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. 178: The funny animal/comic strip/comic book Enterprise

Missed last week's post. I was preoccupied with preparing for a new job. Many logistic difficulties- government forms, meetings, etc. Well, the job orientation is tomorrow, so we're back in the saddle again!
Working on a 4 page Surrealist Cowgirls story (and a couple fun Cowgirls side projects), but they're not ready to post yet.
As a placeholder, here's an airbrush piece from 1990!

The craft is rather crude, but it's a fun piece anyway. It grew out of my then-partner's love of both Star Trek and the Pink Panther.
Starting top left and going counter-clockwise:
The Little Mermaid as Dr. Beverly Crusher
The Tasmanian Devil as Lt. Worf
Omaha the Cat Dancer as Counselor Troi
Opus as Lt. Commander Data
Calvin and Hobbes as Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher
Pepe lePew and Commander Riker
center: the Pink Panther as Captain Picard (Captain Pinkard!)
So there it is. More pure silliness.
Next week: back to the Cowgirls!

Original Art Sundays #54: Tranny Towers strips 2 & 3

Much time spent prepping for comic book history class (does the fall semester really start in one week? Wow!).
So I thought I'd post some stuff that's been on my mind for a bit, material I planned to post last week.
Here are the first two continuity based episodes of Tranny Towers.

Image presented as originally printed, aside from redrawn Photoshop borders and the title type of the first strip being re-lettered digitally.
As you read these, bear in mind that each strip was originally presented as 1/4 page on a fairly standard magazine size page. Until I got the hang of dialogue placement and pacing, those aspects of the early strips were, well, not stellar.
Once again, please click to see the image at full size.
I had such ambitions around this strip! I had thought I'd set the queer comic strip world on fire with a funny animal transsexual strip. I had also hoped to draw on my experiences as an intern on Omaha The Cat Dancer, to bring the sensibilities of Kate Worley's wit and humanity to bear. The other queer-related comics that greatly influenced me, the work of Alison Bechdel and Howard Cruse, figure in with my attempts at subtle wit. Both their blogs are linked elsewhere on this page, but I've provided embedded links as well for your clicking convenience!
Next week: back to A Private Myth!

Original Art Sundays # 50: Tranny Towers, p. 1

The next page of A Private Myth is proving much more challenging than I anticipated, especially since it's a relatively simple page. But it's a very emotional page, and that's bogging me down a tad.
But as the work is important to me (and I already have too many pages that I don't see as up to standard), and as it will be part of the fall faculty show at MCAD, I have elected to post a Tranny Towers page in lieu of newer work.
Looking at these now, I find the proportions a bit troublesome, but am much happier with them now than I was at the time. It also allows me to get my head back into the place I was at artistically at that time, and work on overcoming the block I've developed about backgrounds since doing these. While the backgrounds on these aren't spectacular, they work with the pages, especially as the narrative evolves, and I need to get back to that.
This is the first Tranny Towers strip, as originally presented in Lavender magazine in 1994-95.

Farewell to a classic

It was announced today that, after 82 years, Little Orphan Annie (now just called Annie) will cease on June 12, 2010.
While I was never a huge fan of the strip, I did and do recognize its quality and social significance. And I'm so glad IDW is doing the reprint series.

While the musical was a slight misstep for the lauded director John Huston, it was still enjoyable, mostly for the Shirley Temple-esque Aileen Quinn in the title role and the great fun had by Tim Curry, Albert Finney and the irrepressible Bernadette Peters.
I read the strip as it came out in the 60s, but only the Sundays. My grandma picked up the Sunday Minneapolis Star or Duluth News Tribune (which had better, but different, strips) largely so I could read my funnies.
I read it again briefly in the '00s when Andy Pepoy was doing the art. Enjoyed that run immensely, the little I saw of it.

Finally, this drawing is freely lifted from Craig Yoe's great Super I.T.C.H. blog, linked to elsewhere on this page.

Good work, Annie. You added the phrase "Leaping Lizards!" and the term "Gloriosky" to the national dialogue, and showed young girls that they could triumph over just about anything and stay happy if they really wanted to.