Mel Gillman
@mgillman.bsky.social
Trans cartoonist, colored pencil artist, nasty li’l woodland creature. Author of As the Crow Flies, Stage Dreams, and Other Ever Afters. Chair of Comics at California College of the Arts. They/them.
Had a great time at @berkeleypubliclibrary.org moderating a Coming of Age Comics panel at this year’s Berkeley Public Library Comic Con! Thanks for being such great panelists, @brianabreaks.bsky.social, @redgoldsparks.bsky.social, Laura Gao, Kiara Brinkman, and Sean Chiki!
November 8, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Had a great time at @berkeleypubliclibrary.org moderating a Coming of Age Comics panel at this year’s Berkeley Public Library Comic Con! Thanks for being such great panelists, @brianabreaks.bsky.social, @redgoldsparks.bsky.social, Laura Gao, Kiara Brinkman, and Sean Chiki!
non-new-yorkers today
November 4, 2025 at 5:08 PM
non-new-yorkers today
It’s a beautiful day in California to vote yes on prop 50
November 2, 2025 at 6:34 PM
It’s a beautiful day in California to vote yes on prop 50
Happy Halloween! This year I’m going as Professor Gillman :)
October 30, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Happy Halloween! This year I’m going as Professor Gillman :)
Some nice results from dyers polypore! The yellow is just straight-up mushroom dye, and the light green had a dilute iron solution added
October 22, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Some nice results from dyers polypore! The yellow is just straight-up mushroom dye, and the light green had a dilute iron solution added
I found my first porcinis today!
October 20, 2025 at 7:52 AM
I found my first porcinis today!
A final week's worth of diary comics are up on my patreon! patreon.com/mgillman
And for anybody with a trifoliate orange growing in their hedge: 1:4 ratio of juice to water (this'll use up a lot of fruit), sweetened with honey to taste, and optionally with a small pinch of salt if you're into that
And for anybody with a trifoliate orange growing in their hedge: 1:4 ratio of juice to water (this'll use up a lot of fruit), sweetened with honey to taste, and optionally with a small pinch of salt if you're into that
October 15, 2025 at 3:31 AM
A final week's worth of diary comics are up on my patreon! patreon.com/mgillman
And for anybody with a trifoliate orange growing in their hedge: 1:4 ratio of juice to water (this'll use up a lot of fruit), sweetened with honey to taste, and optionally with a small pinch of salt if you're into that
And for anybody with a trifoliate orange growing in their hedge: 1:4 ratio of juice to water (this'll use up a lot of fruit), sweetened with honey to taste, and optionally with a small pinch of salt if you're into that
I just started this book and two pages in I already KNOW this is gonna be all I talk about for months
October 11, 2025 at 9:39 PM
I just started this book and two pages in I already KNOW this is gonna be all I talk about for months
Another week's worth of artist residency diary comics are up on my Patreon! This week: many bugs. patreon.com/mgillman
October 7, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Another week's worth of artist residency diary comics are up on my Patreon! This week: many bugs. patreon.com/mgillman
I have a very weird question I'm hoping a smart Photoshop person can answer for me: in an image like the one below, is there a way to ask PS (or another similar program) to tell me exactly how many pixels, or exactly how much surface area in the image, is blue?
October 4, 2025 at 6:50 PM
I have a very weird question I'm hoping a smart Photoshop person can answer for me: in an image like the one below, is there a way to ask PS (or another similar program) to tell me exactly how many pixels, or exactly how much surface area in the image, is blue?
new holiday alert?? (another week of diary comics from my artist residency went up on my patreon! patreon.com/mgillman )
September 29, 2025 at 4:05 PM
new holiday alert?? (another week of diary comics from my artist residency went up on my patreon! patreon.com/mgillman )
Showing off this maitake that’s bigger than my head!!
September 28, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Showing off this maitake that’s bigger than my head!!
I'm spending the next few weeks at an ecological artist residency in rural Virginia! As usual, I'm documenting the trip with semi-daily diary comics. The week 1 batch just went up on my patreon for $2+ subscribers, but here's a freebie~ patreon.com/mgillman
September 15, 2025 at 3:07 AM
I'm spending the next few weeks at an ecological artist residency in rural Virginia! As usual, I'm documenting the trip with semi-daily diary comics. The week 1 batch just went up on my patreon for $2+ subscribers, but here's a freebie~ patreon.com/mgillman
SFZF was so much fun! Here are little panelist portraits from the two panels I got to watch.
