Original Art Sundays (Tuesday) no. 372: Final Tranny Towers collection cover

 Another piece related to Autoptic '24.

As I've mentioned here in the past, I had some reservations about collecting my old Tranny Towers strips, largely because I thought the title might give offense. My Comic History students last semester encouraged me to give it a go.

I have collected all the strips, with a few extras, and am offering them publicly for the first time this coming Saturday. This is not the "Omnibus" collection. For that, I need to collect related works from other publications and create some new work to finalize the storyline. But it is all the strips, plus a few cool extras.

In reviewing the material, I was reminded of those times, and of how much I really had to say. While my craft was still maturing, my creativity was ablaze in these strips! My awareness of trans issues of the time was evident in these strips. It was a great time, and I hope that comes across in the work.

Some time ago, I did a new cover, based on the concept of "getting the band back together." I finished adding color to it, and here we go!

I hope this wraparound cover makes you as happy as it does me. Hope to see you Saturday!

Original Art Sundays No. 367: Sharp Invitations: Esther's Hands, p. 9

 Here we go with the next page.

When we left our adventure, our heroine (me) had just been introduced to- indoctrinated in?- Tolkein.

Read on.

Lots to unpack on this seemingly simple page. In the first panel, there's a quiet family moment. The younger brother reading the comic, a youthful me with a Beatles haircut reading a teen magazine, sporting the disaffected demeanor of a 14 year old. It felt light, so I added textures to the couch and a holding line to define the corner of the room. One of my Beta readers pointed out that the line also establishes division between me and the rest of the visible family.

The second panel went through several revisions. I had settled on a tight close up of Mother's eyes while she read, but I went with a profile shot of her instead. The scope of a stack of books and a random texture for a background got the message across more clearly. The randomness of the stack foreshadows later events in Mother's life. In a caption, I was able to allude to the passing of years with just a few words. This is an old comic artist's trick. How do you draw an army of 10,000 advancing soldiers? You draw two generals talking. One of them points off panel and says, "Look, here comes an army of 10,000 advancing soldiers!" Of course, if you're Al Williamson or Wally Wood, you just draw the furshlugginer army, to quote Harvey Kurtzman (yay, early MAD!). Yeah, I know it's a Yiddish word that he appropriated and that's not quite the right meaning. I'm okay with that. Hey, if it's good enough for Harvey....

The skipped years will show up in the next chapter, the one on my Father.

The final panel is subdivided. I was looking for a better way to convey an old school phone call. I like the visual device of a phone cord as a panel divider, but I've used it so many times, going back to the Tranny Towers strips (I haven't forgotten about my mad scheme to get those ancient scrolls back into print. Soon, my pretties....).  The device of isolating each speaker within a larger panel seemed to serve. I toyed with the idea of adding weight through a background texture in the white space between the circles, but it proved distracting in tissue overlays, so I again concluded that less is more. Another possibility considered and rejected: dropping the holding border. I also thought about doing a little arrow text box to call out the early 80s perm I briefly sported, but it seemed distracting and redundant. The perm also foreshadows my first tentative steps to being more publicly femme.Technical considerations: the shape and position of word balloons was embarrassingly bad. I was able to move things around in Photoshop with relative ease.

All told, a simple quiet page that advances the story. 

Tool list:

• Papers: tracing paper, various sketchbooks, Canson Bristol board
  
• Pencils: Lyra 2B graphite stick, 4B lead and holder, 2B Ticonderoga classic, tech pencil and 4B lead
  
• Erasers: kneadable, vinyl eraser, Click eraser
• Hand Tools: 6" and 14" straightedge, triangle, T-square, French curves
• Inking tools: Dr.Martin's Black Magic ink, nib and holder, Princeton Deerfoot 1/4" mini detailer brush (love this brush!), Escoda Kolinsky no. 4 brush, Richeson Kolinsky  no. 2 brush
• Markers: Micron 0.25, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0 and Copic 0.25
• And of course, Photoshop

Next page: come out, come out....
 

Original Art Sundays No. 295: Sharp Invitations: Curt, p. 33

 Hi, all.

After numerous delays, here is the next page.

This one was a huge challenge. The actual layout and illustration was relatively easy. The art and layout only took a day or two. But in doing it, I had to face my own stupidity and relive some stuff I've long put behind me. 

I'm not that person any more, and revisiting her was anguish. Still, memoir demands honesty, so here we are. My challenge remains the same: show these events honestly without romanticizing or sensationalizing them. I'm not doing violence porn.

When we left off, I had taken a few too many prescription meds, washed them down with liquor, grabbed a knife and headed for the bathroom. What happened next is pretty predictable.

I had drawn this conventionally, using conventional tools. When the art was done, I realized that this page would be more effective reversed out, so Photoshop to the rescue again! I penciled the borders with a straightedge and inked them freehand to get that ragged effect I use from time to time. 

The tub panel is a variation on a panel I used in a similar storyline in my old Tranny Towers strip.

Thoughts: the bathtub looks like a coffin. I wasn't overtly aware of that until I worked on this page. Also, since that day, I've preferred showers to baths. It's still hard for me to relax in the tub. I didn't make that connection until this.

Abuse victims are prone to depression and suicide attempts, especially while it's going on. This is not unique to trans people. I contend that our suicide rate is higher, not because we're more unstable (we're not), but because so many people seem to want to make our lives harder, either for "our own good" or for their own venal, perverse amusement. When supported and encouraged to live full lives, trans people tend to thrive. Yes, some of us are messed up, but you could say the same about cis people. That just makes us human. As noted in the "Get A Job" chapter of this book, when I came out to my boss, I was told that they would be watching my work more closely, even though I was the same person doing the same job. Think about that for a minute. When you come out, your relationships, family, home and safety are threatened. Great time to add stress to the job! Thanks, boss!

That approach has improved in a lot of companies and organizations over the ensuing years. The narrative now is, more often than not, "what can we do to help?" Likewise, many families and loved ones are now much more supportive of trans people in their lives. Again, far from everyone, but it's better.

