I'm a white, queer, and disabled artist (she/they, b. 1987) living on occupied Narragansett and Niantic land (East Coast "USA"). I make weird art with my partner Kimball Anderson for other weirdos like us as Counterintuitive Comics! @LaurelLynnLeake: personal tumblr, @QueerComicsConnection: sharing lgbtq comics and art, website: laurellynnleake.com/, support us: patreon.com/counterintuitive, free downloads: https://laurel-lynn-leake.itch.io/
2025 UPDATE: My free printable COVID-19 comic is BACK, babee, because all these respiratory viruses sure didn't go anywhere! I took everyone's generous feedback from WHY WE MASK 2024 to make this zine the best version of itself. Mainly, I edited all text to be as simple and clear as possible. Which is harder than it sounds, but worth it to reach more readers. Also I did a million tiny visual fixes that no one will notice but me :P
Thank you to everyone who's read and shared the zine, and THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone masking out there! It's never too late to start taking care of each other.
website version - featuring: clickable endnotes! working URLs!
free downloadable version - print & distribute your own copies (print fund donations welcome but not required)
our patreon - help me & @earnestattempts make more comics like this one!
send us questions, comments, etc at [email protected] (we love seeing pics of the zine out in the wild)
Extra pages under the cut, including sources for all the endnotes.
2026 UPDATE: We are so honored to share that Why We Mask is now available in French thanks to our translation team! Read it on our website, download it for free on itch.io, or here on tumblr.
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Je suis tellement honoré d’annoncer l’édition en français de mon zine scientifique gratuit sur le COVID-19 ! L’équipe de traduction Eli, Neptune, Jibé et Alex a magnifiquement transformé WHY WE MASK en POURQUOI PORTER UN MASQUE : CE N’EST PAS 'JUSTE UN RHUME', avec un texte alternatif, un guide imprimé et une page bonus de ressources en français. Et tout est gratuit à lire, télécharger et imprimer !
Merci à tous ceux qui ont lu et partagé le fanzine, et MERCI MERCI MERCI à tous ceux qui masquent ! Il n’est jamais trop tard pour commencer à prendre soin les uns des autres.
version web - avec des ressources avec des URL cliquables
version téléchargeable gratuitement - Imprimez et distribuez vos propres exemplaires (tous les dons vont à l’impression d’exemplaires). Alternatif
notre patreon - Aidez-moi et @earnestattempts faire plus de comics comme celui-ci !
envoyez-nous des questions, des commentaires, des photos de fanzines, etc. à laurellynnleake @ gmail dot com
Read the English version here. Des pages supplémentaires sous la coupe, y compris les sources pour toutes les notes de fin:
English translation of this post:
I’m so honored to announce the French Language edition of my free COVID-19 science zine! Translation team Eli, Neptune, Jibé, and Alex have beautifully transformed WHY WE MASK into POURQUOI PORTER UN MASK: CE N’EST PAS ‘JUSTE UN RHUME’, complete with alt text, print guide, and a bonus French resources page. And it’s all free to read, download, and print!
Thank you to everyone who’s read and shared the zine, and THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone masking out there! It’s never too late to start taking care of each other.
website version - featuring: clickable endnotes! working URLs!
free downloadable version - print & distribute your own copies (print fund donations welcome but not required)
our patreon - help me & @earnestattempts make more comics like this one!
send us questions, comments, etc at [email protected] (we love seeing pics of the zine out in the wild)
Extra pages under the cut, including sources for all the endnotes.
Hello, I have been gone a while! It's been a very slow year so far of recovering from extensive shoulder/arm/hand RSI flare-ups...I've had to change a lot of how I do things, an obvious one being minimizing computers/phones/social media. Still have a ways to go but I'm building back strength! Being able to draw more again has been wonderful even with setbacks.
These sketches are from April, the first two sitting with spring sprouts under pine trees, and the other a corner of a walkway at a park. Straight to ink with a black felt brushpen for both, then trying to catch the shifting light with a grey pen.
Issue 2 of a series about rest! I try to teach basic skills of observing your body, while a character has reason not to listen. You can get it on my patreon $20 tier (or $1 discounted slots, while they are still there). If I have the copies, I’ll catch you up on older issues too!
