Moth video!
The Moth was kind enough to send me the video from my performance in Berkeley. I won this particular StorySLAM, and have been back to perform more times.
PRISM QueER preSs GRANT
I am so excited to say that Catherine Esguera and I tied for this year's PRISM Queer Press Grant! Wow, this really lights my fire to make WAY MORE COMICS. Read more here!
WinNIng the MoTh!
In addition to drawing and making cartoons, I also love telling super personal stories in front of hundreds of people. A LOT. The stage makes me feel very at home.
That being said I was still surprised and honored to win a Moth Story SLAM at the Berkeley Freight and Salvage last Wendesday. The laughter and "mms" of acknowledgement as I was telling my story -- which was about getting punched in the face by a random woman on the street and then needing to find the pieces of my glasses -- made me feel like I was creating something out of that destructive experience. I was moved that you (listeners) were moved. Thank you very much.
I will be performing at the Moth GrandSLAM in October at the Castro Theater, and at BAWDY storytelling at the Verdi Club tomorrow. Stay tuned!
ComiNg to LA for WOnderCon!
Hello! I will be coming back to Los Angeles -- where I spent my middle and high school years -- for WonderCon this year over the Easter weekend. I will be joining PRISM comics and Stacked Deck Press to promote ALPHABET, an epic anthology featuring (so!) many queer cartoonists. Learn more about ALPHABET and the contributors and editors here!
ExperimEnts IN ColOr
In the past I have been something of a black and white purist in my print comics. It is so much cheaper to print, for one thing, and most of my very favorite comics are in black and white. I'm experimenting now with a comic that could be in color -- although I will probably still print it in b&w in addition to compare.
This is a story where color can add a sense of smell and temperature. I'm working on world building at the moment.
Looking up through bushes and brambles
walking along the shore at Cesar Chavez park
where are we going?
NetroOts Nation 2015 -- Subscribe for FulL Notes!
I'm going to be at Netroots Nation 2015 as a designer from the Citizen Engagement Lab (thanks, CEL!). While I'm there I intend to draw a lot of panels and a lot of people, and take a lot of notes visually. If you want to see them in full resolution and color, please subscribe here:
Comics Reading Recap -- We Belong: Stories and Portraits from the Lexington Club
This past Saturday, I had my first book opening (combined with a reading) at Mission Comics, and it was a bigger joy and success than I could have imagined. I was selling and presenting my new book, We Belong: Stories and Portraits from the Lexington Club, which was my most ambitious art project to date. It has eighty pages of portraits, stories, anecdotes, and memories I made into comics while sitting at the now-closed iconic lesbian bar in San Francisco.
Me, presenting with slides from my Lexington Club book. Thanks for the photo, Judy Emaus!
I was also presenting a recreation of the Lex bathroom that I made with fellow artist Anja Bircher. Here we are inside it:
And, the magnificent Kat Yoas read her spoken word piece about being a Lexington Club bartender, while I showed illustrations on a projector next to her.
Kat Yaos, reading and giving everyone all the feels
A good number of people showed up, filling the space at Mission: Comics. People laughed at the funny parts of my presentation and seemed moved at the parts that were more somber. Reading in front of a lot of people made me nervous before it was happening, but once I started I realized that the crowd was very friendly and I relaxed. Afterwards I signed some books and enjoyed watching people take selfies in the bathrom (which is still up for sale, by the way!).
People watching the presentation -- there were even more people to the left of where you can see in this photo, stretching back towards the door. I was very moved by the turnout. Thank you everyone for coming, and to my cousin Judy Emaus for the picture!
My favorite part of the reading was when we got to this part, a poem I wrote called "Goodnight Lex." We went through it panel by panel and I asked everyone to read it with me. It was moving, if I say so myself!
I also had a great time watching people goof around in the recreated bathroom, taking selfies and writing on the walls, just as Anja and I had intended...
Posing for a selfie with Ben, Lila and Chloe!
I'd like to give a huge thanks to everyone who worked with me to make this happen -- my mom for organizing several family members to fly out to see it, my dad for working the tech/ slide issues, Anja for taking the lead on the bathroom, Kat for being a fabulous reader, Leef Smith for the amazing space at Mission: Comics and Art, the Lexington Club Archival Project for filming, and Daniel Hirsch from Missian Loc@l wrote a story before the reading that was picked up by SF Gate. And, everyone who came to see me present and/or bought my book! I am so touched.
-- Elizabeth
QUEERS AND COMICS CONFERENCE: NOTES
Notes from the amazing, international, and intergenerational Queers & Comics Conference, which was in New York City from 5/7-5/9 2015. Click to enlarge...
“I didn’t want to pour my talent, energy and joy into an illustration industry that made me feel inferior.”
Notes from the Q&A with Alison Bechdel and the cast of Fun Home, after an unforgettable performance.
PRESS: HER (The Lesbian App) blogs about Lexington Club comic
This week Robyn Exter from HER (The Lesbian App) interviewed me and wrote a blog about my Lexington Club comics, in which she makes me sound like a much cooler / more advanced level lesbian than I actually am (I'll take it!). You can read it here.
New Comic: In which I learn what I did and didn't get better at since fourth grade.
Latest comic is done! It's about my fourth grade best friend / first crush and I trying to leave Earth and reclaim our destiny as Star Princesses. You can read the whole thing here for now and it will also be in Bisexual Trials and Errors: 3.
Latest comic is done! It's about my fourth grade best friend / first crush and I trying to leave Earth and reclaim our destiny as Star Princesses. You can read the whole thing here for now and it will also be in Bisexual Trials and Errors: 3.
I had remembered Sailor Moon being SO HARD to draw, because I hadn't really tried since 1998 -- it turns out my rendering skills have dramatically improved.
But other things haven't changed at all -- like my desire for closeness to one particular person at a time, and the series of gestures I make to win that person over.
After drawing this I thought maybe it would be better if tried to win people over by just being awesome and hanging out with them. I'll let you know how this goes.
Also, check out these amazing videos from the late 1990s -- I listened to lots of them while making this comic to get me back in touch with that time and place. My heart is jumpin, it's easy to see:
New book, reading about the Lexington Club on May 23rd 2015
(click here to go to the Facebook event page)
Hey -- I'm going to come out with a new book about the Lexington Club in late May. Not only that but I'm going to have an opening for it at Mission Comics. Other artists will be there too -- like, Mars Adams will be making some fantastic Lex-themed hats. I'll be selling the new book, my other comics, and prints and postcards that will make you super nostalgic (since, alas, the bar will be closed by then.) Hope to see you there!
Learn more and RVSP here.