Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom

Stole my innocence

I've been writing a long piece of memoir that explores what seems to be a recurring theme these days, good old death. Rather than posting that long essay here, I’m also working on a parallel set of comics that cover similar territory.

As kids, we didn’t watch much TV. Sunday evenings, though, we were allowed to watch The Wonderful World of Disney and Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. I LOVED learning about anything to do with nature and the survival of the fittest.

At some point, I realized that survival for some meant death for others…

Then it hit me - one day my parents were going to croak!

My mother’s attempts to reassure me that my parents’ demise was decades away failed to soothe me so she threatened to add nature programs to the long list of terrible things too upsetting for young children to have to think about.

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Yes, I’m back at work exploring memoir through comics - this week I’ve been experimenting with different combinations of pens and papers, not altogether successfully. Certain fountain pen inks do not do well on super-soft paper - impossible to get a clean, fine line. This Substack is meant to be a record of the process work that lies between an idea and some kind of finished product. At this point, though, I have no idea what the finished product might look like…

Thank you for reading along as I try to figure that out!