Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Elements: Fire
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://tanekastotts.com/
CITY: Portland
STATE: OR
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | no2017110370 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/no2017110370 |
| HEADING: | Stotts, Taneka, 1982- |
| 000 | 00973nz a2200229n 450 |
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| 005 | 20170823073617.0 |
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| 010 | __ |a no2017110370 |
| 035 | __ |a (OCoLC)oca10950261 |
| 040 | __ |a UOr |b eng |e rda |c UOr |
| 046 | __ |f 1982-07-24 |2 edtf |
| 100 | 1_ |a Stotts, Taneka, |d 1982- |
| 370 | __ |a Los Angeles (Calif.) |e Portland (Or.) |2 naf |
| 372 | __ |a Comic books, strips, etc. |2 lcsh |
| 374 | __ |a Editors |2 lcsh |
| 375 | __ |a females |2 lcdgt |
| 377 | __ |a eng |
| 378 | __ |q Taneka Ann |
| 670 | __ |a Afar, 2017: |b title page (edited by Taneka Stotts) unnumbered page (After spending quite a few years as a spoken word artist, Taneka’s focus shifted to comics … Taneka has edited a few comics anthologies. Located in Portland, Oregon) |
| 670 | __ |a whitepages.com, 22 August 2017: |b (Taneka A Stotts, age 35, Portland, Oregon) |
| 670 | __ |a familysearch.org, 22 August 2017: |b (Taneka Ann Stotts, born 24 July 1982; Los Angeles, California) |
PERSONAL
Born July 24, 1982, in Los Angeles, CA.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, editor, and comic artist. Also, partner in Beyond Press.
AWARDS:LGBT Anthology Award, Lambda Literary, for Beyond; Outstanding Anthology, Ignatz, for Elements.
WRITINGS
Creator of web-based comics, including “Full Circle,” “Love Circuits,” and “Deja Brew.”
SIDELIGHTS
Taneka Stotts is a queer writer, editor, comic book artist, and publisher. She is a partner in the publishing company, Beyond Press. In an interview with Steve Morris, contributor to the CBR website, Stotts discussed her commitment to giving a voice to queer people and people of color through her work. She stated: “We have been denied a voice for so long. Now in a climate where our voices are being commoditized from those who don’t live the experience or care about the end results it’s great for us to say, you know what, maybe don’t, because we’re here to tell our own stories too.” Stotts continued: “It’s great to see unabashedly queer characters take on a role that is no longer the sidekick of the inevitably fridged route so someone can get through some pain or find their own validation. We are the heroes, main characters, and champions of our own reality and so it should be reflected in works that we create.”
Beyond
Stotts collaborated with Sfé R. Monster to edit Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology. The book includes eighteen short comics created by over two dozen contributors.
Alenka Figa, reviewer on the Women Write About Comics website, commented: “Beyond contains [nearly] twenty beautifully illustrated, science fiction and fantasy stories that feature openly, unquestionably queer, trans, nonbinary, and racially diverse characters and creators.” Figa added: “Anthologies are multi-faced beasts. They introduce readers to new creators, provide small insights to existing stories, showcase variety and diversity by bringing together unique voices, and, as Beyond does for queer and trans sci fi and fantasy, they can make a unified statement about a style or genre.” Figa concluded: “Beyond is the sci fi and fantasy anthology of your queer and trans dreams. Reading the collection will leave you thirsty for more.”
Afar
Stotts is the editor of a graphic novel called Afar, that was written by Leila del Duca and illustrated by Kit Seaton. The book’s protagonist is a teenager named Boetema, who has the power of astral projection. She and her younger brother must travel alone through the desert in order to save themselves from dangerous creatures. Del Duca discussed her lack of experience in the genre in an interview with Forrest Helvie, contributor to the Newsarama website. Del Duca stated: “I had a bit of an idea of what it took to write a comic book since I’ve written short comics before, but I also vastly underestimated how much world-building I needed to do, how much outlining I needed to complete, and I ended up setting myself up for some difficult problems to solve that manifested later in the book.” Del Duca continued: “I hired Taneka Stotts as my editor, since I knew I’d need the help, and she really went above and beyond in nudging my scripts in the right way and making it much better than I could have done on my own. In the end, I’ve learned that I do really like writing, even if it gives me a lot of anxiety! And it’s the most rewarding thing seeing Kit’s beautiful artwork bring my weird ideas to life. That was the biggest motivator.” Of their intentions for the book, Seaton told Helvie: “It’s a story for daydreamers, and in that sense, we tried to keep to the escapism and fun that Leila and I both sought out from stories when we were young. I hope readers will enjoy travelling to other worlds with Boetema, and seeing it all through her sense of wonder and curiosity.”
Eva Volin, reviewer in Booklist, noted that the book featured “transitions that are often jarring.” However, Volin concluded: “The direction the story takes is intriguing enough to hook fantasy lovers.” An Internet Bookwatch critic called the book “highly recommended, especially for science fiction connoisseurs.” Writing on the National Public Radio website, Etelka Lehoczky asserted: “Boetema and Inotu’s world is vividly realized. Seaton makes their arid land rich and detailed.” Lehoczky added: “Del Duca’s goals for this book seem both narrower and deeper than those of other ‘magical girl’ writers. She determinedly keeps her characters down-to-earth and her story small—universe-spanning though it is. There’s no grandiose escapism here for Boetema or the reader.” Referring to del Duca, Oliver Sava, contributor to the AV Club website, remarked: “It’s an impressive debut that reveals her skill for creating a compelling concept and multidimensional characters while still trusting her artist to carry much of the storytelling weight.” Sava continued: “When artists jump over to writing, there are two things that typically happen: Either they overcompensate with narration and dialogue because they’re not fully comfortable with their writing role or the skills of the artist, or they understand the value of letting the visuals drive the narrative and give their collaborator room to breathe. Afar does the latter, and Del Duca has a strong creative rapport with artist Kit Seaton that makes for a rich, smooth reading experience.” “There aren’t many comics out there that can meld different worlds so seamlessly. It’s visionary in what it does,” asserted Britany Murphy on the Black Girl Nerds website.
Elements
Stotts also edited Elements: Fire: An Anthology by Creators of Color. She told Morris, writing here on the Comics Alliance website: “Elements is a comics anthology with thirty-three creators taking on the theme of fire. In the current climate of the comic industry, it’s easy to see that not only do we need more diverse books, but we also need more diverse creators.”
“Both longtime fans of comics and readers new to the medium should find plenty here to entertain and inspire,” asserted a Kirkus Reviews contributor. The same contributor described the book as “an impressive, memorable anthology highlighting writers and artists of color.” Caitlin Rosberg, critic on the AV Club website, suggested: “Elements: Fire is a showcase of creators of color in a well-edited, cohesive anthology.” Rosberg added: “With editors like Stotts pushing the industry to improve and become more inclusive, it’s hard not to have hope of seeing these names backed by increasingly larger publishers in the future.” A writer on the Smart Bitches Trashy Books website suggested: “The stories are rich in visual and artistic storytelling, and intensely empowering.” “If you’re a fan of comic books or stories about multi-dimensional character of color by creators of color, then support this book,” remarked Ira Hobbs on the Blavity website.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, January 1, 2017, Eva Volin, review of Afar, p. 56.
Internet Bookwatch, July, 2017, review of Afar.
Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2017, review of Elements: Fire: An Anthology by Creators of Color.
ONLINE
Atlantic Books Today, http://atlanticbookstoday.ca/ (April 29, 2017), Steve Large, interview with Sfé R. Monster and review of Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology.
AV Club, https://aux.avclub.com/ (April 7, 2017), Oliver Sava, review of Afar; (May. 12, 2017), Caitlin Rosberg, review of Elements.
Bitch Media, https://www.bitchmedia.org/ (July 25, 2017), Stacie Evans, review of Afar.
Black Girl Nerds, https://blackgirlnerds.com/ (April 5, 2017), Britany Murphy, review of Afar.
Blavity, https://blavity.com/ (March 5, 2018), Ira Hobbs, review of Elements.
CBR, https://www.cbr.com/ (June 1, 2017), Steve Morris, interview with author and Monster.
Comics Alliance, http://comicsalliance.com/ (July 1, 2016), Steve Morris, author interview.
Dead Shirt, http://deadshirt.net/ (September 8, 2015), Rachel Stevens, review of Beyond.
National Public Radio Online, https://www.npr.org/ (April 6, 2017), Etelka Lehoczky, review of Afar.
Newsarama, https://www.newsarama.com/ (March 28, 2017), Forrest Helvie, interview with Leila del Duca and Kit Seaton.
OPB TV, https://www.opb.org/ (February 25, 2017), April Baer, interview with del Duca and Seaton; (November 4, 2017), April Baer, author interview.
Smart Bitches Trashy Books, http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/ (January 27, 2018), review of Elements.
Taneka Stotts Website, http://tanekastotts.com/ (March 26, 2018).
Women Write About Comics, http://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/ (October 7, 2015), Alenka Figa, review of Beyond; (July 31, 2018), Corissa Haury, author interview and review of Elements.
CONTACT
Email: TanekaStotts@gmail.com or contact my agent at jen@linnanliterary.com
Twitter: @neekaneeks
Instagram: @beyondpress
ABOUT ME
Taneka Stotts is a queer little tumbleweed that stopped rolling somewhere in Portland, OR. After spending quite a few years as a spoken word artist, Taneka's focus shifted to comics, a medium full of collaboration and imagination. Taneka writes the webcomics "Full Circle" and Love Circuits" as well as the Eisner-nominated webcomic, "Deja Brew." Taneka has edited a few comics anthologies including most recently the award-winning "Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi and Fantasy Comic Anthology" and Ignatz winner for Outstanding Anthology "ELEMENTS: Fire an Anthology by Creators of Color" (Beyond Press). Taneka is currently working on "KINGMAKER!" with Mildred Louis and "Last Bell" with Ria Martinez.
AWARDS
2017
Ignatz Winner: Outstanding Anthology for ELEMENTS: Fire an Anthology by Creators of Color
Eisner Nominee: Best Webcomic for Deja Brew
2016
Lambda Literary Winner: LGBT Anthology – Fiction for Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology
Ignatz Nominee: Outstanding Anthology or Collection for Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology
James Triptree Jr. Honors List: Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology
NEWS
2018
2/13/18 - Announcing the nominees for the 2018 Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity [Comics Beat]
2017
11/4/17 - Taneka Stotts On Throwing Fire And Investing In Herself [OPB State of Wonder]
10/11/17 - BEHIND THE INK: TANEKA STOTTS AND GENUÉ REVUELTA [Nerds of Prey]
09/22/17 - Wow! Webcomics! Review: Love Circuits by Taneka Stotts and Genué Revuelta [POMEmag]
09/18/17 - Emil Ferris’s graphic novel ‘Monsters’ tops diverse slate of 2017 Ignatz Award winners [Washington Post]
08/31/18 - E34: QUEERING AND MELANATING THE COMIC WORLD (W/ TANEKA STOTTS) [Racist Sandwich]
08/17/17 - SPX Ignatz Award nominees: Books tackling bigotry top ‘the Spirit Awards of comics’ [Washington Post]
08/07/2017 - The Comic Book Industry Officially Has No Excuse Not To Hire Women [HUFFPOST]
07/31/2017 - We Have Voices, Too: Milkshakes with Taneka Stotts [Women Write About Comics]
06/22/2017 - PASSION FRUIT: A QUEEROTICA ANTHOLOGY [BOOK RIOT]
06/14/2017 - W3 THR33 by Genué Revuelta and Taneka Stotts [The Portland Mercury]
06/01/2017 - Monster & Stotts Go Beyond Once More with New Queer Comics Anthology [CBR]
05/13/2017 - Review of Elements: Fire Anthology [TheBlerdGirl]
05/02/2017 - THE 2017 EISNER AWARD NOMINEES [icv2]
04/07/2017 - Two new superb indie offerings highlight the power of—and need for—marginalized voices in comics [A.V. CLUB]
04/07/2017 - With Afar, Image Comics makes a major play for the YA graphic novel market [A.V. CLUB]
2016
12/29/2016 - Black Comics Creators Fund Diversity on Kickstarter [Publishers Weekly]
08/18/2016 - Small Press Expo: Clowes, Tomine and Walden among leading 2016 SPX Ignatz Award nominees [Washington Post]
08/08/2016 - Taneka Stotts' 'Elements' is a comic anthology by creators of color [Blavity]
07/26/2016 - Taneka Stotts & Sara DuVall Conjure Reflections on Race, Queerness and Coffee Shop Magic in Deja Brew [PASTE Magazine]
07/10/2016 - BGN #81 | Elements, Bad Dad Rehab and Cell! [Black Girl Nerds]
07/02/2016 - The ELEMENTS: Fire Anthology is LIVE on Kickstarter! [Black Girl Nerds]
07/01/2016 - Editor Taneka Stotts Brings the Fire to ‘Elements’ [Comics Alliance]
03/04/2016 - Weekender: Small Press Day, Ron Wimberley and ‘Full Circle’ [Comics Alliance]
2015
07/15/2015 - Comics Alliance: The Harpy Agenda Amplifies Diverse Intersectional Voices in Comics [Comics Alliance]
04/27/2015 - Comics Alliance: Queerness Without Question: Sfe Monster Brings the ‘Beyond’ Anthology to Kickstarter [Back Pages] [Comics Alliance]
04/02/2015 - Comics Alliance: Help Bring This Queer Science Fiction Comics Anthology To Life [io9]
03/25/2015 - Comics Alliance: Your Brief And Wondrous Guide To Contemporary Queer Comics [HUFFPOST]
QUOTED: "Both longtime fans of comics and readers new to the medium should find plenty here to entertain and inspire."
"an impressive, memorable anthology highlighting writers and artists of color."
Stotts, Taneka: ELEMENTS: FIRE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Nov. 15, 2017): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Stotts, Taneka ELEMENTS: FIRE Beyond Press (Indie Fiction) $25.00 1, 11 ISBN: 978-0-9982828-0-0
A collection delivers comics by artists of color from around the world.
Bringing together short graphic narratives from 32 contributing artists, debut editor Stotts has crafted a group exhibition that showcases the deep and diverse talent available in the realm of comics. The anthology is a response, in part, to the dearth of creators of color represented in mainstream comic publishing. As Shing Yin Khor writes in the foreword: "We are tired of the scraps being offered to us at the traditional publishing table, when we have already proven...that there is both an audience and a market for our voice and our work." The pieces are united by aesthetic and theme. Each is colored mostly in black and white, with select use of red to highlight elements within the narrative. Each deals in some way with the idea of fire, and many feature storylines that revolve around loneliness, inadequacy, untapped ability, and unexpected friendship. Some pieces miss the mark, providing either too little or too much information to hook the reader in just a few pages. Others use simplicity to their advantage, as in the cinematic "Cactus Flower," by Sarah DuVall, in which lush panels and a few sparse words document a woman's mysterious magical rite. The equally laconic but visually busy "Metta Helmet," by Deshan Tennekoon and Isuri Merenchi Hewage, offers a fable on the contagiousness of kindness. In "Breathe," Kiku Hughes creates an apocalyptic folk tale from the distant future that is as universal as it is inscrutable. Other standouts include the fantastical "Firefly" by Myisha Haynes, the abbreviated space opera "Pulse" by Der-Shing Helmer, and the heartwarming "Starfall" by Ash G., which ends on the lovely sentiment--shared by two young seekers--that "we'll find the answers without hurting anybody, won't we?" The comics are meant for readers of all ages, and while each is accessible enough for youngsters to enjoy, most grapple with larger concerns that are relatable to a much older audience. Both longtime fans of comics and readers new to the medium should find plenty here to entertain and inspire.
