Original Art Sundays No. 232: The Next Sharp Invitation, p. 4

It never lets up, does it? Wasted half a day trying (unsuccessfully) to get rid of annoying adware on my Mac. Very irritating.
Well, back to the work!
I'm quite moved by the death of Prince, and am developing a story on the subject. It will have to wait a bit as the deadline for the draft of Sharp Invitations looms large.
Here's the next page of the current story.

Again, lettering digitally, using the Colleen Doran typeface from Comicraft. The rest is hand work.
This page went through several iterations before I settled on this one. Finding the right pacing and mood was very challenging! I toyed with over-the-top stuff like the bus devouring kids, which I toned down to that second panel. While it's hardly subtle, I like the idea of the smiling bus followed immediately by the "demon bus". We had the shell of a school bus on our land up north, right at the edge of the woods near the creek (which I always pronounced "crick"- hey, when it's your creek, you can pronounce it however you like). I always think about that rusty ghostly shell when I think of my time on the school bus.
The borders in the first two panels are free hand over ruled pencil lines. The third panel has a ruled ink border as well, implying a more grave tone.
There's a great deal of rather obvious (to my mind, at least) foreshadowing on this page. I shan't give away the next page, but I'd be very surprised if anyone was surprised by its contents.
I've rendered buses several times- for some reason, they show up in a fair number of my works. I usually don't spend a lot of time on backgrounds, but inspired by Scott McCloud's suggestion that they be considered environments rather than backdrops, I cribbed this bus layout from a page in the B & W run of ZOT!

Here's another page that uses the bus, from an earlier attempt at a graphic novel on trans issues. This was done shortly after Tranny Towers ended, and was originally intended to tell Athena's story more fully, though I did away with the funny animal motif. Pretty good bus work here too! Maybe I should do a whole story set on a bus some time...
Ahem. Back to the issue at hand.
I have exactly three weeks to complete this project, including a small print run. I will complete the work in roughs, and do as many finishes as time permits before going to press.
Let's get back to it!

Original Art Sundays No. 111: Tranny Towers Support materials

You find the strangest things in a move.

As a case in point, these are pages of character notes for my attempt to expand Tranny Towers into a graphic novel. This attempt was still in the funny animal subgenre, which I let slide away when I created a dozen or so pages of the same story under the title TranScending, some of which I've published here in the past.
Many of the notes are simply extensions of the established characters in the then-current strip. Actually, a few of these characters,
Dena, Athena, Trina and Sonia had lives that predated the strip.
Trina and Sonia appeared in my first strip in TransSisters magazine, and Sonia was in a strip in TNT News a bit later, offering editorial commentary on the MN State anti-welfare legislation that included elimination of state-funded surgeries.
Athena was in my strips in GAY Comics issues 18 and 25.
Dena joined her in issue 25, and both appeared in my first self-published comic, Ink Tantrums No. 1. Drop me a line if you'd like a copy. Out of the 250 print run, I still have about 50.
In addition to the aforementioned appearances and truncated attempts at a larger work, I tried a trans related strip with a lighter touch circa 2003. I submitted the following sample strip to Queue Press around 2003.
One issue came out after the strip's rejection, then the paper folded. So it goes.
This has never been in print.

I rather like this one, but nobody else seemed to. I think it could have been a lot of fun, playing with light hearted gags.
One of the reasons I backed away from doing a long-form story about trans issues is that most of them are  the same story. Outing, bashing, suicide attempt and self-acceptance. It's an important story, but I'd like to think we have more than the one. Rachel Pollack's character Kate in her Doom Patrol run (pictured below) is an example of the possibilities of trans narratives, possibilities that are seldom realized. 

Next week: well, it's Christmas next Sunday and I don't know if I'll be around to blog. I might post early (or set up a timed post or some such).
We'll find out when we get there.
In case I don't see you, may your holidays be kind to you.

Original Art Sundays #80: Tranny Towers, p. 13

Well, the next page of A Private Myth is done, but my scanner access is limited till tomorrow or Tuesday, so please enjoy another Tranny Towers page until then.

