More Black History Month Sketches

The original plan to update the blog daily with sketches for Black History Month isn’t happening, unfortunately… but at the very least I’m going to post the sketches I HAVE done thus far, and will keep doing so throughout the month.

First, let’s start with Jackie Ormes, first African American lady cartoonist and stellar lady.

black history month jackie ormes cartoon sketch art

She was also one of the few people to address (at the time) modern black issues in cartoons at a time in history when people wouldn’t even touch the subject. Check out her comics and cartoons on her site to see what I mean. Continue reading “More Black History Month Sketches”

An Open Letter to the American People

Dear Reader,

I’m writing this open letter to unfurl some things that have been on my mind for the last week. I hope you find something in this that resonates with you and helps to keep you going.

First, things are going to get better. This will sound unbelievable, especially in this new and uncertain time where Nazis are coming out of the ash pile, Betsy DeVos is destined to ruin public education, and Trump is calling any judge who opposes his Muslim ban, essentially, an unpatriotic American. But things will get better. In some ways, things are already better. Continue reading “An Open Letter to the American People”

Black History Month: Queen Aminatu

queen amina or queen aminatu of zazzau hausa queen black history month illustration

It’s Black History Month! To commemorate, I’ll be posting one illustration every day highlighting a black historical figure.

Today, it’s Queen Amina, also known as Queen Aminatu of Zazzau. Her history was told orally for centuries before it was written in the Kano Chronicle in the 1800s, which details the history of the Hausa people of north-central Nigeria. But in summary… Continue reading “Black History Month: Queen Aminatu”

‘Seeing Him’ Has a New Online Home

Seeing Him is the story of Kate, a small business owner, and Adam, a trans male doctor, who fall in love and have adventures with their outrageous friends. It was a webcomic funded on KickStarter, then funded on Patreon to keep it going, and updated from June 2015 to December 2015 on Pink Dollar Comics.

However, Pink Dollar Comics is now gone. Which also meant that Seeing Him briefly disappeared.

Now, I’m bringing it back online.

seeing him webcomic kate yay

Continue reading “‘Seeing Him’ Has a New Online Home”

How I Grew Into Punk

kelcid self portrait punk portrait sketch

It started all the way back in high school.

Stick with me a second.

Throughout middle school I mostly listened to metal, so it wasn’t until high school that I began to branch out from that genre into others. High school, for instance, gave me a healthy appreciation of hip hop and alternative rock.

In high school the punk I heard was largely pop punk and whatever was popular at Hot Topic at the time – which was YellowCard, Blink 182, and Coheed & Cambria when I came on the scene.

However, I DID like the visual aesthetic of punk. One of my classmates, let’s call him Pete, was a hard core punk and drew album art for bands. Really grotesque stuff, like fat pimpled babies with extra limbs. That made me more aware of art outside of Disney and manga, that’s for sure.

I was intrigued. Eventually I hitched a ride to the Ohio Governor’s Youth Art Exhibition with one of the friends of Pete on a trip to Columbus (our work was in the first round of judging). Well he misread the directions and we ended up in Short North, the artsy district of the city. And there, we stopped at a magnificent record store, called (I shit you not) Magnolia Thunderpussy. Continue reading “How I Grew Into Punk”