1 of 4 3/4/18, 8:47 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
An impressive, memorable anthology highlighting writers and artists of color.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Stotts, Taneka: ELEMENTS: FIRE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Nov. 2017. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A514267643/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=8c099d22. Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A514267643
QUOTED: "transitions that are often jarring."
"The direction the story takes is intriguing enough to hook fantasy lovers."
2 of 4 3/4/18, 8:47 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Afar
Eva Volin
Booklist.
113.9-10 (Jan. 1, 2017): p56. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Afar. By Leila del Duca. Ed. by Taneka Stotts. Illus. by Kit Seaton. Apr. 2017.152p. Image Comics, paper, $14.99 (9781632159410). 741.5. Gr. 9-12.
There are a lot of intertwining stories in this first volume of a new fantasy series by award- winning artist del Duca. Boetema has begun dreaming of herself on other worlds, not learning until later that she's actually astral projecting and interacting with beings from other planets. Meanwhile, her brother, Inotu, has gotten himself into trouble with local authorities when he overhears sensitive information. When their parents leave the two teens behind while they go make some quick money, the two take the opportunity to skip town in search of jobs and safety. Alas, things don't turn out as they hope. Seaton's art is lovely, if a bit motionless, and her character designs are imaginative, from the brown-skinned townspeople to the fantastical aliens. The story moves quickly, resulting in transitions that are often jarring--giving just enough detail to inform the reader--and none of the characters have a chance to become fully realized. But the direction the story takes is intriguing enough to hook fantasy lovers, who will look forward to having these issues resolved in the sequel.--Eva Volin
Volin, Eva
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Volin, Eva. "Afar." Booklist, 1 Jan. 2017, p. 56. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A479078039/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=e02cd7f9. Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479078039
QUOTED: "highly recommended, especially for science fiction connoisseurs."
3 of 4 3/4/18, 8:47 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Afar
Internet Bookwatch.
(July 2017): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 Midwest Book Review http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
Afar
Leila Del Duca and Kit Seaton
Edited by Taneka Stotts
Image
imagecomics.com
9781632159410 $14.99 pbk / $9.68 Kindle amazon.com
Afar is a full-color science fiction graphic novel adventure that readers of all ages will find captivating. Fifteen-year-old Boetema lives a humble life in a post-industrial desert wasteland, until she unexpectedly discovers her ability to astral project to other planets while she is asleep. Boetema must navigate challenges in two different worlds--one barren and potentially dangerous, one alien with threats she knows next to nothing about. When her parents must temporarily leave her and her thirteen-year-old brother Inotu, the two are forced to make a dangerous desert journey after a troublesome run-in with a a hostile cyborg bodyguard! The striking art brings this saga of a strong-willed heroine, her family, and her friends to vivid life. Highly recommended, especially for science fiction connoisseurs.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Afar." Internet Bookwatch, July 2017. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com
/apps/doc/A502653072/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=d7ab1304. Accessed 4 Mar. 2018. Gale Document Number: GALE|A502653072
4 of 4 3/4/18, 8:47 PM
QUOTED: "Boetema and Inotu's world is vividly realized. Seaton makes their arid land rich and detailed."
"del Duca's goals for this book seem both narrower and deeper than those of other 'magical girl' writers. She determinedly keeps her characters down-to-earth and her story small—universe-spanning though it is. There's no grandiose escapism here for Boetema or the reader."
Rich, Colorful 'Afar' Reimagines The Magical Girl
April 6, 20177:00 AM ET
Etelka Lehoczky
Afar
Afar
by Leila Del Duca, Kit Seaton and Taneka Stotts
Paperback, 0 pages
purchase
There are a lot of magical girls in both comics and young adult fiction, but the heroine of Leila del Duca's graphic novel Afar is different from all of them. Boetema is far more down-to-earth than the sprites who populate "magical girl"-themed Japanese manga, and her gift is more cryptic than those of such recent YA heroines as the winged Ava in 2014's The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender and Sarah Raughley's Effigies in last year's Fate of Flames. The ambiguous nature of Boetema's ability, and the strangely diffuse quality of her whole story, indicate that del Duca has a subtler project afoot than simply inspiring girls to dream of mystical triumphs.
In fact, for much of Afar Boetema's gift doesn't seem to propel the story or make much difference to her own fate. She has the ability — sometimes a compulsion — to dream herself temporarily into the bodies of different creatures all over the universe. When she sleeps, Boetema finds herself inhabiting all sorts of strange and wonderful beings, gorgeously imagined by Kit Seaton. She becomes a fishy humanoid with webbed appendages, a lizard-headed man, a giant creature with a scorpion tail and a four-eyed, four-eared, eight-legged leopardlike beast. Nobody in her vaguely North African home society seems aware that abilities like hers exist, so she's at a loss for much of the book. It's only when she meets a friendly buglike alien that she learns the name for her gift: She's an astral projector, or "universal spirit traveler."
Even as she struggles to make sense of her ability, Boetema faces plenty of uncertainties in her everyday world. Her well-meaning but flaky parents can't manage to hold down jobs, so they drag Boetema and her brother Inotu from town to town. Finally, they all but abandon the two teenagers, at which point Inotu manages to get on the bad side of a shady warrior. He and Boetema flee into the desert, hoping to reach Yopan, "the city of riches and abundance" — or, failing that, to find anyplace where they can settle down and scrape a living.
[Del Duca] determinedly keeps her characters down-to-earth and her story small — universe-spanning though it is. ... And it works.
Boetema and Inotu's world is vividly realized. Seaton makes their arid land rich and detailed, and the alien worlds Boetema encounters on her spirit walks are as brilliantly colored and exotic as could be imagined. Boetema skillfully musters a wide-ranging knowledge of nature to find a way through the desert and keep herself and her brother alive. Inotu evolves from an impulsive boy into a supportive, dedicated helper. And about halfway through the book, Boetema's random nighttime projections coalesce into a parallel storyline when she becomes Lindu, a scarlet-skinned girl in a technologically advanced world. Here she has a friend, and possibly more, in a young man named Talo — who's aware of the existence of spirit travelers and helps her understand her gift.
The Lindu storyline hardly winds up with a bang, though. It doesn't even have any particular effect on Boetema's waking journey, and her and Inotu's fates are open-ended at the end of the book. It's tempting to keep looking for a big, sweeping theme driving at least one of the main storylines, or, for that matter, underlying any of Boetema's spirit walks. But del Duca's goals for this book seem both narrower and deeper than those of other "magical girl" writers. She determinedly keeps her characters down-to-earth and her story small — universe-spanning though it is. There's no grandiose escapism here for Boetema or the reader.
And it works. The truths Boetema learns through her travels are humble, but they're satisfying. The beings she encounters on the spirit plane are a lot like the ones back in her "real" world, with similar conflicts and challenges. Though Boetema grows and changes, she doesn't undergo any miraculous reinvention or even harness her powers for good. She simply adapts, acquiring a deeper understanding of herself and those around her. That, del Duca seems to say, is a perfectly satisfactory achievement for any girl — even a magical one.
Etelka Lehoczky has written about books for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and Salon.com. She tweets at @EtelkaL.
Astral Projecting: “AFAR” Beautifully Stretches the Boundaries of Fantasy
by Stacie Evans
Published on July 25, 2017
Book Reviews{ Image Comics }
Released: April 4, 2017
$10.50
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This article appears in our 2017 Summer issue, Invisibility. Subscribe today!
The writing debut of comics artist Leila del Duca centers on teenage siblings Boetema and Inotu, whose flaky parents generate constant upheaval in their lives, moving them from place to place whenever their schemes are uncovered. As the story begins, their parents install them in a new town and abandon them there. When Inotu runs afoul of a powerful and dangerous man, the siblings find themselves on the run, looking after one another while working to understand the vivid, confusing dreams that have begun to affect Boetema’s waking hours.
Boetema’s dream state is fascinating: Not only does she find herself in other ecosystems, planets, and worlds, but in human and animal bodies as well, adding to the nocturnal intrigue. Seaton’s art beautifully captures the characters, as well as the dreamworlds, making Afar’s scenes—even ones that last only two panels—compelling.
Both the story and the characters really take off when Boetema realizes that she is astral traveling—that the places she visits are real—and the siblings must flee their home to keep Inotu safe. But while there is a lot readers need to know, the story often feels too rushed. In some places, del Duca offers very detailed information that might not be necessary to the story; in others, things are either unresolved or resolved too soon. At novel’s end, I’m left wondering too many things. Am I supposed to read Inotu, whose purpose in the larger narrative is unclear, as a kind of bumbling sidekick? What’s the story with Abrinet, the powerful young female ruler of a matrilineal estate who gives the siblings shelter? And we need more time with Agama Wanwitu and an as-yet-unnamed character, both of whom begin to help Boetema understand and master her powers.
As for Boetema herself, there is a reason she’s our hero, but it hasn’t been made clear.
I wanted to be fully absorbed by Afar; as a comics fan, I’m always up for something new that looks to stretch boundaries. And when that thing is a story with a woman of color in the lead? Yes, please. But don’t give us a Black woman for the sake of giving us a Black woman and then not develop her in a real way—that makes her blackness seem like a hook, something “on trend” that is used simply to get people to read the story. Del Duca and Seaton aren’t Black women, but if they’ve chosen to have their character be one, they need to make it clear that they have an idea of what her blackness means.
Though Afar was published as an original graphic novel, its unfinished business makes me hope for a future sequel, a chance to let the narrative arc spool out more slowly, allowing readers to savor the telling.
QUOTED: "Elements: Fire is a showcase of creators of color in a well-edited, cohesive anthology."
"With editors like Stotts pushing the industry to improve and become more inclusive, it’s hard not to have hope of seeing these names backed by increasingly larger publishers in the future."
Elements: Fire is a showcase of creators of color in a well-edited, cohesive anthology
With shorter, self-contained stories, anthologies can be good the same way tasting menus are, providing small quantities of a lot of different types of comics. But because of the variety of talent and skill in every book, they can also be uneven and lack a good flow that keeps readers going from one comic to the next.
Thankfully, there’s a growing population of small publishers that excel at compiling and editing anthologies of many stripes. Taneka Stotts is one of these talents, co-editing the hugely successful Beyond Anthology and, with Sfé R. Monster, creating Beyond Press. Where Beyond focused specifically on sci-fi and fantasy stories from LGBTQ creators, Stotts’ latest project, Elements: Fire, (Beyond Press) does the same for creators of color. The comics are all short, no longer than 15 pages, but the storytelling is for the most part tight and graceful, the product of trimming as much fat as possible and sticking to only what is necessary. This is the result of not just Stotts’ skill as an editor but also her eye as a publisher. She recruited a variety of talents for Elements, and most of them are consummate storytellers with proven abilities that deserve more exposure.
What sets Elements apart is that rather than being in simple grayscale, the book also features a single shade of red. Some of the artists opted to use the red in shading or by diluting it, but the uniformity of the color palette makes the book a lot more cohesive and smoother to read than some anthologies that feature full-color art in dozens of different styles. It’s particularly fascinating to see artists like Der-Shing Helmer, who features incredibly textured and varied colors in her own webcomics, working within this limitation. It draws the eye to composition and framing, bringing to the forefront those artists who can tackle kinetic movement or expressions with deft skill and confidence.
Helmer’s “Pulse” is one of the standouts of this volume, along with “Metta Helmet” by Deshan Tennekoon and Isuri Merenchi Hewage; Chloe Chan and Nina Matsumoto’s “Preta”; and “Breath, Plucked From Heaven” by Shivana Sookdeo. There are several lovely stories focused on children, girls especially. The volume also features a bittersweet story from Sara DuVall, who along with Stotts, was nominated for a 2017 Eisner Award for the webcomic Deja Brew.
Stotts and assistant editor Shing Yin Khor write eloquently in the foreword about the frustrations that marginalized creators face when trying to break into the comic book industry, a message that was also featured in Beyond. It’s increasingly frustrating that in order to find these incredible talents, readers have to dig long and hard, and creators have to run their businesses themselves. But with editors like Stotts pushing the industry to improve and become more inclusive, it’s hard not to have hope of seeing these names backed by increasingly larger publishers in the future. What’s even better is that Beyond Press itself continues to grow, with Beyond 2 launching on Kickstarter this week.
[Caitlin Rosberg]
QUOTED: "It’s an impressive debut that reveals her skill for creating a compelling concept and multidimensional characters while still trusting her artist to carry much of the storytelling weight."
"When artists jump over to writing, there are two things that typically happen: Either they overcompensate with narration and dialogue because they’re not fully comfortable with their writing role or the skills of the artist, or they understand the value of letting the visuals drive the narrative and give their collaborator room to breathe. Afar does the latter, and Del Duca has a strong creative rapport with artist Kit Seaton that makes for a rich, smooth reading experience."
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Reviews
With Afar, Image Comics makes a major play for the YA graphic novel market
Oliver Sava
4/07/17 9:00amFiled to: Books
209
Every two weeks, Big Issues focuses on a newly released comic book of significance. This week, it’s Afar. Written by Leila Del Duca (Shutter, Scarlet Witch) with art by Kit Seaton (The Black Bull Of Norroway, Otto The Odd And The Dragon King), this original graphic novel is a striking example of why more publishers should use this format for new stories. (This review reveals major plot points.)
One of the most lucrative markets in the comics industry is original graphic novels for young adults, but it’s been largely untapped by the major monthly comic publishers in the U.S. That’s slowly starting to change, though, and books like Image Comics’ Afar show the benefits of embracing the graphic novel format for stories aimed at teenage readers. Image has put out a lot of YA-friendly fantasy series recently that read better in collections rather than single issues—Monstress, Mirror, From Under Mountains, Arclight—and it’s refreshing to see the publisher bypass the single issues and just go straight to releasing a graphic novel, giving readers a complete story all at once.
Afar is the first graphic novel written by Leila Del Duca, who has done incredible work as the artist on Image’s Shutter. It’s an impressive debut that reveals her skill for creating a compelling concept and multidimensional characters while still trusting her artist to carry much of the storytelling weight. When artists jump over to writing, there are two things that typically happen: Either they overcompensate with narration and dialogue because they’re not fully comfortable with their writing role or the skills of the artist, or they understand the value of letting the visuals drive the narrative and give their collaborator room to breathe. Afar does the latter, and Del Duca has a strong creative rapport with artist Kit Seaton that makes for a rich, smooth reading experience.
Seaton primarily works in webcomics, and she’s one of the many webcomic creators that deserves the exposure of working on a title for a major print publisher. There are a lot of similarities between Seaton’s and Del Duca’s artwork, and it’s interesting to see Seaton draw inspiration from Del Duca and colorist Owen Gieni’s artwork on Shutter for the visuals in Afar. This feels like Seaton’s attempt to gain a better understanding of her collaborator’s storytelling style, and it works to create a deep connection between the script and the art. It also forms an aesthetic bond between Afar and its sister comic, and fans of Del Duca’s series with writer Joe Keatinge will find a lot to appreciate in this new graphic novel.
