31: a sticky subject

content note: discussion of contemporary protests + political expression?

march 24th, 2025

a disclaimer: for anyone considering stickering and other forms of street art, please do your own research and reflection beforehand on what’s legal in your area and what risks you’re comfortable taking, and be respectful to yourself and others! <3

comic comic comic :3 I’m really excited about the photo-y, slightly more journalistic energy in this week’s page! I love love love journalism and photography and history and sharing things about local community events and culture, and it was super fun going around town looking for things I wanted to document as part of this topic. I’m thinking of perhaps sharing the “outtakes” (aka other people’s really awesome art that didn’t fit on this page) as this upcoming week’s Monday bonus content!

also, some additional context/clarification on the last panel’s photo, in case it’s not apparent what’s being shown there — that underpass had been covered in grafitti art, and then someone commissioned an “official” mural to cover it up (the rainbow circles you can kind of see), and then people came back and added more grafitti art on top of / intertwining with the mural, and then recently someone covered the entire thing (both the grafitti and the mural) with plain gray paint. and now people are starting to redecorate it again! it’s a continuing push-and-pull with all these different waves of evolution, and I find it super fascinating.

.

transcript:

recently I’ve been noticing lots of cool stickers going up around my adopted hometown!
[a photo of elaborate and colorful art of a praying mantis, drawn on a postal label by the artist BUG and stuck to a sign]

I’ve been doing some research on the history of stickering, and apparently it’s both a) illegal in many places, and b) easy to do with nametags, free postal labels, etc
[a screenshot of the opening paragraphs of the Wikipedia page on Label 228]

we’re a university town where signs and street art are relatively tolerated around campus — to an extent [Blobic and his younger triangle-shaped, beanie-adorned friend (previously seen playing ttrpgs and climbing on roofs) are standing on (a photo of) a university quad, gazing down at a large flower planter. Blobic is gesturing sadly at the space and saying, “for years there was a pole here for students to hang up posters about events and ideas, but after we started protesting about the university’s relationship to the genocide in Palestine, they quietly took the pole down that summer and put this planter over where it used to be”]

I’m curious to see how this town’s relationship with street art and expression continues to evolve!
[Blobic stands underneath (a photo of) a bridge, considering the large concrete wall in front of him. it appears there used to be colorful art of some sort on the wall, but most of it has been covered by a dull gray paint. in the photo, a few new phrases have since been written on the wall in marker, and in the comic art, an uncapped can of spraypaint rests nearby. Blobic is smiling and his tail is wagging as he takes in the space!]

.