Cute Preppy Boys
COMICS-RELATED NEWS ITEM #1: I decided to do a day of hourly comics on Friday, and I posted the results yesterday. If you missed that, you should go have a look look.
COMICS-RELATED NEWS ITEM #2: The Minneapolis Cartoonist Conspiracy’s January jam comic is online. The theme was “Blood, Sweat, and Tacos: The Last Days of Gary Coleman.” Things I got to draw for this one: hookers, Avenue Q puppets, The Pope of Gary Coleman, people in a toxic waste pit, a bulgy-eyed close-up of Gary Coleman, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Please do check it out.
COMICS-RELATED NEWS ITEM #3: Last Tuesday I went to my first-ever comics gathering at Modern Myths in Northampton. There were only five of us, but we did a neat five-page jam comic about Nixon! I had a nice time, though I did feel a little like I was cheating on the Minnesota conspiracy.
COMICS-RELATED NEW ITEM #4: Speaking of the Minnesota conspiracy, founder Steve Stwalley recently did some excellent art supply reviews for Wet Paint in St Paul. I lived mere blocks from Wet Paint when I lived with Chris and Ian. It’s a really, really swell place. As someone who has often felt nervous about laying down cash for a pricey pen I’m not even sure I’ll like, I found Steve’s reviews really useful.
AS FOR TODAY’S COMIC: A thousand apologies to Craig Thompson. His art is absolutely without parallel. And I greatly enjoyed “Blankets.” Nevertheless there were bits that annoyed me, and many of those bits had to do with Raina.
Drawing Raina reminded me of a rant my mother once had when I was a little girl and we were in the Barbie aisle. She was complaining that all the Disney Princess Barbie dolls (I think we were looking in particular at Jasmine) have their heads slightly tilted down, and their eyes looking upward. “I hate that look on women,” she said. I remember liking it that she said that, but it took awhile to figure out why. It’s that stupid damsel-in-distress thing. An intentional helplessness. “Ooh, look how big and tall you are, Prince Charming! I’m so shy and modest, I have to tuck my chin down and look up at you with big doe eyes peeking through my flowing hair.” Fairy tale princesses (and Raina) are martyrs, stuck in difficult, unfair situations, but accepting it all with a shrug and a smile, and looking lovely the whole time. There are far too many female characters like this. Give me Aline Kominsky-Crumb any day.
PS I feel like the guy in the last panel is inspired by characters my friend Nate draws.
February 8th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
In Re: PS, not to mention a certain tiger-rending, Norwegian body builder?
February 8th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Also, loved the hourlies!
February 8th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
You can’t cheat on the Conspiracy, you can only expand it!
February 9th, 2010 at 12:28 am
I so want to see what you have about Nixon.
February 9th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Awesome work! I like the degrees of line quality you’re using in your work, definitely adds more vitality to it, especially the fourth panel. So when are you going to conform to the rest of the ICC and buy a Pentel Brush pen?? You want to be one of the COOL kids, don’t you??
February 9th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Thanks for letting me know my feminist lessons made an impression. (I, unlike your younger friends, am PROUD to call myself a feminist) Still….it reminds me of the time when I was dressed in overalls, a bandana tied around my hair, my body drenched in sweat as I put up sheets of sheetrock by myself, and you came down the stairs, dressed in a negligee and heels (you were three…it was dress-up), and said, “Look! I’m a mother!” I looked down at myself, then at you and just shook my head!
February 10th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Hey Athena -
I’m glad that you attended the comics gathering in Northampton. Let go of your guilt and just think of it as an exchange of ideas over 1300 miles.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Casey: Oh dear, I did not make that connection at ALL. Ha ha…
Danno: THEN EXPAND IT I WILL!!!
Doyle: I will totally pass it along if the dude emails it to me!
Jon: Aw, thanks! I kept switching pens without really thinking about it. I’m glad you like it. And yeah, Steve’s review was probably the final straw in my thinking “it’s about time I tried one of these brush pens…” I may see if they’ve got some at the art supply store in Northampton, or else wait till I’m in St Paul again.
Mom: Oh dear! That’s an embarrassing story! Ha ha. Perhaps someday I will be a slutty, slutty mother.
Dad: Heh, okay, I’ll do that.
February 11th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
AHA! They posted the Nixon comic! Check it:
http://comicbookcreatorsgroup.blogspot.com/2010/02/clone-nixon-i-february-jam.html
February 19th, 2010 at 11:00 am
BRICKLAYERR
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:08 am
hahahaha, Sierra, you are 110% right, I can’t believe I didn’t make a direct reference to that!
Bam:
http://actionathena.com/2009/04/01/what-happened-in-weimar/