Jackie Ormes returns! This cartoonist was known for drawing glamorous fashion as well as political/social commentary. So when she appears in SuperButch, I want to do her wardrobe justice.
Here's a page of "Torchy's Togs," a paper doll series that appeared next to the Sunday issue of "Torchy in Heartbeats." (The original Torchy Brown strip ended in 1938, but Jackie Ormes got to bring Torchy back in the early 1950s!)
When I need to pick an outfit...
2021-09-03 17:27:21 +0000 UTC
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Hello! I'm back. As promised, here are the illustrations I did for Emotional Labor: Why a Woman's Work is Never Done and What To Do About It. And here's photographic evidence of me being relaxed last week:
The book illustrations were a fun drawing challenge because I wanted them to look expressive and energetic, like someone had vented their feelings directly into a sketchboo...
2021-08-28 22:02:21 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons! I'm writing this from my partner's parents' house, where we're taking an honest-to-gosh break for a couple weeks. Thanks for your patience this summer. We're still looking for a rental house, and I've been working on a book illustration project that JUST finished up. On the bright side, the book illustration project just finished up! And I'll share the illustrations in a separate post!
I had fun drawing the phone choreography on this page. In the script, Erwin wasn't startled by Lillian slamming the story onto his desk. He ...
2021-08-07 18:18:51 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons,
Summer camp is back at the children's theater, which means I don't have to draw any more Zoom meetings! The first week of camp provided enough inspiration for a month's worth of newsletter cartoons, which will free up some much-needed time for SuperButch. (Sorry again!)
My housemates and I have also been looking for a new rental house for over a month, which is an entire part-time job. Surprise, it's hard to find a 4+ bedroom rental house with a feasible car-free commute to three different quadrants of the city. And s...
2021-07-11 19:15:20 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons!
This page led to some fun research. In this video from 1943, entitled "Basic Typing Methods," the narrator informs us that "Today, typewriters enable women and girls to perform military and industrial services as important as those performed by men." It felt very "A League of their Own."
When I was choosing furniture and appliances for Lillian's mom Constance's kitchen, I looked for things that would be 10 to 30 years old in 1941. (The...
2021-06-13 22:25:20 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons,
The end is in sight for the next SuperButch page! Remind me not to draw several different layout options for each panel of a 9-panel page. It does terrible things to my schedule. But I really like how the page is looking, so let's face it, I'll probably do that again. :)
In the meantime, I had a very inspiring trip to the children's theater a couple weeks ago, to help clean and set up for summer camps!
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2021-06-07 22:30:55 +0000 UTC
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Barry and I got a very stressed-out email last week saying "I borrowed my friend's signed copy of SuperButch Issue One, and...well, my housemate has a dog. Can I get a replacement copy?!" Of course the answer was yes, but we demanded cute dog pics first. :)
Off the subject:
This month has been a quadruple 2021-05-25 01:31:27 +0000 UTC
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"Oh good," I thought. "It's an 80s transcript page! That shouldn't take too long to draw..." And then I went through six different page layouts. ::shrug::
Here are the layouts I tried:
I'm really happy with how this page turned out. The last couple weeks have been hectic with volunteering, work, and vaccine #2 (yay!) but hopefully page-updates will start to be more regular again. And hopefully we'll get to see more of Lillian's neighborh...
2021-05-01 17:59:20 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons!
I got my first vaccine dose at the Oregon Convention Center, the usual site of Rose City Comic Con. In many respects, the experience of looking for the right entryway, walking through numbered stanchions, and being directed by event staff felt completely familiar. But also it felt like being in a disaster movie. That afternoon, I dropped everything to draw the scene that popped into my head.
Naomi and I spent a couple of Saturdays volunteering at pop-up events with 2021-04-19 01:42:32 +0000 UTC
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Ta-daa!
The Photoshop file for this page has about 20 layers of sketched chairs, tables, and figures. This was one of those pages where I just scoot everything around til it looks right. In the screenshot below, you can see MOST of the layers I was working with.
Here's Barry's script for this page:
This page is a large splash panel with small inserts. We could also do this as two pages in a row showing the scene, if you w...
2021-04-06 18:26:33 +0000 UTC
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This postcard was originally titled "Stay-at-Home: Week 48," but it took me awhile to get to it. By week 54, it was deemed "not the right vibe" for the theater e-newsletter. The weather is sunnier. Vaccines are rolling out. Theater-parents are planning how to get their kids back to school (eep!) and how to get outside a little.
This is the latest newsletter cartoon:
We're not opening the building anytime soon, but it's good to be ready. The sta...
2021-03-25 04:14:11 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons,
The book Shoulder Angel is holding is Station Eleven , and the comics on top of the bookshelf are True War Stories, MADI, issues of Abbott and
2021-03-20 22:36:25 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons,
Finally got the chance to draw the exterior of Moira's! It's based on the historical Mona's 440 in San Francisco. Mona's is long gone, but the buildings from that era are still there. So I used a grainy photo of Mona's over Google street view for reference:
This was a fun week for drawing buildings! I also did a postcard of
2021-03-05 02:39:17 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons!
Confession: Barry finished lettering this page yesterday, and I didn't post it to Patreon right away because I was distracted by the new vacuum cleaner that had arrived in the mail.
It was even more exciting than a swiffer. It works better than the vacuum I found on the sidewalk several years ago, the vacuum our friends gave us when ...
2021-02-25 17:17:27 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons!
