iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

hi, can anyone tell me why I just rinsed off my yogurt? not my yogurt container! my yogurt. like there was a spot of something on my yogurt & I was like “hmm better hit this with some faucet water under full pressure”

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

consensually bringing my own actual human body to shop at trader joe’s the day before a blizzard just to feel something

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

we’ve reached the point of winter break malaise wherein i start lifting henry’s lip & blowing on his teeth so his mouth does this when i let go

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Niki Smith @nikismithcomics.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Carina's the BEST! They made SEA LEGS look amazing!!

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

sea legs is jojo, overboard is one piece. conspiracy confirmed. canon.

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

been neck deep in scriptwriting for the sea legs sequel; went on google maps to see if i could find the hotel in venezuela that my folks & i lived in for a few months. i did, hotel savoia is actually still around, which, wild. however, there’s something extremely important happening south of it??

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

BBC is actually short for BarBeCue

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

pete’s never seen A Muppet Christmas Carol. i have a storied, raw set of christmas memories surrounding this film (on VHS, complexities around which once earned me huge childhood disgrace with my family); i talked him into watching. right around when rizzo smooches gonzo he said “this shit rules.”

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

no one’s more demonstrably aware that you choose kindness every day than your sometimes-unruly rescue dog.

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

the quote “we have nothing to fear but fear itself” has always been really confusing to me. like yeah dude, fear is pretty scary! people don’t love it! it’s actually like a whole thing

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

that very special moment in every girl’s life where you can’t find the pill you put in your pocket earlier because there are too many potato chip crumbs in there

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

i read a review of Hamnet that described it as “mumblecore shakespeare” & while i believe this was intended in a derogatory way, i am now extremely listening

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

pete grew a tiny little beard & it has me spooked like an actual literal baby. i’m now routinely spotting him coming out of the kitchen or something & experiencing a brief WHO IS THIS MAN IN MY HOUSE moment of panic in my little failing lizard brain.

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

to be clear, a lot of times it really IS just what my face does, but i also feel like, by establishing this precedent, i’ve recently gotten away with a significant number of very visible & inconvenient emotions by saying “that’s just what my face does”

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

mantra: when i make my own soup i can do whatever i want

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

having a very emotional morning because the nice man who picked up the phone at the grocery store is personally checking their refrigerator for me to see if they have halloumi

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

completely bananas how many people will try to correct me when i call their dog “puppy.” like “oh no no, he’s seven.” okay? and??

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

scream-sneezing in the workplace is an underrated way to establish dominance

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

the feminine urge to consume caffeine until you feel better about things & then doggedly continue consuming caffeine until you feel horrible again

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

proud as heck to be on this list. authors: a link to sign is in the thread!

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

[“Cat Scratch Fever” voice] corn starch slurry

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

[playstation voice] john cheever

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

hey party people, i’m gonna be a featured author at the Gold Coast Book fair in long island this weekend!! i get to take the ferry & your girl is AMPED.

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

ahoy summer reading!! ✨💕⚓️

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Kiri @kinderstreichkaese.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

I stitched hoop art of Janey from Sea Legs (get the cutest silliest most heart wrenching graphic novel now) for @julesbakes.bsky.social based on a panel drawn by @nikismithcomics.bsky.social. And then I stuck gold leaf on it, because Janey is age-appropriately narcissistic.

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BookPage @readbookpage.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Stay in during April showers with these poignant and contemplative middle grade books. @littlebrownyr.bsky.social @zoepersico.bsky.social @julesbakes.bsky.social @nikismithcomics.bsky.social @koneill.bsky.social www.bookpage.com/?p=213760 #childrensbooks #novels #bookpage #trending

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Cartoonists United @cartoonist.coop · 05/04/2025

This week's NIF interview roundup includes BENNIZONE (@bennizone.net), Niki Smith (@nikismithcomics.bsky.social), Jamila Rowser (@jamilarowser.bsky.social), and Amanda J Ellis (@amandajealous.bsky.social)! Find all of them at cartoonist.coop/journal/ Individual links below ⬇️ #NIF2025

BENNIZONE: A floating head with long antenna, drawn in a cartoony black and white style. The background is a blue abstract pattern. The head is smiling wide, has short hair, and wears glasses.

A self-portrait of Niki Smith with curly hair and an undercut.

Jamila Rowser: A cartoon bust of a Black woman with auburn hair, and red lipstick. She’s wearing heart-shaped glasses and a tan t-shirt.

Amanda J Ellis: An drawing of a green plant with 8 leaves. To right of the plant are four yellow stars. The plant and stars set against a textures background of deep blue.