I am grateful that at least some of the world is behaving more humanely about trans issues.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Sexual Violence Center. I suppose I still do, but I don't think I'm really strong enough for that. Maybe. Another day. Not to minimize my experience, but compared to some abuse victims, I got off fairly easy. I always want to help, but... well, I still have emotional limits, I suppose.

There's a bit more of this chapter of the story to complete, and some pages from it will be shown at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design's Faculty Biennial exhibition this fall. I'll keep you posted.

Tools for this page:

• Canson Bristol board
• Graphite stick, lead holder with 3B leads, Ticonderoga 2B classic pencil
• China marker/ grease pencil
  
• Windsor & Newton eraser, kneadable eraser
• Straightedges and T-Squares
• Dr. Martin's Black Star ink
  
• FW Artist's Acrylic white
• Photoshop

Next: Will I get out of the tub in time? Will I bleed to death as I pass out? Will an ambulance be called? Find out next week.

Original Art Sundays No. 288: Inktober, Week 2

 Next page of Sharp Invitations is about 3/4 done. Rather than skip a week of posting art, here's some more work from this year's Inktober.

I may make a booklet of these.

D

 Day eight: Zorro.

So many great inkers have worked on Zorro. I've always been partial to Jesse Marsh, Tom Yeates (there's a definitive collection of the Yeates/McGregor Zorro strip soon- hooray!) and of course, Alex Toth. A perennial favorite, Russ Manning, even did a couple tryout strips! 

Such a great character, romantic and driven by justice.

This is loosely inspired by the recent McGregor Kickstarter comic. Almost no under-drawing here, just some brush work. I do love working with dry brush techniques. One of my goals for this year was to improve my versatility and craft.

Day nine:

Another work in walnut ink. I got this really cool catalog of fashion for the more zaftig woman, and she was the cover and one of the interior pages. 

A little more time on the under-drawing this time. Mostly brush work, but a bit of crow quill. I think the outline on the figure could be a bit more consistent. This is always the question: when does one ink right up to the figure, and when does one leave a silhouette? For me, it's about the quality of the figure's holding line. If I'm pleased with that line, I want to preserve it, and the best way to do that is to leave the ghost space.

Day Ten:

This is my character Blue Wild Abandon, who has never appeared outside my sketchbooks before. She's an intergalactic bounty hunter and seeker of justice. Her symbol is the Jungian icon for hero. I will render it more tightly in her first adventure, tentatively titled "No Beast so Fierce". It will be a while before we see it, since I have two stories ahead of it in the queue!

She looks slightly different from one drawing to another. She's been showing up in my sketches for years, but I only recently realized who she is. Then I tied her to an SF story outline I wrote decades ago, and it clicked.

Day Eleven:

Inspired by Trina Robbins' recent wonder, Flapper Queens: Women Cartoonists of the Jazz Age, I decided to try my hand at fashion illustration.

The proportions are weird. The face is sparse.

But boy, was this fun!

Quick pencil sketch, many corrections on the ink. This was was a little Micron, a lot of crow quill, and a BIG brush for the few heavy inks.

Day Twelve:

Athena from my old Tranny Towers strip.

I haven't drawn her for years.

I would love to do a collection of that strip, and include the related work that appeared at the time- my Gay Comics pages using the characters, the self- published work with her from around that time, my editorial cartoons for 90s trans political magazines. Also some paper dolls I was working on and some background sketches and sundries. Make a nice little book.

But in today's political climate, trans people can't even call themselves tranny without someone taking offense. It makes me sad, but I think I've talked myself out of the collection for now. 

Athena's bra and panty set is inspired by Francine in Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise #1.

Day Thirteen:

Ray Shulman of Gentle Giant. Taken from a photo in the Italian Super Star compilation album booklet!

Much as I love the band, I seldom draw or write about them. Back when I first started posting my work, about a million years ago, I posted some pages from a comic adaptation of the GG song Little Brown Bag. Gentle Giant comics came up in a discussion of a proposed documentary online recently, so that project, an anthology titled Gentle Giant Comics and Stories, could see life again.

 

I do already have a lot of projects, but my enthusiasm does not abate.

Day Fourteen:

Usagi Yojimbo

This was just fun to draw. Stan Sakai has a style that is deceptively simple. But when you take a closer look at his technique, it's clear he's a master. Subtle variations in line weight, and facial expressions that tell the whole story.

I tell my writing students that knowing what to leave out is as important as knowing what to put in. Sakai is the master there.

That's all for now. I'll save the last 17 Inktober sketches in case I need them to meet a Deadline Doom here, as the Marvel editors used to call it.

Next: back to Sharp Invitations.

Original Art Sundays no. 281: The Third Sharp Invitation, p. 3

 Back in the saddle again!

The story is reasonably predictable, but necessary, at this point. I'm in hospital, as the British say, and surgery is imminent. I freely stole this visual idea from myself. This is a theme that I used in a Tranny Towers strip about surgery: the idea of talking heads drifting in and out of the patient's mind as anesthetic takes hold. I also reincorporated the concept of one person's line leading to the next person, using words as "connecting footage". 

Thoughts on style:

The flowing smoky bits behind the spectral images can be read as many different things: positive shapes, negative shapes, abstract landscape, even cowhide! As long as they convey the overall sense of non-place, I'm content. I'm so tickled by leaving out the borders here and there.

Getting the overhead lights in the operating theater to "read" the way I wanted them to was a bit of a challenge. But once I decided on a neutral value instead of a cluster of smaller lights, I just needed my trusty graphite stick and I was in business.

For some reason, drawing the mask was an irritant! Possibly a psychosomatic reaction to the world of the last 18 months.

Still not quite back to real inks! My studio space is just about the way I want it, but I want a precise, pristine space before I jump into ink again. Amazing how owning your home instead of renting changes your perspective on some things...

I am feeling renewed conviction and confidence in the work. As I noted with joy the evolution of trans communities in recent years, I spent considerable time (probably too much time) pondering whether my story retained any relevance. I finally concluded that this wasn't my decision. I am committing (or trying to) to the mantra of just putting it out there and trusting my readers to see its merits for themselves.