Afar tells the story of a 15-year-old girl, Boetema, who discovers she can project her consciousness to other planets when she sleeps. She’s already dealing with significant stress in her personal life as she takes care of her 13-year-old brother, Inotu, after their parents leave the city to look for work, but her situation becomes even more complicated and confusing thanks to this new ability, which she doesn’t understand and cannot control. The siblings are forced to leave home when Inotu lands on the wrong side of the law, and as they try to survive in the desert, Boetema finds herself desperate to get back to the body of an alien girl, Lindu, who she inadvertently put in danger. The relationship between Boetema and Inotu is the book’s emotional core, and while Boetema is the lead, Inotu gets considerable attention thanks to scenes that are accompanied by his grammatically incorrect, misspelled journal entries. Inotu’s writing improves as Boetema acclimates to her power, and having individual skills for both characters to develop gives them more pronounced arcs in the narrative.
Afar is set in a postindustrial desert wasteland that combines elements of Northern African and Middle Eastern cultures in the architecture and clothing, but it also jumps to spectacular fantasy locales when Boetema travels across the universe. Those jumps are some of the most fascinating parts of Afar. They’re the moments when the creative team’s imagination runs wild, and they serve as an especially effective showcase of Seaton’s versatility as an inker, colorist, and letterer. She handles nearly all aspects of the visuals (Del Duca contributes some character designs and the occasional page layout) and does remarkable work across the board. Her environments are sprawling and immersive, and her characters are brimming with personality that makes them immediately engaging. The painted colors are delicate yet vivid, and she does beautiful work with light sources to add dimension to the linework. She letters the majority of the dialogue with a curved font that makes the language appear more striking, and when Boetema ends up in a new body, the letters change to reflect the speech of the alien civilization.
The scenes on Boetema’s home planet give readers a lasting impression of this world and its people, but the glimpses of other planets and alien civilizations bring an exciting unpredictability to the story and artwork that intensifies the book’s forward momentum. The first astral projection offers an intense contrast to the desert planet as Boetema finds herself in the body of a humanoid fish creature: The desert is replaced by an underwater seascape; the character design is a mix of the Creature From The Black Lagoon and an anglerfish; the coloring switches from oranges and blues to reds and purples; and the lettering becomes more jagged. The impact of this moment is heightened by a majestic shot of whales swimming overhead, leaving Boetema in awe but also completely perplexed by these new surroundings.
The rendering in both the linework and the coloring changes depending on where Boetema’s consciousness ends up, and the lettering becomes more reliant on symbols rather than text. Alien tigers speak in a language that looks like claw slashes. Alien snakes speak in a tongue presented as wavy, vibrating lines. There are so many cool little details in each jump, and I hope there’s an Afar sequel because I want to see this creative team spend more time in these different worlds. Boetema is a living cloud for a single panel, but it introduces all kinds of intriguing questions: What does that civilization look like? What abilities does she gain in this body? What is the life story of that cloud?
As Boetema learns later from an insectoid guru, her powers evolve as she gets used to them, and getting a flood of memories from her host body is one of the first indications that she’s growing. When she finally makes it back to Lindu’s body, she has her first memory download, presented with three pages using a nine-panel grid, which is one of the best layouts for providing a lot of information. Different colors are used to quickly separate individual memories that vary in length, and the combination of the layout and the coloring is an intelligent, concise way of making this information easy for readers to follow while also reinforcing the aggressive assault this memory deluge makes on Boetema.
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One of the most surprising things about Afar is the cover credit for editor Taneka Stotts, who most recently edited Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi And Fantasy Comic Anthology and ELEMENTS: Fire, a comics anthology by creators of color. Stotts is building a name for herself as a smart organizer and curator of talent, and putting her name on the cover lets readers know that she’s an integral part of the Afar team. Unlike the writer and artist, it’s much harder to evaluate what the editor’s exact contributions are to the final product, but all the signs of good editing can be seen in Afar: a cohesive creative team, sharp attention to detail, and a story that balances character development with world building. Stotts’ comprehensive understanding of the sci-fi genre makes her a great resource for these two creators as they build their own sci-fi universe, and her presence on the team enriches the material.
A YA original graphic novel with an all-female creative team, Afar isn’t the kind of comic you see often from the likes of Image Comics (or Marvel and DC, for that matter), and hopefully the reception will be good enough that this team can reunite for a sequel. Graphic novels tend to be a better value than single issues, and Afar isn’t an exception. It retails for $14.99 in print, which is a very reasonable price considering its page count is double what you would get for that amount in $3.99 single issues, and the digital edition is $3 cheaper. (You can actually get Afar for $7.99 on ComiXology right now, though that price probably won’t last for long.) This is a comic that takes full advantage of the medium’s creative possibilities to craft an emotional, invigorating story, and it would be wonderful if the industry embraced it and opened the door for more original graphic novels executed with this level of care and ambition.
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Team Zissou
Oliver Sava
4/07/17 9:07am
What did you read this week?
I caught up on a lot of floppies and read all of Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy and its tie-ins. Here are my assorted thoughts:
- The overall story was okay, though I think the story loses points for giving Peter such an inactive role for most of the issues. He basically investigates a shady company, spends several issues listening to a business pitch, and then does exactly one heroic action before the story suddenly ends. Kaine, Spider-Gwen, and Silk serve as much stronger protagonists throughout. I liked the work done with these players, along with the Doc Ock developments and the Spider-Man/Rhino relationship that has taken a very interesting turn over the years.
- The Prowler issues were surprisingly decent, but I was utterly shocked and dumbfounded when I turned to the last page and saw that it was a stealthily cancelled 6-issue mini-series. It's even more confusing because it's revealed that those first 5 issues didn't even follow the *real* Prowler.
- That stealth cancellation must have gotten to me, because I was reading Silk's follow-up story with great concern as they tied up so many loose ends in her book. Before I got to the end, I actually had to flip to the end to assure myself there was a "Next Issue" preview. These unannounced endings are getting to me! Anyway, I'm really going to miss Jonah in this book. This was my favorite depiction of him outside of the Ultimate books.
If I had to rank Slott's big Spider events, I would go:
1. Spider-Island
2. Renew Your Vows
3. Spider-Verse
4. Dead No More
5. Ends of the Earth
I was also pretty disappointed by that $9.99 issue of Amazing Spider-Man #25. This series really needed a breather after that big event, plus it seems like we're back to the mediocre Iron Man wannabe stories that started this run of the book. Nothing really happens here besides set-up, so I wish they had just saved this fake milestone issue for the conclusion of Dead No More.
Also read the Spider-Man/Spider-Gwen crossover, a 6-issue story that could have been told in two. Wasn't as bad as I had feared, but Miles' book still has a ways to go after being derailed by Civil War II.
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Judkins Major
Team Zissou
4/07/17 9:13am
Paper Girls 11-12: Finally getting on some of my backlog and, while Paper Girls is still pretty confusing in places, the title characters' embattled emotional bonds and indestructible wisecracks continue to hold it together, and the recent climactic revelation promises interesting new directions ahead.
Horizon 7-9: Horizon remains confusing in the specifics (which is frustrating as the general idea is immensely compelling, especially given recent events), but the most recent issue really packs a punch as we get more of Zhia's backstory (reflected through others) and why some of her subordinates have such issues with her.
Also Conan the Slayer, which was once more unsurprisingly dependable. Thinking about picking up more of the Belit storyline trades in the next week or so.
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Cap_N_Jack
Team Zissou
4/07/17 9:13am
I bought trades this week, all of which I have read before, but I want to talk about them no less:
Daredevil Man Without Fear: Lest anyone get too negative about modern, crazy Frank Miller, they should read this book which is a really excellent summation of Miller's work re-inventing DD by way of a Batman Year One Style Origin. I've been meaning to pick up a copy for ages but Books A Million was clearancing it for six dollars along with…
Doctor Strange: The Oath: Also six dollars. It turns out I am a sucker for Doctor Strange books. I have that pretty crappy Mark Waid/Emma Rios book on my shelf. I've read year one. I tried the Aaron run. I feel I would follow Doc Strange into the abyss. This BKV volume is imperfect but really fun and has great art by Marcos Martin.
East of West: The Apocalypse Year Two: Not a lot to say on this one but the hardcover looks damnably pretty on my shelf along with the first.
Also, I once again, post the news it's being made into a film, tried to read Invincible by Robert Kirkman. I don't get the love for this book at all. It's half painfully generic tropes about teen hereos that were better in Ultimate Spider-man and half faux-gritty soap-opera deconstruction of superheroes that every writer has been doing since Watchmen.
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Cap_N_Jack
Judkins Major
4/07/17 9:14am
I dropped paper girls at the end of the first arc because instead of explaining anything, they added more (reminding me a lot of Lost). Has anything come into focus?
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Judkins Major
Cap_N_Jack
4/07/17 9:15am
There's an idea that's starting to emerge, but a lot of it remains really shadowy. If the characters weren't as compelling as I find them, I might drop it myself.
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Shugah
Oliver Sava
4/07/17 9:46am
So, we seem to be living in the Golden Age of collected editions. Every month I see more and more solicits for stuff that I never dreamed would be collected. DC and Marvel are putting out so much great stuff, or at least interesting stuff, from the '70s through the '90s that I simply can't keep up. I want to get some, though, because they're collecting series I missed the first time around, for various reasons.
Question for you all: if you've read the following, give me your opinion on which I should put my money towards.
- Chuck Dixon's Nightwing, which DC has already put out five (I think) trades for. I'm really excited to read this series.
- Tomb of Dracula - yes, I just saw that Marvel's starting a new collection of it, with the first trade due later this year and collecting #1-15. I read about a dozen issues of this series as a kid, grabbed them from back issue bins, and I absolutely loved it. Buuuuuut, I think the entire run is on Unlimited, so maybe I should just read it there…
- Waid's Flash. Again, I've read maybe 15 issues of this run, but now that DC's putting it out in trade, I'm very tempted…
- Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, collecting the entire run. Once more, I've read some of these issues but not many. I've read a lot of Kirby over the years, so I already love him…
Okay, I know there are many more but for now that's all I can think of.
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Fancyarcher
Shugah
4/07/17 10:07am
Definitely Waid's Flash. It's one of the greatest Flash runs ever. It works so well because Waid can mix up the serious story's with loads of fun, and he did a lot to Wally's character. Kirby's Fourth World is also good, but it can get bogged a down with too much storytelling.
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Shugah
Fancyarcher
4/07/17 10:11am
I've read "Born to Run" and "Return of Barry Allen," then a few random issues, all were excellent. Now I'm leaning towards Nightwing and Flash…
Reply
MisterSplendiferous
Shugah
4/07/17 10:18am
I saw an article where they will be releasing a omnibus of Justice League Detroit era of Justice League.
Id like to check that out.
id definitely get the Fourth World.
Kirby is King!
Reply
MisterSplendiferous
Shugah
4/07/17 10:19am
https://www.bleedingcool.co…
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Walrus King
Oliver Sava
4/07/17 12:40pm
My local comic shop asked me to draw some sketchcovers to sell (which is cool!) and one of the ones I was doing was an X-men book, the first from the lame Lemire run. So instead of drawing that team, I just drew my own. I was thinking a lot about what team I would pick if I was relaunched x-men etc.
so whats your x-men relaunch team? the x-men gold one feels….saaaafe.
I had Cannonball as leader (he's got experience!) with Sunspot, Colossus, Rachel Grey, Polaris, & Wolverine (x23).
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GusPhoenix
Walrus King
4/07/17 12:45pm
Just 5 time displaced Cyclops permanently at the various stages of puberty
Reply
Walrus King
GusPhoenix
4/07/17 1:20pm
oh my god
I would read that so hard hahahhahaha
Reply
Team Zissou
Walrus King
4/07/17 1:41pm
Cannonball as leader just hooked my interest immediately. Did you take a photo of your sketch cover? I'd love to see it!
I don't have an exact line-up in mind, but I'll add that my favorite X-Men line-ups are typically the really weird ones that almost don't seem like proper X-Men teams at all. Examples include the Extinction Team and Mike Carey's severely underrated Supernovas team (More Cannonball! In his best X-Men depiction ever).
The main problem with the line-ups is these days that they recycle a lot of familiar characters and there's nothing too memorable about their interactions. Even Remender's Uncanny X-Force was notable because it was the first team book to include Deadpool or Fantomex, which later books tried to recreate to mixed success. Bunn's recent Uncanny X-Men book was pretty mixed overall, but the M/Sabretooth duo was probably the most interesting thing about it.
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W.S. Punk
Walrus King
4/07/17 2:32pm
Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Storm as the central four, with a rotating cast of support X-Men selected on a mission-by-mission basis.
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Team Zissou
Oliver Sava
4/07/17 9:20am
I recently finished The Caped Crusade by Glen Weldon. It was a fun deep dive into Batman history, somewhat similar to Sean Howe's Marvel Comics: The Untold Story but not as big in scope and with fewer undiscovered anecdotes. There are a few times where he seems a little opinionated on events I witnessed that make me question the accuracy of some of the other sections.
As an example, he describes a lot of criticisms that contemporary audiences had with Tim Burton's first Batman film for getting the character wrong. I know that that's a popular opinion in retrospect, but at the time I remember the movie being treated like the gold standard for comic book adaptations. I was a little young when it came out - 4 years old - so I may be misremembering and that the later sequels just made people look back more fondly on the first film. I was in elementary school by the time Batman Returns came out, and I remember it being the first huge movie phenomenon I'd ever experienced as a kid. That one, though, I can more clearly recall being made fun of on all the talk shows and even in Wizard Magazine (mostly directed at the penguins).
Still, it's a fun book that does a good job of balancing the comic book, film, and tv versions of Batman throughout history. I wish they had spent more time talking about the video games. Anyone else read this book?
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Judkins Major
Team Zissou
4/07/17 9:32am
It's on my radar. Though I don't care for superheroes as is, for some reason I have little problem reading about them at a remove, so to speak (maybe because they and their creators have been so important and influential on American and now world comics).
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Shugah
Team Zissou
4/07/17 9:59am
I've been curious about that book. Does he only look at the super popular Batman appearances, in other words just the major runs by Snyder or Miller, etc., and then the animated series, the '60s one, and the movies?
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blackmoon eleven
Team Zissou
4/07/17 10:25am
I've read Caped Crusade and Weldon's unauthorized biography of Superman and enjoyed them both. It sounds like we're around the same age—I was 4 or 5 when Batman '89 came out—and my (admittedly fuzzy) memories line up with yours as far as mainstream response at the time goes.
I'll also note that Caped Crusade should be universally regarded as a worthy endeavor of literary criticism for no other reason than Weldon's work in citing the illustrations from pulp & adventure stories that Bob Kane literally traced while "drawing" Detective Comics #27, because fuck Bob Kane.
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Team Zissou
blackmoon eleven
4/07/17 10:49am
His depiction of Bob Kane is laugh-out-loud hilarious throughout the entire book. There's nothing objective about it, but I really don't mind in this case. I really had no idea how little drawing he actually did himself until I read this book.
