Miriam Beach was a webcomic I created, drew, and wrote as my senior thesis at Hampshire College. The comic follows Charlie Schwartz, Leslie “Shep” Taggart, and Mason Becker, three best friends living in the fictional East Coast town of Miriam Beach, Virginia. You can read it on Tapas now!
I find myself drawn to humorous slice-of-life narratives with small scopes, small stakes, and little conflict. It’s easy to derive humor from characters annoying or hating one another, but with Miriam Beach, I hoped to find the humor in relationships based on love, respect, and familiarity.
From left to right: Charlie, Shep, and Mason.
I wanted to create a sense of intimacy, both between the characters themselves and between the characters and the audience. I wanted every other punchline to feel like an inside joke between friends. I wanted the reader to feel like they knew these characters or could know them in real life.
A one-off strip that showcases Mason and Charlie’s goofy comedic chemistry.
If Seinfeld was a show about nothing, Miriam Beach is a comic about nothing. The average strip finds our heroes at the store, on a stroll, or on the couch. They find joy and beauty in the mundane.
“I prefer the uninteresting. The small moments, you know? That’s why I like it here. Every moment is small.”
—Shep, “Let’s Stay Inside”
“Let’s Stay Inside”
Charlie, Shep, and Mason visit their friend Louie for a lazy night of watching TV in their pajamas, but a tropical storm calls for a change of plans.
I’m including this chapter in its entirety, not only because it’s one of my best in terms of character and atmosphere, but also because it outlines my artistic ethos (as summarized by Shep in the quote above).
Drawing Miriam Beach really taught me how to flesh out the story’s world and impart a sense of place. Each establishing shot and background contains details that hint at the characters’ history and personality.
This is especially evident in the chapter “Let’s Get Søren To Do It,” where we see the protagonists’ home from an outsider’s perspective.
Søren takes in Charlie, Shep, and Mason’s front yard.
I also pride myself on my ability to depict complex emotions and character dynamics through facial expressions and acting. Nowhere is this clearer than this sequence in “Let’s Flash Back:”
If you’d like to hear more about Miriam Beach, you can listen to this episode of the Literary Merit podcast.