Materials:

Canson Bristol
Lead Holder
No. 3 graphite stick
Various erasers
Micron tech pens, .01, .03, .05, .08, 1.0
Old school Chartpak black marker (for large areas)
Faber Castell brush markers, small and large
Tight Spot correction brush
FW Acrylic White for corrections
Photoshop for a bit of clean up

Next: Surgery, awakening

Original Art Sundays (Monday) No 275: Tranny Towers: Athena Paper Dolls

Hello my lovelies!
Back after some delay. I did this page a while ago, but am just now finding time to post.
Now that I am fully healed (I think) from my car crash of two years ago, and both jobs have a measure of equilibrium, I am bringing several projects back to the proverbial front burner.
Don't worry, I am still plugging away at Sharp Invitations. Hell or high water, I will get that done.
One of these neglected projects is a collected edition of Tranny Towers, Another of those projects I've nibbled at for a while. Well, here's another little taste.
I have an enduring love of paper dolls, especially in comics. I've waxed enthusiastic about this before, and did some for the Surrealist Cowgirls. To complete the Tranny Towers collection (which a couple folks asked about at May's Queers and Comics conference, I need several things, including paper dolls of all the principal characters.
Here's the first, of my favorite character Athena.

The wardrobe is a bit lighter than many such pages. Usually, there are three or four outfits. If there's time later, I'll do a second page of just outfits for her! The lingerie is nowhere near as sexy in my drawing as it is in the George Petty painting from which it's taken. But the other outfits are self-explanatory, I think.I love using wonderful clothes from popular culture as paper doll outfits!
Also, there's the inevitable political aspect of celebrating the bodies of trans people, even if they are cartoon characters and skunks. I've drawn her a bit more zaftig than in past work, as she's aged a bit (haven't we all?). That's the way she'll appear, more or less, in the concluding story that resolves all the principal characters' lives.
Equipment used is the same as on the last page, but a bit more brush work than usual on this one.
Next: more story

Original Art Sundays (Saturday) No. 256: Curt, p. 15

This page was done on Sunday, except for the first panel. For some reason, the comapratively easy first panel took just days.
Overall it's working, but there are some things I'd like address down the line (aren't there always?).
Here we go.
When we left our heroine (me), she had said goodbye to Sara, the trans woman she met at the library and fell for (well, it was mutual, and it was really hot, though we didn't call it that then). A few days later, Diana's (my) boyfriend came to town for his bimonthly weekend date. I confused and terrified myself. Here I was with a guy who was traveling hundreds of miles to see me and talking of marriage. And I had just taken up with a woman, who was more exciting and interesting in every way. What to do? Well, I am a Minnesotan, so the watchword is denial.
Read on.

Here are some technical and narrative considerations.
The page is working well, for the most part. The captions describing our shallow debaucheries are fun.
There are a lot of things here I like visually. The panel progression, leading the reader to the banner panel at the bottom of the page, is an engaging layout.
The darks in the first panel could be a bit stronger, but it's acceptable. I like the way the cozy cuddle between us came out. We did share a fascination with Star Trek (and with Frank Zappa, but he liked the potty humor more, and I liked the experimental music).
The second panel: not sure about this one. The lights and darks are working well. But it's not as clear as I might like what we're really doing. The joint is buried in the dark shadows of the hands. I don't think the viewer can tell we're smoking demon hemp. I think I'll try another version of that panel and cut it in later, probably a close-up two shot with the joint featured more prominently.
Looking back on that night, it's astounding that neither of us were injured by passing something burning between us when we were both nude and stoned. Dumb luck, I guess.
Panel three was a different sort of challenge. Despite my proselytizing for freedoms, I'm a bit of a prude at times, usually odd and unexpected times. While I've known it was on the horizon for a while, the idea of drawing myself having sex turned out to be a bit more daunting than expected. I've drawn my characters, including characters that are obvious stand-ins for me like Athena in Tranny Towers, behaving sexually before. But this is No Excuses time. If you're telling your story, don't leave out anything important. This was not our first time by any stretch, and the story of the first time will be told (briefly) towards the end of the book. For now, just let it be said that we had a powerful sex life. Sometimes that's all we had. Drawing sex is challenging. I think the silhouette is a good option in this case.
The last panel was also a daunting emotional outing. While it was not the only time he choked me while in the (for lack of a better term) throes of passion, it was a shock the first time out. I tried to draw his expression at the time, a combination of passion, ecstasy and rage, but I couldn't get it quite right, so I opted for my reaction instead.
I'll let the reader judge the success of the outcome on that one. I think it works, at least aesthetically.
Thought on structure: the part of the story related to Delia has to come after this, since that's the order in which it happens. There's an allusion to Curt's penchant for choking me in that episode as well, which is why it comes to mind here.
Materials used on this page:
Canson Recycled Bristol
Lead holder
Solid Lead #4B
Magic Rub eraser
Crow Quill and nibs
#4 Richeson synthetic brush
Tight Spot correction brush
Dr. Martin's Black Star Walnut Ink
FW Acrylic White
Micron Markers #3, 4, 6 and 8
Faber Castell Brush Markers
Really, when it comes down to it, that's one of the keys to doing this book. Like any memoir, it's as much about the creator understanding herself as it is about offering something to the reader. I see the pieces of this life in the order in which they happened, but their cumulative impact is non-linear, and the graphic memoir is an attempt to understand how the pieces fit together.
Good or bad or both, these are the events that shaped me, and through me, shaped the people I loved, hated and irritated. Somehow I suspect there are more in the last group than there are in the other two.
Next: more Curt, ideally. I really need to finish this chapter, since it's so emotionally draining. But it shapes so much of what comes later, I don't want to give it short shrift.