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AerostarMonk
Oliver Sava
4/07/17 9:25am
Couldn't go to Denver. The only acceptable excuses for missing work today or Monday are death or disinterest in continuing on. So I had to eat hundreds of dollars. I'm done with cons. They're just an unacceptable financial risk. I can't afford this kind of thing. Especially when what happened today can spring up at random.
If you're in Denver and go to DINK you can buy StarHammer though. And you can buy them from me too. If interested just email me at star.team.go@gmail.com. It's the first four chapters of an all ages superhero comic. 118 pages of fun!
I'm an official employee of Metro Transit now. So I get all the bus and train rides I can eat.
Saw Ghost in the Shell and Power Rangers. Not as bad as people have made them out to be. At least for my money.
Anyway, how y'all doing?
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Team Zissou
AerostarMonk
4/07/17 9:28am
I'm about to enter teacher spring break and I'm excited to visit Seattle and Vancouver with my family. First time! Woohoo. If I post in next week's Comics Panel, it will be from Canada!
Besides that, I'm going to a screening of the Donnie Darko 4k restoration tomorrow night. Excited because though I've seen the film many times, each time was only on a computer screen. (Oh, college)
Reply
Judkins Major
AerostarMonk
4/07/17 9:30am
So-so. Trying to get ahead on Fairy Locks (and more or less successfully) but am starting to wonder whether I'm making the best use of the medium, as some of the scenes occasionally come across as I'm doing them as prose fiction done up in comics. Planning to make more active use of the medium's possibilities in the future, whatever that means. Posted a new Onion Juice rather listlessly after last night: http://onionjuiceblog.wordp… Got eight days off starting Tuesday and hope to make good use of them.
Hoping today isn't too terrible, but glad to hear progress seems to be happening. You may get an email from me relatively soon about StarHammer.
Reply
MisterSplendiferous
AerostarMonk
4/07/17 10:16am
Took a mental health day to get ready to go to Ohio for Cinema Wasteland.
CW is a horror convention where they show movies and sell merch
Reply
Shugah
AerostarMonk
4/07/17 10:20am
I would like to go to Denver one day, but sadly have no plans to do so yet!
Doing okay, been busy as ever at work and at home, so I'm pretty worn out. Been doing a lot of writing, somehow squeezing it in where I can. Writing for four different sites now. I don't know how long I can keep up the pace, especially because it's not bringing in any cash. I guess that's the good part though, it really shouldn't be pressure because I'm just doing it because I want to. Some of my editors can be a bit stressful, though.
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Great Job Internet
Shucks, even a folksy Fox News segment isn’t safe from protesters
Reid McCarter
8/23/17 11:30amFiled to: Fox and Friends
26
2
Trading in good ol’ fashioned Americana is getting harder and harder. As evidenced in a recent clip from Fox And Friends, in which a reporter bypasses highfalutin city dwellers to interview the honest, authentic, hard-working folk eating breakfast at a Louisville, Kentucky diner, the dang protestors have infiltrated just about every aspect of society.
Please, courtesy of John Whitehouse, enjoy a real-time breakdown of the America that Fox News tries to project to its audience:
The best part of the video, aside from the scramble to cut the feed from the dangerous subversion of a man saying, “You got a Democrat right here,” is the stone face of the never-to-be-interviewed subject, stoic in camo cap and airbrushed “Papaw’s Cubs” T-shirt. In his frozen smile, we see the political discourse, suffocated by a goofball host who ends the segment by saying that “in the best interest of the telecast… we cut away.”
All of us should be chilled—not by our friends at Fox, but at the notion that if even a pancake breakfast isn’t safe from the Soros-funded agents of the left, something is seriously afoot. Please, in your prayers tonight, spare a moment for America, no longer frozen in time.
[via Digg]
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Community (17)
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kenspiracy
Reid McCarter
8/23/17 2:03pm
Boy, this community died real quick, huh? :/
7
Reply
New Daesim
kenspiracy
8/23/17 3:03pm
I’ll give it a week before I hang it up.
3
Reply
Jet Jaguar
kenspiracy
8/23/17 8:48pm
The AV Club - Now with 100% more Kinja and 100% less community.
2
Reply
Can With No Name
Jet Jaguar
8/23/17 11:41pm
I got a death of community notification for this?
12
Reply
Sir Henry Kills A Lot
Can With No Name
9/03/17 9:10am
I was going to make a comment about the Louisville is a democratic city so what were they expecting, but just 12 comments?
Fox News used to be such great clickbait for commentariat.
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G.E.O.
Reid McCarter
8/23/17 1:12pm
Where are the old comments?
4
Reply
blameitonthecroutons
G.E.O.
8/23/17 2:16pm
....from an article posted today?
4
Reply
SuperKarateMonkeyDeathCar
G.E.O.
8/23/17 3:08pm
This is sad.
1
Reply
Plan_R
G.E.O.
8/23/17 3:11pm
The old comments went to live on a farm upstate
21
Reply
Jet Jaguar
G.E.O.
8/23/17 8:46pm
They’ve all been incinerated in the Memory Hole. Wait, is AV Club still going to do that columm, Memory Hole?
1
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Plan_R
Reid McCarter
8/23/17 3:10pm
I am still waiting for my check from Soros, did I have to sign up before I protested? Can I get some retro active pay from him?
4
Reply
Ugh.
Reid McCarter
8/23/17 2:32pm
Anything that gives Steve Doocy the flop sweats is a net plus.
3
Reply
Jay1978
Reid McCarter
8/24/17 6:08am
11 comments? Hahaha
1
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Portland 'Shutter' Artist Leila Del Duca Teams With Kit Seaton Exploring 'Afar'
by April Baer Follow OPB Feb. 25, 2017 9:57 a.m. | Updated: Feb. 27, 2017 9:38 a.m. | Portland
Most comics have a look and style all their own: Captain America, throwing punches so dynamic, you can almost feel them land. The fanciful lines of the classic serial Little Nemo, in which the most everyday people and objects just barely obey the laws of physics. Or the stripped-down goth-scapes of Mike Mignola’s “Hellboy.” But every once in a while, you run across a comic whose visual style offers a little bit of everything.
The intrepid Alarm Cat, later known as Cassius, in happier times from "Shutter."
The intrepid Alarm Cat, later known as Cassius, in happier times from “Shutter.”
Courtesy of Leila Del Duca
Portland artist Leila Del Duca has been drawing an Image Comics series called “Shutter” since 2014. It’s the story of a hard-charging young adventurer named Kate Christopher. Her companions include talking animals, mid-century knickknacks sprung to life, and a most genteel undead butler.
“Shutter” writer Joe Keatinge is getting ready to wrap up the series. We invited Leila Del Duca in to talk about “Shutter,” and a new project publishing this spring.
In March, Image will publish a new graphic novel by Del Duca called “Afar.” It’s a young adult fantasy set in an Afro-futurist society. A teenage girl, Boetema, caring for her brother, Inotu, finds the crazy dreams she’s been having are actually true stories.
Leila Del Duca isn’t drawing “Afar”; this time, she’s doing the writing. The artist is Kit Seaton, a professor of sequential art at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. Seaton also draws a web comic with her sister called, “The Black Bull of Norroway.” The two of them met at art school in Denver.
Here are a few highlights of our conversation. Click the audio player above to listen to the full interview.
Q&A with Leila Del Duca and Kit Seaton
April Baer: For “Shutter,” Joe Keatinge had you drawing everything from space walks to mythological creatures to steampunk. What was it like to handle such a range of subjects in one storyline?
Leila Del Duca: It was super, super rewarding — incredible fun. One of the reasons I got into comics is they’re never boring. “Shutter” is anything but boring. Every page has some weird wacky new thing to draw.
Baer: Was there ever a point where Joe would lay out what he wanted and you thought: “No way, can’t do it”?
Del Duca: I never said, “I can’t.” He would always write [to me], “Leila! I’m really sorry, but here’s this double-page spread.” And he would list off 10 things I’ve never drawn before in a crazy action pose — the double-page spread in Issue No. 2 with the lion mobsters flying around this weird chicken death house — that was the first one where I was like, “Oh my gosh, how do I do this?” It took me three days but I came out so much stronger afterward. Joe was constantly challenging me that way.
A vivid two-page spread from "Shutter," vol. 1, by Joe Keatinge and Leila Del Duca.
A vivid two-page spread from “Shutter,” vol. 1, by Joe Keatinge and Leila Del Duca.
Courtesy of Image Comics
Baer: Was it hard to make it all seem like one coherent world?
Del Duca: Hmm. I didn’t feel it was difficult. Everything was so over the top, it matched in that regard. Joe was able to write every one very consistently and coherently. It came easy to me.
Baer: What conventions were you and Joe fooling around with?
Del Duca: Visually and storytelling-wise, we threw in a bunch of alternate styles. So we have a Richard Scarry influenced bit. And then we have Windsor McKay, the guy who did “Little Nemo in Slumberland.” A bunch of different artistic styles and storytelling, to experiment with the comic medium, because that’s something that interests both Joe and I.
Cover image for "Afar," by Leila Del Duca and Kit Seaton.
Cover image for “Afar,” by Leila Del Duca and Kit Seaton.
Courtesy of Image Comics
Baer: “Afar” is the story of two teenagers Boetema who are on their own and its landscape is both futuristic and primitive. Leila, how do you describe what Boetema can do?
Del Duca: It’s not astral projection in the traditional sense. When she dreams, she goes and inhabits other people’s bodies on other planets.
Baer: The culture is a mesh of African culture, with some significant tech improvements. How did you two talk about what that world was going to look like?
Del Duca: I really wanted to see more African influence in American comics. I initially wanted it to be a historical fiction meets sci-fi, but I don’t think I knew enough as a writer. And so I quickly realized I was going to do it wrong if I went that route. So I took the influences and gave it the sci-fi twist. It’s set in a postindustrial revolution wasteland. A series of wars and sandstorms eliminated the great tech. People are still trying to figure out how to re-build this tech.
Art from "Afar," by Kit Seaton.
Art from “Afar,” by Kit Seaton.
Courtesy of Image Comics
Baer: Kit, what kind of architecture did you look at when you sat down to draw?
Kit Seaton: Leila had sent me imagery from some different regions where she wanted to set things. I’d build some research off of that. In the beginning, in the village [Boetema and Inotu] are living in, we looked at cultures in Ethiopia and dwellings there. I blended that with some science-fiction landscapes in Moebius, Jean Giraud’s work, structural collapsing rounded spherical forms. Mali and Timbuktu came into play for reference a little later on in the book.
Baer: Leila, you picked a challenging narrative for your first time at the rodeo. There are a couple different narratives going on at the same time within “Afar.” Was that hard to keep them all going in a way that satisfied you?
Del Duca: Yeah, that was hard, but that’s also because I was a very green writer. I honestly did not know what I was doing. I haven’t been doing this nearly as long as art. I had an editor, Taneka Stotts. She helped considerably with story structure and staying on character, making sure I knew my characters well enough to write them believably. I think I wrote the first chapter three different times. She pointed out a lot of things white girls do out of ignorance. My characters are both black. It’s important I do it right. Taneka is a black woman and was able to act as a sensitivity reader. It wasn’t hard to keep the other planets and Boetema’s story arcs going. I could make up whatever the hell I wanted to at that point. That’s where my imagination was able to expand the furthest in the book.
QUOTED: "There aren’t many comics out there that can meld different worlds so seamlessly. It’s visionary in what it does."
BGN Comic Review: Afar
The book follows two siblings Inotu and Boetema as they learn to cohabitate in an inhospitable environment.
By
Guest Blogger -
April 5, 2017 1162
2
By: Britany Murphy
Inotu is the youngest of the pair, and while his parents are away, the adolescent gets into trouble which causes him and his sister to leave home, landing them in the desert.
Boetema now has the hard task of caring for herself and her brother, while struggling with her gift to visit far-off galaxies and planets, as well as encountering other life forms while she dreams.
It is in these moments where the duo shines, and the artwork by Kit Seaton captures it perfectly. The contrast of the desert and outer space draws your eye to every panel, and Leila De Luca’s dialogue allows the characters to shine. You instantly get a sense of who both Inotu and Boetema are, and I am sure that anyone with a sibling will easily be able to relate to the dynamic shared between the duo.
Del Duca and Seaton also bring imagination to life whenever possible, and as there is so much to see in the various new places Boetema goes, it’s a sensory feast and one of the things I enjoyed best about the book.
Afar is Del Duca’s debut for Image, and she certainly left her mark. With this joint venture alongside artist, Kit Seaton, being so great, I am hoping that the pair will work together again in the future.
There aren’t many comics out there that can meld different worlds so seamlessly. It’s visionary in what it does and if you have a few hours, you can most definitely read Afar in one sitting.
I enjoyed that this book was delivered as a graphic novel because I don’t think I could have done the wait time in between each comic – it was that intriguing.
Check out Afar on sale now at comic shops, bookstores and online. Be sure to grab a copy; it’s most definitely worth the read!
-Story by Leila del Duca (series artist and co-creator of SHUTTER)
-Art by Kit Seaton (The Black Bull of Norroway, Eve of All Saints)
-Edited by Taneka Stotts (Passion Fruit)
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QUOTED: "I had a bit of an idea of what it took to write a comic book since I've written short comics before, but I also vastly underestimated how much world-building I needed to do, how much outlining I needed to complete, and I ended up setting myself up for some difficult problems to solve that manifested later in the book."
"I hired Taneka Stotts as my editor, since I knew I'd need the help, and she really went above and beyond in nudging my scripts in the right way and making it much better than I could have done on my own. In the end, I've learned that I do really like writing, even if it gives me a lot of anxiety! And it's the most rewarding thing seeing Kit's beautiful artwork bring my weird ideas to life. That was the biggest motivator."
[Seaton]"It’s a story for daydreamers, and in that sense, we tried to keep to the escapism and fun that Leila and I both sought out from stories when we were young. I hope readers will enjoy travelling to other worlds with Boetema, and seeing it all through her sense of wonder and curiosity."
STAR TREK Meets A WRINKLE IN TIME With AFAR At IMAGE
By Forrest Helvie, Newsarama Contributor March 28, 2017 08:38am ET
"Afar" preview
Credit: Kit Seaton (Image Comics)
Credit: Kit Seaton (Image Comics)
Astral projection is a term many superhero comic book fans will be familiar with, but Leila del Duca and Kit Seaton are taking it in a new direction with their Image Comics OGN Afar. Debuting this week in comic stores, this YA story blends both adventure and science fiction as it tells the journey of a brother and sister from a desert world set in the not-too-distant future where they must struggle to find their way apart from their parents.
The two creators first met while attending Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, and reconnected here as del Duca sought to branch out from drawing comics such as Shutter to writing for herself. Newsarama spoke with both creators to find out more about this futuristic project and see what led them to bring this unconventional project to Image Comics.
Newsarama: Leila, you also work on Shutter as the artist with Joe Keatinge. This time around with Afar, you’ll be focusing on the writing duties. How has this experience been different for you?
Leila del Duca: It was really terrifying for me, actually! I had a bit of an idea of what it took to write a comic book since I've written short comics before, but I also vastly underestimated how much world-building I needed to do, how much outlining I needed to complete, and I ended up setting myself up for some difficult problems to solve that manifested later in the book. I hired Taneka Stotts as my editor, since I knew I'd need the help, and she really went above and beyond in nudging my scripts in the right way and making it much better than I could have done on my own. In the end, I've learned that I do really like writing, even if it gives me a lot of anxiety! And it's the most rewarding thing seeing Kit's beautiful artwork bring my weird ideas to life. That was the biggest motivator.
