Image shows title cover of the comic, with title “Like the Tide” and author credit “Isabella Rotman”. It is a drawing in entirely aqua, white, and black. A girl wearing black underwear and a sports bra floats upside-down in a sea of aqua-blue. The p…
Image shows title page for the comic, with title “Like the Tide” and author credit “Isabella Rotman”. It is in the same color scheme as the title, which will continue for the rest of the comic. It is a far-out landscape shop of the ocean, with a lar…
Image shows girl diving into a page flooded with blue, breaking the surface of the water with a splash. Text reads “When you hit me.”
Image shows the girl continuing her dive, now underwater. Bubbles from behind her and from her hair and hands. We see her face for the first time. Her mouth is open breathing bubbles and her eyes are closed. Text Reads: “It’s like forced meditation.”
Image shows a close-up of the girls face, hair, and shoulders as she dives. Bubbles flow from her mouth and her hair streams behind her. Text reads: “I can’t think about anything else.”
Image shows a split between above and below water. The girl is floating in the water with only her face breaking the surface. Her eyes are still closed. The word “gasp” escapes from her mouth in cursive.
Image shows the girl underwater, rising towards the surface with her back to the viewer. There are bubbles all around her, roughly forming circles around her body. Text reads: “You make me feel graceful.”
Image shows a split between above and below the surface of the water. A wave is about to break. Girl is emerging through the surface of the water in front of the cresting wave. She seems to have broken through the water with momentum, water flying o…
Image shows the girl walking along the beach, next to the sea. It is a far out landscape shot so the girl’s figure is very small. She is looking at the ocean with her back to the viewer. Text reads: “You make me feel like you’re the most beautiful t…
Image shows girl standing hip deep in the ocean with her back to the viewer, looking up at a large wave that is about to crash in front of her. The wave is tall and violent. The girl’s hair is wet. Text reads “Sometimes when I see you coming.”
Image shows wave crashing filling the whole page. The girl is under the water in a back bend, her hair flowing back with the current of water rushing up the wave. There are bubbles and motion lines showing the path of the water with the current. Tex…
Image shows girl underwater. She is floating on her back, bent forward, with her arms, legs, and hair pulled with the momentum of the water. Her head is turned slightly away from the viewer. Text reads “and let my body move with you as you rush past…
Image shows girl standing in ocean hip deep, looking slightly down from above the surface of the water. The ocean is choppy with lots of whitecaps. Girl is at 3/4 angle, looking out to the sea. Text reads: “I know this doesn’t mean you love me.”
Image shows girl from underwater, back to the viewer. She is rising to the surface of the water with her face breaking the surface. One hand is stretched back into the water, one is on her heart. Because we are looking at her from below, we cannot s…
Image shows girl from the front this time, zoomed in on her face and torso. Her face is breaking the surface of the water, which cuts it off at the mouth. We can see a tiny sliver of her eye behind the bubbles. Her hair flows out behind her. Text ap…
We look down on the girl from above the water. She is treading water and looking up, not quite at the viewer but slightly above them. This is the first time we see her eyes open. There is sea foam on the surface of the water, which partially obscure…
Image shows girl floating on her back in the water. Her eyes are closed and her hands are held near her head, fingers breaking the surface. Her knees are bend and her feet curled beneath her. The view is split between above and below water, and we c…
Image shows girl underwater, in the current of a wave. Behind her we see the curling white column of the wave, and motion lines of water follow it above and around the girl’s body. Bubbles stream from her body and hair. Text reads “Rock me rough.”
Image shows a bird’s-eye-view of the girl floating on her back in the water, arms held outstretched and eyes closed. The water is calm. Text reads “Put me back in this body.”
Image shows a close-up bird’s-eye-view of the girl’s face as she floats on her back in the water with her eyes closed. The water is calm. Text reads “and make me feel held.”
Image shows bio portrait of the author, Isabella. Isabella is in the ocean with her face an shoulders emerging from the surface. She is looking directly at the viewer with one hand on her face, partially covering her mouth and pushing her nose sligh…
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Nominated for 2020 Ignatz Award Outstanding Online Comic

The Ignatz Awards, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse from his long running comic strip Krazy Kat, recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression. Nominees are determined by a panel of comics professionals. The 2020 Ignatz jurors are: Scott Cederlund, November Garcia, Malala Gharib, and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell.

Support

If you enjoyed that comic, please considering donating through the button below or purchasing a hard copy via my online store.

Like the Tide was published online in April 2020. My original plan for Like the Tide was to print it as a risograph zine to be sold at indie comics conventions. Due to COVID-19 the print version of Like the Tide was not available until September 2020, and comics conventions in 2020 have been canceled. I love making this work and sharing it with you, and I hope to continue being able to do so far into the future. If you choose to support me, either by donating or purchasing a print copy, thank you from the bottom of my heart. xoxo - Isabella

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Ignatz Award nominated comic Like the Tide.

When you hit me

it’s like forced meditation

I can’t think about anything else.

Printed in two color risograph by Perfectly Acceptable Press. Twenty pages, 8.5” x 5.5”. Covers are coated with matte fixative to prevent dusting. Please keep in mind that risograph is a print process that is vulnerable to wear and tear, so please handle with care.

Image is a mid-rang landscape show of the calm ocean with clouds at the horizon. The girl is floating in the center. Only the parts of her that are above water are visible.

Special thanks to my parents, Laura, Ramona, Sage, Be, Dan, Kayla, and Andrew.