Original Art Sundays No. 171: Surrealist Cowgirls Cover

I'm really not trying to stall the end of the story! I'm really not!
But last week, I was thinking about the Cowgirls and the cover for the collection when I happened to open Evergreen's 2000 Edition of Little Nemo. There was an ad from September 2, 1911, promoting the strip moving to Hearst's papers. Regrettably, I did not think to scan the ad for this entry. This delightful little ad had the layout, and more importantly, the spirit of the Cowgirls: exciting, inviting and somewhat silly.
With that in mind, I drew up a quick cover. Then it was off to the scanner and into Photoshop for the coloring. Parts of the drawing, like Maggie's raised hand, were quite off, but I fixed them in Photoshop rather than going back to the drawing board. I'm quite happy with the final product.
I might do this yet again, just to try it as hand coloring.

I'm not 100% happy with the text block, and I still need to add the Ground Zero Press logo.But the colors work, I like the design and, most importantly, the mood.
No matter what else, the Surrealist Cowgirls are about joy.
Production notes: I think I have an end-run around my scanner issues that will not cost me anything (I am so stingy these days!). Also, next week I'll begin my annual review of the year's best comics!
See you then, if not before!

Original Art Sundays no. 133: Tranny Towers, ch. 35

Two more after this one.

Notes:
Took the black and white motif of the chapter title and played with a typeface I liked to create the logo for this chapter.
It felt good to draw the building exterior again, not seen on-panel since the first strip. I went back to that strip, and to the Little Nemo page I took the basic design from, to be sure I got it right.
It looks a bit like Ricky standing frame right in Panel 3, but it's not intended to be him. Also, note Concrete being shoved aside by Sonia. He shows up again in the last panel.
Yeah, I screwed up and had Sonia shouting her own name instead of her ex-partner Trina's. I can either rationalize it by saying she was distraught (chalk it up to trauma), or I can fix it later, before going to press with the collection. I might just let it be as it is.
The "heat lines" in panel one frustrated me. I put them in, I took them out. It was printed without them, but I put them back for this presentation. I think I'll leave them in.
I'm quite fond of the broken border in Panel 2.
This whole page is about your life being torn apart by something so large it seems elemental (fire, water, earth, air). And she's been one of the two more together ones of our little funny animal trans cadre, so having it happen to her is much more dramatic/turbulent.
Ironically, as I was driving in to work yesterday, there was an SUV in flames at the intersection of Hennepin & Lake in Uptown Minneapolis. Smoke filled the cab, flames licked at the undercarriage of the once- white body. I was thinking about posting this strip right before I saw it.
Next week: after the fire...