Nrama: Kit, I understand you’re also a professor at Savannah College of Art and Design. How does working on Afar help inform what you’re doing in the classroom with your college students at SCAD?
Kit Seaton: Afar was a great project to have on hand for instruction in the classroom. My own process of trial and error where all instances that could be used for teaching. My students seemed to enjoy being part of the process, and seeing bits and pieces of it evolve over that year and a half when I was working on it. Even when I made mistakes, those were all moments and experiences I could take back to my students. Hopefully, they will have the benefit of being more aware of some of those production issues in their careers.
Nrama: Most of the comics Image publishes take the form of the traditional monthly issues. What led you both to release Afar in the graphic novel format?
del Duca: Afar was originally going to be published as a 6-issue monthly, but I wasn't confident that the first issue's script was strong enough to grab and keep people's attention. Being a fan of trade paper backs and graphic novels more than monthly comics, I asked Eric Stephenson if Image would be willing to publish it as a YA graphic novel instead, and he thankfully said yes. I'm really happy we were able to publish it as a graphic novel. It feels like it's in its truest form this way and people can binge it all at once!
Seaton: In the beginning, we were going to take the traditional route, but around the start of 2016, Leila made the call to go to the full graphic novel format. It was a very good call, I think in the long run, as it would be difficult to maintain a monthly issue with my teaching schedule. I likely would have spread myself too thin, and this ended up giving us plenty of time to revise and smooth things out before it went to print.
Credit: Kit Seaton (Image Comics)
Nrama: Looking at the story itself, Afar focuses on a teen girl who is left to care for her younger brother in a post-apocalyptic desert world, and it takes readers in some pretty far-out directions from many of the other stories out there on newsstands today. What can you tell readers about what inspired your creation of these characters and this story?
del Duca: Other than wanting to see Kit draw a YA science fantasy book, my inspiration came from what I loved reading and watching while growing up in small-town Montana. Star Trek was a huge influence on me, as well as YA fantasy books by Tamora Pierce and Meredith Furlong. Later in college, when I finally started watching Hayao Miyazaki films, they became a huge influence as well. I wanted to create visually captivating stories that spoke to every age, and had character-driven stories with life lessons to learn by the end.
Seaton: Even before the story became what we know it to be now, Leila was very clear in the beginning that she wanted to tell a story that focused on the dynamics between siblings, that it would explore themes of science fiction and fantasy, and that the worlds would look a little like our own, but maintain a sense of wonder. Beyond that, and I think what I like most about this book is that some of it is improvisational. I received the script in sections as Leila completed it, so I wouldn't know what things would look like too far in advance. I had the foundation of what came before to build from, and Leila always offered direction and guidance when I needed it.
She often tells me that she would send me ideas based on what she wanted to see me draw. The best way that I can put it is that the book is a result of our two brains working simultaneously. We put a great deal of trust in each other, too.
Credit: Kit Seaton (Image Comics)
Nrama: Kit, I’m especially curious about your aesthetic design choices in this story as they push back against what might be viewed as more mainstream styles. What were you hoping to accomplish artistically in Afar and what sort of influences did you find playing out in your work on this story?
Seaton: I hadn't really thought that I was pushing back against the mainstream. I was just trying to deliver my best possible work, and I knew that I wanted to use mostly traditional materials. I learned how to draw and paint first as a theatrical designer, then later as an illustrator. I always made comics, but usually they were personal, usually strips, and often very weird. My entry into comics was Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, Garfield, and later, Krazy Kat and Ignatz. I started wanting to make graphic novels in earnest sometime in my mid-twenties. I tend to approach comics from a theatrical perspective, so that may be why it looks a little different. I think about the stage a lot: how the characters are positioned, what the emotional tone of the scene is, and what business they are doing with their bodies or hands or props. Though I don't know how unique that is, I think a lot of artists work that way.
When I was younger, I read a lot about different styles of theatre. I liked reading about Commedia dell'Arte because I liked the masks, costumes, and the classical approaches to character. Some of my earliest influences were the costume plates designed by Erté and Leon Bakst. For this book in particular, I took a lot of inspiration from Franco-Belgian comics. I've always loved the work of Jean Giraud and Francois Shuiten, but I don't have that level of technical skill, so I have to interpret it my own way.
Credit: Kit Seaton (Image Comics)
Nrama: Given that our protagonist, Boetema, is able to project herself astrally across various planes of existence, this entails a great deal of world-building for both of you. In what ways did this challenge you as storytellers?
del Duca: Most of the planets Boetema visits we only see for a panel or two, so those were fun mash-ups of interesting Earth creatures and environments we thought were interesting. When it came to Boetema's planet, it was challenging to research and find reference for pre-colonial Eastern and Northern Africa, which is where we drew a lot of inspiration. To make sure readers knew this wasn't Earth, we added clear visual indications like technological ruins and livestock that are different versions of real Earth animals. As a writer, it was super challenging to find information on the cultures I was inspired by, which was incredibly frustrating. I didn't know about EBSCO or who to ask for advice on where to find certain information. And since I was drawing a monthly comic on top of writing, finding the time to research was also a huge challenge. Needless to say, I learned a lot about how much time and effort I need to schedule myself for the next time I write.
Seaton: As a designer, I'm always thinking about setting limitations in order to more easily establish unity and harmony. Since we used a lot of our own world to establish what others would look like, the amount of biodiversity and wonder on this planet is overwhelming. Sometimes simply choosing could be challenging, but once I could pare it down to an idea, it was always a lot of fun. Color could also present challenges, since I was committing to limited palettes, I had to be careful that one world didn't look too much like one that came before.
Nrama: Leila, you likened this to Star Trek when it was originally announced at Image Expo a year ago. What led you to make this comparison?
del Duca: Star Trek always has a moral lesson each episode, and I'm a huge fan of that. I like stories with purpose, something I can learn and self-reflect on. I also loved Star Trek's diversity, how many different worlds and species there were, and that it was set in space! I wrote Afar intending to include all of the elements I loved about Star Trek.
Credit: Kit Seaton (Image Comics)
Nrama: What do you think one of the greatest challenges will be for readers approaching this story?
del Duca: If you're looking for world catastrophes and action-packed drama, Afar is not the book for you. It's a quieter story about two siblings taking responsibility for the problems they get themselves into.
Seaton: Most of what I've heard from readers is that they want it to be longer, or to answer a few more questions. This book represented a lot of firsts for us, so for that reason, we kept the adventure at a relatively quick pace and left some room for readers to fill in the gaps. I think there's something to be said about that old vaudeville phrase: “Get on, get over, and get off.”
Nrama: On the other hand, what aspects of this story do you think will make Afar especially approachable for readers today?
del Duca: Kit's fantastical designs and renderings are breathtaking! Also, the sibling dynamic between Boetema and Inotu while they traverse their world and deal with their problems is very endearing.
Seaton: It’s a story for daydreamers, and in that sense, we tried to keep to the escapism and fun that Leila and I both sought out from stories when we were young. I hope readers will enjoy travelling to other worlds with Boetema, and seeing it all through her sense of wonder and curiosity.
QUOTED: "We have been denied a voice for so long. Now in a climate where our voices are being commoditized from those who don’t live the experience or care about the end results it’s great for us to say, you know what, maybe don’t, because we’re here to tell our own stories too."
"It’s great to see unabashedly queer characters take on a role that is no longer the sidekick of the inevitably fridged route so someone can get through some pain or find their own validation. We are the heroes, main characters, and champions of our own reality and so it should be reflected in works that we create."
Monster & Stotts Go Beyond Once More with New Queer Comics Anthology
06.01.2017
by Steve Morris in Comic News Comment
Monster & Stotts Go Beyond Once More with New Queer Comics Anthology
After the terrific success of their first Beyond queer comics anthology, co-editors Sfé Monster and Taneka Stotts have returned to launch Beyond Vol 2, a Kickstarter-funded collection of stories themed around science fiction and fantasy. Beyond features some of the fastest rising stars in both comics writing and penciling, and comes with a driving goal: to bring queer comics stories and storytellers to the forefront, and give them a space where these stories can be told and shared.
The success of the first anthology on Kickstarter has helped spur a succession of other projects which have seen queer comics creatives get to tell their stories — and get paid — including Elements: Fire and Power & Magic, with Stotts and Monster proving to be part of a wider catalyst which is helping bring focus towards new and upcoming talent.
With the second anthology now well past the original funding target — at more than $67,000 in pledges as of publication, from a $45,000 goal — CBR spoke to the editorial team about how this all came together, and what it was that first motivated them to make the project a reality.
CBR: When did you first have the idea for Beyond? What drove you to want to bring this book to life?
Sfé Monster: I had the idea for Beyond back in September 2013. I have always been a fan of the sci-fi and and fantasy genres, but am consistently disappointed by how overwhelmingly cis and straight the majority of genre stories are, so one day I impulsively made a tweet that said something along the lines of “I want to read a collection of queer sci-fi and fantasy comics. Someone should make that anthology so I can be in it.”
The response I got was, “You should make that, Sfé,” and after literally no consideration I agreed that, OK, yeah — I will! Based on that I began putting the idea for the first Beyond anthology together, and through Beyond I met Taneka, and that is how we began working together going into Beyond 2.
What stories are the focus of Beyond? What types of stories did you want to tell, and what kinds of genres or styles are going to appear in the new book?
Monster: Queer characters are the central focus of Beyond, and the stars of their own stories. More than anything the stories in Beyond are a positive celebration of the diversity of gender and sexuality — I wanted the issues and conflicts that the characters encounter in their lives to be about things other than whether or not they would find love, acceptance, validation and happiness. The first volume of Beyond was classic science fiction and fantasy, but for the second volume we’ve gone into post apocalyptic and urban fantasy settings.
From ‘The Courier’ by Sara DuVall and Kiku Hughes
Taneka Stotts: When Sfé said Post-Apocalyptic, my mind was like, urban fantasy! I had just come off the heels of editing stories for Elements: Fire, and I wanted to see more fiction written by creators that posed realities that were not constrained to the same status quo of stories that we’re usually allowed to inject into the mainstream. Urban Fantasy is a genre that, to me, our voices and stories have been utilized in, but we have not been given a chance to express ourselves in the same genre. So this one was very important to me.
Who will we see in this second volume — and how did you bring in the various writers and artists who’re joining you this time round?
Monster: The second volume features a few familiar faces from the first volume of Beyond — both Taneka and myself will have our own stories in the anthology, and it was wonderful to work with Reed Black again. We’re also featuring a familiar face in a new role: our incredible cover artist Levi Hastings will be contributing a comic of his own!
Stotts: Being open for submissions (as we are with all volumes) allows us the opportunity to uncover and discover voices that might have gone unheard had we just picked from a line of familiar face. We have seasoned veterans mixed with first-time comic creators, and you know what? It’s fantastic. For me, I want to do what traditional publishing is always excusing themselves from doing by taking the “risky bet,” because we’re actually people with stories to tell.
What kind of approach do you take as editors on a project like this? Do you try to get hands-on, or do you see your role more as curators?
Monster: It’s a mixed bag, and varies from story to story. I am a very hands-on editor, and work with our contributors through each step of the comic-making process. However, because a lot of stories on Beyond are extensions of the creator’s own identity they are already so skilled and have such strong voices, so I like to let the stories speak for themselves. Still, there are also a lot of specific requirements for Beyond, in terms of language and representation, so sometimes you need to go in with an editorial hand to make sure the story we end up with in the anthology is the absolute best it can possibly be.
Stotts: I agree with Sfé. Some people need guidance. Others need the hands-on editor the whole way through. Our contributors have range, which allows us to focus on those who really need us. As editors we have a process and checkpoints the whole way through. From scripts to final pages, we’re with them for the whole process, and we encourage communication if there are any hiccups, because life happens. So I definitely don’t see myself as a curator and I never have, because we care deeply about the end result.
From ‘Daisycakes’ by Jenn Doyle
Why was it so important to you to have this be a project which put queer storytellers in the spotlight, and gave them a stage to show off their talents?
Stotts: Why not? We have been denied a voice for so long. Now in a climate where our voices are being commoditized from those who don’t live the experience or care about the end results it’s great for us to say, you know what, maybe don’t, because we’re here to tell our own stories too. It’s great to see unabashedly queer characters take on a role that is no longer the sidekick of the inevitably fridged route so someone can get through some pain or find their own validation. We are the heroes, main characters, and champions of our own reality and so it should be reflected in works that we create.
Monster: I think too often queer characters are relegated to the sidekick and subplot, their identities are parsed into subtext, or worse: their queerness is only depicted in terms of their struggles and failures, and the hardships and difficulty they encounter in their attempts to find love and validation. It’s important for me to create a book like Beyond where love and respect and foundational, and the characters can have a hard time because of a cursed amulet or something, and not struggle because no one in their family will ever accept them for who they are.
The stories of our struggle are important, and reflect a world that is still unkind to us, but it is also important for me to make a book like Beyond where fantasy and sci-fi can mean fantastical escapism for a few pages, and not a world where faeries and dragon exists but homophobia, transphobia and intolerance are still, for whatever reason, foundational to the magical make-believe kingdom.
From ‘Mere Vibrations’ by Evan Dahm
The first Beyond anthology was a huge success, and this new Kickstarter has already hit its funding target. Clearly there’s a desire for comics about queer characters and lives — but how do you feel the comics industry needs to change in order to bring in readers who didn’t realize they could be represented by comics as a medium?
Monster: I think the best thing we can do in comics is to lead by example. We don’t need to settle for the crumbs of representation we are offered. We can make and tell our own stories, and the industry can catch up to us.
Beyond isn’t the only queer anthology to find success on Kickstarter — the Dates anthology, Power & Magic, The Other Side… there are a lot of stories to tell, and a lot of ways to tell them, and being able to create them on our own terms and demonstrate the power of our voices entirely on our own is the greatest sign of success we can show when we are still so often dismissed as “too niche” or “not relatable enough to be marketable.”
Stotts: The world is changing, queer comics are evolving, but guess what, they’ve always been around. It was by choice or by ignorance that some were not listening or looking for them. We have creators young and old who are still slaying it with storytelling and some are just now being given recognition, while others who have been put on the sidelines are suddenly injected into the mainstream with a vast body of work. It’s an atmosphere that we live in and we respect, so we want to see better and do better for those who exist in it as well.
CWith you having now hit the first target goal, what stretch goals do you have for the book?
Monster: As with the first volume of Beyond, our plans for stretch goals include digital PDFs of more comics, more exclusive mini-art prints, and of course: paying more to our contributing creators.
Stotts: We have a lot of stretch goals planned, but more than anything our artist bonuses are what really make this time amazing! We want to see how far we can push the limits and take it to the highest possible goal for everyone who has joined us in this journey.
From ‘Feathers’ by Mar and Julia Stardust
What are your hopes for the future of Beyond? I know it’s far away while the current book is still being funded, but could you see future volumes in years to come?
Monster: I have a few ideas for future volumes of Beyond, but I don’t intend for it to last forever. (There won’t be a Beyond 18, is what I mean.) The most exciting thing (for me) to come out of Beyond was the creation of Beyond Press, which Taneka is using to create some really incredible work.
