Sarah Welch is an illustrator and comic artist based out of Houston, Texas. She is my favorite illustrator and one of my favorite humans.
Only Humid is part III of her Endless Monsoon series. The series explores the unexpected and ever changing process we call life. That which can only be paralleled by the unexpected and ever changing weather of the Gulf Coast. The narratives are at times surreal and other times too real. What makes Welch a star, for me, is her ability to capture the wallpaper of existence, the constant backgrounds of our geographical places that somehow mark the moments of our life. What I mean to say is no one can capture the half dead aloe plant sitting on your kitchen table, the one you ignore daily as you eat stale cereal every day before you go to work better than Sarah Welch.
Only Humid is filled with humans, and at times dogs, doing their thing in front of beautiful renderings of carpets, shower tiles, and foliage. These drawing are only highlighted more with the stellar Riso printing done by Mystic Multiples, Welch's artistic partner. My copy of Only Humid arrived in the mail with a print that needs to be framed and hung in my apartment and a printed stamp that I pray every day not to lose because it is so beautiful.
Beyond her artwork, Welch is an active participant in making Zine Fest Houston an amazing event and is a large proponent of self-publishing as empowerment. Also, she once let me look through all her comics and prints at her house while feeding me homemade kimchi fries!
