Transcript
Page 1: hamster meditation - a 1 small quiet somewhere minizine. [A pair of hands cup the hamster-like Little Yì who is sitting demurely with folded paws, looking up.]
Page 2: Find a comfortable sitting position on a mat or a cushion or lie in bed surrounded by pillows and buried in a blankie. [An ink brush-style heart draws an ink path around a simple blobby person as they meditate on a cushion, then lie cozily in bed tucked into a blanket. The ink path continues to the next page]
Page 3: Just try to keep your back as comfortably straight as you can, to help your breath flow with ease through your entire body. [Side view of a simple standing waist-up person, hands resting on its belly, breathes out in a puff of breath while maintaining a gentle straight posture.]
Page 4: Place your hands on your belly and feel your belly rise up and down [Front view of the person, eyes closed, with a translucent heart shape overlapping its hands that rest on their belly.]
Page 5: Picture in your brain a tiny soft hamster running all day and night its hamster wheel [A sequence of panels zooming in on the brain of the person, showing that inside is a wheel with Little Yì running furiously inside it.]
Page 6: But now, little hamster, it's OK to rest [Little Yì leaves the hamster wheel, walking towards an outstretched hand with a heart above it. Another hand gently pats Little Yì on the head.]
Page 7: and be a pancake hamster, just resting and feeling and being. [Little Yì lies in the palm of the hand and is gentle stroked by the other hand, its shape becoming a flatter and flatter fuzzy pancake. A blobby ink heart closes the page.]
Page 8: Maiji/Mary Huang - smallquiet.humangray.com [Little Yì now resting in its final pancake form in the cupped hands, a large heart floating above it.]
Author's notes
Debuted at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival June 6, 2026. At one point fellow artist/zinester Meghan Thompson came by, flipped through it, and said to me: "I would like to buy your hamster... and give you one of my hamsters" and handed me a minizine about a conversation with a hamster-in-a-wheel mind. We had a good laugh - perhaps there should be a club of people who make art about their hamster brains!
After I shared the above story with my friend Antonio, he told me: "In Mexico there's an expression that translates to something like 'their hamster runs fast', and it is used to express admiration for someone smart. And yet, at times the hamster can run a bit too fast for comfort!"