Stotts: With Beyond Press (that we formed after the success of Beyond) we hope to go so much further. I have personally embarked on creating a few new titles: Elements: Fire an anthology by creators of color, and our newly launched Passion Fruit, a queerotica anthology by queer creators.
Our voices are bold, beautiful, and right here, now we implore you to listen.
The Kickstarter for Beyond Vol. 2 will run until June 8, having already hit the funding target of $45,000. To find out more, view the Kickstarter page here.
Tags:
beyond (anthology)
Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology
Features, Q&AApril 29, 2016
by Steve Large
Halifax-based illustrator and cartoonist Sfe Monster talks about his comic anthology, Beyond, and creating space for positive queer representations.
Sfé R. Monster
Sfé R. Monster: Self-portrait from the artist. Used with permission.
There’s little positive queer representation in the sci-fi and fantasy scene, says Sfé Monster. His new comic anthology, Beyond, gives people what Monster wished he’d had as a young adult.
Sfé R. Monster is a transgendered Halifax-based illustrator and internet-focused cartoonist. Concerned with queer and genderqueer issues and the lack of representation thereof in mainstream media, he partnered with Taneka Stotts to create Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology. Featuring 18 stories by 26 contributors, Beyond fills some neglected niches with tales about undeniably queer characters. A.V. Club calls Beyond “one the strongest and most readable anthologies available today,” a real accomplishment for the first-time comic curator. In this interview with Atlantic Books Today, Sfé Monster talks about why positive queer representation is so important and why he felt he needed to do something about it.
What was your inspiration for making Beyond?
I come from a webcomic background, which means people who create and post comics they make online, and what I was finding in the making of comics in any sort of media was that there was a huge lack of positive LGBT/queer representation. There’s a lot of stories about the difficulty of coming out, the struggle to find acceptance and transitioning. Those are really important stories and I value them, but I was finding if you wanted to get into escapism or sci-fi and fantasy then there really wasn’t much that reflected LGBT people in a way that I felt comfortable with, or they were being told by non-LGBT people.
I think LGBT people have really incredible voices, so I made a tweet that said, “I think someone should make an anthology of queer, LGBT sci-fi/fantasy stories because I want to be in it!” A bunch of people said, “Why don’t you do it?” So then, I put together the pitch for the Beyond anthology. That’s how I got started. Me making a boastful statement, then people raising to it.
Why do you think there is a lack of positive queer representation in sci-fi and fantasy?
It’s complicated. There’s a lot to be said for the importance of the coming out and the struggle, but part of the struggle with queer media is there is the problem of voyeurism. You can look at it and say, “That’s so sad for that person,” but then you can return to your life as a non-queer person. I think that sort of element is really negative, but it does shine a light when there is talk about the struggles we face. It’s not easy for us. There’s all these issues and biases we face everyday and it’s important to talk about that, there’s a lot of value in it, but I find it can become overwhelmingly heavy. When you live with those biases everyday and then try to go into anything that’s escapism and just see more of the negativity, it can add up. So to create something that’s more positive gives us a more positive reflection of ourselves and something to celebrate rather than constantly commiserating.
A lot of your other works, like your webcomics Eth’s Skin and Kyle and Atticus, focus around issues of gender identity. How has your own experience with gender identity influenced your characters?
It all comes back to when I was young. I’m transgendered so I was trying to find any sort of reflection of myself as a trans kid. When I was 13 I went to the library, and I don’t know how I found the [word] transgender, but I searched for it and the only result that came up was the movie Boys Don’t Cry. That is not a positive first representation. I checked it out and watched it and it was traumatizing. It pushed me and my own acceptance of myself back about 10 years.
When I started creating comics back in 2012, that was when I started thinking I wanted to create work that I would’ve wanted to see when I was a teenager and figuring myself out. I want young-adult audiences who are reading it now to be able to open a book like Beyond up and have an unquestionably safe space. Or like Eth’s Skin or Kyle and Atticus, where they can see positive representations of themselves which are unquestionably accepted, respected and loved. Those are three really important values I want in my work and the work I attach my name to.
Funding for Beyond was successfully crowdsourced from Kickstarter and you had a lot of support from you audience and followers, but how was the response when you actually made the call for stories?
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Cover for Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology. Illustrated by Levi Hastings
I put together the pitch for Beyond and had an open call for submissions, so anyone who wanted to contribute could tell me about the story they wanted to make and then we’d pick the best. I thought, at best, we’d get maybe 30 responses but for this first anthology we got 240 responses.
One thing I said about Beyond was I wanted explicitly and unquestionably queer stories. There could be no doubt when you’re reading the book that it was about queer people and their identities, relationships and sexualities weren’t up for question. I think that’s a big thing that happens in sci-fi and fantasy, there’s the allegory of being queer. Our identities are used metaphorically, but they’ll never come out and say specifically, “This is a queer person.” So with Beyond, the stories had to be unquestionably queer, but the identities of the authors didn’t. I couldn’t make people prove they were queer. Casting that larger net is how we got so many submissions, I think, although 95 per cent of the contributors are queer-identified.
With 240 submissions to choose from, but only space for 26 stories, how did you decide which ones to go with?
I’m working through the 480 submissions we got for the second Beyond book, so I’ve been thinking about that question a lot while I go through 50 submissions a day. It was the combination of the quality, integrity and genuineness of the author who was working on the story, regardless of their identity. Also, the integrity of the story they were telling. I was looking to see if they were doing something new with the genre of sci-fi/fantasy I haven’t seen elsewhere, or was being taken in a new way.
The first story in the book is Luminosity written by Gabby Reed and drawn by Rachel Dukes. It’s this amazing fusion of sci-fi and fantasy. Originally it was in the reject pile because we had so many submissions, but it was one of those stories that a few days later I thought if we don’t have this in the book, I’m going to regret it forever. It sounds hokey to say I felt it was important, but there were certain stories that just felt and looked right.
Beyond’s second volume has a post-apocalypse/urban fantasy theme. Why did you add this qualifier?
The whole inspiration behind most of the work I do is I want to make the books and comics I wanted to read when I was young. Sci-fi and fantasy was a broad umbrella and now I get to go back and refine it a little bit more. I’m really into stories like The Hunger Games and Mad Max. Those are stories that toe the line of having contextual queer representation but don’t actually go there. I was thinking it would be interesting to reflect the end-of-the-world and urban fantasy aesthetics.
And I didn’t want to just do sci-fi and fantasy again. Post-apocalypse is sci-fi enough and urban fantasy is fantasy enough that I can refine the aperture a little bit more and see what happens when you put slightly more restrictions on people’s creativity.
How long do you plan on doing Beyond Anthologies?
I’d like to keep it going for as long as I can possibly keep it going. I don’t know what the theme for the third one will be. I went to Taneka after watching Mad Max and said we should do post-apocalypse/urban fantasy just super tongue-in-cheek and she said yes. So I already had my win, so the next one might be her call to make.
Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology is available in digital and print versions at www.beyond-press.com.
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Beyond Press, Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology, comics, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Sfé R. Monster, Taneka Stotts, web comics
QUOTED: "Beyond contains twenty beautifully illustrated, science fiction and fantasy stories that feature openly, unquestionably queer, trans, nonbinary, and racially diverse characters and creators."
"Anthologies are multi-faced beasts. They introduce readers to new creators, provide small insights to existing stories, showcase variety and diversity by bringing together unique voices, and, as Beyond does for queer and trans sci fi and fantasy, they can make a unified statement about a style or genre."
"Beyond is the sci fi and fantasy anthology of your queer and trans dreams. Reading the collection will leave you thirsty for more."
Review: Beyond: The Queer Sci Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology
Posted by Alenka Figa | Oct 7, 2015 | Comics, Reviews | 1 |
Review: Beyond: The Queer Sci Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology
Beyond: The Queer Sci Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology
Editor: Sfé R. Monster
Assistant Editor: Taneka Stotts
Beyond Cover Artist: Levi Hastings
Beyond Interior Artist: Evan Dahm
Contributors: Gabby Reed, Rachel Dukes, Niki Smith, Reed Black, Christianne Goudreau, Taneka Stotts, Ted Closson, Wm Brian MacLean, Blue Delliquanti, Shing Yin Khor, Kiku Hughes, Jon Cairns, Sfé R. Monster, Kate Ebensteiner & Bevan Thomas, Savannah Horrocks, April J. Martins, Dylan Edwards, Kori Michele Handwerker, Kristina Stipetic, Anissa Espinosa, Alison Wilgus, Lin Visel, Leia Weathington, A. Stiffler, and K. Copeland
Disclaimer: WWAC received a review copy of Beyond from the Beyond Press.
The Beyond Anthology Cover.As media drifts toward norms that allow LGBT characters to be out and visible on pages and screens, queerbaiting allows creators to avoid providing actual representation. Shows like Sherlock, Rizzoli and Isles, and Supernatural are notorious for queerbaiting, but the trope pervades many other corners of the science fiction and fantasy worlds as well. In the foreword to Beyond: The Queer Sci Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology, editor Sfé Monster calls for stories with, “…queer people—people like me—with diverse genders and sexualities, as the heroes of their stories, slaying dragons, piloting spaceships, getting into trouble, and saving the day, without having to read for their queerness from between the lines.” Beyond contains twenty beautifully illustrated, science fiction and fantasy stories that feature openly, unquestionably queer, trans, nonbinary, and racially diverse characters and creators.
Anthologies are multi-faced beasts. They introduce readers to new creators, provide small insights to existing stories, showcase variety and diversity by bringing together unique voices, and, as Beyond does for queer and trans sci fi and fantasy, they can make a unified statement about a style or genre. In order to discuss the overall messages that Beyond conveys I will highlight a few pieces, but know that I enjoyed each and every story of the anthology.
Defiance and Escape
Several stories in Beyond focus on the theme of escaping from a troubled or oppressive society. Both The Graves of Wolves, by Ted Adrien Closson, and Islet, by Niki Smith, feature protagonists who are escaped soldiers living with same-sex partners and young children. Similarly, Luminosity by Gabby Reed and Rachel Dukes follows two queer women of color as they grow up together, fall in love, and abandon the NASA-esque organization that exploits them.
Karth and his son Aenh, in The Graves of Wolves.
Karth and his son Aenh, in The Graves of Wolves.
Closson’s story suggests a reason why this the+me may thread through the anthology. The Graves of Wolves is an eerie look at a cruel, violent world in which humans have committed acts of genocide against aliens, and forged horrific weapons in the process. The gay couple that serve as the story’s protagonists have defied their world’s military by adopting an alien child, who they protect at all costs. Closson expertly uses beautiful, wordless action sequences to explore the fear and terror humans are capable of inflicting.
Each of the other escapees in Beyond flee from similar horrors and exploitations. For example, in Savannah Horrock’s and April J. Martins’ The Monster Queen, a young princess runs from her parents because they are imprisoning monsters, while in Islet we learn that the foreign soldier sought refuge at the islet because she wanted to escape her violent military life. Just as many queer and trans people find themselves fleeing violence and cruelty, so do the queer and trans characters of Beyond escape becoming weapons.
A panel from Wm Brian MacLean's "Versus" in the Beyond Anthology.
An unknown force attempts to separate the figures in Versus.
There is one piece that uses the theme of escape and defiance, but in a very unique way. Versus, by Wm Brian MacLean, is different from the other stories in Beyond. It’s almost completely wordless, and the art is abstract. Versus opens with a ying yang-ish image, but the black and white swirls quickly escape the central shape, and take on the forms of living creatures. The two creatures then engage in a dancelike interaction that resembles a courtship. In a shocking moment, the creatures link and almost vibrate, but the world “NO” appears above them, as if to tear them apart. As the “no” shrinks they defiantly kiss.
MacLean’s art is simple but incredibly emotional. I felt that this story most acutely embodied the idea of love that is also defiance, but because the piece is so abstract a myriad of other readings are possible. The way shapes shift and intermingle is fascinating; you’ll find yourself reading this one again and again.
Carving One’s Own Path
Brenn must define what it means to be a man for himself in The Dragonslayer's Son.
Brenn must define what it means to be a man for himself in The Dragonslayer’s Son.
The process of escaping often becomes the process of discovering, and then creating. Several stories in Beyond follow protagonists that are carving their own paths, including a clever pirate and perhaps cleverer regent who attempt to trick each other in Taneka Stotts and Christianne Goudreau’s A Royal Affair. Also, the Instamen in Jon Cairn’s O-Type Hypergiant, who must re-define their existence as the purpose for which they were created changes. However, The Dragon Slayer’s Son by Sfé Monster best sums up this theme.
Eva defied her home’s gender norms and took on the roles of both dragonslayer and mother. She now travels with her transgender son, Brenn, who is discovering what it means to become a man when the ties to his culture’s traditions have become loose. Brenn and Eva’s figurative journey parallels the literal journey they take, because Brenn intends to fulfill the coming-of-age ritual of their home, and kill his first dragon. It’s a heartening story in which an escape from oppressive boundaries becomes the freedom of self-definition.
Sfé Monster’s story also contains some of my favorite art. The characters all have cute, big pointy noses, and B. Sabo’s inks add depth and a sense of enormity to the images of snowy mountains (There are a lot of expansive, cold-weather nature scenes in this anthology!). Each of the dragons have scary streams of hot steam pillowing out of their mouths, warning anyone who comes near that life-ending fire is just a breath away. It’s lovely.
Creating and Re-defining Family
Sulla and Brendan are great communicators in Optimal.
Sulla and Brendan are great communicators in Optimal.
Eva and Brenn’s journey in The Dragon Slayer’s Son requires them to re-define family outside of their native culture’s context. Many of the stories in Beyond feature non-traditional families, including Of Families & Other Magical Objects by Reed Black, in which a gay, interracial couple retrieves their daughter from a goblin house, and Twin-Souled by Kate Ebensteiner and Bevan Thomas, which features a two-spirited Chieftainess who protects her family by merging with the spirit of a Bear totem. My favorite—and I must admit bias here, because I have been reading and loving Blue Delliquanti’s webcomic O Human Star for quite a while—was Optimal.
Fans of O Human Star will recognize Sulla, the synthetic android whose teenage crushes and crises add a younger perspective to the comic. Optimal gives Sulla’s back-story, and reveals how she has navigated software upgrades and her transition. Her father, Brendan, is knowledgeable when it comes to androids, but less so on having a transgender daughter. Regardless, he listens to what Sulla needs, and the comic appropriately centers her thoughts, emotions and desires. It’s a beautiful exploration of how people can become family by listening to each other.
A panel and from Shing Yin Khor's "Duty and Honor" in the Beyond Anthology.
Khor’s word bubbles cannot be contained.
I would be remiss to not give a shout-out to Shing Yin Khor’s Duty and Honor. The comic’s black and grey watercolor panels create a dreamlike but ominous feeling, making it one of the most affecting pieces in the anthology. Khor also overlays the panels with letters written by Marya to her lover, Ming Hua, and these letters gently interrupt the story until abruptly, the story interrupts the letters. The stiff, typed font of news articles that pop up halfway through are appropriately jarring. If you’re looking for an example of how lettering can have a drastic effect on a comic, look no further than Duty and Honor.
