politically inqueerect – Page 8 – Studio NDR: Comics & Art by Dylan Edwards

Time for another multi-page PiQue story

October 9, 2013 Dylan Edwards No Comments

Starting today on Tapastic, I’ll be running the 8-page story of Dee and Alicia’s interactions since their initial meeting. “High School Sucked for You, Too?!” is, as with previous episodes, colorized from its original black and white. In addition, I’m also heavily revising a lot of the text, mostly because I was never totally happy with it in the first place. So this is one that, if you’ve already read it, you may wish to follow along and read it again.

In other news, I’m still working away on my story for Beyond, the frabjuous queer sci-fi/fantasy anthology that will be coming out next year. I have the first draft of my script done, though I already know several changes I’m going to make, and I’ve been whittling away at character designs and concept art. The story itself is exclusive to the book, so you’ll have to wait until it’s released to read the whole thing, but I will be posting teasers here periodically, so keep checking in for the latest sketches and so forth.

My plan is to put together a separate section here on Studio NDR for all my Beyond-related arts. Hoping to get to that later this week, but you know how things are. Anyway, I’ll definitely post here to let you know when it’s up.

Cheers,

Dylan

New Retconned PiQue, plus a sneak peek into Beyond

October 2, 2013 Dylan Edwards No Comments

Time for this week’s PiQue on Tapastic, in which a younger Sunita (in her retail-workin’ days) has a plan for getting rid of pesky dudes who can’t take a hint.

Okay, so this is something of a retcon. After I came up with the “brand-new” character Sunita, I realized this unnamed woman from an old comic of mine was pretty much identical in personality. The only difference is she’s skinnier. So it’s not that hard to see old-comic Sunita as the younger (think 19-ish) incarnation of current Sunita (who may or may not be pushing 30-ish, who can say?).

Trivia fun time: Archer is essentially a reincarnation of an old D&D character of mine … apparently when I make up a fake person I like to keep ’em around.

In other news, I’m in the midst of crafting a story for Beyond, a queer sci-fi fantasy anthology that’s currently in the works. I’m working away on character designs for my story right now … last night, I sketched out these two ladies. I don’t actually have names for them yet (I have a hard time coming up with names, it turns out),and it’s very likely their outfits will change as I get a better handle on what I want to do about fashion in this world, but for now alls you need to know is LESBIAN SCIENTIST ADVENTURERS. My story will also have non-gendered asexuals, what-if hominids, and other fun stuff, so keep an eye out for further developments.

This is intended as a standalone story for the anthology, though the world and the characters are all featured in my big, epic sci-fantasy book I’ve been writing away on. THAT’S not going to see the light of day for awhile, but it’s been my Big Project Goal for a long time now, so I’m excited to get to work on bits of it for Beyond.

Cheers,

Dylan

The latest PiQue on Tapastic, and downtime?

September 25, 2013 Dylan Edwards No Comments

The latest episode of Politically InQueerect is now up on Tapastic. This is originally from The Outfield, in which several PiQue characters had cameos. I’m just pleased this one has come around to being relevant again, what with the Red Sox being the awesomest and the Yankees sucking and all that. Whether the Sox manage to swing a World Series win this year is yet to be determined, but Archer is a bit over-excited nonetheless.

Also, I guess there’s been a certain amount of downtime for Studio NDR lately? I keep getting alert messages to that effect, though it seems to happen overnight for me (which I guess sucks for any Australian readers). I dunno what that’s about. I am honestly just about the world’s worst website administrator, and my eyes lose focus the instant I start to read any technical details of the server thingy thum, so yeah. Sorry. I don’t really have a good solution at this time, owing to the fact that I’m a cartoonist and therefore have no money.

One of the benefits, I guess, of publishing externally on a place like Tapastic … at least somewhere on the internet my cartoons are available!

Cheers,

Dylan

This week’s PiQue: An Official Statement on Rand’s Gender

September 18, 2013 Dylan Edwards No Comments

The newest remastered Politically InQueerect is now up on Tapastic, and it seeks to answer a burning question: what IS Rand’s gender identity, anyway? Well, NOW YOU KNOW.