Original Art Sundays No. 255: Curt, p. 14

Hey, look! I'm still here! And yes, Virginia, there is still a graphic memoir in the works.
This page took forever and a day. But we got here.
I have been wrestling with this page for two months. Usually I can do a decent page in a day, or a week if the time is tight. But this one gave me no end of trouble. At first it was an emotional challenge. The events portrayed here were not my shining hour, and recounting them remains more difficult than I anticipated. I finally decided that there's no point in sugar coating this stuff, and resolved to just do the page.
I got to work and the page was about 3/4 done.
I hated it.
With a bright purple passion.
Oh, there was nothing really wrong with it. The drawing was adequate at worst, the writing was tight enough, and the layout was serviceable.  But it was so boring! 2 shot, 2 shot, 2 shot, tight on hands, figure seated and cowboy shot framed in doorway. 6 panel grid, 2 x 3. All straight on. It was a dialogue heavy page where nothing was happening visually.
Between drawing a couple operas and sneaking in a few other pieces to keep my hand in, I got a revised version on the board. And got it done in proper time, once begun, thank you very much.

The final version. Possibly.

This iteration still has it issues, and I'll get to those in a moment. As regular readers know, I'm fairly harsh in evaluating my work.
But the page is working in ways the original version wasn't.
It's about the embrace, whereas the previous version put equal emphasis on everything. Giving the page a focal element gives narrative direction and helps the reader understand what's important.
The isolated quiet moment in panel one: very happy with that.
The open panel two: The embrace works, the figures are slightly elongated (as I tend to do), and the dialogue is fairly well placed.
Panel three, the hands parting: Even though I still have issues with them after all these years, I do love drawing hands. To overcome my issues around rendering hands, I did an entire strip using nothing else during the Tranny Towers days.
Not 100% happy with the figure in Panel 4, but the pose and facial expression are just what I was anticipating.
The last panel gets the character (me) out of her bewildered fantasy and reverie and back into the mess she's making for herself. The last panel is also crucial in that I'm not on camera in that one. Again, variety is the watchword.I like the use of the arched background giving the last panel weight. This page remains a bit light, and deliberately sparse on environments/backgrounds. Still have to work on spotting more heavy blacks, though I'm at ease with not always doing so. I do like the claire ligne style a lot!
Just for information and integrity, Sara was not the first trans woman with whom I was intimate after coming out (none before then, if you're keeping track). But she was the second, and the first one who mattered.
I might try a fourth iteration of this page down the line, when I'm reviewing to for publication. But if I'm ever going to reach that point, I have to move forward. Seeking perfection in this kind of work can be another evasion tactic. Move on with the story.
Tools used on this page:
Canson Recycled Bristol Board

The previous version. Nothing wrong with it,
just blah.

Lead holder, #2 and #4 lead, Magic Rub erasers
Staetler Line Markers, .02 and .06
Faber Castell Small Tip brush marker
Dr. Martin's Black Star Walnut Ink
Various crow quills
 #4 Richeson synthetic brush for spotting heavy blacks
FW Acrylic White and Tight Spot brush for corrections
I'm including the flawed second version as a point of reference. The first version was a sketchbook layout, and we will not speak of it again.
This is an adequate page. It's just not very good storytelling.
Last night I attended a presentation by Venus de Mars, a retrospective of her life and creative career, as much as one can summarize such things in less than an hour. We chatted briefly about our scattered old times- knowing her as long as I have, I'm astounded at how little time we've really spent hanging out. There are reasons and reasons for these things, and after a while they don't matter. I suppose that's part and parcel of working in different art forms, though I also respect her drawing and painting.
No, when you've known someone a while, the other stuff fades. You just remember the joys and marvel at the simple fact that we both survived.
This comes to mind as Venus is also working on a memoir.
Maybe it's just time to do them. Being me, of course, I was intimidated by someone whose life and career have had such incredible highs (at least from the outside) working on something similar to what I'm doing. I sat in awe and deep respect for her unflagging commitment to herself, her love and her career, feeling wholly inadequate.
That, my dears, is self-indulgent twaddle.
I was watching a Neil Gaiman interview a while ago. During the Q & A, someone asked him if fantasy writing was going to go out of fashion. His reply, insightful as always, ended with  (paraphrasing) "literary fashions and trends don't matter. Tell your story as best you can, put it out there and let it find its audience."
Thanks, Neil. I needed that. My natural tendency to judge myself and my work against the work and lives of others, and to find myself wanting in some area or other, remains my worst enemy when it comes to creation. What say we take another stab at knocking that off and just get the work done?
I'll write it and draw it. You just relax and read it.
Next: more Sharp Invitations. I am anxious to move on from the Curt story, but that will only happen when it's all told. I anticipate another 5 - 6 pages before we reach that point.
And yes, there is another opera on the horizon. Thais is about 6 weeks away.

Original Art Sundays (Wednesday) No. 261: Tranny Towers Complete cover!

Hi folks;
A week off my game, but never mind. I've had this piece stewing on the back burner for a couple months now. After numerous false starts, here we go. Now it can be told.
I am compiling all the Tranny Towers material. I am planning a Kickstarter. The Complete Tranny Towers. The Tranny Towers Omnibus. Or maybe, as it says on the mockup for the Kickstarter campaign page, just Tranny Towers Complete. I will post notice here when the Kickstarter goes live.
While preparing for this, I realized there were problems with the previous cover. It was drawn for a comic collection in black & white, and while the color added later was successful for the most part, the textures I added were awful. Also, the idea of Athena imagining herself and her trans family as sophisticates while they all have pizza and watch movies on TV was too clever by half. It just didn't translate from the image.
I played with ideas for a new cover for some time. Nothing gelled. In frustration, I thought, "how hard can it be to get the band back together?"
There it was.
I began playing with ideas. Since the strip was from the 90s, I went to girl bands I was listening to at that time. Our ladies as The Runaways. Our ladies as Bonnie Raitt and her backing band. Our ladies as the Bangles. That one was pretty close. I toyed with images based on the All Over the Place (still my favorite Bangles album- so raw!) era shots of the Bangles lounging on a couch. Still not quite right.
Once again, Archie saved the day. I found an alternative cover for The Archies no. 1. It was perfect. I lifted the poses and the setting. I haven't added color yet, but when I do, it will be faithful to the original cover, but with the right skin tones for my girls. I had reservations about using Archie comics as reference again. However, in my search for inspiration, I looked at The Art of Jaime Hernandez. Hey, if Love and Rockets pays homage to, and swipes from, Archie, why the heck shouldn't I?
Here it is.

