Garen’s Diary
Deep in the woods of an abandoned superfund site lives Garen, a gender noncomforming feral survivor. They have isolated themselves from society, except when they roller skate through the city to dumpster dive for food and objects. Garen is emotionally guarded but has learned resilience through an unconventional lifestyle with the help of their chosen family, the park raccoons. Garen will have to learn to open up in order to repair their ability to trust others, as well as themself. On one of their trips into the city, they encounter a puppet named Dolly, who they befriend. Dolly accompanies Garen and becomes a witness to their sacred diary which holds secrets about their painful family history. Upon awakening one morning, Garen and Dolly discover that the diary has been stolen. Garen will have to relearn how to trust those closest to them in order to solve the mystery of the missing diary.
Garen’s Diary is a journey on overcoming trauma, reestablishing trust, and learning self-compassion. This collection of paintings, prints, and sculptures is based on this sequential narrative which is represented as several volumes of zines. Garen’s Diary is intended to allow the viewer to experience enough solidarity, compassion, and empathy to find humor in trauma as a means to heal.
This comic was self published by Barbara Lane Tharas in 2021 and was released as two volumes of zines.