Lena works exclusively on an iPad using brushes modeled after dirty erasers. Her series "Coffee Stains" is the flagship of the digital smudge movement. She proves that you don't need real dust to get the smudge effect; you just need the right algorithm. Her comics about quarter-life crises are famous for having panels that look like they were run through a washing machine—intentionally.

" refers to a curated line of vintage horror and dark fantasy manga published as an imprint by Living the Line

"I was trying to draw a perfect cat," he wrote. "But my hand kept shaking. I was very tired, very stressed about money, and I realized the shaking was more honest than the perfection. The smudge became the point. It’s not a mistake—it’s a record of a moment."

The fluorescent hum of the server room was the only sound in the dead of night. Eli, a junior archivist for the Global Digital Library, rubbed his tired eyes. His job was thankless: cataloging the "Detritus," a massive archive of rejected, unfinished, or corrupted webcomics from the early 2000s.