In case people have forgotten who's who, here's a rundown. Relaxing on the floor, writing sheet music: Athena Hunter, MtF post-op trans woman, bi. Behind the couch, drumsticks in hand: Trina, cis lesbian, and partner of Sonia Kertzer, seated on couch with sheet music in hand. Next to her: Dena Statsin, lead guitar, pre-op MtF trans woman, straight. Seated at the end on bass: Dijan LaSalle, cis drag performer, gay male.
No, they're not a band in the original strip. I am going to do a short story in which they become a band for a brief shining moment, both to rationalize the cover and because it sounds like a fun story.
The collection should be about 100 -120 pages, when all is said and done. It will also include related stories from my other work, including the original Ink Tantrums book, attempts at a graphic novels using the characters, and editorial cartoons I did for TransSisters and TNT News magazines.
I'll also be doing paper dolls of each of the five protagonists, and a new story to give a sense of how everyone ended up. It is a soap opera, after all, and my readers never really got closure.
In case you've forgotten, this is the old cover, which was used in black & white as part of a Xeric Grant proposal so many years ago.

There are practical considerations to the new cover. The proportions of the cover may be a tad off. This is intended to serve as a wraparound cover. Ideally, the spine will fall near the edge of the couch. It will be easy enough to extend the right edge with large flat blocks of color to make this happen, if need be. Also, the large black area on the floor can easily be cropped or extended if necessary. Bear in mind that at this stage, we don't know how thick the spine will be! There's also ample air for copy placement on the back cover, and on the front cover near those windows and in the aforementioned black area of the floor.
In short, the piece is designed so I can play with it until it's technically right, if it's not already so.
Materials used:
Canson Recycled Bristol board
Straightedge, triangle and T-square
No. 2B and no. 4B solid graphite sticks
Lead holder and No. 4 lead
Magic Rub eraser
Dr. Martin's Black Star High Carbon Walnut Ink, which I continue to love
3/4" Princeton synthetic brush, flat
No. 4 Escoda Reserva Kolinksy Tamyr brush, flat
No. 4 Princeton Synthetic brush, round
Faber Castell brush tip marker, 80% gray
Crow quill and nib
Tight Spot angled correction brush
FW Acrylic White
I am enjoying the No. 4 brushes a lot. 
I have some reservations about starting a  new project before completing Sharp Invitations. But as I've confided privately to several friends, I relive my pains and stupidities (along with the joys) when doing that work, and it's emotionally draining. It's vital, and I'll keep doing it, but sometimes I need a hiatus. This is a project I can complete in fairly quick order (though I suspect fulfillment will be a nightmare). Also, it's pure joy. I had forgotten how much fun I have drawing the Tranny Towers characters!
Next: back to Sharp Invitations, either the Curt story or a long-promised single page story.

Original Art Sundays No. 259: Sharp Invitations: Curt, p. 13

Posting on a Sunday again. That's good. Life remains hectic, but I turned a corner on a couple things in my personal life this week. I won't elaborate here. Suffice to say that some things are more manageable.
When we left our heroine (me) and Sara, I had just spoken my attraction to her.
Read on.

Just the facts, ma'am: That's exactly what she said to me before we kissed.
Sara was not the first trans woman I was interested in, but (not to deride her predecessor), she was the first one that mattered. The previous one was an act of desperation as my marriage was ending and I was feeling unloved and running scared. Was this also desperation as Curt's abuse began to manifest itself? Maybe on some level, but the most important thing to me was my attraction to her. Then and there, nothing else mattered.
To be completely clear, and for the umpteenth time, this is not how Sara looks, nor her proper name.
Technical notes: the inks were fairly cooperative today. When considering the background, I went with angled strokes, a technique I used on a page of A Private Myth years ago. It works to make the figures pop.
The lamp, however, is another story.
The intent was to anchor the setting with an element from the opposite side of the room, 90 degrees off. That way, when you see the lamp on the opposite side, you have a sense of motion and place.
Nice idea, but I don't think it works.
For one thing, while it's technically accurate, the lamp is pretty blah to look at, and adds very little visually. For another thing, it doesn't really communicate space the way I hoped it would. When I was done with it, I thought it was a separate and rather boring drawing that just happened to be on the same board. So I took the lamp out. Here is the result.

I hope you agree that it's better this way. I continue to work on my environments, but the old axiom remains valid. Sometimes less really is more.
I used one of my favorite devices here, making a complete border by dropping out opposite edges. I like that one. It gives a sense of unity, while still allowing plenty of air.
Materials used on this page:
Canson recycled Bristol board
Ellipse templates, triangle, T-square
Dr. Martin's Hi-CArbon Walnut Ink (continue to love this stuff)
Princeton #4 round synthetic brush (also rapidly becoming a favorite)
Crow quill pen and nib
Faber Castell 20% gray brush marker
Magic Rub eraser
Next: either the next page of this story or the long promised new Tranny Towers piece.

Original Art Sundays No. 252: Sharp Invitations: Curt, p. 10

Welcome back!
I feel like I did back when I was drawing Tranny Towers on deadline. There's an energy to this I've not felt for some time. My art is flowing, and while it may not be as self-consciously inventive as it was on those strips, I'm pretty happy with the way it's turning out.
This memoir stuff poses some unusual challenges. As I noted to friends on Facebook, here I am tasked with drawing my own butt as I remember it from more than 20 years ago.
Some doors should not be opened.
But it looks like it turned out all right.
Ahem.
When last we left our heroines, me and Delia, she had awakened in my bed, screamed, slapped herself and went back to sleep. I was left sitting up in bed, nonplussed to say the least.
Read on.

