THE VERY HUNGRY METAPHOR
i'm no better than any other writer.
According to my phone, it was April 16, 2025, when I found my first monarch caterpillar in the wild.
I am lucky enough to live in a lovely neighborhood with gorgeous landscaping. Roses, lilacs, jasmine, banana plants, birds of paradise, large white moonflowers, and more greet me on my daily walks. These don’t grow themselves - they’re the result of the hard work of landscapers who put a lot of effort into trimming hedges, clipping branches, and more.
In between their Wednesday chainsaw sessions, things pop up. Weeds, mostly. It is Southern California after all, and the sun can make things stretch up overnight. That’s how the milkweed gets there so fast.
If you aren’t aware, milkweed is a wild, native plant with dozens of varieties that grow almost all over North America. It is also the sole food source of Monarch butterflies. Like many animals with only one food source, removal of that food source can have catastrophic effects on their breeding. Not to mention what it can do to have the clutch of eggs you worked hard to lay mashed into pulp by gardeners who are just doing their job.
As you can see for yourself, this was not a small caterpillar.
He was big and fat, wandering away from his milkweed looking for a spot to pupate. I put him back on the milkweed and came back later to see him in J-hang, a pose adopted by those caterpillars ready to undergo their transformation into the iconic monarch butterfly. But when I came back again to check on him, he still hadn’t made the change. I was worried about his future in a weed-whacker-rich environment, so after some debate, I brought him to my balcony on a couple of long milkweed branches in a pitcher of water. That way he remained outside, far away from cats and air conditioning, but safely removed from what could, if the gardeners come by to weedwhack, become Hellraiser for Caterpillars.
For a few stressful days I brought him piles of fresh milkweed leaves, until finally finding him in the fabled J-hang at the top of my balcony ceiling. All I could do now is wait.
I’ve been doing a lot of waiting, myself.
Poor caterpillars. Seems like they can hardly pupate without some sapient human loser making a metaphor out of it.
But as art is finalized on a few Issue #1s and convention season ramps up, I realize that soon, I too have to emerge. I have to show my hand and my work and my guts with new stuff, stuff that feels like an evolution of everything I’ve done before, and hope people can recognize the Very Prolific Caterpillar in the monarch who emerges.
Eww I hate myself for that line, ewwww, we’re leaving it in, we’re embracing vulnerability but ewwww.
Fun fact for the X-Men nerds: I love monarchs. Jamie Braddock’s mutant name, “Monarch,” was my humble suggestion, as a nod to both his butterfly-themed sister/the Braddocks’ fae ancestry, and his role as a Mad King.
Oh, if you’re looking for the back half of the story, the metaphorical victory where I watch the butterfly emerge on my balcony and revel in the results of my choice to be patient and notice details and care for something small - it didn’t happen. I went out there one morning and there was a an empty chrysalis on the ceiling - it’s still there. He must have emerged and dried his wings in the very early morning, flexing fluids into the newborn cells in the morning’s first rays of sun. I like to think he stayed as long as he could stand waiting for me to wake up and meet him before the itch to take flight became too great, and off he went into the bright morning as a brand new bug.
Or maybe a bird ate him.
Or maybe he’s one of the many monarchs I see outside of my balcony, fluttering around the milkweed and laying eggs. Maybe he’s out there, aware that I can’t know which one he is, and I hope he realizes that that’s the funniest possible outcome. Out of all the metaphors I was looking for about change, growth, what-the-fuck-ever, he said “no ma’am. You get the only story that matters: being comfortable with not knowing the outcome.”
You can find more information on how to help threatened monarch butterfly populations here.
This week, I’ll be at MomoCon in Atlanta. It’s a great con that’s grown massively from its humble anime convention roots, and I’m always happy when I can attend as a guest. I’ll be signing comics, doing some panels about wrestling, X-Men, and witchery, and even helping out a local improv troupe. It’ll be a great time. Come see me!
Many folks here are also fans of Blake M Howard, and I’m among you. Which is why this week is so exciting - it’s the release of his first solo writing credit in comics - Archie is Mr. Justice #4. It’s such a good story, a perfect capstone to a really cool superhero world that’s handled in a brilliant way. “Archie meets All-Star Superman” is the short pitch, go check it out from your local shop tomorrow!
With that said, I’m getting on the road soon so here are some things I’ve been enjoying in a quick list: The Rehearsal, Skeleton Crew, episodes of Criminal, Earthlings by Sayaka Murata (with the largest of content warnings,) doing my own nails, events at Revenge Of in Los Angeles, Exquisite Corpses, Allie X’s Cape God (which I saw performed live just the other night), I’ve got The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica ready to read on the plane tomorrow - I can’t wait!
Stay weird, talk soon, see you this weekend, MomoConners -
TH 5.20.25 17:29PM
Delve into the mystery. Learn the secrets of their ancient ways by supping, as their own young do, on a steady diet of milkweed.
I love and welcome your caterpillar metaphors