30 Character Challenge: Day 1

So, clearly, I'm having some issues getting my mind together enough to work on any sort of long-term comics. Thankfully, I just found out about this sweet 30 Characters/30 Days challenge. I wasn't able to register for it on time, but decided I'm going to participate anyways. The gauntlet is just that: create 30 new characters in 30 days, one for each day in November. I'm going to post them all here, one a day.

I've been thinking of working on a super hero or otherwise more creative storyline, and I think this will really help me brainstorm for it. Yay, you get to watch me brainstorm!

Ok, first up!

Can you tell I just finished reading The Hunger Games?

Name: Chloe
Title: The Assassin
Age: 22
Height: 5’4
Weight: 140 lbs
Location: the Rebel States
Hair: Ginger
Eyes: Brown

Bio: The Rebel States is a nation within a nation. Since the Uprising of 2013, the government of New Masada imposed harsher sanctions on its citizens, 1984-style. Most of the leaders of the Uprising were executed, but those who escaped the government and the families of the dead banded together to form the Rebel States. Part black market, part social services, and part para-military, the shadow government of the Rebel States protect the citizens of New Masada.

Chloe's stake in this battle is her family. Her mother was a leader of the Uprising and was turned in by her father, a Garrison for New Masada, and executed. Like most young adults in this economically depressed country, Chloe lives at home with her father. "You know the saying: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Like, in the bedroom next to you," she explains. Chloe is now in the employ of the Rebel States, taking out snitches, narcs, informants, and anyone else who threatens to end the people’s last hope. Living with a Garrison has its advantages; most of her targets are topics of conversation around the dinner table.

So convention season is over. Now what?

Hello hello hello there. So, lot's of things going on here.


1. Baltimore Book Festival was all right. It was pouring rain the day of the Zine Pavilion and not really anyone stopped by. The talk, however, went really well. The Pavilion was empty when I started, and then filled up to about 25 or so people. Red Emma's said they'd invite me to their shop to give an in-store talk as well, which would be a lot of fun. It was really exciting to share my process (is there no way to sound more pompous than by saying "my process?") and the history of Gay Kid with so many people.

The rain mirrored my emotions.

2. I stopped writing Office Bitch for TheNewGay. I was feeling a bit burnt out with the story and was having some issues with the overall vibe/feeling of the site. I'm going to start a weekly comic here in the next few weeks. It took a while to realize it, but no one I know really reads TNG. It's not really my scene; think HRC vs the radical queer collective that throws potluck fundraisers and you'll know what I'm talking about.

The new strip has yet to be determined, but I'm excited to figure that out and get started!

3. There are two new comics that will be started in the next month or so: Gay Kid 4 and Culver. Culver is a book I'm going to be illustrating, and is written by Matt Smith.Gay Kid 4 will be the next installment in the series, following issues on Seventeen Magazine, Fashion, and Anxiety. I'm thinking it may be about friends and/or family.

In the meanwhile, here are some doodles I've done at work while talking on the phone.

I'm working on a short comic about getting my wisdom teeth out. This is me feeling anxious. DUH.

Molly, our old beagle, in a Santa costume looking doleful.

Ok, that looks better.

MY FACE HURTS

I got my wisdom teeth out recently, which is why the interwebs have been quiet. I'll post about the Baltimore Book Fest and other things once I'm feeling up to doing more than watching nature documentaries, letting my girlfriend cook for me, and eating said food.

off of SPX, onto the Baltimore Book Fest!

So, SPX was awesome. As it always is. I met so many awesome people, like Whit Taylor, and shared a table again with the super Matt Smith, Jeremy Massie, and Desiree and Jason Pittman. Desiree broke the bank drawing awesome pictures of people as zombies, and we were all jealous.

 

But thankfully there were tons of people there, some of whom wanted to buy my comics, and ESPECIALLY the new issue of Gay Kid

photo from SPX's facebook. This is about as empty as the floor ever looked.

