A year of stories, comics, and quiet rebellion.

This book is a collection of zines I made over the course of a year. It includes twelve tiny publications, one for each month I was thirty-eight.

Each one was a kind of time capsule. A handmade dispatch from the middle of a moment. Some were funny. Some were sad. Some were very gay. Some were just me trying to figure something out on paper.

Inside this collection, you’ll find stories about awkward conversations, aging knees, and leftover Halloween candy. There are sketches pulled straight from my notebooks (coffee stains and all). A whole lot of honesty all filtered through staples and saddle stitch.

These zines were never about making something perfect. They were about making something true.
And then mailing it to people.

What started as a personal project…

…turned into an exercise in creative vulnerability, discipline, and occasional over-sharing. Each month I wrote, illustrated, printed, folded, and mailed a zine to friends and strangers alike.

Now they live together in this one book — a slightly neater version of that messy, meaningful year.

Get the Book

Thirty-Eight is available now on Amazon.
Buy it here
Or just search for “Mike Lawson Thirty-Eight” and look for the guy who drew a dog in a crop top.