born in a white town (page 2)

i like this page a lot. i hope y’all can read it. i have the main script and then a side panel of events as well. a scanner would obviously work better than my trying to stand there with my camera and get enough light while not creating a shadow while trying to frame it so it will crop evenly while trying not get bumped by a feral child running past.

if there are bits you cannot read, let me know, and i will either get a better picture or write out what is said in the comic here in the blog post.

hopefully you get the gist of it.

page two! a timeline of my whiteness. that i remember all my relationships with other races is telling of how little diversity i have had in my life. despite my being so fucking progressive and open-minded and choosing to live in “progressive” and “open-minded” college towns.

Advertisement

slow! artist with children

a million years later….

i finished inking the first ink on the pages of my short comic about my experiences as a white member of our society. after i put up klu klux kraken i realized that that comic leaves us hanging. we need to do something…but what? my first “what” is this comic i was born in a white town. i just want to identify that racism is prevalent and start a conversation about it. so i’m sharing my–not that exciting–but hopefully relevant first thoughts about race and how i have interacted with it in my own life.

or something like that.

at least my self-portraits are convincing. here is misha saying, “two mommies!!” as she points to some of my self-portrait work in this comic.

i have been doing a lot of my comicking as my children run about. i can’t survive their bedtimes to do art later…so i am learning to do art as they interact with me. it’s rough. my train of thought is often derailed. and i get bumped and get grumpy about getting bumped…but at least i’m still going!

though i do not have a room of my own…maybe i am a new breed of writer. one who can function amidst chaos….

though i still wouldn’t mind a room of my own….

sigh.

maybe one day…and then i will get bored and wander out of it to see where all the excitement is.

progress report

slowly…so slowly.

i would make a poor current events comic stripper.

however, unfortunately racism isn’t going anywhere anytime soon (unless my fantasy of donald trump as the pied piper leading all of the racists out of town comes true.)

i did start working on my second racism-themed comic, my racism/kraken comic. i started it in my head this morning as poppy lay screaming at me. i am trying to wean him from nighttime nursing. i am losing the battle. he is a very tenacious baby. and i feel like a bully for trying to wean him…but my boobs!

i digress.

i started writing my kraken comic in my head this morning & then somehow snuck some time during the day to draw it out. i wish i were more eloquent. i wish i was more artful. but this is what i got.

as far as the memoir/personal insight into racism comic goes. i am still working on it. but as stated in the previous paragraph, i am suffering a lack of creative confidence.

but i am working on it. wondering if i really do have anything to say…but determined to at least whisper it…if not scream.

if i could change the world

i am so bothered by the news of racism i see every morning in my facebook feed (which is my news source–i follow several news groups, etc.) my heart hurts with every report. i see that trump is stirring up even more of it. and i am deeply worried. it is such a destructive direction in which our country is headed.

so i keep trying to work on this comic. kind of more of a memoir/thought comic than my usual. so i am struggling with it. i am not sure of what kind of illustrations to use. if there will be dialogue. things like that. i have been playing around with lighter illustrations to offset the heavier subject matter. also, doing stories close to my actual experience (aka memoirs) is difficult for me. i thought maybe more cartoon-y would relieve that a bit.

i did start to ink a page. i went with this format. i think it will work. with the amount of text i have, i think it will be four…maybe five, pages.

so i’ve started! even though my minions work against me…(aren’t they supposed to work for me?) i keep giving them lectures on how i need me-time to get things done. maybe one day…. instead they are always on top of me–fighting for attention. and my comics are the ones who suffer for it.

one day…one day.

lisa the lion

a million years ago, before there was “flash fiction,” i wrote a one page story about a little girl who turned into a lion when she felt it was necessary.

now i’m working on turning it into a comic.  kind of a sort of memoirish traumatic childhood influenced work of fiction.

a kid’s story–not for kids.