So! SPX was awesome. It was my first experience of this particular con, and I really had a blast. I am pretty worn out from it (my travel to and from was fraught with peril, bookended by 1,000-year weather events on the one side and mass shootings on the other), but would happily do it again next year. My pal Melanie Gillman drew all the panelists for the Queering the Mainstream panel I was on, which is the first time I’m aware of such a thing happening to me. It is awesomeness.

Up next: a local event, wherein I shall join something like 30 other Colorado authors for a book-selling, food-eating event called Books & Bites. That’s this Friday, Sept. 20, from 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM, at the Arvada Library (7525 West 57th Avenue, Arvada, CO 80002). Be there!

Cheers,

Dylan

Two new comics and an art! And SPX!

September 11, 2013 Dylan Edwards No Comments

Gosh, so much stuff this week.

Let’s begin with this week’s Politically InQueerect offering on Tapastic, in which we buck the stereotype of the lesbian jock, and catch up with a few non-sporty Sapphics. This was originally an Outfield cartoon with a cameo from Dee, which I’ve recolored for this incarnation. I also had to change the text rather extensively to make it work in the context of an official PiQue comic. So even if you’ve read this particular Outfield cartoon before, you might want to give it a look.

Next up is the brand-new cartoon I made for the most recent issue of Rocksalt. Even if you read said issue you might have missed my cartoon, as it was cleverly disguised as an ad (THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR NOT READING THE ADS). Here it is all comic-sized and in sepia color.

This one posits what sort of beauty regimen a Skeksis might get up to (yes, Skeksis as in The Dark Crystal). I spent way too much time researching old-timey vanishing cream ads in the making of this one. Although, important point! This is actually intended as a modern ad done up in an old-timey style, as is the current trend with products marketed to hipsters.

Third piece of new art is this Welcome to Nightvale fan art I did. A recent episode had Cecil rattling off a list of horrible monstrosities, of which spider wolves were but one. I was instantly captivated by the concept of a spider wolf, and was unable to resist the urge to draw one. (Note: this has my Feeping Creatures watermark on it, coz I’m too lazy to make a separate image for studiondr.com. I expect you’ll manage.)

Lastly but not leastly, SPX is upon us. I leave tomorrow! The show is this weekend, Sept. 14-15 in Bethesda, MD. Once again, I’ll be tabling with Northwest Press. You can find us at K10. My pal Tony Breed made this awesome chart of LGBTQ comics and creators at SPX. Use it! I’ll also be on the “Queering the Mainstream” panel on Sunday the 15th, from 3:30-4:30 PM. Please come watch us yammer on about things and stuff.

Is that everything? Jeebus, I hope so.

Cheers,

Dylan

New PiQue on Tapastic and here at home

September 4, 2013 Dylan Edwards No Comments

In this week’s remastered Politically InQueerect, Todd and Archer argue about a spatula. No, wait! Come back! I promise, it’s funny.

It is actually kinda funny, for me at any rate, to figure out what kind of decorating sense these guys have. The house is not particularly done to Archer’s taste, since he’d prefer to live in a sterile white box if he could. But Todd winds up taking control of the interior design because he’s the one actually willing to put forth the money and effort for it. Hence colorful walls and antique furniture. I think they may have compromised on more earthy tones rather than bright, screaming colors.

I’ve also added last week’s new strip, starring new characters Yuki and Sunita, to the PiQue archives here on Studiondr.com. You’ll find it in PiQue Pieces, the repository for one-pagers and other short pieces that aren’t part of a specific storyline.

I am definitely getting to a point now where I need to resurrect the obligatory Cast o’ Characters page. Probably won’t be done before SPX, but it’s definitely high on the priority list for this fall.

New PiQue, and brand new comic in Rocksalt

August 21, 2013 Dylan Edwards No Comments

Head on over to Tapastic.com to read this week’s remastered Politically InQueerect. SHOCKING REVELATIONS in this exciting conclusion to our family visit melodrama! Strife! Disagreement! Sarcastic remarks! NO ONE WILL EVER BE THE SAME.

Next week I shall have for you a brang new Politically InQueerect comic, which will introduce us to two new characters, Sunita and Yuki.

But you don’t have to wait all the way until next week for a new comic from me, oh no! For the latest issue of Rocksalt was released this week, and I have an all-new comic featured within. I’ll put said comic up on the site here in a couple of weeks, but for now you can read it in the online version of Rocksalt, or if you’re in Austin (or a certain level of Kickstarter backer from the recent campaign!) you can peep it in the print version of the paper.

