, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Handed out my first sixty copies (mostly to my students) today! Here’s sixty more, waiting to have their covers collated, their paper folded, and their binding stapled.
Come get them at the Fletcher Free Library on Saturday! UTFG
Come get them at the Fletcher Free Library on Saturday! UTFG
Making the little books
November 11, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Making the little books
Once it occurred to me, it got stuck in my head. #HotCha @tmbg.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Once it occurred to me, it got stuck in my head. #HotCha @tmbg.bsky.social
I know I won’t have the zines printed in time for movie night tonight — I still have 8 panels to ink — but I thought I’d share these two pages featuring Maxi Kissel and @tylerlittwin.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 7:30 PM
I know I won’t have the zines printed in time for movie night tonight — I still have 8 panels to ink — but I thought I’d share these two pages featuring Maxi Kissel and @tylerlittwin.bsky.social
It’s all lettered and pencilled. I’ve just got to ink 19 drawings!
November 10, 2025 at 5:58 AM
It’s all lettered and pencilled. I’ve just got to ink 19 drawings!
I feel like that’s an idea that has been articulated somewhere before …
November 8, 2025 at 4:31 PM
I feel like that’s an idea that has been articulated somewhere before …
Now my main obstacle is that the ink I want to use (nice and black, in a flexible-nib fountain pen) does not seem to want to DRY on the paper I want to use. This has been sitting there for almost half and hour.
November 7, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Now my main obstacle is that the ink I want to use (nice and black, in a flexible-nib fountain pen) does not seem to want to DRY on the paper I want to use. This has been sitting there for almost half and hour.
I was gonna run this off on legal paper (four copies of a 4.25” x 3.5” book on a sheet), but you can’t buy color legal paper anywhere these days, and I want a green cover.
So I worked out a system to lose 1/2” from the height and get three green covers from a letter page:
So I worked out a system to lose 1/2” from the height and get three green covers from a letter page:
November 7, 2025 at 11:14 PM
I was gonna run this off on legal paper (four copies of a 4.25” x 3.5” book on a sheet), but you can’t buy color legal paper anywhere these days, and I want a green cover.
So I worked out a system to lose 1/2” from the height and get three green covers from a letter page:
So I worked out a system to lose 1/2” from the height and get three green covers from a letter page:
Looks like I have a script for a quick 20-page illustrated zine called “Why I Love the Vermont Green.”
I should have copies at the Non-Fiction Comics Festival in Burlington next weekend. Gotta draw it first!
I should have copies at the Non-Fiction Comics Festival in Burlington next weekend. Gotta draw it first!
November 7, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Looks like I have a script for a quick 20-page illustrated zine called “Why I Love the Vermont Green.”
I should have copies at the Non-Fiction Comics Festival in Burlington next weekend. Gotta draw it first!
I should have copies at the Non-Fiction Comics Festival in Burlington next weekend. Gotta draw it first!
Walked into my office to find this Chris Ware book catching the sunset like it was part of a cathedral
November 6, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Walked into my office to find this Chris Ware book catching the sunset like it was part of a cathedral
Good news, everyone! I threw together an ashcan copy of my #DailyKrazyDetail zine, and it looks like it works! Give me a couple of days to sort out attractive cover stock.
October 29, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Good news, everyone! I threw together an ashcan copy of my #DailyKrazyDetail zine, and it looks like it works! Give me a couple of days to sort out attractive cover stock.
Like Icarus, I erased too soon after drawing.
I keep forgetting how unadhesive this fountain-pen ink is!
Oh, well. I’ll draw it again. Some things about it were bugging me anyway /Aesop fox voice
I keep forgetting how unadhesive this fountain-pen ink is!
Oh, well. I’ll draw it again. Some things about it were bugging me anyway /Aesop fox voice
October 26, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Like Icarus, I erased too soon after drawing.
I keep forgetting how unadhesive this fountain-pen ink is!
Oh, well. I’ll draw it again. Some things about it were bugging me anyway /Aesop fox voice
I keep forgetting how unadhesive this fountain-pen ink is!
Oh, well. I’ll draw it again. Some things about it were bugging me anyway /Aesop fox voice
I’m thinking, something like this
October 26, 2025 at 1:00 PM
I’m thinking, something like this
Hey, I’m gonna make a zine of my #DailyKrazyDetail drawings, with a short essay on Herriman’s chaotic landscape. I’ll show it to y’all when it’s all done.
October 25, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Hey, I’m gonna make a zine of my #DailyKrazyDetail drawings, with a short essay on Herriman’s chaotic landscape. I’ll show it to y’all when it’s all done.
"Friends" is a beloved American sitcom that aired from 1994 to 2004, following six young adults—Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe—living in New York City. The show explores their friendships, romances, careers, and personal growth over ten seasons.
October 23, 2025 at 2:15 AM
"Friends" is a beloved American sitcom that aired from 1994 to 2004, following six young adults—Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe—living in New York City. The show explores their friendships, romances, careers, and personal growth over ten seasons.
My best was probably from 2008, and was based on a cartoon I’d drawn a few years earlier:
October 22, 2025 at 8:33 PM
My best was probably from 2008, and was based on a cartoon I’d drawn a few years earlier:
I keep thinking, about the King Trump diarrhea bombing video, that I’d really like to hear Triumph’s take on it
October 20, 2025 at 7:51 PM
I keep thinking, about the King Trump diarrhea bombing video, that I’d really like to hear Triumph’s take on it
Only one band of crooks had the skills to pull off the Louvre robbery.
October 20, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Only one band of crooks had the skills to pull off the Louvre robbery.
Please tell me the full classification is Ripipteryx mcgoohania
October 19, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Please tell me the full classification is Ripipteryx mcgoohania