Stars in Our Sky Series #3

Alex Braile's comics

Stars in Our Sky Series #3

Alex Braile, comic writing

Our Star for this month, Alex Braile, lives in Exeter, New Hampshire with his wife Summer and their cat Mimi.  Alex attended the University of New Hampshire where he earned a double major in English and Studio Art with a concentration in Painting.  After graduating, he went on to earn a Masters of Science in Teaching from the University of Pennsylvania while teaching at the high school level.  Alex has been a Visual Arts teacher, a coach, a dorm parent, a Director of Residential Life, a Dean of Fun, and most recently an Admissions Counselor at the Northfield Mount Hermon School.  He has a passion for both comics and woodworking and has been drawing his comic strip You’ve Got Braile since June of 2019. He has several new projects in the works including a comics collection and a children’s book.  You can find him on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok at the account youvegotbraile.

ZAN AND PA: Alex, what inspires you?

ALEX: What inspires me most are the little moments.  When I was a budding artist in college, I dreamed about becoming a serious painter.  I wanted nothing more than to make art that told big, important stories.  I found myself engrossed in strange questions like what the tree I was painting said about the decline of mental health resources in America.  Or what air quality in landscape painting had to do with the uncertainty of the purpose of life.  As any moody young artist would, I tied these ideas to my work.  Soon, I found myself getting caught up in thinking about art-making so much that I rarely got down to the actual business of making art.  And the longer I spent mulling over these ideas for no discernible purpose while also doing everything but painting, the more I realized that my chosen medium was not doing much for me.

My comics have allowed me to come up for air.  They’ve been my way of giving myself permission to focus not on the big important ideas, but on the small and silly ones.  They look at the little moments and details that make life fun, funny, and sometimes absurd.  And the more I draw them, the more I have realized that those moments, for me, are the big important ones.  More than anything, my comic is an ongoing love letter to my wife and the life we are creating together.  I find infinite inspiration in the things that make us laugh: the times we misunderstand each other, when we trip over trying to explain something, or the way our cat bumbles through the world.  These moments have always made me smile, and they have meant even more to me since I started recording them.  Many of my comics are exact conversations my wife and I have.  Some comics are more emotional truths - exaggerated or skewed scenarios that somehow feel more accurate than the real world.  But all my comics recognize the messiness and silliness of life.  And as long as life stays silly, there will be comics for me to draw.