iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

I took out the air conditioner that sits in this window, getting ready for the first freeze tonight. It’s not the most spectacular view, but I like it. Cue the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving music.

Picture of a closed window, the blind drawn up, looking out on a yard. There’s a large bush, and a tree, with leaves turning yellow, amber, crimson. Very much a view of late fall.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

1976 Woolco purchase. The first two stories were always my favorite, mostly because I preferred their art to whoever took over for the rest of the run. Seven year old me was a comics snob!

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

What perfect album came out when you were 16?

Album cover to Prince’s Purple Rain movie soundtrack, 1984. Prince is sitting on a motorcycle, wearing his iconic purple outfit from that era, suffused in a haze of ‘80s neon light.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

‘80s movies? Deep cuts? Check these out: [ Blade Runner synth music intensifies]

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Quote this with a book you read way too young that explains why you are the way you are. This book, which I read for the first time when I was thirteen, maybe twelve. It’s a short book, easy to read in one or two sittings. The trouble is, I did just that, many, many, many times.

The cover to the 1973 short novel, ‘The Man Who Folded Himself’.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Robert Crumb has a new book coming out, first one he’s done in 20 years. It’s titled Tales Of Paranoia, published by Fantagraphics. Honestly, I thought he was done with comics. This preview shows his art skills are as sharp as ever. I have mixed feelings about the man, but I must admit, I’m curious.

A Robert Crumb comic page, talking about what feeling paranoid is like.

Another Robert Crumb comic page on paranoia, this time sharing an observation about his mother, who took ‘diet pills’ full of various amphetamines for decades.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Post a random picture or everything will go bad in August

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Here’s four more, just because. If you younglings ever get tired of superheroes and manga, dig into comics of the late ‘70s - early ‘80s. There is weird, wild, wonderful treasure there.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Don’t overthink it, what comics pages/panels live in your head, rent free? Drop four and tag it #comicsdna Clearly, I was not reading the same comics everyone else was at an impressionable age

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Post a heartwarming screenshot from Star Trek. Well, clearly this is a candid behind the scenes kind of thing, but it makes me smile.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Going through some archives, found a three page story I did, a long time ago. I still like it.

Page 01 of The Magic Hour. It’s full of grainy images, photos I took and manipulated, as I walked to work at 3 a.m.

Page 02 of The Magic Hour. Drawings of characters I met at that strange time: club kids, a straight up stalker, and a fellow wage slave. She really did have her hat like that, although her uniform was more ‘90s than the ‘70s one I drew, but hey, artistic license.

Page 03 of The Magic Hour. Endings are hard. I tried a philosophical approach. I did my best.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

If you see this, post a redhead.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

I thought I was the only one who’d ever heard of CARtoons. A huge early influence on me, especially George Trosley’s work. Krass and Bernie forever!

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Trekkies: If you see this post your first experience with Star Trek. Stumbled across this one when I was four or five, in the ‘70s. Was intrigued by the different captains, Spock, and Number One. Vina, the green lady pictured, with her constant transformations, warped me for life.

Vina, the very green Orion Slave, from the first Star Trek pilot, and the show’s two parter, The Menagerie.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Hadn’t drawn much past a stick figure since March, then today, this happened. Yeah, I’m thinking I’m back. 🤓

Pencils for today’s restarted diary comic. I’m posting the stages, from start to finish, to show my contempt for generative AI, and to have a nice, juicy, fleshed out post.

Inks for today’s diary comic. I used Platinum Preppy fountain pens, and they are great.

A look at my work space. I decided today was a good day to use *everything*.

The finished page of my diary comic. Feels good to be drawing again.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

Bought a new sketchbook. Trying out my pens and pencils. Looking at art by one of my old faves. Hoping I can get the art machine in my head started again.

A sketchbook from Michael’s. 9x12. Lays flat, or so it claims. Binding is on the short side, that’s new. Cheap, ten bucks.

Testing out my various pens & pencils with a lot of lettering, and a few quick portraits from my imagination. This paper really likes ink pens. The flow is smoother than I’m used to.

My art box, in all its disorganized glory. I love my carefully chosen stickers.

A page of art from Rick Geary’s Housebound. He’s definitely one of my favorites.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Photo for reference. I went through about four sets of these in the mid to late ‘70s. Cheap, off-model, fragile as hell. Never wore the cheesy belt, though. There were only so many canon shenanigans I was willing to put up with.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

What actor’s expression in a movie will stay with you for the rest of your life? ‘I’m sorry I called you a meatloaf, Jack.’