Oh, the Horror: Tara Benhudjiriras, Avy Jetter, Nico B., Harry Nordlinger
Guests of Honor: Gene Luen Yang, Briana Loewinsohn, Julia Wertz, Jason Shiga, Thien Pham, and Raina Telgemeier
Oh, the Horror: Tara Benhudjiriras, Avy Jetter, Nico B., Harry Nordlinger
Guests of Honor: Gene Luen Yang, Briana Loewinsohn, Julia Wertz, Jason Shiga, Thien Pham, and Raina Telgemeier
September 1, 2025 at 2:25 AM
SFZF was so much fun! Here are little panelist portraits from the two panels I got to watch.
Oh, the Horror: Tara Benhudjiriras, Avy Jetter, Nico B., Harry Nordlinger
Guests of Honor: Gene Luen Yang, Briana Loewinsohn, Julia Wertz, Jason Shiga, Thien Pham, and Raina Telgemeier
Oh, the Horror: Tara Benhudjiriras, Avy Jetter, Nico B., Harry Nordlinger
Guests of Honor: Gene Luen Yang, Briana Loewinsohn, Julia Wertz, Jason Shiga, Thien Pham, and Raina Telgemeier
West coasters: what huckleberry recipes do you like best? I already made jam from a previous batch, and I have about a pint of berries I picked today.
August 31, 2025 at 1:31 AM
West coasters: what huckleberry recipes do you like best? I already made jam from a previous batch, and I have about a pint of berries I picked today.
No-context pencils from this week
August 28, 2025 at 2:35 PM
No-context pencils from this week
I did a couple fun foraging experiments tonight, but the biggest winner was curly dock flour brownie bites. Imagine a normal homemade GF brownie but: very high-fiber, a slight bitter undertone, and with toasty little crunchy/nutty seeds embedded throughout.
August 24, 2025 at 5:45 AM
I did a couple fun foraging experiments tonight, but the biggest winner was curly dock flour brownie bites. Imagine a normal homemade GF brownie but: very high-fiber, a slight bitter undertone, and with toasty little crunchy/nutty seeds embedded throughout.
real footage of me 2 years ago
August 11, 2025 at 8:42 PM
real footage of me 2 years ago
I spotted my first acorn of the year on the ground today, so it's time for my annual reminder: you can eat 'em! I drew a beginner-friendly instructional comic about acorn foraging, and it's available as a free PDF or a not-free print comic on my ko-fi shop: ko-fi.com/melgillman/s...
August 10, 2025 at 11:41 PM
I spotted my first acorn of the year on the ground today, so it's time for my annual reminder: you can eat 'em! I drew a beginner-friendly instructional comic about acorn foraging, and it's available as a free PDF or a not-free print comic on my ko-fi shop: ko-fi.com/melgillman/s...
It’s time for another round of everyone’s favorite game, “what on earth is this thrift-store cookie-cutter supposed to be”
July 20, 2025 at 3:57 AM
It’s time for another round of everyone’s favorite game, “what on earth is this thrift-store cookie-cutter supposed to be”
One of my best/easiest foraging projects this summer — I juiced a ton of wild blackberries and froze the juice in an ice cube tray, so now I can add a cube of blackberry juice to…anything I want. This blackberry lemonade I made for a faculty brunch turned out great.
July 14, 2025 at 3:10 AM
One of my best/easiest foraging projects this summer — I juiced a ton of wild blackberries and froze the juice in an ice cube tray, so now I can add a cube of blackberry juice to…anything I want. This blackberry lemonade I made for a faculty brunch turned out great.
It took ~15 hours on low heat in my slow cooker to cook down 8 pounds of wild plums, but this plum butter is worth it :9
July 7, 2025 at 2:00 PM
It took ~15 hours on low heat in my slow cooker to cook down 8 pounds of wild plums, but this plum butter is worth it :9
Please enjoy these beautiful plums…they are destined to become slow-cooker plum-butter
July 6, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Please enjoy these beautiful plums…they are destined to become slow-cooker plum-butter
This week I made a silly little one-sheet scavenger-hunt for new students in the summer MFA program — partly inspired by the little Juneau-activity-cards they handed out at Comics Camp this year! love to have a li’l task
July 4, 2025 at 7:24 PM
This week I made a silly little one-sheet scavenger-hunt for new students in the summer MFA program — partly inspired by the little Juneau-activity-cards they handed out at Comics Camp this year! love to have a li’l task
Two small sketches from campus events this week: a sketch of some plants I drew along mission creek as part of a nature-drawing workshop I taught; and a spidersona from a new-student-orientation day exercise. (I was bitten by a radioactive bowl cut.)
July 3, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Two small sketches from campus events this week: a sketch of some plants I drew along mission creek as part of a nature-drawing workshop I taught; and a spidersona from a new-student-orientation day exercise. (I was bitten by a radioactive bowl cut.)