If you want to read the "how to rest" series but don't want monthly comics in your mailbox, don't worry, Kimball's working on free digital versions with alt text. You can also join our patreon for free or just follow us on social media so you won't miss an issue. All subs support Kimball and I making more queer and disabled comics like these and the WHY WE MASK series in 2026.
Marker study I did of the cover of the spectacular anthology HEAVEN LOOKS LIKE US: Palestinian Poetry, drawn during Workshops 4 Gaza's 4th Virtual Poetry Reading back in April. The original is actually a collage by Jumana Manna - an "imaginary landscape" made from cleaning product containers.
This book is truly a labour of love by Palestinian co-editors George Abraham (they/هو) and Noor Hindi (she/her), uniting Ghazzans in the heart of the genocide with poets across the global diaspora...Beloved writers like Dr. Refaat Alareer ("If I Must Die...") beside young queer poets they've inspired. This is poetry as resistance, poetry that dares to use love, rage, and grief to imagine "a future in which there thrives a free, free Palestine".
All proceeds from HEAVEN LOOKS LIKE US (plus any additional donations you select) go to The Sameer Project when you buy it from the Workshops For Gaza online bookstore!
Contributor Rasha Abdulhadi: "Don't just read us when we're dead. Don't just read our dead. Answer the screams of the living. Publish & broadcast those living cries. Love us while we're still alive. Love us enough to keep us alive."
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
2 days left to get 2 comics about masking for $1+ when you sign up for Monthly Mailings! Queer &/or trans, disabled, chronically ill, &/or low income folks, the $1 discount tier is for YOU. And we don't judge if you sign up for one month and cancel right after :P We just want more people like us to read our comics.
LEFT: My covid science zine WHY WE MASK: It's Not 'Just A Cold' 2025 Ed, in print for the 1st time! Because of shipping costs I only distribute this comic in bulk, so this is your best chance to get a single copy (you can always print one for yourself for free tho)
RIGHT: My partner and WHY WE MASK editor @earnestattempts' (they/them) new semi-autobio comic "a walk together", featuring us queer disabled masking weirdos taking a stroll out in the wild non-masking world, talking about internet friends and anxiety and whether we "matter". It's a very sweet comic and I like it a lot! We hold haannnds. But not for too long because, anxiety.
SIGN UP BEFORE SUN JUNE 1ST and get both comics in your mailbox!
A real comic with panels going out this month! Long too. It’s a semi auto-bio thing about still having to be covid cautious in the world today, and about how tenuous and vulnerable we all are as queer disabled people. But it’s a lot sweeter than that sounds haha.
Sign up for Monthly Mailings on Patreon before the end of the month if you want this one in your mailbox! There's a discount $1 tier for low income, disabled, chronically ill, and/or queer/trans folks - if you aren't sure you qualify, you probably do, so go for it. Every new $20 subscriber opens up two more discount slots for other lovers of weird comics by/about disabled nonbinary people.
heyyyy look it's me! I'm the one with the short hair, and also, those are my hands in the photos....which I took...while on a WALK...! (because it's about us going on a walk lmao)
ALSO this month our subscribers are getting a brand spanking new print copy of my COVID science zine WHY WE MASK: 2025 EDITION :O
Just wanted to say thank you for all the hard work you put into WHY WE MASK, especially all the cited sources in the endmatter. I was feeling overwhelmed tonight trying to write a comment to the FDA about vaccine access and then remembered that I'd seen a gorgeously illustrated and thoughtful comic FULL OF FACTS I COULD QUOTE. It was great to have as a reference point and helped me get my comment drafted and submitted. Your work is wonderful <3
Ah jeez, thank you so much for your message, Lucy! What a cool use for my WHY WE MASK sources, I never thought they'd come in handy for writing FDA comments. It's horrific that we have to beg the government not to kill people this way, and so draining to get yourself in the headspace to write. I've been overwhelmed a lot too and haven't been able to submit my own comments, so it means a lot that my zine helped you do it! And THANK YOU THANK YOU for fighting the good fight! And making for making such lovely comics to boot C:
Thanks to the generous contributions of over 175 developers and artists, we’ve got over 200 digital games, zines, TTRPGs, and other projects and assets to offer bundle buyers.
Every $16 purchase covers the cost of an eSim activation to help connect Palestinians in the occupied territories and beyond.
On sale April 28-May 20!
