The days drag on but the weeks fly by, and so here we are in August 2020, our continuous plague year. I hope you are all safe, housed, and healthy. 

Last month we released our pitch and submissions guidelines. If you have ever thought about writing for SOLRAD, we would love to hear from you, especially if you are a LGBTQ+ writer or a writer of color.

During some grant writing last month, our Editor-in-Chief Daniel Elkin and I sat down to review our first seven full months in operation. Since January, we’ve had somewhere close to 20,000 unique readers at SOLRAD. I can’t express to you how shocking that was to me. I’m ecstatic about the way this magazine has flourished, even in times of duress. Thank you for being here with us.

This month at SOLRAD, we are excited to bring you two separate reviews of Adriane Tomine’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Cartoonist; the first by our lead critic Ryan Carey, and a review evaluating the way Tomine writes memoir by yours truly.

The latest episode of ENEMIES OF THE STATE will go up later this week – we’re talking about Dancing after TEN by Vivian Chong and Georgia Webber, published by Fantagraphics earlier this year. Our plan to get this podcast recorded during July ran into a few scheduling snags, but we’re hoping to get back on a monthly schedule.

As a part of our previous work with Ken Eppstein, we’re publishing the results of his cartoonist survey this month in two separate pieces. 

You’ll see some new faces join our Contributor team, and we’ll have more cartoonist interviews in SOLRAD Editor Daniel Elkin’s KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE series.

We’ll have at least one new addition to our SOLRAD Presents family that we’re very excited about, and Standstill by Olivia Fredricks will reach its conclusion. Kricket the Cat is on a brief pause for the summer, but we’re happy to bring you new comics each and every weekday.

Some parting thoughts:

1. We’re publishing the SOLRAD newsletter every week – if you want a quick and easy way to find out what we’re doing on a weekly basis, with a note from our Editor, this is a way to get that. You can sign up here.
2. Everyone’s feeling the pinch right now, but if you are gainfully employed and like what we’re doing here at SOLRAD, we’d appreciate you pitching in to support us. Consider a small monthly donation, it will help us keep the site up and running. Thanks!

Wishing for your good health and safety,

Alex Hoffman
Publisher, SOLRAD