Johnson & Sir’s First Book: An Update

johnson and sir webcomic

Johnson & Sir are getting their first book soon!

How soon?

Well, I originally said they would be printed and ready by January 31st. I’ve been talking to the folks who will print the book (who are the same folks that printed the book edition of Validation), and I have pretty much everything together.

However, I’m fixing some formatting errors before I send the book off to print. I want this book to look its best, darnit!

But that means the book won’t be available on January 31st.

The latest the book will hit the market is February 13th (and yes, that IS a Friday the 13th. No, I’m not superstitious about it).

You can still pre-order a copy, so I can reserve a book JUST FOR YOU from the printer (because I like you, reader, and you are awesome). It’s $10, and that price includes shipping.



I’ll be taking pre-orders up until February 13th. After that, the print run is going to be small, like less than 25 books, for conventions and online orders.Completely tangential, I remember working with an old editor and he threw out the suggestion of having me print 1000 copies of a book, because depending on the printers, printing large quantities like that actually makes the per-issue cost cheaper.

But I said to him, “What the frick am I going to do with 1000 copies of a book?!”

Because you don’t realize how large of a number 1000 is until you actually see it. I saw what 1000 books looked like (thanks to my time as a former librarian), and…I am still not ready for that kind of commitment.

Hence, why I’m keeping the print run small. Small quantities are much more manageable, and then I’m not overwhelmed by books.

Plus, it makes owning the books for you much more special, knowing that you have one book out of 25, rather than one book out of 1000. It’s a lot more personal.

And I like personal.

Ok, tangent over. Thank you for reading, and I hope you’ll support Johnson & Sir! I’ll see you tomorrow.

Featured Artist Friday: Rosa Bonheur

rosa bonheur portrait painting
A portrait of Rosa Bonheur.

I did not find out about this badass until earlier this week. I should have known better than to stay ignorant for so long, because Rosa Bonheur is her own special kind of awesome.

She was raised in a socialist family that sought equality for the sexes, and she smoked cigars, cut her hair short, wore mens clothing (even gaining a permit from the police to do so), and it was rumored that she had lady lovers (why else would Art History Archive call Anna Klumpke her “special companion until her death”?). Most importantly, she was a world-renowned painter at a time when women were not regarded as artistic.

She was born in 1822 into a family of artists – her father was a trained artist and each of her four siblings had a vocation. Because training women in the arts was rare and unheard of in the 1800s, Rosa’s training was under her father as an apprentice in his shop. She copied engravings, drew still lifes, and copied paintings by masters in the Loeuvre. She also frequented “masculine” areas like horse fairs and slaughterhouses to study the anatomy of animals.

rosa bonheur lion painting

As a matter of fact, her subject of choice in her paintings were almost always animals, and she became famous for her animal paintings. She showed at the Paris Salon so many times the judges eventually gave her permission to just send her work in rather than go through the jury process.

Her most famous painting is Le Marché aux Chevaux, or “The Horse Fair,” show below:

the horse fair painting by rosa bonheur

When it was shown she was 31 years old.

She won quite a few gold medals for painting in the Salon, and also got the following honors over the course of her life:

  • Honorary member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Société des Artistes Belges,
  • Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (she was the first woman to get this award)
  • The Cross of San Carlos of Mexico
  • member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of Antwerp, Belgium
  • Commander’s Cross of the Royal Order of Isabella
  • Catholic Cross
  • The Leopold Cross
  • honorary member of the Royal Academy of Watercolorists of London
  • Mérite des Beaux-Arts de Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
  • Officier de la Légion d’Honneur (the first woman honored with this position)

While her badassery was well-recognized, she eventually decided she didn’t like the spotlight and so she retired to the country side, drawing and painting until her death in 1899 at the age of 78. Many of her sketches and paintings were found posthumously by her aforementioned “special partner” Anna Klumpke.

If you want to find out more about this awesome painter, check out the Art History Archive, and books like Rosa Bonheur by Rosalia Shriver.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you on Monday.

plowing in the nivernais painting by rosa bonheur
“Plowing in the Nivernais”

Why the LGBT Community (Sometimes) Doesn’t Like Allies

When I first got involved in the LGBT community was in middle school, when my older sister came out as bisexual and started dating her then-girlfriend.

Since then, I’ve met a lot of different people in the LGBT community, even more so since I started working on Validation, a webcomic about a trans girl.

And I can say, without a doubt, that the LGBT community’s feelings on Allies are…mixed.

Some say it’s good that there are advocates for their cause that are not, themselves, part of the LGBT alphabet. There are others that say Allies are unnecessary. And a violent subset think all Allies need to fuck off and their heads should be mounted on pikes.

Why?

From what I’ve listened to and heard from the community, there’s a few reasons why people have mixed feelings about Allies.

1. The Atheists are doing it just to piss off the religious right.

This actually happens a lot. Atheists will claim to fly the banner of Ally of the LGBT community, only to turn around and use derogatory language when talking about the people they reportedly support. The only reason they claim to be Allies is to piss off their religious cohorts who are against the community, without actually supporting them.

2. Some Allies try to police your identity.

This can range from “ah, asexuality is just a phase” to “dude, you’re not really gay unless you puke rainbows” or “you’re not a real lesbian unless you scissor.”

First off, no.

You as a human being are not allowed to tell someone what to do with their bodies and identities.

Second off, people, especially Allies, do not have permission to say what constitutes a “real” lesbian/gay/transgender/etc person.

They may be labels, but the people who choose those labels decide what those labels mean for themselves.

