Comics Feature Archives - Chicago Reader

an illustration by Megan Kirby of people on a bus looking out the window, each with a word bubble that reads out collectively Look Out More Windows

Let us stare out the windows

by Megan Kirby December 16, 2022December 16, 2022

Last month, I had the misfortune of catching the Lunchables bus. Have you seen it yet? The windows and doors are obscured by a full-wrap ad that creates the illusion of a stack of crackers, meat, and cheese moving horizontally along the street. I boarded the Lunchables bus and found my window blocked by a […]

City Life

Riding the wave of the Crocs

by Megan Kirby July 11, 2022July 11, 2022

The first time I tried on a pair of Crocs, I was in study hall. This kid named Marlin slid them off and told me I had to give them a go. Marlin wasn’t known for his sartorial choices. He liked to wear thick white socks with flip-flops; the thong wedged into the cotton between […]

City Life

Home Sweet Alone

by Megan Kirby February 17, 2022February 17, 2022

When I moved into my first studio apartment in 2017, I got obsessed with the 1995 Jewel single “You Were Meant For Me.” In the song, Jewel has recently split with her lover and moved into her own apartment. She’s heartbroken, but she also digs having her own spot. She fries eggs and reads the […]

drawing of Megan Kirby with glasses sitting with Santa Claus

City Life

Waving at Santa from a rat-infested train tunnel

by Megan Kirby December 30, 2021December 30, 2021

My secret Chicago talent is that I always catch the Chicago Transit Authority’s Holiday Train. All over the city, the train finds me. Commuting home from work. Meeting my friends at a dive bar. On my way to a show. If the ride occurs between Thanksgiving and Christmas, chances are I’m going to pull up […]

drawing of a person sitting in the middle of a pile of clothes

City Life

Farewell, my lovely jumpsuit

by Megan Kirby November 29, 2021November 29, 2021

Every time I opened my closet, I saw the jumpsuit. Thick denim, dark blue, with a wide 70s-style lapel—beautiful, even on the hanger. Whenever I spotted it, my heart sank. Because it used to fit me, and now it didn’t. I know all bodies change, but I feel betrayed when mine does. Over 18 months […]

Small talk illustration: "small talkers unite!"

City Life

Keep it small, baby

by Megan Kirby August 17, 2021August 18, 2021

During the loneliest stretches of pandemic isolation, when I spent ages eternal locked in my studio apartment eating canned chili and descending into my most feral state, I missed a lot of things. Thrift stores. Dinner parties. Riding the el. But the thing I missed with the most startling acuity, as if a vital organ […]