YESSS the bundle is live! $16 gets you BABA IS YOU and Skatebird and a majilliion other digital and tabletop treats including my printable COVID-science-disability-justice zine & MASK UP poster, plus a sci-fi comic about sky-scraper-solar-panel construction workers trying to survive a shiny happy "green capitalism" future :D
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Sketches I did at the Workshops4Gaza VIRTUAL POETRY READING FOR GAZA III last Friday. Thank you so much to all the poets & organizers & everyone who came & supported The Sameer Project - we raised over $2000 to bring medical care to Palestinians!
Portrait #1: George Abraham, editor of Mizna art journal, co-editor of HEAVEN LOOKS LIKE US: Palestinian Poetry (proceeds go to TSP)
#2: Cindy Juyoung Ok, wrote Ward Towards & House Work
#3 Sarah Ghazal Ali, ed for West Branch Mag, wrote Theophanies
And this one is what everything looks like without the added green tint...just mechanical pencil & finger smudges on computer paper.
Check out all the amazing upcoming Workshops4Gaza workshops, events, and reading groups, browse the Open Books online W4G shop, but most importantly, keep supporting The Sameer Project!
Got any requests for the updated 2025 edition of my science zine, WHY WE MASK: IT'S NOT "JUST A COLD"? Any errors you'd like corrected, sources you'd like updated, or info you'd like included? Let me know here!
You can read the whole thing for free on tumblr, on my website, or you can download printable PDFs from my itch.io. Thanks everyone!
UPDATE: Just gonna clarify that I've already got future issues for this series in the works that concentrate on masks (how they work, how to wear them, how to pick a style), avoiding transmission, dealing with being sick, and rest. But right now I am revising WWM: It's Not "Just A Cold", which focuses on the science of COVID-19 and what it does to your body. Feel free to request future topics, just know they might not fit in the current issue (cus I overloaded the dang thing already).
"Wear it and stay healthy," a comic about masking in solidarity with Palestinians. I made it for Steel Transplant's digital release COVID CAUTIOUS QUEERS ZINE 2 ($0+).
It's a collage of transparent printed text from news/science articles, magazine scraps, and marker drawings of posts Muhammad Smiry & Omar Hamad made from Palestine in 2024. The title is a quote from Hala, a Palestinian girl who sold masks in Gaza until she was killed by Israel last June.
Omar's words make up most of this comic - he is a poet, writer, and a tailor for Gaza's children with his Needle of Hope project, and also has a family survival fund. Support him, Muhammad, Care for Gaza, and all Palestinians in every way you can, and MASK UP against all genocides.
(Alt text in post, all sources under the cut:)
PAGE 1
White graph paper: "Her name is Ghazal, she sells masks everyday to make a living | Gaza" - Orig @MuhammadSmiry post (2/28/24):
Transparent text:
"white phosphorous" - Youmina Boukara et al, Gaza, armed conflict and child health, BMJ Pediatrics Open (2/12/24)
"two million Palestine refugees" - Masako Horino et al, Understanding coverage of antenatal care in Palestine: Cross-sectional analysis of Palestinian Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, 2019–2020, PLOS ONE (2/2/24)
"severe COVID" - Hatem A Hejaz, Palestinian strategies, guidelines, and challenges in the treatment and management of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), Avicenna J Med, (10/13/2020)
"60 times more likely" - “In Israel, you’re 60 times more likely to have a COVID vaccine than in Palestine” - Matthias Kennes for MFS (2/22/24)
PAGE 2:
White graph paper: "A little girl named Hala stopped me today and gave me this mask." - Post by @OmarHamadD (5/21/2024)
Transparent text: "In this necroeconomy, lives are rendered and disposed of" - Nadia Naser-Najjab's book, "Covid-19 In Palestine: The Settler Colonial Context" (1/11/24). Asma'a Adjerid's summary of the same book, MEDIA WATCH: BOOK (May 2024)
PAGE 3
White graph paper: "Didn't you know? She went to heaven three days ago." - Omar Hamad's 6/4/24 thread updating his post about Hala.