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

i’m built different. incorrectly

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

for a lapsed catholic i'm actually a BIG big fan of easter, because if there's one thing i absolutely get it's being like "welp time to die" on friday & going straight into your death cave & refusing to come out or talk to anybody until sunday

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

i know there's that "dictionary of international melancholy" full of vocab like "saudade" & "mono no aware", but I don't think any of those words quite encapsulate what you feel when you click on a very old friend's fb profile for the first time in years on some impulse & see the word "remembering"

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

just remembered, by way of like a full montage, the extremely long Sea Legs-centric dream i had last night wherein i thumbed through a copy at the bookstore & discovered, to my horror, a very long film-noir dialogue i didn't remember writing, which was packed to the max with the worst swear words

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Niki Smith @nikismithcomics.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Sea Legs is a fictionalized memoir which means if it's Janey's birthday, IT'S @julesbakes.bsky.social 's BIRTHDAY !!!

A comic panel with a calendar. March 6 is circled with MY BIRTHDAY pointing at it. "Anything you want to mention?"

Janey, a tween in a bucket hat. "Oh, no, nothing. Just changing the calendar. To March."

Her mom, "I'm starting to feel like there might be something special about March."

Janey, nodding emphatically. "Yes. Me. I'm the special March thing."

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

love to wake up to a text from my dad that just says "it's your birthday," mentions my age, & concludes "yikes."

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

the legend himself found Sea Legs on the shelf at the B&N in his florida hometown #GERRYBAKES

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

oskie is experiencing feelings. but WHICH

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

i desire a kimchi bagel. like a bagel made with kimchi in the dough. is this a thing that is done? i wish for it

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

bad news is that this 12-odd hour ice storm power outage continues to suck; good news is that after all my business trips this summer i do have in my possession a very seriously honed & elite sleep disaster collection featuring fully charged portable white noise machine made for like, literal babies

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

the kindest person in the room is very, very often the smartest.

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

feel lately like my head is a tile puzzle & i'm all thumbs. shifting jaw to ear to shoulders. choosing my sacrifices. leaving everything else gibberish just to get the eye where the eye goes. i'm bad at tile puzzles.

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

the free bookstore & community space that i help run was subject to targeted harassment by a group of neo-nazis over the weekend. my friends & i have been kind of battered by police followup, news media & public commentary ever since (seriously, christ, don't EVER read the comments). i'm real tired.

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Carina Taylor 🌻 @shecallsmecdawg.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Sea Legs by @nikismithcomics.bsky.social & @julesbakes.bsky.social is out! And I wanted to share some alt title treatments. :) This is one of those that just came together really naturally, so I actually don't have a TON of iterations. Check the alt text for my thoughts about each one tho. ⛵

Obviously this is VERY close to what we ended up with for the final. An important aspect of developing this option was integrating the ocean water into the actual letterforms themselves. It felt important to literally show this book IS the ocean.

Sea Legs wip cover - a young girl casually sits on the boom of a mainsail looking like she's ready for adventure! Her cat is beside her and they're both looking out onto a wide open sea. A few seabirds flit about as well.

Ah, my second choice/secret favorite. The huge stout letters just feel yummy to me and somehow implicitly fun and casual. I dunno. This feels the most like summer. I love the placement of the little droplets which I personally feel have a playfully unconventional composition. I hope to reuse these ideas somewhere one day!!

Sea Legs wip cover - a young girl casually sits on the boom of a mainsail looking like she's ready for adventure! Her cat is beside her and they're both looking out onto a wide open sea. A few seabirds flit about as well.

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

apparently Sea Legs is amazon's #1 new release in "Children's Central & South America Books" which is very interesting because it takes place in, uh, neither of those places

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Niki Smith @nikismithcomics.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

SEA LEGS! By @julesbakes.bsky.social and me!! Scholastic Graphix! Super awesome agent @comicsispeople.bsky.social! Dreamy amazing editor @yourfriendmaya.bsky.social! Incredible visionary designer @shecallsmecdawg.bsky.social! I love this team & I'm so excited to have a new book out in the world. 💙⛵

Sample page from Sea Legs. Janey is snorkling.

Sample page from Sea Legs. Janey describes a "blue hole".

Sample page from Sea Legs. Janey, still snorkeling, is scared to swim over the blue hole.

Sample page from Sea Legs. Janey is frozen, staring out at the blue darkness.

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

time to admit i was lowkey fully expecting to die before tomorrow, the date upon which i become a formally published author, because storytelling conceits tell me it makes a hell of a lot more narrative sense if i did

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jules bakes @julesbakes.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

when you're alone in the house & you remember that you bought yourself a Nice Baguette yesterday & you creep over to the kitchen to cut yourself une petit piece while whispering stuff like "frawnsch" & "may wee" to yourself

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