3. Some Allies are biased.

Let’s say there’s someone who claims to be an Ally and supports gay and lesbian rights, but they completely misgender trans people. (Misgendering means you use the wrong pronouns, like calling a trans man a woman just because of the body he has.)

There may be a few reasons for this. Either they are rigid in their definitions of gender/identities and cannot be helped, or they just haven’t been (gently) educated and taught the error of their ways.

The first group cannot be helped, and should not be called Allies.

The second group just needs a little more exposure in the world. Given time they can come around. They’re not too much of a problem.

4. Allies talk over the community.

Rather than letting a lesbian talk about their experience, this type of Ally will tell the lesbian what their experience is supposed to be like. “No no, REAL lesbians…”

This is roughly equivalent to mansplaining. Mansplaining is when a man says “No no, the REAL issues women face are…”

You see how much of a dick move that is?

Mansplaining and gaysplaining (as I shall call it) is just another way to tell that person that their identity/sexuality is wrong because it doesn’t fit rigid preconceptions.

Again, people define their identities for themselves. You, as an Ally, are supposed to LISTEN to them, not try to change their narrative so it makes more sense to you.

5. Allies are abusive.

Some Allies fly the Ally banner to get closer to a specific person or type of person and use them for something (sex, money, getting them in your amateur porn film, etc). They see members of the LGBT community as props, or tools, and not people.

6. Allies do it for the resume building, not because it’s sincere.

There’s a difference between aiding the LGBT community for yourself, to look like a spiffy, worldly employee and get a raise because of how cool you are, and aiding the LGBT community because the community needs help.

Being an Ally requires a lot of introspection and listening. Introspection, in knowing why you want to get involved in the LGBT community, whether for yourself or for others. Listening, in not talking over others or trying to police how they should and should not live.

If I missed something (I’m sure I missed a lot), please leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

The Absurd List Exercise

A few years ago, back when I lived closer to Columbus, my big sis wrote this, in permanent marker, on a dry erase board.

absurd list written on dry erase board

We have never been able to wash this off, so nearly ten years later, we still have this list tacked to the refrigerator, and it makes us laugh.

Seeing this inspires me to try a new idea as a warm-up writing exercise.

The exercise?

Make an absurd list.

It doesn’t have to have a theme like “What to Do When I Grow Up,” but if it helps you get your silly gears going, then go for it.

So I just did my free-writing list of “What to Do When I Grow Up,” and this is what I came up with:

  • Learn to Cook a Unicorn
  • Speak Cat
  • Shave my eyebrows
  • Lint-roll the dog
  • Make a sweater for the Eiffel Tower
  • High five Adolf Hitler in the face
  • Fly with the owls
  • Stretch my toes into Nickelodeon slime
  • host a Dalek tea party
  • Put sunglasses on Shakespeare’s dead body
  • arm wrestle the sun

The fun thing about the Absurd List is that it gets your creative muscles moving, and that means you’ll be more receptive to ideas and suggestions, whcih is always a good thing in creative work.

Share some of your absurd lists in the comments below!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Vol. 1: A Review

heroic legend of arslan volume 1 arakawa
Today: I review volume 1 of this series.

I love Hiromu Arakawa’s work. She’s one of my biggest inspirations in my comics-making career.

But I haven’t read much of her work outside of Fullmetal Alchemist and bits and pieces of a volume of A Hero’s Tale. I know. I bring shame upon my nerd head.

My friend Chloe, who is also a big fan of Arakawa’s, gifted me The Heroic Legend of Arslan (volumes 1 and 2) for Christmas. I heard Arakawa was working on this with a writer by the name of Yoshiki Tanaka, so I was super excited to read this.

I was thoroughly entertained.

Is it perfect? No. There are times where it feels like the characters are just throwing up exposition, but the action, the art, and the sincere characters really pull you through.

The story is about a prince named Arslan. He is the son of the war-hardened King Andragoras, who has never lost a battle. When Arslan reaches the age of 14, he rides into battle with his father against the Lusitanians, and I will stop there or else I would spoil it.

The first chapter of this manga was actually written by Arakawa, and takes place four years prior to the main events, to help give some context for the rest of the story. Don’t skip that chapter. It actually helps to give some wonderful insights into the character of Arslan, and is entertaining as hell.

One thing I noticed though, is the character designs.

In Arakawa’s work, she tends to use character designs that are similar across her work. To help clarify, take a look at Solf J. Kimblee from Fullmetal Alchemist, versus Marzban Daryun from Arslan.

kimblee and daryun
On the left, Solf J. Kimblee. On the right, Marzban Daryun.

Now take a look at Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist and Eran Vahriz from Arslan.

armstrong and vahriz fullmetal alchemist and heroic legend of arslan
On the left: Armstrong. On the right: Vahriz.

It’s Armstrong with a beard!

I think the reason behind this is that this references something done by one of the original manga masters, Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka took character designs across works like this because he was heavily influenced by movies. He saw the characters as actors, and he would have the actors take on new roles in various productions…or comics.

I think that’s what Arakawa does, as well. Her characters are actors taking on new roles. Is this an intentional homage? Or an art gag? Knowing Arakawa, it could be both.

Back to the manga, once you get into chapter 2, that’s when the warring and battles start. This is the real meat and potatoes of this first volume in the manga series. And it’s written and illustrated well. It’s not for the weak at heart, though, because it does feature a lot of impaling and catching people on fire.

You know, war.

Because of that, the characters (Arslan is a sweetie and Daryun is my all-time favorite), and the art, The Heroic Legend of Arslan is the rare story that has gotten me interested in manga again! I could not set this book down because I was so excited and eager to see what would happen next.

So if you’re tired of seeing the same old romantic-comedy manga on book shelves, give this series a try. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.