Comics

WAWAWA 娃蛙娲 (Ongoing)

A colored 2-page spread from the comic WAWAWA. The left and right halves mirror each other's composition, with Tao, a pink haired girl, looking down at Chloe in confusion while Chloe lies on the ground.

A comic about a loser girl whose only friend is a stuffed frog, who meets a girl working in the stuffed frog factory through their mutually intertwined dreams.

READ WAWAWA HERE!

Best read on desktop, but still functional otherwise.

FOAMY (2020)

Cover of the book Foamy. A young woman with two faces looking in opposite directions sits on a bench while the ocean and its creatures burst onto the floor where she's sitting.
Inside page spread of Foamy. On the left is a full-page drawing of a cat lying on its side with the text 'No, they are the bus.' On the right is a complex pattern of overlapping cats in various states of distress.

64 interior pages / 7×9.5 in. / 3-Color Risograph in Flo. Orange, Green, and Violet. Staple bound. / 2020 / Edition of 200

FOAMY is a loose reflection on the lifelong process of managing selfish baby feelings. They're okay when you're an infant, but you have to learn to regulate them as you grow up, or else everyone hates you. This reflection takes the form of doodles collected from the past ~3 years along with miscellaneous photos, which record both mental states and scenes I witnessed that became imprinted on my brain—the tiny heartbreaks that punctuate everyday life. Purchase FOAMY here.

Ellipsis (2019)

Cover of the book Ellipsis. A huge hole in a person's head contains the title text. Their eyes and intensely furrowed brows are visible beneath.
Inside page spread of Ellipsis. The colors are pastel with bursts of saturated red and dark blue/black. The right page's composition is based on a chinese character 藏 meaning to hide/conceal.

24 pg / 6x8.5 in / Offset color / 2019

Ellipsis follows a Chinese egg farmer who becomes a goddess when struck through the head by a piece of hail. The story and page layouts of this comic were inspired by the characters generated when Zhou used an Optical Character Recognition program to interpret family photos. Learn more about the process behind Ellipsis here. Purchase Ellipsis here.

Feast of Peaches (2018)

Cover of the book Feast of Peaches.
Inside page spread of Feast of Peaches. One person carries another on their back through a colorful swirling landscape.

62 pg / 6.5×9.25 in. / 4-color riso print in Yellow, Flo. Pink, Cornflower Blue, Black / Saddle Stitched / 2018 / First Edition of 120

Set in an alternative-future Beijing where koro (penis-shrinking disease) is not a collective delusion but a reality, someone realizes that a mythical Chinese fox spirit who siphons men's souls out through their genitals makes a bad friend. Purchase Feast of Peaches here.

Melt (2017)

Cover of the book Melt.
First page of Melt. The left side is blank. The right side shows a person leaning on a motorbike covered in stickers, with a Beijing street in the background.

16 pg / 6x8 in / 2-color riso print in Flo. Pink and Cornflower Blue / 2017 / Edition of 50

Melt was inspired by the rapid urban renewal processes in Beijing as I witnessed them in 2016-2017, where many homes and small businesses were bricked up or demolished to conform with government planning. E-mail zzzhou.diane@gmail.com if you're interested in buying a copy.

Space Monkey (2014)

Oil painting of a monkey in a space suit floating in space, looking sad, with the words Space Monkey, Diane Zhou overlaid.

Space Monkey is a short comic about Yorick VI, a monkey who was sent to space. Purchase Space Monkey here.