Much to like here, I think. I've used the local color/texture of the wall to give the top tier a bit more weight. I wanted to keep the figures light on this one.
The hand fasting image turned out fairly well. I suppose I could have put a pattern on the ribbon she used, but the truth is, it was just a plain ribbon- pink, I think.
While I'm reluctant to overuse silhouette (after all, it's only been a couple pages back that we had a whole page done in that), I think it works and it's necessary here.
Real life notes: this happened. Delia sprung this on me with no warning, just lightly tossed the ribbon over both our hands. There was no official knot, which is part of many such ceremonies. She later laughed about it and said it was just some dumb thing she did on a whim. But she was a pagan who took her faith seriously, so I think that was just a cynical front. I think that in her eyes, however briefly, she and I were married.
I did attend her wedding to her boyfriend, the one she was living with while we were, ahem, keeping company, some years later. As far as I know they're still together. They live on the West Coast now.
She really did say the classic line from the pagan ceremony, "death does not part, only lack of love", but she said it during a later phone conversation.
Further technical notes: the world balloon in the first panel didn't behave. Also, I wasn't paying attention and ruled the panel borders on the right edge clear out to the cut line of the Bristol! Luckily, I caught it in time to fix it.
Doing the "squint test", I think the white highlights inside the silhouette of the last panel may not have been necessary, but by the same token, I don't think they do any real harm. Perhaps the hand fasting and the panel below it could have used a bit more weight, but I think they serve as they are.
Looking at past strips, I have a mountain of reworks to consider if I want this book to have integrity. So many decisions. Well, make them one at a time, and review before committing to a final version.
So there you have it. Without meaning to, I had a lesbian wedding in the 90s. Sort of. While I was seeing another woman, and seeing Curt. I guess that doesn't really count. But in the moment, it sure felt like it did.
I hope she's doing okay.
Materials used on this page:
Canson XL Recycled Bristol Board, 96 lb.
#4 soft lead in lead holder
.03, .05 and .08 tech markers
#0 and #2 synthetic brushes
Crow quill nib and holder
FW Acrylic Artist's White
Dr. Martin's Black Star High Carbon India Ink (love this stuff!)
Magic Rub Eraser
And of course, Photoshop, but very little.
Next: a quick gag page, and the first page of the next facet of the Curt chapter.

Original Art Sundays No. 245: Sharp Invitations: Curt, p.4

Despite having a drunk total my car and bruise my poor body last night, I am delighted that I can post the next page today. I finished it last night about 2 hours before work, so all is good.
If you recall, our hapless heroine (me) was just getting to know her new boyfriend, but had a feeling something was wrong.
Hey, it's a relationship, so there's usually SOMETHING wrong at some point but this was ...different.
Next page:

 There's a lot that I like here, artistically and in terms of narrative.
One of the big issues I have with graphic memoir (which I'm teaching as a Continuing Education course at MCAD in a few weeks!) is the tendency to what Chuck Jones called "illustrated radio". The Master was referring to animation, of course, but the principle applies here. It's a text narrative in which the illustrations are either redundant or superfluous. This can lead to very static images, or worse yet, images that serve no purpose whatever. I've seen this in some very well-received graphic memoirs. The art is considered an afterthought.
The ideal, which was achieved in Special Exits, MAUS, Stuck Rubber Baby and Fun Home, is a hybrid of text and image that moves the reader along with the subject, rather than placing the reader outside the subject.
In this page, I've chosen a related action scene, which is actually a composite of two real world events, to offer an example of the threat alluded to in the text box. The second panel was originally a lovemaking scene, but I decided that this moment of anticipation and greeting had better action and conveyed a fuller sense of the relationship, such as it was.
For comparison, here's the original rough for this page:

Head shots convey relatively little emotion, despite having the face to work with. I'm constantly reminded of the philosophy of that Archie comics writer. Characters are always on stage, and should always be in a pose that suggests mood or action. Spear carriers should do more than carry spears.
Aesthetic concerns:
I elected to stick with pencils again, but it was a MUCH harder decision for this page. I had to really push to get the darks and weight I wanted from the panels. In retrospect, I could have done more with the background on the restaurant panel. What's there works, but it might work better with a bit more of an environment. The primary poses and attitudes in this panel are freely lifted from Scott McCloud's The Sculptor, page 20, but changed sufficiently that I can call them my own and maintain integrity.
Panel Two is all me. I've played with the Shadows in Open Doorways thing in my work as far back as Tranny Towers. I like the idea of a girl running to her lover- it's a classic- and in that moment, everything else disappears.
Drawing yourself is a challenge. I've represented my figure and hair more or less as I remember them from that time. Drawing that left arm gave me fits! Looking at it now, I can see it's still a bit long/big, but nowhere near as much as it was at first. I spent an hour trying to get the left hand right. Sometimes hands are easy for me, sometimes I just can't draw them. After combing several books for reference, I finally just went to the bathroom mirror, made the gesture and took a shot with my cel phone. It gave me sufficient resources to render a plausible hand.
That's it for this week, unless something comes up that I want to say before the next art entry. I'm on the mend from the aforementioned car crash, and foresee no obstacle to keeping on track with the next page.
I've also started a new story which will serve as an afterword to the completed book, but that's some 120+ pages away.
A suivre...

Original Art Sundays (Monday) No. 243: Athena's wine (Tranny Towers!)

April 20 is the anniversary of my surgery. I try to find some small way to celebrate every year, however quietly. This year, I was working.
I used the tools on hand to do a sketch on break, in the wee hours (I'm usually pretty much caught up with my duties between 4:30 and 5:30 AM, though I do make rounds regularly even then). All that was on hand was a no. 2 pencil with a dull lead, ballpoint pens, and printer paper.
Inspired by the recent positive reaction to my work at the Queers and Comics conference, I decided to revisit Tranny Towers. I did a quick sketch of my main character from the strip, Athena.
There were a couple things that weren't quite working. I let it be for week and came back to put some finishes on it. Going in with brush tip marker, Pro Art India ink and a no. 4 synthetic brush, I corrected a few things, and did a bit of clean-up.

