FeMail Behind the Scenes

So my summer of huge comics is behind me. Between FeMail, Pretty John Bishop, and a few commissions and smaller projects I made over 120 comic pages since the beginning of June. And the exciting part? I could have done more. It's a wild feeling to think you have an upper limit and realize its higher than you thought. But enough about that. Let's get into it!

Part 1: Concept

So as you may or may not remember, FeMail made her debut in the pages of Lair of the Hypno-Sis as a robot duplicate created by the Silicon Sultan. Obviously this wasn't the real character, but she was a very accurate duplicate (besides the robocock I guess... Actually, I think the suit does have that function. It just didn't come up in the origin).

There's other cameos in there, but FeMail was a brand new invention. I wanted the Virtue Force to represent a sort of hybrid Justice League/Avengers/Titans team that could easily feature any kind of superhero I wanted to put on it. FeMail kind of stands in for Wonder Woman and Iron Man in that equation. Originally I was going to make her a genie or some other superhero nonsense. I might revisit those unused concepts for a later story. 

Initial sketches were pretty close to what I wanted already. Pieces of the design changed and so did the hero's name, but I really honed in on the concept pretty early. The alien bit came when I started writing the first draft.

Part 2: Writing it down

The elevator pitch originally went 'Green Lantern meets Wonder Woman meets Iron Man.' That's when this was going to be much more of an action comic. In hindsight, Starfire fits the brief much better. With my concept locked, I started writing the script. I took two passes at it, because my first attempt was pretty lame. Lots of bravado and machismo and stuff. It was more like a shonen action book than a TGTF superhero story. The original idea was going to be an original planet, but I had already done that with Mr. Supreme so I just used Venus as the symbolism is right there. So I had to dial back on some of the 'forced-fem embarrassment' angle in order to fit the full story, and even then I knew it was going to be a long comic. The story was going to end with a blowjob, so my goal was get there and make it make sense. Sort of an "I had to tell you that story so I could tell you this story" situation.

I had a few more concept sketches at this point.

Obviously not all of these made the final cut

Part 3: The Grind

Hoo boy, drawing this was quite an adventure. You can see my style change in real time as the pages go on. I was really interested in hatching at the start and I thought the whole comic was going to be kind of dark and only using three tones, but obviously that changed as my interests started to move towards layouts instead of rendering techniques. I'm still very proud of this work, but it's pretty clear the second half of the book is more visually coherent than the first.

Drawing FeMail took a lot longer than I expected and it even overshot my scripted estimates. I really tried to make every page matter, either narratively or aesthetically. I probably could have wrapped up the Venus segment a little faster, but I wanted to play with the idea of there only being two panels per page in reference to the 2nd planet in our solar system.

Speaking of formalism, I was inspired by One Piece's chapter covers to put in some of my own. I had a feeling the story wouldn't just flow from one beat to the next and I would want to punctuate reveals with chapter breaks. So what better way to make that a reality than to steal from the master? 

Part 4: Wrapping it up

The finish line on this one felt pretty sweet. I got to do my slow burn Hypno-Sis universe TGTF forced-fem superhero comic with an autocloset sequence and a crazy xenomorph transformation chapter. I didn't think I would ever want to work on another FeMail comic again, but I actually got an idea for Volume 3 about ten pages away from the end, so we'll see. The last thing I need right now is another running series, but the idea is pretty juicy. 

I'll give you a quick rundown and you tell me if it sounds dope or note: Trixie gets alien-pregnant after sperm from all the booty calls from Prince Atlan and the sex with Josh mutates. She goes to Venus to receive medical treatment and the armor transforms into its next form, the Queen's Royal Birthing Regalia. It is very reminiscent of drag queen aesthetic and the suit's breasts, butt, and hips receive a massive boost, as well as a baby bump. Meanwhile on Earth, the mad scientist who created the high-heel monster from the first volume is creating new creatures to attack the city. It's up to FeMail and the other members of the Virtue Force to stop these feminine frights before they demolish downtown! Plus Trixie has to decide what to do about Atlan and Josh, both of whom think they should be the kid's daddy.

It could be fun!

That's all I have to say about FeMail I think. Thanks for your support and your interest in my work. I'll have more behind the scenes posts in the future. I might cover some of my older works, like All My Future Selves are Chicks or Love Space next. keep your eyes peeled for more Behind the Scenes!

-Jo