Working on a private comic

I'm back and recouped from my weekend vacation.

During my time there I couldn't draw at all so I ended up getting a little manic late at night. It just wasn't fun when I was unable to go through my comfort routines. So why I ended up doing wad whipping out my phone and drunkenly writing out the script to another comic.

The comic was another telling of Jordan and Derrick merging together to form Dr. Spiral, except this time I resolved to turn down some of the exaggeration and have things go as if they were more typically andro bodied transwoman. Perhaps a bit more raw than the fantasy work I normally do. It's unfortunate that this would be tagged as "ugly-sexy" but there are some unresolved feelings regarding these characters that felt very therapeutic and liberating to go over.

Not to beat a dead horse, but the character of Derrick was never meant to fit the prototypical mold of the trans experience because his specific case is characterized as a fetish. A fetish that is offensive to many within the trans community, of which I've spoken at length about. Though I realize now that despite its rocky origins, as per ongoing queer discourse, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to invalidate a person's sexual or gender identity based on it spawning from a kink.

To say that the fetishization of certain groups harms the LGBTQ+ world is nothing more than negative cherry picking and gate keeping by this point. For if gender is truly a construct and if we truly have freedom over our personal sexual expression, then we must accept trans/queer persons such as Derrick are valid.

I allowed myself to be swayed by the knee jerk reaction of someone who will never read this. And that same thing happened again when I dared to make a gender defying character not be the paragon of virtue. But I'm sick of buckling under the pressure of other people's outrage and hypocrisy.

That all being said, I'm doing something different with this comic by keeping it private-ish for now. Even here. Why? Because I only want to share it when I have something to show. And rather than getting anyone's hopes up by posting all the thumbnails and pre-work, I wanted to announce that I will be silently chipping at it in the background. This shouldn't interfere with my usual work, and this will also guarantee you won't be buried under my tunnel vision.

For you see, this comic isn't meant to be a crowd pleaser. It's meant to be a "me" pleaser. And Dr. Spiral's garish design × this new direction I'm trying out, is expected to clash with the things you're likely here for.

Or in a nutshell, I don't want anyone telling me what I can and cannot do with these characters anymore. I refuse to compromise on my vision just because it makes you upset. Kink or not. This is my art.