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Published May 21, 2026

Museum Ghosts

Working in a small museum, I'm not haunted by ghosts. I'm haunted by the people who worked here before me.
“Museum Ghosts” is a comic drawn with black linework for everything except for the ghosts, which are drawn with blue linework. The panels are all painted with blue watercolour. Sadie is the main character. She is a white woman mostly depicted with shoulder-length hair, except for on page 3 panel 1, because she had a mullet back then. The other main characters are the ghosts, who are not specific characters but represent the type of people who can be found working in museums. The ghosts are the classic cartoon representation, the kind that looks like a white sheet with eyes and a mouth cut out. The edge of the sheet is always wavy. Page 1 The captions for panel 1 read: “Between 2021 and 2025, I got some experience working in small local history museums, some located in pretty old heritage buildings. Small museums and ghosts go hand-in-hand, for me.” Panel 1 depicts Sadie, counting the cash from a cash box at a museum reception desk. Sadie counts, ““20…40…60…80.” There is a tag, pointing at her, that reads: “Me at my museum job, counting the cash out loud in reception (I know, embarrassing.)” Panel 2 depicts 2 ghosts that Sadie imagines living in the museum. They can hear her in the background, counting “20…40…60…80” out loud. One says to another, who looks a little mean, “Ha ha, is she dumb?” The caption reads, “Sometimes, my imagination takes over!”Page 2 depicts 3 more ghosts that Sadie imagines living in museums she has worked at. Panel 1 shows a ghost in an artefact collections storage room. A ghost points at a rack of clothing with cloth garment bags over them, that look really similar to the shape of the ghost. The ghost says, “Oh, you thought that was me?” Panel 2 depicts Sadie listening cautiously to some old building sounds in the museum. There is an unnerving “creeeeaaaaak” noise coming from somewhere. A ghost in the panel looks at Sadie in response to the noise and says “yeah, that’s also not me.” Panel 3 shows a TV in the museum, playing the audio, “Welcome to the museum. Please-.” A caption points out, it is a “motion-sensing TV… playing on its own!” A ghost looks at the TV, and says, “ha ha, this might’ve been me.”Page 3 Panel 1 depicts Sadie at a previous museum job, looking at archival photographs in a room with a slanted ceiling and window behind her. There is a tag pointing to the background, that points out it “Was once a bedroom, many families lived here before this was a museum.” The caption reads, “A previous coworker of mine doesn’t believe in ghosts,” The Panel 2 caption reads, “but she says she notices a presence, which I’d agree with.” The panel image depicts a very old, worn-out pair of children’s lace-up boots. A tag pointing at the boots reads “someone’s well-worn shoes.” In Panel 3, we see a close-up of a laptop Sadie is working on, showing a record for the old pair of boots. In the section of the record detailing their storage location, it vaguely says, “Location: Box 2. Inventory done by: E.M.” There are some watercolour lines radiating outward from the laptop because the lack of information noted in the record is stressful to Sadie. The caption for Panel 3 reads, “I am becoming aware of a different kind of ghost now, that contributes to a ‘presence.’”Page 4 Panel 1 shows Sadie incredulous, looking at the laptop and exclaiming, “Who is E.M??” The caption reads, “...the ghosts of past staff, volunteers, and interns!” Panel 2 depicts Sadie asking a coworker with curly hair, “Have you heard of someone named E.M?” Panel 3 depicts her coworker shrugging at Sadie and saying “Nope!” in response. The caption for Panel 4 reads, “Often, small museums have ongoing ‘revolving door’ issues.” Three ghosts are depicted. The first cringes and says, “Sorry, I left for a job that paid a living wage with benefits.” The second says glumly, “my 6 month grant-paid contract ended.” The third says matter-of-factly, “I got laid off because they couldn’t afford to keep me.”Page 5 The caption for page 5 says, “A vicious cycle starts: museums don’t have enough funding to provide staff with adequate pay, hours, and benefits.” The first half of the page shows a ghost saying, “I was in charge of our volunteer program, education, and the giftshop! I went somewhere that pays more, for less responsibility.” Next to the ghost is a picture of a volunteer working on collections records, with a caption that reads “Now: Unsupervised (well-intentioned) volunteer making mistakes.” The second half of the page shows a ghost who says, “I never had a chance to finish cataloguing this donation, before my contract ended!” There is an image of artefacts sitting on shelves, and the caption reads, “Now: Donation backlog that hasn’t been touched for 5 years.”Page 6 The first half of the page shows the third ghost, saying “They don’t plan to replace me. Without anyone in the collections storage, I worry about deterioration due to pests, climate, and light, going unnoticed.” Underneath, is an image of what someone would see if they look down at their feet in the artefact storage. They see pests such as cluster flies. The caption reads, “pest problems,” with a frowny face. In the panel at the bottom of the page, the caption reads “Lack of funding creates more work for museums down the road, making the need for staff even more pressing than it was!” A ghost reacts to this caption by exclaiming “not cool!”Page 7 In panel one, the caption says “So now…I feel guilty…leaving my part- time small museum job for a larger government institution with better pay and full-time hours.” Sadie is now drawn with a blue outline instead of black, like the ghosts are. She works on her laptop and looks tired. In the final panel, the caption says, “I, too, am becoming a museum ghost.” A ghost says, somewhat playfully, “Whether or not real ghosts wander museums, ideally we can reduce these ‘institutional ghosts.’” Advocate for your local museums! Visit, volunteer, donate, and tell politicians how cool they are! (Or I might visit you at night.)” At the bottom of the page are Sadie’s signature, and Instagram handle, which is @artbysade.
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