Beyond is the sci fi and fantasy anthology of your queer and trans dreams. Reading the collection will leave you thirsty for more, but don’t worry! Sfé Monster, Shing Yin Khor, and Taneka Stotts have founded Beyond Press so they can continue showcasing queer, minority, and unique voices. I’m so excited for the future works that this power trio will release, and I bet you are too. To pre-order softcover copies of Beyond, get the PDF, and get your hands on more Beyond Press publications, go to http://www.beyond-press.com/
Queer Sci-fi/Fantasy Anthology Beyond Goes Above and [Review]
Posted on8 September, 2015AuthorGuest Contributor1 Comment
By Rachel Stevens
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If you asked me for a description of the crowdsourced comic anthology Beyond, it would have to be one word: essential. Asking me to expound on that, I’d continue with this—we need more folks who aren’t cisgender straight white men creating worlds and sharing stories about people like them as a public good, for the sake of children growing up and for the sake of expanding the worldview of adults.
I have to admit that I’m oft tentative about reading the works of other queer folks; in my experience, much of it is esoteric, based on lives or events I have no frame of reference for. I feel just as alienated by it as I do by much of mainstream fiction. All I really want is more stories with people like me doing things in the stories that I read growing up—not tragedies, not real-world narratives, but stories of hope and aspiration, or at least unreal but exciting fantastical scenarios, power fantasies that lift people up, show them doing things that the reader would want to do, that don’t punch marginalized folks in the face with their text. That is exactly what Beyond provides.
Beyond is filled with a mix of works from creators who are far from the typical face of mainstream Big Two comics, feeling more like a crew running a webcomic network like Hiveworks. Different genres of stories, different settings, different casts of characters, different executions of conveying story through panel layout. I would genuinely be shocked if there wasn’t at least one story a reader enjoyed in the anthology, whether it’s because it features an archetypal environment or story beat you like, whether you see yourself in the characters, whether the art is entirely your shit or if the dialogue sings to you.
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Panel from “A Royal Affair” by Christine Goudreau & Taneka Stotts
The presentation of the anthology itself is solid, at least in the review PDF I was given access to. I have to imagine that the book itself would look absolutely lovely on a shelf, or resting on a coffee table, bookmarked for later reading. I was already sold just from Levi Hastings’ cover and the foreword by editor Sfé R. Monster, but the contents impressed me from the very first page of the very first story. Did I like or “get” everything in the book? No! Nor should the book have to be that welcoming—I’m a white binary transgender lesbian, my niche is small even if my interests are wide, and the odds of someone enjoying the entirety of an anthology are slim at best. Still, I felt like was invited into the book’s pages, that I was allowed to take up space in the worlds offered within.
Something else I really enjoyed is the blend of science fiction and fantasy many of the stories were willing to try. I’ve oft felt the two can be smoothly melded and did not have to be forcibly separated for the sake of genre; the stories that tried doing so proved my point. Quite a few of the stories were also willing to be mysterious and avoid explaining all the concepts within to death, which I’m sure will get their hooks into many of the folks who read Beyond.
Among the stories I enjoyed most were “A Royal Affair” by Christianne Goudreau & Taneka Stotts, “The Dragon Slayer’s Son” by Sfe R. Monster, and “Of Families & Other Magical Objects” by Reed Black. “A Royal Affair” is about a lady pirate captain and a genderfluid regent-to-be verbally scheming against each other, battling with words while nonetheless displaying an attraction towards one another. The art in this is lovely, with darling facial expressions on the two main characters. “The Dragon Slayer’s Son” is a touching story about a transgender boy who wants to prove himself a man, and his transgender mother who wants to help him achieve that through the combat ritual she once performed before she was exiled.
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Panel from “Of Families & Other Magical Objects” by Reed Black
“Of Families & Other Magical Objects” is about two fathers going through a haunted house to save their daughter who’s been replaced by a changeling—it’s basically Labyrinth, and it owns that conceit. I didn’t enjoy the art so much in this one, particularly the exaggerated chins and necks, but the story is extremely cute and the art does help with the tone.
I did not enjoy Wm Brian Maclean’s “Versus” as much, but that was one of the stories I didn’t quite connect with. Abstract art in stark black and white of figures intertwining and contorting across multiple pages, I genuinely couldn’t tell you what was going on or tell you definitively what the story was about. Love born of hate that was lost is, at best, what I got out of it, but someone else may appreciate it more.
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Panel from “Versus” by Wm Brian Maclean
I was gratified to see that the back of the book featured full credits for the book, with the roles of creators in the book listed, biographies given, and websites featured if you wanted to look into more of their work once you were finished. Regardless of any minor quibbles I might have within certain stories, I heartily recommend Beyond whether you identify as queer (or your preferred non-straight/non-cis gender identity/sexuality label) and want to see yourself in a book, or just want to read something that isn’t just what we’ve been seeing for years.
Rachel Stevens is a transgender lesbian who currently resides in Seattle, WA. She’s a staff writer for Women Write About Comics, the editor of the webcomic Supernormal Step, and probably a robot.
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QUOTED: "essential."
"We need more folks who aren’t cisgender straight white men creating worlds and sharing stories about people like them as a public good, for the sake of children growing up and for the sake of expanding the worldview of adults."
"whether you identify as queer (or your preferred non-straight/non-cis gender identity/sexuality label) and want to see yourself in a book, or just want to read something that isn’t just what we’ve been seeing for years."
CategoriesComicsTagsBeyond, Christianne Goudreau, Rachel Stevens, Reed Black, Sfe R. Monster, Taneka Stotts, Wm Brian Maclean
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QUOTED: "Elements is a comics anthology with 33 creators taking on the theme of fire. In the current climate of the comic industry, it's easy to see that not only do we need more diverse books, but we also need more diverse creators."
Editor Taneka Stotts Brings the Fire to ‘Elements’ [Back Pages]
Steve Morris
July 1, 2016
Chrystin Garland
Crowdfunding has become an important part of how comics get made, allowing creators to pitch their work directly to readers, and providing opportunities for comics that traditional publishers may not consider. With Back Pages, ComicsAlliance hopes to provide a spotlight for some of the best comics crowdfunding projects we can find.
The Elements Anthology is the latest comics anthology spearheaded by editor Taneka Stotts, who you should know as one of the fine folks who brought Beyond to life last year. A collection of comics by people of color, Elements is planned to be the first in a series of books --- each one of which, no surprise, will focus on an element. First up? Fire.
That should gives you an idea of just how hard the series plans to hit straight out the gate; the emphasis is on passion, rage, emotion, raw power. You should expect to find all of that in the pages of Elements if it reaches it's Kickstarter goal. ComicsAlliance spoke to Stotts about her role as editor, why she wanted to strike the match and start the anthology up, and what people can expect when the Fire hits this year.
ComicsAlliance: What’s the basic premise of the anthology?
Taneka Stotts: Elements is a comics anthology with 33 creators taking on the theme of fire. In the current climate of the comic industry, it's easy to see that not only do we need more diverse books, but we also need more diverse creators.
CA: What was the genesis of the project? How long have you wanted to get this up and running?
TS: The genesis of this project was actually while I was working on Beyond in 2014, but I didn't set anything in motion until 2015, because I wanted to make sure I didn't fail in delivering my first book. I had a sort of lightbulb moment that begged me to answer why I felt like there was something missing in the projects I was invited to or had a hand in. I noticed an unfortunate trend of being one of the few minorities writing for a book even when I paired with a creator of color as my artist. Be it about fairy tales or fantasy worlds, I was kind of alone. While I was also grateful for the opportunities, I couldn't help but wonder where everyone else was. With that on my mind I decided it was time, not just for diverse stories, but also for diverse creators to take a stand.
Invitations for the project went out June 26th, and I opened for submissions in July of 2015. The start of the Kickstarter [is actually] the one-year anniversary of this project. I’m looking forward to seeing everything I dreamed of that we all worked so hard for to finally come to fruition.
Mildred Louis
CA: The theme of the first anthology is "Fire". What made you choose that as the underlying theme for the book?
TS: I wanted to start with a theme that would let people know I was serious. I feel a passion inside every day that cannot be quelled. It feels like if I'm not creating, I'm doing something wrong. It consumes me a little bit too much and sometimes my partner has to rein me in.
Elements is meant to also be more than just one book, it's book one of five, but with the first I wanted to come out with my 'A' game. Starting with such a passionate theme made for a lot of different conversations as all my contributors interpreted the theme of fire through their own unique points of view.
CA: How did you find people to join you for the anthology? Who are some of the people involved with the project?
TS: I asked a few friends, who were immediately excited about the project and told me to expect them even if they hadn't been invited, so that was great. However, I also sent out blind invites to people like Der-shing Helmer, Yasmin Liang, and Chrystin Garland. Having them say yes and ultimately join the project really nailed home that this was definitely going to happen.
When it came to open submissions, I found amazing people from all over the world submitting. Artists from South Africa, creators from the U.A.E., and finally gems like Deshan Tennekoon and Sri Lankan artist Isuri Merenchi Hewage.
My desire to work with people, to help them grow and watch them blossom into their own creator, was also something I made very clear and it helped creators like Tee Franklin of #BlackComicsMonth reach out to me too. The list goes on and is full of creators of color from as far as the UK, to neighbors just north of me in Seattle. For every contributor, I'm utterly grateful, because the book does not exist without their time, their stories, and their talent.
CA: Did you find that it was difficult to get people to submit pitches to you, or was it actually the opposite, that you had way more submissions than you were expecting?
TS: I definitely had way more submissions than I was expecting. I invited a lot of people up front, because I actually was expecting to get maybe 50 total. I instead received over 100, and was floored by the response. Even with Shing Yin Khor as my amazing assistant editor, I was prepared for a lot of backlash (and got a little), but ultimately I found creators of color to be very supportive.
Ash G
CA: We're still at a place where people of color seem to exist on the periphery of the discussion about comics, and on the outside of most major publishers. How important do you see projects like Elements even simply as a spotlight, a way for people to get their work seen and talked about?
TS: Elements is very important. Not just to signal boost or showcase diverse creators, but to give them a further foot in the door. If a future publisher wants to see they're already in print, well here you go. If they need a published short work that can be referenced, this book is for them and more. However, if publishers also want to keep coming up with excuses when asked why no diverse creators, then we're ready for them.
I hope that this was a learning experience for everyone involved that what publishers do is not out of their grasp. That this is something that with just a little ambition and know-how they can do as well. However, that doesn't mean we stop requesting change from the industry. Instead I hope it makes us louder and harder to ignore.
CA: Why take the Elements anthology to Kickstarter?
TS: Much like my previous Kickstarter for Beyond, I believe in it existing, I believe in paying those involved, and I will ensure the book is delivered. I love Kickstarter. It has blown open the gates for those who are and aren't published. It has made massive changes in the publishing world that cannot be reversed and it's an amazing structure that I am grateful for.
CA: You mention your work on the Beyond anthology and Kickstarter campaign, with Sfé Monster. What do you think you've changed about your approach to crowdfunding since that project, and what advice would you give to anybody considering the process for themselves?
TS: With Beyond, I literally did not think the response would have been as massive as it was. Even with Elements, I'm ready to fight tooth and nail to make it successful. If anything the changes this time around are just in my preparation level, communication to my contributors, and to those assisting me with finalizing the book.
Sara DuVall
I would urge anyone looking to start a Kickstarter to really look at the time it takes and the numbers of what it takes to make a book, basically have their math down because something will pop up. There are many valuable tools to utilize online, and many members of the community who will answer questions.
Heck you can still check out C. Spike Trotman's Let's Kickstart A Comic (And Not Screw It Up) mini that is available!
CA: What stage are you at with the book? How much has already been completed?
TS: Artists are literally finalising tones on their comics. That means we're at the end. We'll be compiling the book in InDesign after doing some color checks and giving ourselves a bit of down time to let the proofers do their job before it goes to the printer!
The Elements anthology will run on Kickstarter from today until Monday 1st April 2016, seeking a funding target of $30,000. You can find the campaign here!
Filed Under: anthologies, back pages, Kickstarter, mildred louis, sara duvall, taneka stotts
Categories: Crowdfunding, Interviews
QUOTED: "The stories are rich in visual and artistic storytelling, and intensely empowering."
Elements: Fire edited by Taneka Stotts
by Carrie S · Jan 27, 2018 at 1:32 pm · Leave a comment
Elements: Fire
B-
Elements: Fire
by Taneka Stotts
Elements: Fire is an anthology of short comics by creators of color. All of the art is in black and white, with red accents. The result is visually striking and gives the anthology cohesion while also demonstrating a variety of art styles. All of the stories involve speculative fiction, including non-European-based fantasy and some “smash the dystopia” style science fiction.
The best thing about this anthology is that it showcases so many artists and writers. There are twenty-three stories, and all of the writers and artists were new to me. The stories are rich in visual and artistic storytelling, and intensely empowering. Most of the protagonists are women. Not all involve romance, but several do.
Unfortunately, all of the stories are just a few pages long. It was hard for me to get involved in any one story because by the time I got into it I was done. Standouts included “Breathe” by Kiku Hughes, “A Burner of Sins,” by Jy Yang, the very funny “‘D’ is for Dunkin’ and Doughnuts,” by Orunmilla Williams, and the sweetly romantic “Red Light,” by Aatmaja Pandya.
Even though the stories were too short to get me emotionally invested in them individually, the anthology as a whole was a great starting point for me in terms of expanding my reading. I expect to return to it often, looking for new artists to follow!
– Carrie S
ELEMENTS: Fire is a comics anthology of 23 stories by creators of color from around the globe. With stories featuring peaceful warriors, blossoming brujas, godly hackers, and a fire-breathing dragon boy, we are the main characters of our own stories, not the sidekicks or token characters. This is an anthology that is full of our passions, magic, and inner fire because our diversity is not just a buzzword: it’s our reality!
Science Fiction/Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Comic
This book is available from:
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Taneka Stotts On Throwing Fire And Investing In Herself
by April Baer Follow OPB Nov. 4, 2017 11:14 a.m. | Updated: Nov. 5, 2017 6:55 a.m. | Portland
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"Elements: Fire" is the second anthology by Beyond Press.
“Elements: Fire” is the second anthology by Beyond Press.
Courtesy of Beyond Press
Winner of an Ignatz Prize for excellence in small press comics, the new anthology “Elements: Fire” is racing up the lists of most-recommended comics in libraries and curated comic book shops. A collection of work by artists and writers of color, it’s the brainchild of Portland-based writer and editor Taneka Stotts.
The pages, rendered in slick black and white, with splashes of bright red spot-color, tell all-ages stories: nations clash, robot insects do battle with giant eagles, spirit dogs return home, kids get in trouble — with all the rollick and snap that comes from asking artists to let their imaginations loose.
We talked with Taneka Stotts about getting “Elements” off the ground (it’s the second for Beyond Press, the imprint she founded with Sfé Monster and Shing Yin Khor). She had a lot more to say about her own fandom, and why she’s leaving Portland later this year, so listen to the sound file for our whole conversation, but here are just a few highlights.
Q&A with Taneka Stotts
April Baer: Tell us about one of the stories you worked on for this.
Taneka Stotts: So “Pass the Fire” [with “Agents of the Realm” artist Mildred Louis] is about Artemis and Apollo living in a cyber-punk, Philip K. Dick noir style, hip-hop-inspired metropolis called Arcadia. In this society information is passed through little technomancy tricks. She uncovers a USB drive that has a goddess inside of it.