Tomorrow I’m off to Providence for NecronomiCon, a Lovecraft-themed convention at which I will be selling my Feeping Creatures itemries. If you’re in the area, you should come! I expect hijinx shall ensue.

The latest PiQue on Tapastic

August 14, 2013 Dylan Edwards No Comments

Archer’s brother and his family are coming for a short visit. Archer’s hippie, vegetarian brother. Oh, yes. Read it here on Tapastic.

Trivia: This is one of the very earliest PiQue strips I ever drew, originally created in 2000 with monochromatic black & white art suitable for newspaper printing. The idea was that I was going to sell the strip to queer newspapers (ha ha). Well, a couple of things happened:

1. Pretty much all queer newspapers in the U.S. had space for one or two comics, and that was it. I got a lot of very nice rejection letters.

2. It was around this time that huge numbers of queer newspapers stopped publishing altogether.

3. The cross-hatched inking style was murder on my hand, causing me crippling pain. I had to develop a new style or perish.

Once again, this is an experiment with digital coloring. I can’t say I’m thrilled by it – a lot of the textures dropped out when I reduced the file size for web. But the act of coloring their house helped me realize some interesting details about Todd & Archer’s styles – Archer would prefer to live in a featureless white box. Todd wants a different color on every wall. Todd wins this one because he works from home all day and is the one who actually has to spend time there. He invited Archer to repaint to his own tastes, knowing full well that Archer would never paint it himself and is too cheap to hire anyone to do it. And I didn’t know these things about them until I colored this strip! How about that.

Please don’t tell Todd McFarlane

August 11, 2013 Dylan Edwards No Comments

Yes indeed, I’m working away on a new PiQue one-pager, which will introduce us to two new characters: Yuki and Sunita, a pair of gamer dykes.

You may well have heard about the recent panel, where straight white dudes like Todd McFarlane declared (superhero) comics to be solely the provenance of straight, white dudes, because of something having to do with testosterone. I really didn’t quite get it, since testosterone is not listed as an ingredient in any of my art supplies, but he appears convinced of this.

The comic I’m working on was not written as a reaction to the panel; I wrote the script for it a couple of months ago, but as you may be able to tell from the excerpt here, the subject matter is not entirely irrelevant.

One of the panelists also suggested that the only correct way to write PoC characters is as though race doesn’t actually exist, I guess because PoC supes are somehow magically immune to racism, like that’s their superpower. I personally would love to see a Black Batman. 1960s Batman bears only the most superficial resemblances to 2010s Batman, so I’m not sure why Batman’s race should be set in stone.

Again, I didn’t cast this comic with people of color as a reaction to that particular discussion (Yuki as a female knight is also a total, but delightful, coincidence), but it does strengthen my resolve to present a diverse cast whose experiences are reflective of what actual, real people in the modern world are experiencing. Pretending racism doesn’t exist would be a huge disservice. That doesn’t mean that PoC characters have to sit around talking about racism all the time. They will also talk about video games, or food, or music! Theater, or books, or movies! Art, or writing, or … you know, “interests” that people sometimes have and like to share with their friends. And it’s really my friends for whom I’m writing these characters, so they get to see some aspect of themselves reflected in my imaginary world, just as they are part of my life in the real world. Being invisible is a neat superpower, but it kinda sucks when you can’t turn it off.

New PiQue makes Wednesday more traumatic!

August 7, 2013 Dylan Edwards No Comments

Time once again for a newly colorized Politically InQueerect strip. This time around, we learn things we cannot unlearn about Todd & Archer’s sex life.

Technical notes on this comic: Whne I first drew this comic I intended to hand-color it (and I still plan to one of these days), but it was originally published in a black & white anthology, so I scanned the inks and threw down some digital b&w shading. When prepping this color version for Tapastic, I didn’t have time to go back and do the proper hand-coloring, so instead I used it as a guinea pig to experiment with different Photoshop shading techniques. So here we are.

And, in case you’re wondering, I am indeed working on an all-new PiQue strip even now. It’s a one-pager that introduces us to a couple of new characters. I will probably post it towards the end of the month. So! Hang on to yer whatever it is people hang onto these days.

Cheers,

Dylan

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