Transparent text: "abduction of children" - Youmina Boukara et al, Gaza, armed conflict and child health, BMJ Pediatrics Open (2/12/24)
"long list of banned items" - ‘Long List of Banned Items’ – From Maternity Kits to Wheelchairs, Israel Blocks Gaza Aid (4/12/24)
"the implications are excruciating" - Tamara Qiblawi et al, Anesthetics, crutches, dates: Inside Israel's ghost list of items arbitrarily denied entry into Gaza, CNN (3/2/24)
PAGE 4
@OmarHamadD's thread about Rimas (8/12/24): https://x.com/OmarHamadD/status/1792981447889801725
Transparent text: "US spends a record $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since last Oct. 7" - Ellen Kickmeyer, CNN, (10/7/24)
The other small scraps are from the previously cited scientific papers & news articles.
PAGE 5
Brown paper: "Wear it and stay healthy." - Hala, as quoted by @OmarHamadD (5/21/24)
Transparent paper: Map of Palestine, with 2024 borders for Gaza and the West Bank.
"...freedom and justice...my true priority" - quote from Naser-Najjab, "COVID-19 in Palestine" (2024).
For the second year in a row, Christmas has been cancelled in the town of Bethlehem in Palestine due to the ongoing Israel/USA genocide. I made this design in solidarity with Palestinians of all religions - it's inspired by Tatreez, the story-telling art of embroidery passed down by generations of Palestinian women.
I used colored pencils to mimic cross-stitch patterns, centered around the beloved 8-pointed star sometimes called the Nijmat Beit Lahem (Star of Bethlehem), or simply Stars (Yaffa), Moons (Ramallah), or Crushed Sugar (Bethlehem). They’re bordered by red Al Jibal or The Mountains motifs from Gaza, to symbolize Palestinians' ancestral connection to their land.
Support Palestinians while they are alive! I ask everyone with money to spare to give to free kitchens in occupied Palestine as well as family survival funds. Here on tumblr @gothhabiba is organizing urgently needed funds for Samar Abu Alwan's family - donations of $75+ get a stunning custom-designed tatreez piece (V: gothhabiba P: paypal.me/Najia, C: $NajiaK, with note 🍓 or "strawberry").
Learn more: Tatreez Traditions, Tirazain Digital Archive, Tatreez Star Motifs (Palestine Studies), Tatreez and Tea, Lina's Thobe, and Palestinian Embroidery Traditional Fallahi Cross-stitch (free PDF)
My new 5pg collage comic about COVID solidarity with Palestine is out now, in Steel Transplant's COVID Cautious Queers Zine 2.
The main text/art are posts Muhammad Smiry and Omar Hamad made from Palestine this past year that I reproduced in marker. The transparent scraps are printed quotes from news articles and medical journals. The longest one on this page is from "Gaza, armed conflict, and child health", BMJ Paediatrics Open, Feb 2024.
To read the rest, download the enormous wonderful 125-pg digital anthology yourself for FREE - any money goes to mutual aid. You can also read the whole comic here on tumblr.
I also ask you to support Muhammad and Omar (and his Needle Of Hope project) directly as they survive the USA/Israel's ongoing genocide, and keep masking up!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
I've drawn so many blankets lately....living the bed life. Playing with tracing paper and thinking about everything always and being a person attempting to rest. The ones with feet double as self-portraits, and the black thing in #3 is a cold pack.
These drawings are pieces of a poetry collage comic I made for an upcoming issue of Bed Zine, along with other disabled creatives making art about about our beds! Wrote about it in a free post over on the Counterintuitive Comics p@treon (post linked in the images above). Alt text by my partner @earnestattempts.
I started a story podcast! The first series is about people at high risk for covid-19, and what their (well, our) lives are like. Trying to capture beauty and meaning in lives often ignored!
The first episode is just 23 minutes, and I'm going to try to release new ones every other week until the end of the season!
Are you sick of everyone ignoring COVID? Do you like slice-of-life about queer &/or disabled people written by a queer disabled person? Are you into contemplative, noodly synth music? Why not join us...by the wayside...
I've had the partner privilege of reading the scripts for the whole season (I also did the mask lineart), and I am so excited it's out! Kimball's gentle storytelling style paints character portraits with warmth, humanity, and humor.
Each episode features a new person's inner life. Ep1 is about Mira, a woman who was already very familiar with chronic pain and fatigue before the pandemic, and who figured adapting would be easy enough. But she wasn't prepared for how the people around her would change...and how they'd justify leaving her behind.