Some of the sketchy ballpoint lines irritate me, but they provide enough character that I can live with them.
Originally, I had rendered the night stand on which she was resting her hand at an odd angle, almost an isometric drawing. Between that and having originally set her left leg way out and at an equally odd angle, it appeared our dear Athena was not on her first glass of wine!
The wine glass, still not the best rendering I've ever done of an object, is miles above the original sketch.
Athena's figure works for me. I've always seen her as having more full/real world proportions. I know many trans folk who thrive in the high glamor look. I did that for a while and I liked it, but it just wasn't me. As Athena is the character from the original strip who I always considered my closest parallel, it makes sense that her look should follow suit, although her hair has always been nicer than mine!
It does feel good to get back to Tranny Towers. The strip had some problems, I suppose, but I was so bold and excited doing that work, right up to the end. I took a lot of chances in the work, and most of them paid off.
Next: back to Sharp Invitations. At last.

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. 224: Speedy Recovery denouement (and a Neil Gaiman review!)

Once more, here we go! Last time around for this particular Speedy Recovery book!
The Speedy story is done, at least as far as posting it. But there are some tidbits that were included in the first printing of the comic that I wanted to share here.

Here's the original idea for the front  cover, and the usual somewhat self-congratulatory afterword page. I'll let the text speak for itself for better or worse, rather than second guess copy I wrote 25 years ago(!).
I do like the original cover plan, in some ways better than the final. I would have had to redraw the car/plane to match the final version inside the book. But even though this version is more dynamic, it served as the basis for the last story page (see previous blog post).

And here's the back cover- an ad for the Packard Tesseract! I've been fascinated with Packards ever since I saw Harlan Ellison sitting in his on an episode of the old Anti-Gravity Room, a fun SF Channel series that was mostly young geeks sitting and talking comics. Clearly, part of the inspiration for the Packard was the TARDIS. Bear in mind that at this point in time, the Sylvester McCoy series was just ending in the UK and was only being sporadically broadcast on PBS in the states, so it was a much less known commodity then than it is today.
Process: This was printed out on colored paper, with the illustration down directly on the paper with colored pencil and markers.The cheesy frame on the illustration is just Photoshop stock. The Packard Tesseract is a great idea. I love the conceit that you need a mechanic, a quantum physicist and a poet to build one!
And I did get some reviews of the completed book. I got a kind note from Howard Cruse, who had also liked the Tranny Towers mockup I put together for a Xeric Grant (didn't win- much sadness!), and a brief note from Trina Robbins, who didn't much care for it. However, I'm pleased to report that we developed a friendship in later years.
And I got a postcard from Neil Gaiman.
This may have been one of the last such reviews Neil did. His career was entering a MUCH larger phase, and shortly after this, he stopped reviewing everything that was handed to him (perfectly understandable). But I cherish this postcard (with Charles Vess Stardust art, no less!) and the kind words Neil had for my work at the time.

Charles Vess!

In Neil's own hand!

I find Neil's handwriting quite legible, but just in case you can't make it out, here's what it says:
"Hi Diana-
Thanks for "Speedy"- I enjoyed it (especially the pun names- some were worthy of Will Eisner)- my only real problem was that it seemed uncertain what it was- a parody, a pastiche, a retro-story, a superhero thing, or what, and the storytelling seemed to lurch a bit: right now they aren't yet people- you have to believe in them too.
Congrats on the degree! 
Looking forward to the next Speedy Ricuvveri-
love
Neil Gaiman"
A generous and fair review, I think.
(That's a very old address, by the way. Don't write me; I'm not there.)
A former department chair who became a friend, Tom Haakenson, once said you should never go back. But I don't think that applies here. I do like these characters, I think there fun and exciting, and I need to do more stories featuring them. I just need to take Neil's advice, and make the execution live up to the promise. These are good characters, and they deserve another day on the page.
Next: we'll see.... back to an older story, work on something new... I'm rather enjoying this getting things completely done stuff. I'll see if I can keep that horse galloping!

Original Art Sundays No 180: The Sharp Invitation

Well, technically after midnight, so not really Sunday any more. But I won't complain if you don't.
Worked a 55 hour week this week, so did not make it to the library to scan.
Here's a story I completed a while back to promote a class on Graphic Memoir that I was set to teach. The class was cancelled due to low enrollment, which made me rather sad.  However, even in this very rough stage, I felt like I was on to something. This work was previously published at the Loft Literary Center blog in relation to the proposed class.
I'd like to complete this work (I know, there are so many projects I've already said that about). Part of me considers much of my previous work- Tranny Towers, A Private Myth (not forgotten, only stalled), TranScending, the Squirell, Cat and Car short story- as prelude to this.

This art in this is beyond crude, deliberately. I've been irritated for some time by the praises afforded to "loose" artists like Christopher Iriving and Rich Burlew, creator of Order of the Stick. I now my work has its, ahem, uneven properties, but some artists don't appear to even try and have praise lavished on them. I mean, come on, stick figures are popular? So I thought I'd try to work a little looser, let go of some of the control. This is the result. A bit too far the other way, I think. I suspect my answer lies somewhere in the middle.

As for the story, I plan to execute sporadic short pieces and work towards assembling them. That seems to be my strength anyway, so why not? 

Soon: the long-promised Surrealist Cowgirls short, which has been completed for weeks now.

Original Art Sundays (tuesday) No. 169: Transgender Charles Atlas parody

A bit late again- this scanner access is so frustrating! I thought I had it it solved, but the one I got was incompatible with my system. All the running to "fix" it put me behind schedule again. Grr.
I am preparing a Kickstarter. My original plan was to do Tranny Towers, but I've been persuaded that Surrealist Cowgirls is a better choice. I may have a publisher for TT, but that's a discussion for another day.
So it's back to looking for a good scanner.
Meanwhile...
As I was planning the former, I thought of finally doing this ad parody that's been in the back of my head for decades. The Charles Atlas ads were EVERYWHERE until the early 1970s, and the company is still around. It struck me as so hyper-masculine that this parody seemed inevitable.
Next: more Surrealist Cowgirls!

