My Pandemic Diary is now available in a 180 page book, in both a hardback and softcover volume. Hardcover is priced at $59.99 CDN/Softcover is priced at $49.99 CDN.
Books can be ordered directly from Blurb, a print-on-demand service:
https://www.blurb.ca/b/11219153
I have reviewed copies of both versions and I am impressed by the printing and reproduction quality. Seeing the sketchbook as facing pages is real surprise and makes the journey even more dynamic. I hope everyone who has been asking for a book enjoy it as much as I do.
A few months from now, we will either revisit these pages and laugh, or burn them for heat.
That’s how I introduced My Pandemic Diary! to the public.
The sketchbook was never intended for public consumption. Its genesis was a conversation I had with my partner Christine. Actually less a conversation than a rant followed by a directive.
When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, Christine was adamant that she couldn’t listen to my mad observations for the duration of this crisis, and I should grab a sketchbook and start writing it all down.
I am glad I started My Pandemic Diary! on Day One. It has an urgency and a shape-shifting tendency that wouldn’t be possible if I wrote it with hindsight. It is packed with suspense, generosity and betrayal because that’s what we were all experiencing in real time.
I also think it’s really funny.
Sharing My Pandemic Diary! was an afterthought. I’d put five pages at a time up on my website (swizzlestudio.com) and the usual social media. People liked the diary and told me they looked forward to the next round of plague drawings. They also kept saying “You should make a book out of this!”
I don’t quite get that. My Pandemic Diary! is my own personal journal of a weird time. The art style depends on whatever materials were at hand, the political views swing wildly, it goes on nature walks, and it is fixated on my inability to get a haircut. But maybe its unevenness is its strength. Unevenness has been the watchword for the past two years.
Despite our attempts to keep stable, none of us has had any idea where we are going. My Pandemic Diary! is a dense, rollicking, swear-filled project that tries to, if not make sense of it all, at least make some good jokes.
Enjoy!
Introduction to My Pandemic Diary!
