Nib Rot #2: Comix Anthology

Nib Rot 2 features sixty-eight pages of hand-drawn comix, in color and in black and white.

The issue begins with William Crook, Jr.’s 'Berkeley or Ignominity,' a sixteen-page reminiscence of a 1973 hitchhiking trip from Wisconsin to California and back rendered in William's signature black and white hatch lines. When a master artist waits fifty years to recount a formative life experience like this, you know you are in for something special.

Quinn Koeneman’s 'Main St. “USA”' is a thirteen-page slice of life set in a dystopian future of corporate fiefdoms. It evokes a society of bartered goods, labor disputes, and perverse deification of media iconography as a backdrop to simple pleasures like a bicycle ride in the wind. Not to mention the colors are stunning.

'The Work Story' by Ryan Edge is a nine-page black and white yarn of alien abduction. The aliens happen to resemble one of the storyteller's old work buddies, and he invites them on an extended tour of historical monuments of the United States. Everything goes well… until the extraterrestrials betray the old man's trust.

'Athens Pictorial' from Jenny Zervakis is a six-page reflection on the people, cats, birds, and ancient structures observed on a trip to Greece. There is a calm between the images that brings a special magic to this piece, drawn by the hand behind the seminal minicomic 'Strange Growths.'

Sophie McMahan’s two-pager 'Mr. Super Love' informs us of a surprising ingredient historically used in mascara within conversation between a man and several women. Sophie's style manages to feel nostalgic, anti-nostalgic, and new at the same time, which is why we are happy to also have an illustration from her gracing our back cover.

Our cover artist and editor RIMKI’s 'The Island of Lydia Q (part 1)' presents the first thirteen full-color pages of a projected eighty-page story about professor Sharon Crane’s doomed project to shoot a documentary on Lydia Q, a filmmaker from a politically isolated island nation. Will RIMKI commit to drawing the rest of the story? This one comes with a “to be continued…” tagline, but only time will tell.

Nib Rot 2 concludes with Ona Kvašytė’s 'Peripheral Vision,' the story of a group of Lithuanians seeking a new way of life in the post-soviet era by adopting their best understanding of Native American folkways in a wooded summer camp. In eight pages of gorgeous pen and ink drawings, the artist meditates on the role this peculiar phenomenon has played in her culture and her family.

68 6.625" x 10.25" color and black and white perfect-bound pages. Edited and published by RIMKI, October 2026 in Champaign, Illinois, USA. ISBN: 979-8-9974248-0-0