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

The new Luc Besson movie looks like it ripped off Francis Ford Coppla wholesale, but whoever did the logo understood the assignment.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Childhood media trauma is the best trauma

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

That new Luc Besson movie looks like it ripped off the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola movie wholesale… But whoever came up with the logo understood the assignment.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

Haven’t posted in a while, for the usual reasons. I’m still here, still trying.

A quick self-portrait with a new pen, in a new cute little sketchbook. Art supply retail therapy, in other words.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

I’ve got the documentation right here.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

I’ll admit, sometimes, I wish I could get published and win big awards, but the best I can do are sporadic, silly little one pagers like these. That’s nobody’s fault but my own. Still, people seem to like them, and I take pride in my craft, such as it is. I mean, I don’t *feel* mediocre.

A diary comic from 2021, probably my favorite page I drawn the last few years. It’s just me playing with my tools, doing what I’m good at (hand lettering, playful layouts), and enjoying the act of creating.

A comic page with no title, but let’s just call it ‘Places I’d Like To Visit’. This was done mostly as an excuse to vent my feelings about R. Crumb and to draw Totoro and the starship Enterprise, among other things.

A sketchbook comic titled ‘Personal Demons’. It’s a reflection on the kind of low self-esteem static I hear murmuring in my head most of the time.

A sketchbook comic titled ‘Cute Animals With Heavy Thoughts’. A bunch of standard cartoon critters thinking short one-liners, hopefully being funny and relatable.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

I use Rotring Isographs with this ink. Haven’t had a problem cleaning them with water and some Simple Green all-purpose cleaner.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Oh hey, here’s where I am with this. Call it a process post.

This shows the steps I go through to get to finished pencils— a first pass, a polish step, then a second pass for clean-up and final positioning. I’ve taken third, fourth, and fifth passes on occasion. I’m not a perfectionist, I just like to torture myself!

As it says at the top of the image in big red letters, these are the finished pencils for page 01, panels 01 and 02. But hey, you alt-text scolds, I did the thing, okay?

A closer look at the second pass for panels 03,04, and 05. When I was a teenager, I wanted to grow my hair long, but my mom wouldn’t have it. By the time I was finally on my own, it was too late. Curse my male pattern baldness. Sigh.

A very important message about my artisanal squircles.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Starting on a new story. Ah, comics. I wish I knew how to quit you.

Pencilled lettering from the title of my latest comics opus: a three-pager titled ‘Panic, Sorrow, and Pop Culture Awareness’. Stay tuned for more! [muted whimpering continues]

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Starting on a new story. Ah, comics. I wish I knew how to quit you.

Pencilled lettering for the title of my latest comics opus: a three-pager called ‘Panic, Sorrow, and Pop Culture Awareness’. Stay tuned for more.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Age yourself with a toy from your childhood. Everyone and their brother had an Optimus Prime, but real ones had Biotron, a Battle Cruiser, or Baron Karza.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Ha! This comic was the one that put the hook in me to read your comics in the first place. ‘Our opinion matters more than yours’ sums up so much of this stuff

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

I went back to natural media a few years ago. I’d spent a decade or two, buried in splines and pixels, and you can do great things with them, but I’ve found for sheer satisfaction, you just can’t beat a real pencil on real paper. I even managed to document the moment.

A page from a comics diary I kept. It’s a whimsical self-portrait of a cartoon version of myself, flying a UFO, and monologuing on the merits of analog drawing tools.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Morning doodles as I try to boot up my brain.

A page from my sketchbook, full of drawings of faces in a variety of styles and mediums. This is what I draw when I can’t think of what to draw.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Sometimes, past me give me a gift. Stumbled across this old thing while backing up my iPad.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

I know the meme is supposed to be ‘not my home, but I know my way around’, but yeah, this *is* home for me, hopeless nerd that I am. Do I know my way around? I’ve had the blueprints since 1975, let’s put it that way.

The bridge of the Enterprise, from the original 1960’s TV show. Home sweet home, as far as I’m concerned.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Time to introduce myself (again)! I’m John Boren, and mostly I like to post my comics and stuff from my sketchbook. Occasionally, I self-publish mini comics, and I’m open to commissions. Otherwise, I’m pretty low-key. Anyway, hope you like my feed, and as always, please, scroll responsibly.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Repost with the first album you bought with your own money.