Here are some different layouts I tried for this page. (Of course, as soon as I don't have to figure out how to fit 10 people in each panel, I want to explore all the page-layout possibilities!) After sketching five different layouts, I finally told Barry "HERE, PICK ONE."
Barry copy-pasted some of my sketches into a new layer in Photoshop, added some of his own drawing, and came up with layer #6.
Thanks, as al...
2021-02-11 23:53:27 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons!
Whew, it feels good to get to a new panel layout. [Barry's script actually says "We finally (finally!) change angles" for panel 2.]
(reference photo for Lillian's arms and jacket)
The poses for SuperButch and the flying cop are very much thanks to Barry. I couldn't figure out a way for SuperButch to plausibly punch the guy onto Lillian's table. After a couple hours of unsatisfactory doodling...
2021-02-02 04:33:30 +0000 UTC
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Talon and Perry Winkle host a series called How Do You Do. They interview students, artists, and families in our community about their creative projects. This comic will feature in Season 3 Episode 1! It goes up on Facebook on Thursday 1/28 at 3PM PST (and probably hits YouTube around the same time).
In the episode, Talon also interviews Naomi and me about a kids' comics workshop we're doing with
2021-01-28 05:50:29 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons!
If I find out what brand of noise-canceling cotton balls Lillian is using, I'll definitely post a link for you here. XD
I imagine that New Year's Eve is no longer on anyone's mine, but I wanted to share this postcard:
If you've taken my recommendation for Arden and have sped through both seasons and are feeling radio drama with...
2021-01-19 17:52:40 +0000 UTC
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I love how Barry set up this scene in the previous pages!
I chuckled to myself when I first read the script, but I knew it would be a challenge to fit Lillian, a waitress, a dancing couple or two, some background characters, and the police officers into each panel. It's hard to draw something that both looks like a chaotic crowd, and is easy for the reader to follow. I spent a lot of time figuring out where to place all the characters so that they overlapped in a realistic way, but none of the characters were blocking the important act...
2021-01-08 02:19:10 +0000 UTC
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Page 150: That is a nice, round number. Thanks for helping Barry and me reach it!
2020-12-28 20:01:00 +0000 UTC
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We're almost to page 150--woohoo! ...and I just realized that Lillian's necktie was black last week, and now it's white. I'll go fix that.
Special thanks goes to Barry's niece Sydney for this page. I couldn't have drawn Lillian's hat and jacket without you!!
2020-12-24 17:05:40 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons!
My coworker Talon has been filming a series called "How Do You Do" for the children's theater. It's a talk show where he plays both the host AND the co-host, the puppet Perry Winkle.
I'll admit, I spaced out during a Zoom staff meeting, and misheard the puppet's name as "Harry." So I texted a trusted coworker "who is harry??" and pictured Talon working with some difficult actor who wanted endless retakes.
That whole mi...
2020-12-24 06:55:28 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to Moira's, home of Turtle City's greatest Male Impersonators!
It was based on Mona's 440 in San Francisco:
I couldn't find any interior photos of the original Mona's, so I got to make it up. I wanted to give Moira's a very different look than previous bars Lillian has been to. It's supposed to be more upscale than 63 or the Rabbit Hole, so I intentionally left everything looking brighter and sleeker.
These are some of the ...
2020-12-14 20:59:40 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons!
Please give a hand to Barry for the lettering and singsong word balloons!
It feels great to have this page done. A significant portion of the time spent on this page involved reading lyrics about hot nuts, lemons, sugar bowls<...
2020-12-07 19:06:39 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons!
I'm trying a process where I pencil several pages at once, then move on to the pen-and-ink phase. So SuperButch will be updating again starting this week! The plan is to have a few pages in different stages of progress, so I'm not starting at square one every week. I think that'll help with momentum?
In the meantime, here's a postcard from the children's theater:
and one from home:
2020-11-29 17:34:09 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons,
I'm still on a quest to balance drawing SuperButch with living up to the ideals of a conscientious lesbian cartoon character à la "Dykes to Watch Out For." I spent a few blocks of time last week at Laurelhurst Park, where ~75 people have been living in tents. The city announced an impending sweep of their camp, so a bunch of activists and volunteers ...
2020-11-20 04:52:11 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons,
Here are some changes this page went through before I could break out the pens and ink wash:
I tried to use ink wash to make the wood on the house and railings look a little worn, like they hadn't been repainted in awhile. I also painted the reflection of the apartment building behind Lillian's house in her windows. I hope that came through.
Also, I'm feeling festive! Here are some photos of delicious or pretty things f...
2020-11-08 01:50:49 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons,
In addition to the new page, here are some postcards from the children's theater!
Online dance classes:
Our upcoming online show:
Annnd the marketing office:
2020-10-30 22:57:20 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons,
You may remember that SuperButch picked up the Prism Award for Best Webcomic last year:
So this year, Barry and I got to be judges!
There will be panel discussions with the finalists (and some judges) in every category, Saturday and Sunday from 2-5PM Pacific time, culminating in the virtual Prism Awards at 5pm PST Sunday.
My panel is today! Here are the details:
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2020
2020-10-17 17:17:54 +0000 UTC
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Hi patrons!
Jumping backwards in time a bit, here's some funny background about the end of Issue 5. According to the original script, Lillian went directly home from the Rabbit Hole (no changing into femme clothes at the bar, no bumping into Kansas in the street, no stopping in the park to work on the SuperButch story). However, Barry realized that the print version would look like this:
The surprise of Kansas and Teruko would be ruined ...
2020-10-10 23:50:37 +0000 UTC
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