Baer: And such a goddess! The dialogue runs like, “Surprise, surprise. Apollo before my diamond eyes. And here I was expecting one of your errand bots.” Who were the inspirations for the deities?
Stotts: That is literally Kim Chi from RuPaul’s “Drag Race” in front of you.
Baer: How did co-founding Beyond change your life?
Stotts: I became an editor! As a creator I’m in charge of my own world and my own narrative. As an editor I want your narrative to shine and for you to always feel you’re 100 percent in control. Those two worlds are very dramatically different. Especially when you’re trying to make sure a person feels comfortable and like their story hasn’t been taken away from them.
Baer: It sounds like you’ve been on the business end of interactions like that.
Stotts: Yes! Yes, I have. Very many. I would say it’s because I was introduced to comics. I found comics very similar to customer service in general IT and video games, which I had worked in before. I just realized it needed a certain approach in terms of organization and having a schedule. Oh! Having a schedule is wonderful.
Baer: Are younger editors and creators of color coming at you with questions?
Stotts: Absolutely! My inbox is full!
Baer: What are you telling them?
Stotts: Get an accountant to do your taxes, learn about your sales laws in your state, contact attorneys to do wonderful lawyer work on contracts, and look at resources around you for free or for pay and to invest within yourself — not within art school — but within yourself.
Baer: What’s the difference there?
Stotts: Investing within yourself means understanding social media, understanding business models, and putting together plans of action — not only so you can become an entrepreneur, but so you can continue your growth, so that it doesn’t just disappear, so that you can be on the same level as the people you idolize on the other side of the table. So that you’re not as afraid and nervous. We’re all people, we’re all the same, we started with the same roots: on the other side of the table, getting our books and things we love signed.
We Have Voices, Too: Milkshakes with Taneka Stotts
Posted by Corissa Haury | Jul 31, 2017 | 0 |
We Have Voices, Too: Milkshakes with Taneka Stotts
Taneka Stotts, POC Comics Champion
Taneka Stotts
She’s written multiple comics, like Deja Brew and Full Circle. She’s published the first fiery book in Elements, a series of anthologies that features creators of color, front and center. She’s been a champion for POC creators, and independent comics. She’s inspired and inspiring. She spends a lot of time reading comics out of her sheer love for them. This is Taneka Stotts, the founder, editor, and primary driver of Beyond Press. Just after San Diego Comic Con, I had the privilege of interviewing her. We talk about comics, and the experiences she’s had breaking into the world of our favorite story medium.
It hasn’t been easy for her, but she’s determined. Stotts keeps going even when she meets roadblocks, and encourages others to as well. Her positive outlook is no doubt what attracts so many wonderful creators to her. She has worked hard to build a community that continues to expand beyond itself (no pun intended). She has created multiple spaces for minorities to express themselves without fear, and to tell their stories in their way. We got right into it as we chatted.
What does it feel like to have to fight other creators for their approval of queer POC work? What does it feel like to have to break the white mold?
I wouldn’t say it’s so much of a fight right now as much as it’s a gathering. We’re not in the calm before the storm, but there are definitely other places for queer POC to go to speak to one another, to learn how to make things, to learn how to collaborate, to learn how to put books together. They’re definitely happening! You’ve got so many people coming out now with their own awesome queer identified books or queer characters in their stories. It can’t be stopped anymore.
It’s starting to spill into that white chasm that exists in queer works. Not saying it’s bad, it’s awesome. We love having queer works. These works inspired our works. It’s really funny how that happens. But it’s nice to have our own works that not only represent us and speak to us, but give us our own form of confidence. We are capable, and we are welcome within these spaces. As our history is, we have been here just as long if not longer in some cases. You can’t whitewash Stonewall all the way.
[pullquote]It’s nice to have our own works that not only represent us and speak to us, but give us our own form of confidence.[/pullquote]
What can the comics community do at large to champion queer black voices, and black creators as well like you’re doing at Beyond Press?
Beyond Press
Beyond Press
At first, paying attention would really help. Not trying to be super rude, but it would be nice if people were paying attention to the community and what the community is outputting. It would be great if they used the same resources that they used to promote one another, to promote other POC. My whole thing is, it’s not just black creators who are under attack, it’s all creators of color who are under attack, who aren’t deemed palatable by the status quo, to be part of their little circles. It’s like sometimes they pick and choose us, but they don’t embrace all of us, which is very sad and very negative at the same time. I don’t like people’s wordings, where they try to use “Well I’m really happy for this person, because they represent all of these people”. That’s not how that works. Also, please stop putting that on their shoulders. You’re making them very tired. They’re not there to represent all people, they’re there to represent themselves and their stories.
So I would say, also calm down on the idea that “only one work represents all these people”. Maybe let everyone else identify and enjoy and create and be part of this really cool collective that we have. That would be very nice as well.
What’s an interview question that people of color are tired of hearing, when they get to talk about their comics?
Here’s the question: “What is it like being a black creator in comics?” That whole question. You can fill in the blanks slightly, “What is it like being a black creator in …? The movies?” It’s like, “Gee, oh thanks, I really didn’t know the color of my skin when I woke up this morning.” Thanks a lot, I was hoping you’d ask about my actual work. Have you ever read, watched, enjoyed any of it? Everybody else gets cool questions about their characters. We get questions about our skin color. What if you actually read what we wrote, and then engaged us like everybody else? And if I’m not getting “As a black creator…” I’m getting, “As a queer black creator…” They tack on as much as they can, every time.
Speaking of your works, I love Full Circle, and I’m really excited to get Elements: Fire in the mail. One of my favorite animals is a tiger, so to see the Cerberus-like tiger on the cover of Elements: Fire … I knew I needed to own it.
For the cover I worked with Chrystin Garland, who is amazing, she’s a black comics creator. She’s worked on Steven Universe. I approached Chrystin and said, “I need a cover that invokes fire, can you help me?” And I think Chrystin nailed it.
Elements: Fire Anthology
Elements: Fire Anthology
Yes, she did! I’m excited to see the other anthologies coming from Beyond, are there any in the works right now?
Yes, actually, there is! The next anthology after fire will be earth. After the fire cools, new lands rise.
Do you know when you might have the Kickstarter up yet?
No, not yet. I’m really busy right now, so it will probably be a late 2018, maybe 2019 project.
Well I look forward to getting it for Christmas next year, or something…
Well, I’ll try to do it as soon as possible. Though I am trying to focus, and I do think it will be a little bit thinner than Elements: Fire. I definitely want to take a different approach for this one. We’ll see what happens.
So tell me how you discover creators of color, how do you discover queer creators? How do you reach out to them? Do they reach out to you?
I find them three ways. One, I actively like to read webcomics. Fancy that, right? I actually like to read comics. I enjoy everything that’s not the mainstream at this point in time. I don’t buy the mainstream anymore. I don’t enjoy it, I don’t find the incidents that keep repeating themselves enjoyable. I don’t want to be party to them. Whenever you’re paying for one thing, you’re enabling this company to put out something that’s a piece of crap later. I don’t feel like, “I’m supporting this creator, this goes to them.” That’s not how it works. That’s not how royalties work. It’s IP (Intellectual Property) work, and it’s very shady business. I don’t read mainstream. I read indie comics, and I look out for themes, I look out for people who are trying to tell their own stories.
And I find them very easily I feel. I like to retweet them as much as I can, on my own personal Twitter. I also find that people have now starting sending me emails, and I also leave my DMs open so people can send me things and I can take a look at them. I’ll tell people right now, I do not promote everything I see. If it’s genuine to me, I will take the time out to give it that spotlight even more. I don’t have infinite time, so it is unfortunate that I can’t give everything the proper credit I feel it needs sometimes.
What are some criteria you use to evaluate a story? What draws you to a story?
Well that goes into parts two and three of my way of figuring things out. My other two ways of finding creators are the Cartoonists of Color database and the Queer Cartoonists database. I always go and check and see who are the new additions. I look for people who might not know of the databases’ existence, and I say, “Hey, you make comics, you’re a person of color,” or “you’re a queer cartoonist, (or a queertoonist, as I like to say), go add yourself to this database.” It’s really cool, and people have gotten jobs from it. So, there’s that.
Pretty much, how I engage work is really just asking the question, did I enjoy it? I read comics like anybody reads comics. You pick it up, you look it, that art’s really neat, you open it up inside, even if you’re clicking through a website, and you actively engage with the characters. If it keeps your attention longer than five minutes, I think you’re sold.
So do you have any great graphic novels or comics from this perspective that you would recommend, where you do have queer people of color getting to write their idea of a strong person of color? Who would you recommend?
I’m going to recommend a few people whose work I love and enjoy. Especially because they are black comics creators, who are in my life. It means a lot to me to see them rise up and do the works that they create. So I’m going to recommend:
Agents of the Realm by Mildred Louis
Check Please by Ngozi Ukazu
Princess Love Pon by Shauna J. Grant
M.F.K. by Nilah Magruder
Nilah was the first black woman to write for Marvel Comics, it was not Roxane Gay, as it’s been so popularly misquoted. Nilah wrote for Marvel first. It was never corrected publicly, by Marvel. Or pretty much anybody. She did the Rocket Raccoon short for them. She was actually the first black woman to write for them.
It still doesn’t negate that Roxane Gay and Yona Harvey have been hired by Marvel to write for Marvel. But the fact is that this was never corrected just goes to show you what companies actually care about. They care about large-listing names.
[pullquote]We have voices too, and we can use them![/pullquote]
Yeah. Frankly, they care about what’s going to make them the most money and how much money they can make. They have millions of dollars that they could be funneling into things like #WeNeedDiverseCreators. They could also be trolling Twitter and finding people to publish, but they’re not.
Yeah, and I’m trying to do something else that is louder, in the sense of, what we need to be exposing children to. Their idols are not just white people. There are also black people that can write books too. We need a Harlem Renaissance right now. We’re not here to destroy everybody. We’re here to enjoy with everybody, and we can speak for ourselves, be us black, be us Asian, be us Pacific Islander, be us from wherever we’re from. We have voices too, and we can use them!
I tell especially people of color, “You don’t have to just create black stories. You can create whatever stories you want. They’ve been doing it for just as long.” We have our own voices as well. They have all the time and all the money to build up one specific person as a focal point for sales. They only invest as much as they have to. That’s why you only see one person at the top of original bestsellers list for comic books being sold to kids. That was an investment. That was their way of turning a profit.
It’s, “Oh, yes, we did it, we look good now.”
Yes.
Alright, so tell me about Love Circuits, and what’s coming this fall.
I am enjoying making it with Genué, a lot. It’s going in a very fun direction. Everybody asked me, when I was at Comic Con, will Yvonne and Lucos hook up? I mean, maybe. There’s so many other ways to go about this, and to have it be a fun story. I wanted to tell a different type of robot story. I feel like there’s so many out there, it’s not that they’re all the same, I just have a different interpretation. Mine happens to take place in Nuevo, Miami. I have my own interpretation of a world that is already well into global warming, and a world that is well into androids. I’m looking forward to sharing it, and I hope everybody enjoys it. And also, there’s lots of sex toys, so have fun.
That’s… Awesome. I look forward to reading. Do you think you’ll ever get back to Full Circle, or is that on hiatus?
We lost our colorist, it’s Genué, she works on Love Circuits. We made her do Love Circuits and we had less time to do Full Circle. We are actually actively hiring a new colorist right now. We have a ton of pages that need to be colored, so we can just put them onto Full Circle. The site is ready and rarin’ to go.
And Christianne, who is the artist for Full Circle, just got engaged to her partner. So they’re looking for a venue, they’re doing the whole marriage thing. Giving them space to figure out a wedding is part of that as well. She works really hard, while maintaining a full time job, and drawing Full Circle.
Last question for you, where do you see Beyond Press in ten years? When the people that are kids now that are interested in creating, might be coming to you and saying, “You’ve inspired me and I’ve made something”?
I hope Beyond Press doesn’t have to last ten years. No offense, cause I’m a creator. I wanna go out and I wanna create a bunch of stuff. Beyond Press is a little family thing we have, where we can put all of our projects together now. I foresee myself doing a lot within the next five years, so it’s not to say that there’s no hope.
But there are many other places that black women are leading that want to be publishers, like Spike Trotman of Iron Circus Comics or something like that. That’s something that they’re building, that’s a publishing house that they’re making. On the other hand, I see myself being a lot of different places but still putting out Beyond titles every now and then because they’re special to me. They mean something to me. So hopefully it means that there’s a million other presses like Beyond that exist between people and their friends. And not only that, but that they understand they can do the same things that we do.
You don’t have to be a publisher the rest of your life to publish one series. Spike’s not even a publisher, she wrote Yes Roya which is bangin’ good. Know that there’s other opportunities and there’s always going to be other options afforded to you if you seek them out.
So essentially, keep creating.
Yes, just keep creating. I’m tired of people just being really depressed right now with current state we’re in with politics and things like that. I don’t want them to stop creating. A lot of kids have never felt this kind of stress before because they’re kids. They need to have this feeling that they can relax, that they can let their guard down, and that they can still smile. They need to know that we’re there for them and that we’re fighting for them very hard so that they continue having these things in their lives.
***
Did you enjoy this interview? You can support POC and queer creators too! Check out Taneka’s comics, her publications, and more on her website. You can also help keep Beyond Press and Taneka’s work going by donating to her Patreon or buying something from the press.
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QUOTED: "If you're a fan of comic books or stories about multi-dimensional character of color by creators of color, then support this book."
Taneka Stotts' 'Elements' is a comic anthology by creators of color
Ira Hobbs
under a min • a year ago
Taneka Stotts is an award-winning queer comics creator and editor (and also a very wonderful person). Along with her assistant editor, Shing Yin Khor, and Sfé R. Monster, she runs Beyond Press. After the team successfully funded and released Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology, Taneka and Shing turned focus to Elements, an anthology focused on creators of color.
In Elements we aren't sidekicks or token quotas to fill – we're heroes.
Photo: Beyond Press
Photo: Beyond Press This book has a fire theme and 200 plus pages of lit that range from sci-fi to alternative cyberpunk. There are 23 stories from 32 contributors of color. Faves Chrystin Garland (Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems), Yasmin Liang (Star Trek Ongoing), and Rashad Doucet (plus more) are in it.
Photo:
Photo: Beyond Press #WeNeedDiverseBooks and creators in the limelight getting the shine that they deserve. With her partners at Beyond Press, Taneka Stotts is putting in the work every day to bring that vision to life. As consumers, one of the most important things we can do to lift up the media that we enjoy is to vote with our wallets. It's a phrase that's not new, but most definitely not a cliché. Our buying power is valuable in the marketplace, and the way that we use that power really does matter. If you're a fan of comic books or stories about multi-dimensional character of color by creators of color, then support this book. It's the privilege we have to make an impact on an industry that often forgets we even exist. The Kickstarter campaign to fund a softcover version of the Elements Anthology will run from July 1st - July 31st. You can find more info on their website.
Photo: elementsantology.com
Photo: elementsantology.com Representation in media is so important. What are some of your favorite comics for us, by us? Leave a comment, share this post, and tag a friend who needs to see this.
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