A few notes on this page:
First, I really liked the title banner device.
Second, the whole drag show thing that Dan and Dena are dishing about... that's a world I was never much part of. I danced on the periphery of it for a while, but never really got into it. Now, thanks to Ru Paul's Drag Race, the runway show become a default association with trans folks for a great many people, gay and straight. Well and good, but it doesn't really speak to the whole range of our experience. Truth is, living day to day life is not a constant catfight, and I don't put on a ton of makeup, mile-high hair and CFMs to play with the kitty.
I do really like the line "she learned the art of makeup form a paving contractor", however.To me, that dry wit is the best of that world!
I'm not sure if the bottle device works as well as I hoped it might. I wanted to leave the reader with an image of Ricky standing on the roof holding out the bottle with a funnel in it, which struck me as an odd and giving thing to do.  Problem with the page is that the reading path is interrupted so strongly by the bottle. It works, but then again, there may have been a more effective approach, in retrospect.
 There are approximately 24 more pages of Tranny Towers to post. Nine remain from the anthology, and there were 10 or 12 pages that were not collected. The characters also appeared in two strips in GAY Comics, a couple truncated attempts at The Great Transgender Graphic Novel (first as Athena, which predated all other attempts, and then as TranScending, some pages of which have been posted here previously), and some scattered appearances in editorial strips in the late lamented TransSisters magazine. All told, there's somewhere around 50 or 60 pages of these characters. After I've posted them all here, I'll anthologize them. It would be nice to have a comprehensive edition with a spiffy new cover!
I'll post the next page of A Private Myth later this week, right after I scan.

Original Art Sundays # 49: Tranny Towers wraparound cover

In 1995, I prepared a very small and not very professional print run of a Tranny Towers comic book.
Tranny Towers was my strip devoted to a community of transgendered funny animals. It ran in Lavender magazine for about a year and half, 36 strips. Some of the characters showed up in political strips for TransSisters and TNT News.
The character Athena served as the basis for my on-and-off transgendered graphic novel, TranScending.
This comic was not intended for sale, though I did sell one copy to an interested party. It was produced as part of a submission packet for a Xeric Foundation grant. Needless to say, I didn't win the grant, or there would be a lot more of them around!
Finding my only remaining copy a couple days ago, I thought I'd post the work here on weeks when there's no new page of A Private Myth.
Here's the wraparound cover. I just colored it yesterday and today. Pleasantly surprised at the results, considering how little I use Photoshop lately!

Original Art Sundays, No. 30: TranScending pages 12 - 16, placeholder

The good news: the next page of A Private Myth is done.
The tentative bad news: I don't know if I'll have time to scan today, what with grading and lecture prep.
Just to be safe, I'm posting some previously unposted pages from TranScending. I do want to keep posting every Sunday no matter what.
This is the pot-addled romantic/erotic fantasy our heroine goes on at the end of a VERY difficult day.
I will post the new page of APM either later today or within the next 48 hours. Have faith!

 

  

Note that pp. 12 and 13 are intended as a double page spread.
Also, the musical notes echo her mental travels, a device stolen from P. Craig Russell.
I was pretty happy with these pages in general, but the story lost its meaning as my perceptions changed over the years. I may come back to it if I can figure out something fresh to say. Most stories about trans people are about a very few things: self-discovery, transitioning, being outed, love lives, or suicides. Until I find something more interesting to say that hasn't been said before, this one is on the back burner.

Original Art Sundays, No. 28: TranScending, pp. 3 & 4

A bit off schedule this week. The next page of A Private Myth is on the board, but I had some time issues. Also having issues coming up with an interesting layout, as it's a dialogue heavy page.
A rough week. I also didn't make Foot in the Door, but my commitment to it was flagging, so I suppose it's just as well.
Meanwhile, please enjoy these pages from the start-and-stop epic TranScending.

 

These pages of TranScending were done for the PRISM Guide a few years ago. They said no sex, and I went a bit too far in making them tame. Still, I rather like the last panel on p. 3, and the tabloid on p. 2 is an homage to both Daria and Omaha the Cat Dancer.

I have approximately 12 more pages of this done and scattered about. This is a carryover from my attempt at emulating Omaha. Originally the central character, Athena, was a skunk. That's how she appeared in the Tranny Towers strips from 1994-95. 

Just for fun, here's an old Tranny Towers strip. This one appeared in GAY Comix #25.

Note the Gentle Giant quote in the last panel. 

I should post the rest of these just to get them out there.

New page again next week, for sure, and thank you all for your patience!