Several years ago I accidentally wrote a graphic novel on Instagram. I was simply expressing my feelings about my life the way we all do in this day and age, online and without much thought.  Before long I realised something was happening and these thoughts and ideas were forming a cohesive structure in search of an archive to live in. That archive took the form of a book. The process made me look at all the text that surrounds us online as more meaningful and important than before. Especially in the maritimes where our literature and art work is not as supported by respected archival methods (books, galleries, catalogues). Are we in the maritimes (particularly rural maritimes) in a golden age of words even if they mostly exist as ephemeral soon to be forgotten moments online?

Jon Claytor is a graphic novelist and artist based in Sackville, New Brunswick. His memoir Take the Long Way Home was published by Conundrum Press in 2022, he has illustrated several interviews for the CBC, and has led multiple workshops on storytelling and comics. His forthcoming projects include Nowhere, a mysterious coming-of-age graphic novel, and The Opioid Epidemic in My Small Town, a journalistic comic about toxic drug supply and its effects in the Maritimes.