Kickstarting Comics: Rachael Smith’s Essential ‘Nap Comix’ — The Perfect Collection Of New Motherhood

by Richard Bruton

Throw all your parenting books away — Rachael Smith‘s Nap Comix will be your ideal guide to getting through everything parenthood throws at you … and it’s crowdfunding right now on Kickstarter.

Back in 2023, Rachael Smith and her partner, Rob, had a baby, Henry. And, like so many new mums, life changed completely, absolutely and totally.

But, unlike most new mums, Rachael makes comics, fabulous comics, comics I’ve followed and loved since first I saw her work with The Way We Write, One Good Thing, and I am Fire. Since then, I’ve watched her work get better and better and better. More recently, alongside her fiction work, she’s been quite brilliantly documenting her life, honestly, painfully, and powerfully, in a quartet of books – Wired Up Wrong (depression), Stand in Your Power (break-ups), Glass Half Empty (grief and addiction), and Quarantine Comix (the pandemic).

So, it was only natural for Smith to document her experiences of new motherhood. After the first few months of complete exhaustion and sleep deprivation – y’know, new baby and all – Rachael set about making short, loose comics that told of her day-to-day life as a new mum.

Or, as she described it at the time:

“Henry keeps taking very long naps on me. I have decided to try to use this time to make scribbly diary comics. Let’s see how I get on!”

Well, she got on so well, with Nap Comix well above 200 episodes published on Rachael’s socials and Webtoons. Oh, and as for the whole ‘scribbly’ description, that’s Rachael being typical self-deprecating. Sure, it’s looser than her other works, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less skilful or impactful.

To cut to the chase, if you want to get my take on Nap Comix, here’s what I’ve said previously about it here at Comicon, quoted on the Kickstarter in Rachael’s “praise for Nap Comix” section…

Yep, I stand by every single word there. It’s honestly the sort of guide we’d have loved to have had when Molly was born many years ago. But back then, all we had were the dry practical guides and the advice of friends to go on, and all too often, that advice would concentrate on just how wonderful their baby was, how great being a new parent was, and, as everyone who’s gone through will know, even if few will say, it’s really not like that at all. Well, it is, but it’s not all the time.

And that’s the true power of Rachael’s Nap Comix. She’s a great artist, capable of utilising just a few loose lines to convey so much. But more than that, she’s just truthful, giving us the warts and all experience that’s so rare when it comes to talking about babies.

Now, just as she’s done before, she approaches being a new mum head-on. This certainly isn’t your normal, ‘Oh, isn’t being a mum wonderful all the time,’ sort of thing. Instead, as she’s done again and again in her work, Rachael takes the more difficult path, detailing all the ups and the many downs that any parent, new or not, will be more than familiar with.

A big part of her experiences here are tied into all we’ve seen before in her books, all the anxieties and depression and struggles, given form by her twin companions, Barky, the bad one, and Friendly, the good one.

If you haven’t already, you really need to go support this book, parent or not. It talks to the human condition in so many wonderful ways. But, if you’re a parent, new or not, or heading down the path of thinking of becoming a parent, this is the perfect book for you. In all the brutal honesty, the worry, the anxiety about getting it right, Rachael also shows us those moments of absolute joy, the bits of the journey that make the hard bits all worth it. And it’s all done with such warmth, honesty, and with plenty of laughs along the way.

So, whether it’s for you or for someone at some stage on their parenting journey, Nap Comix is just that perfect book to get you through the difficult times, to fill you with the joy you’re going to experience, and to make it all just that little bit better.

The book contains 147 pages of the first year of the Nap Comix webcomic, complete with plenty of book-exclusive extras, including an intro and outro, comics about Henry’s birth and the first four months of his life, and comics from the current day, with Henry just turning three. All in all, over 200 pages, giving you the complete picture of new parenthood in the first year and more.

Now, just a little of what you can expect from this beautiful book…