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My “Plump the Post” Zine Submission

an illustration of a plump transgender/nonbinary person holding a flower. Below them is a banner saying "liberation" and above them flies the genderqueer flag.

I can’t remember the exact year that Plump the Post happened. But I think it was no later than 2018.

Plump the Post was a zine collecting art made by and for fat representation. For my entry, I wanted to highlight chubby genderqueer people because they’re valid, too.

(Also Hollywood has a tendency that even IF they highlight trans characters, they’re, 99.9% of the time, skinny.)

The model who served as inspiration for this piece was a friend of a friend, a chubby trans dude whom I am not naming to protect his privacy.

Is the zine available for sale? Well, it’s here.

Will there be another issue? Hard to say.

But I’m glad I participated in it.

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Thoughts on “Transgender Warriors” and Leslie Friedman

I’m currently reading a fascinating book called Transgender Warriors by Leslie Friedman. It makes me think of The Yellow Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee in that both books are part memoir, part history books. The Yellow Lighted Bookshop is about the history of books as much as it’s the tale of the author growing into a mature librarian. Transgender Warriors is as much about Friedman as it is about trans people in history.

I recognized quite a few names of warriors in the first few chapters, as those people of history also appear in David E. Jones’s Women Warriors: A History. Women Warriors acknowledges that many of the women cross-dressed or exhibited more masculine qualities (like King Nzinga) but still has that gender binary. You have to infer that some women in that book were, in fact, non-binary. Maybe not “trans,” but definitely falling outside of man/woman dichotomies.

With that said, Friedman’s personal history is profoundly biased in one way: s/he was an active member, for many years, of the World Workers Party, a communist organization that was an offshoot of the Socialist Party in the USA. For all I know, s/he may still be a member.

So, there are many, many, many, MANY moments in the book that are cringe/noteworthy. To say s/he is NOT a fan of capitalism is an understatement on par with “I think North Korea may have a humanitarian problem.” Continue reading “Thoughts on “Transgender Warriors” and Leslie Friedman”

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New Sketches for Comics In Progress

So, in between my webcomics and my day jobs, I’ve still managed to make some new sketches to develop some comics I have in the works.

I have them posted below. They’re not in color (yet) but I wanted to show you the (dare I say, gorgeous) line-work I used to draw them.

jamie roberts the genderqueer pirate
Jamie Roberts, Genderqueer Pirate.

woman of the woods sorceress warrior
The Woman of the Woods, Sorceress and Warrior.

princess rosetta and amal ahmad
Princess Rosetta and Amal Ahmad

seeing him panel teaser sketch
A sample panel from the upcoming webcomic Seeing Him.

This last sketch is from a webcomic my sister Kia and I are hoping to get on KickStarter, called “Seeing Him.”

The story is about a young lady named Kate who wants to find Mr. Right. She finds him in Adam, a devilishly handsome OB/GYN who is also a trans man.

We both felt like there weren’t enough stories with trans men in them, and what few there are don’t necessarily portray them as, like, people. We hope that “Seeing Him” can help change that.

We tried running a KickStarter previously, but we didn’t meet our goal.

But this time, we learned: we’re going to lower the fundraising goal, and offer more digital rewards and custom commissions for backers.

The plan is to get the KickStarter up online on Saturday, but with my two day jobs deciding they want me to work full-time hours, I don’t know if that’ll happen.

However, if the project gets fully funded, I can actually QUIT one day job for a while. And that would be super cool to just make more comics more often, yo.

Wish me luck!