I made back the cost of my table (a first for SPX) and the cost of most of my printing. It was really, really heartening to have come this far from my first SPX five years ago, where I think I sold a total of about $50 worth of books. This makes it 4 for 4 shows in 2011 at making back the table: SPACE, DC Zinefest, Baltimore Comic-Con, and SPX. SPX being the most expensive, I am the most excited by it. Here's a pic of me being excited!

photo from SPX' facebook. So chatty!

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So now, onto the Baltimore Book Festival!

 I'll be talking at the Radical Bookfair Pavilion at 2:30 on Friday, and will be tabling for the duration of Friday (noon - eight, but I may have to leave early).

Come see me talk about my comics, the role comics have played in my life, and how I feel about the word "zine." It should be fun!

OHMIGOD it's almost SPX

It's like Christmas time for comics: great friends, great comic books to spend all of your money on, and great greatness. It's really so great I can't even talk straight.

Now that SPX has finally come, that means (drumroll, please!) it's time for the debut of Gay Kid 3. Pick up your hot-off-the-presses copy this weekend! And when I say "hot off the presses," I mean it. I just finished drawing this thing tonight.

The cover looks a bit more depressing than the book actually is, but I wanted to keep with the theme of magazine covers and did it in the style of an anxiety/depression one. Those tend to be kind of cheesy ("I used to enjoy looking out the windows at my children playing in the yard....now it just makes me feel like I'm in a silent movie), which is always a winning trait. They also look a little, well, you know, depressed. In terms of the actual drawing of the cover, it was fun to get to draw something in pencil shading. I don't think I've done that since a mandatory drawing class I took in college, and I forgot how good it feels to get out your 2B and 4B pencils and really go for it.

Baltimore Comic Con and Gay Kid 3 Updates

Hey there! I just got back from the Baltimore Comic-Con! It went pretty well: I made back the cost of the table (always important and my current barometer of whether a show was good or not), picked up some old Ninja Turtles comics, and met a lot of cool people, including Baby Doll from Sucker Punch and Cammy from Streefighter, proving that really everyone does love the Tales From the Suggestion Box anthology!

 

My table was between Neil King, a great cartoonist I've seen at a few shows before and who did Elvis Must Die and Forgotten Planet, and two wonderful illustrators, Tressina Bowling and Jenny Stead. I would definitely recommend checking out their work; watching Tressina draw some commissions at the show was both inspiring and intimidating (I wish I could draw like that!).

I also met Frank Cho, whose strip Liberty Meadows I loved loved loved! when it was in print. I loved it so much that when I had to do an interview for a TV project in 8th grade, I interviewed Frank Cho. I asked him if he remembered and he said "yes! wait, you're viking girl?" which means he wasn't just saying it to be nice: at the interview he drew his characters, and then my parents insisted that I draw one of mine for him, which I did, and it was a viking character I was hooked on at the time. I gave/forced upon him some issues of Gay Kid, and he gave me one of his books. Yeah, no big deal, I just traded with Frank Cho.

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In other news, work on Gay Kid 3 continues plugging along. The penciling is almost done, and I'm feeling pretty good about the progress made. Here's another sneak peak at the comic so far!

Baltimore Comic-Con's Fast Approaching!

And so the east coast tour continues! And by "east coast" I mean mid-Atlantic. And by "mid-Atlantic" I mean things within an one hour radius of DC.

This Saturday and Sunday, I'll be tabling at the Baltimore Comic-Con, alongside Bill Volk. I'm super pumped for the show; I've never been to a show like this before! Stan Lee is the Guest of Honor, so the crowd will probably be a lot different than what I'm used to (shows where the only costume people are wearing are "radical vegan" or "nerd wearing Levis"). We'll see how Gay Kid goes over here. I'm making 100 copies of each issue, so hopefully people will pick it up like hotcakes. Otherwise, I'll just be super prepared for SPX.

In terms of Gay Kid #3, a premiere of SPX is still in the cards. I've penciled half of it so far, and just need to get the rest of that penciled and inked. Thankfully the outline I made is really thorough, down to the drawings and the page designs, so it shouldn't take too much longer. I'll get pictured online once I get my scanner set back up (I moved this week, so things are in boxes covering the floor)!