Ming: Klytus, I’m *bored*. What plaything can you offer me today?

Klytus: An obscure body in the S/K system, your majesty. The inhabitants refer to it as the planet…Earth.

Ming: How peaceful it looks…

[Ming uses his evil ring to bombard earth with a variety of natural disasters. Ming laughs.]

Klytus[chuckling]: Most effective, your majesty! Will you destroy this, uh, Earth?

Ming[cavalierly]: Later. I like to play with things awhile…Before annihilation.

[Ming’s echoing laughter intensifies]

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Trying to figure out a new technique for coloring with markers, using washi tape as a mask. It needs some tweaking, but I’m thinking this will work well, when I fix all the bugs.

Inked cartoon self-portrait with orange background.

Word balloon reads ‘This is a test.’

Caption underneath reads:
Copic markers & colored pencils
Inked with Staedtler pens
Blue pencil
Masked with washi tape
2-18-2025

There are other notes to myself, about where the ink smeared, and where I peeled up the edge of the paper accidentally, and some more positive notes to myself. I’m not going to chew myself out like Chris Ware does in his sketch books, sorry.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

My wife got a new lunch bag. I guess I’ve read too many comic books, but I swear this thing has a face.

I am filled with a perfectly balanced lunch, as all things should be. I am inevitable.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

HUMAN ARTISTS, use only one piece to convince people to follow you. I keep coming back to this page.

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

I drew this, just to get myself to draw something. It went better than expected.🤓

First panel: A cheerful figure in jeans and a t-shirt proclaims I'M AN OLD SCHOOL CARTOONIST!

Second panel: close-up of a hand, drawing a line on a piece of paper. A word balloon reads: I PENCIL AND INK ALL OF MY ART ON SHEETS OF PAPER.
[small caption] LEFT HANDED

Third panel: An extreme close-up of a pen with the words ‘ROTRING ISOGRAPH’ next to it. A word balloon reads: I LETTER ALL MY WORD BALLOONS BY HAND, WITH PENS.

Fourth panel: The cheerful figure is now sitting at a drafting table, holding an ipad and a stylus. He says:
BUT DON'T GET ME WRONG, I USE MODERN TOOLS, TOO!

I USE THEM ALL THE TIME FOR COLORING, HALFTONES, AND FIXING MISTAKES!

I SAY, TRY EVERYTHING.
EXPERIMENT! LET'S SEE WHAT HAPPENS. ENJOY THE CRAFTSMANSHIP.

Final panel: A close-up of the cheerful figure. His head is surrounded by a glow of positive vibes. He thinks to himself:
YEAH. CRAFT FEELS GOOD.

2・13・2025
JOHN BOREN

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

It’s crazy to me how McCay could render absolutely magnificent lettering…EXCEPT when it was in a word balloon!

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

This is super late, but I just couldn’t stand the thought of half-assing this. Perfect is the enemy of good, but being mediocre pisses me off even more. Bonus pic of the pencils.

HOURLY COMICS DAY
FEBRUARY 1ST
2025

9:30 AM
AWAKENED BY CAT SLAP.
“OW.”

9:45 AM - NOON
INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH DOOMSCROLLING.

NOON - 12:30 PM
SHOWER & A SHAVE.

12:30 PM - 3 PM
EXTENDED DISCUSSION WITH MY WIFE ABOUT WOMEN'S FASHION AND HOW WOMEN'S CLOTHES ARE MADE.
“THE MORE I LEARN, THE MORE I THINK IT’S ALL ONE BIG KAFKAESQUE NIGHTMARE.”

3:30 PM - 7 PM
SHOPPING FOR CLOTHES.
“PATIENTLY BROWSING”
“ANXIOUSLY DOOMSCROLLING”

7:30 PM - 8:30 PM
STAR TREK AND PIZZA FOR DINNER.
“STUFFED CRUST”

9 PM - 11:30 PM
DOOMSCROLLING

MIDNIGHT
GOING TO BED.
“ZZZ”

JOHN BOREN

Pencils for this comic page, more to prove I actually drew this than let some stupid plagiarism app do it for me

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John Boren @johnborencomics.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

I can’t do that hour by hour comics thing today, too much going on. But, I’m keeping a log of the day’s events, and I’ll post a time-delayed version later.

My notebook, filled with a log of the day’s (non)events, and a page of art paper where I have penciled in the panel borders and lettered the title. Stay tuned for more!

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