![](https://www.angelabcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Gertrude-title.png)
Insomnia
![](https://www.angelabcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Gertrude-Insomnia-web.jpg)
This was created for 7Days, the Vermont alt-weekly newspaper. It was actually a bit of an epiphany for me. AND really fun to draw. Pen and ink. Watercolor. And digital. It was to be printed on newsprint, so I had no idea what do do about color. It turned out . . . fine.
Butterflies
![](https://www.angelabcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Papilio-web.jpg)
This was inspired by my fear of public performance. I took piano lessons and we had to do a few recitals every a year. I hated it every time, but once it was just too much. I was begging not to have to go when a deer jumped in front of our car. We 100% hit that poor thing, but it hopped off into the trees. I desperately hope since we were going around 35mph that it was bruised but fine. I used it as a sign I shouldn’t go to the recital, but my mom was having none of it.
Afraid of the Dark
![](https://www.angelabcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Afraid-of-the-dark-web.jpg)
Don’t judge me for jumping into bed so the hands can’t grab me from underneath.
Kitchen Dangers
![](https://www.angelabcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Afraid-of-cutting-web.jpg)
So you noticed these are pretty autobiographical? Yeah. If you see me clench my hand while walking down the street, 50% chance I am thinking about how I could accidentally cut off a finger while chopping veg for dinner.
Bathroom Shoes
![](https://www.angelabcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Gertrude_BathroomShoes.jpg.jpg)
I was a tech writer when I drew this. I worked in an office and had my very own cubicle, something I had wanted since I was a kid and someone gifted me How to Draw a Radish: And Other Fun Things to Do at Work . I did even do some of it at work!
Relaxation
![](https://www.angelabcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/relaxation.jpg)
It’s good to learn coping mechanisms for dealing with anxiety. Like tea and a book. Or making comics about your anxiety.
Calamari
![](https://www.angelabcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Calamari-web.jpg)
In 8th grade, junior high for me, the only time I ever got/had to dissect a critter for class was a little pink/purple squid. I could have gotten a note to get out of it because my dad had died only a few years prior, but I was intrigued. My partner could not bring herself to touch it let alone cut it, so she was the note taker. I picked up the squidling and it started to move around and I tossed it against the wall. Instant reflex. I thought it was alive for a half second. Then I realized it was just sliding out of it’s mantle because squids are fancy sacs of goo.
Anyway, all that to say, the day of dissection I got to try calamari for the first time because a class mate (JP, I think?) brought in (cold) fried calamari his mom had made for the class. Not everyone tried it but I have loved fried calamari since. So thanks, JP’s mom.
Secrets
![](https://www.angelabcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Gertrude_Bertha_Secrets-web.jpg)
The best kind of secret.
Trial and Error
![](https://www.angelabcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Baby-TrialAndError.jpg)
No, you’re afraid of babies! I babysat my cousins my first year in college. That’s my entire babysitting resume. And reading Babysitters Club (the original novels), but that doesn’t count. The only thing I remember is one of them wetting her sleeping bag at a sleepover because she had diabetes.
Krismas Blues
![](https://www.angelabcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Xmas-web.jpg)
See in the middle there, ARB 10? That means I drew this in 2010. It is one of the first things I drew with this hilarious character. And yes, this is almost 100% true. I didn’t actually kick our tree over, but I wanted to. Living vicariously through my comic creations.
Original Sketch
![](https://www.angelabcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Gertrude-sketch-web.jpg)
The lovely Gertrude. A friend of mine made up alternative names for everyone we knew (it was not a lot of people) so we could talk about them behind their back in front of them. I could never remember who was who, but I was Gertrude.
I once made plans for a whole book’s worth of Gertrude but it petered out and never went anywhere. Oh well.