Original Art Sundays no. 168: Great Transsexuals: Kate Bornstein

Okay, taking a respite from the end of the Surrealist Cowgirls story to work on some Tranny Towers stuff, with an eye towards putting up a Kickstarter by December 1. For some strange reason, Blogspot is being very fussy about text input, so if this does not format correctly, please forgive.
I first met Kate in 1992 (I think) at Program in Human Sexuality. A bunch of us went out to dinner after a performance of one of her plays, where I told her my idea that we do not become fully who we are meant to be for seven years after surgery, since that's how long it takes the body to recycle all its cells (except for the brain). She liked the idea and included it in her next book.
We met again at Intermedia Arts in 1995. I had 10 Tranny Towers pages in a show called The Genders That Be. There were several other trans artists in the show, and I had included this piece, not realizing she would be in attendance. To my relief, she loved it and bought the original- my first professional art sale! I considered updating it, but finally decided that it was of its time. There are three other pieces in this series: one on Jayne County, one on Bernadette from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and an uncompleted work on Dis from The Crying Game. I may pick the series up again in relation to the Kickstarter (which will include other new work), but until then, I want to get the extant work out.
To that end, here's the previously unpublished page. Note: there's some fussy text below this that just won't go away.
Next week: either the Cowgirls or another new trans themed piece.

Backstory: I first met Kate at the U's Program in Human Sexuality in 1994, when she gave a talk in conjunction with a performance of one of her plays. Afterwards, a bunch of us went to the sadly d

Original Art Sundays No. 146: TNT news

Back after a week off for no reason other than the holidays!
Here are some older editorial pieces.
But first, a brief explanation.
In the early 1990s, there were two magazines on transgender politics that took a slightly more "street level" approach than the academic journal Chrysalis.
One was Davina Anne Gabriel's TransSisters, which we've discussed briefly in the past. Ran ten issues from September 1993 to Summer 1995.
The other was Gail Sondegaard's TNT NEWS. This ran from 1994 to 1997, running eight issues.
If memory serves, that is. I don't have all my files copies of the latter at hand.
At any rate, I did editorial cartoons for both.
One of the TNT cartoons, Pinkette and LaBrainne, has been published here before. I'd like to offer a couple others this week. These are two of my favorites. The art is serviceable, the writing is sharp and on point, if a bit dated for at least one of them, and they come together fairly well.
These will be included in The Complete Tranny Towers, if and when it's done. The first one uses a Tranny Towers character!

Actually these stand up better than I thought they would.
I do have to note that there are a couple others with alarmingly bad art. I will not post those, but will include them in the aforementioned book, with a healthy dash of mea culpa.
The "change for a dollar" gag is adapted/stolen from a Bernie Wrightson poster. See the end of this post.
And the Mr. Haney vibrator line is a classic among us devotees of Green Acres!
The issue of stealth remains significant, but has lost some of its explosively divisive properties over the years.
Still.... a story comes to mind.
My last girlfriend suddenly moved to Texas to care for her mom about a month after her final surgery.
A little odd, but then we all have choices to make and I respected her for caring for her mother, even though we were getting rather close and her handling of the matter hurt me a great deal.
We talked a year or so later, and she was dating a guy. She was quite happy.
Well, good. We all get to be happy.
But he didn't know about her past, and she wasn't going to tell him, and isn't that wonderful?
Well.... no, it's not.
I mean, yeah, it's wonderful that you succeed in the world so well that you have that option. But there's more to it than that.
Deciding when and where you're out about your gender history is a complex issue. It touches on matters of integrity, mental health and physical safety, not to mention just plain wanting to be accepted on your own terms. And every decision around it has to be weighed VERY carefully.
This stuff can drive you up a tree. I used to worry obsessively about who knew, who could tell by looking, who was and wasn't laughing, on and on and on.
That will put a real crimp in your day.
Then after the end of my abusive relationship, about which I've kvetched in the past, I started assuming everyone knew and stopped worrying about it.
The paradox was that many less people knew after I took that tack!
However, in the midst of all that, it must be said that there are some people who have a right to know if you respect them. Close friends, family and partners/lovers/spouses fall into this category. It's their business if you value them in your life. If they can't handle it, that's on them, but those are the people you should trust.
Tuesday is January 1, 2013. and I'll begin my Best Comics of 2012 countdown then.
New art resumes January 6.
Now, here's that Wrightson piece!

See you all next year!

Original Art Sundays no. 135: Tranny Towers, Final Chapter

When my editor told me the strip had been cancelled (on the deadline, when I came in to submit the next strip), I informed him that I was unsure of the paper's intent and had prepared one more just in case.
They agreed to run it, which was actually rather gracious.
I'm glad. I think it's one of the better strips of the run.

The banner is made from scratch, no overt swipes (at least none I can remember). I took my enthusiasm for pinup art, especially the work of Gil Elvgren, and did some work I think was rather inspired.
The title is an obvious Streisand reference.
Simple layout, a bit more background than in some of the past strips, and a closing "in-joke."
For the last few months of the strip's run, Lavender decided to also run a new strip called "Fabulous Fabio". It was the worst of gay comic strips- bad art, cliches, sloppy lettering and lazy writing. Though it died shortly after this strip, I was quite annoyed at its presence, and wanted to take a little shot at its creator's seeming lack of training and effort. I mean really, not so much that this was running next to my work, but running such a mediocrity near Dykes to Watch Out For or Jennifer Camper's Sub Grrlz? Sad. I was relieved when "Fabulous Fabio" faded into oblivion a few strips later.
I had set this up for one of the next storylines, involving Dan coming to terms with just how deep his drag persona did or didn't go. Trying to leave the door open and all that.
The Dolly Parton reference brings the strip full circle to the original Tranny Towers, a Section 8 building where 6 of the 14 units were occupied by MtF transfolk. Several of my neighbors were huge country fans, and I'd hear drunken singalongs of this song well into the wee hours. Once in a while I joined in. Ah, memories.
I still have a bunch of strips I did as editorial cartoons for TransSisters and TNT News Magazines. I'll run those as a unit after taking a break from this work to get back to the Surrealist Cowgirls. MY work on that for the faculty art show is due on or by Friday, and is about 2/3 done.
For right now, I'm going to do as the song says, and try to look better than a body has a right to.