Becky Hawkins

Watercolor postcards: 1 goofy pun and 2 pretty buildings

Hi Patrons,

This "Dragon Drop" postcard was a collaborative effort with my partner Naomi. (She's working on making an app, and yes this was based on a true story.) I don't remember how we divided up the initial pencil-drawing phase of this postcard. But I know Naomi drew herself--she's good at drawing expressive hands--and colored the "real world." I inked and colored the dragon cave. Naomi came up with the bats,...

Book 1, Page 143

Hi patrons!

Lillian's actually missing out on a good story here. Teruko's dialogue in panels 1-3 reads:

I was in San Francisco— I was fifteen — and I ran around a corner and slammed straight into a group of white Air Force pilots! I thought I’d broken my ankle!

One pilot said “our mother is a doctor” and they all laughed, which confused me. Then they carried me to an obviously Chinese medical clinic and that’s how I met Doctor Margaret ...

2020-09-28 17:40:11 +0000 UTC View Post

A collaboration with Barry Deutsch

Hi patrons,

This is a cartoon that Barry wrote and I drew a couple weeks ago. Last time we did a cartoon about anti-fat stigma, someone responded with this tweet:

"OMG this. I was very ill through last Winter. I lost about 50 lbs through being too sick to be active and at times even too...

2020-09-25 19:32:25 +0000 UTC View Post

Book 1, Page 142

Hi patrons!

Ah, webcomics: where a cartoonist says "Wouldn't it be funny if she wasn't even from Kansas?" and then they finally get to post the joke a few years later!

Funny story, Panel 1 was laid out like this for about a week...

before I realized that Constance and Teruko had switched places from the previous page! I wasn't thrilled about redrawing a panel, but I think the curren...

While you wait for a page...

Hey patrons!

You may be aware that the west coast is on fire and/or under a cloud of smoke right now, so in totally unsurprising local news...SuperButch is running a little late. (Also, up front: we're safe, just stuck indoors.)  It feels like we were just getting used to the pandemic-related changes!

Here's a postcard that I started a couple weeks ago, after a protest: 2020-09-13 02:29:12 +0000 UTC View Post

Book 1, Page 141

Hey Patrons!

I'm trying to get better at limiting the amount of time I spend looking for reference photos before I dive into drawing. Aside from this SuperButch page, I drew a political cartoon for Barry this week (I can share it on 9/18) that also required some visual research. Panel 2 takes place in a hospital room, and I was VERY excited to eventually find a digital brochure for the company that makes that bar behind hospital beds with the colorful outlets on them, so that I knew wha...

Postcards and sketches

Hi patrons!

The next SuperButch page is almost done. (There was some extra visual research involved, so I'm excited to show you the next couple of pages.) In the meantime, here are some postcards and sketches from the past couple weeks:

We've been doing weekly demonstrations outside the children's theater. The drivers are generally well-behaved, if not outright supportive, but you do get ...

Book 1, Page 140

Thanks again for your patience with this page! I spent about 8 hours this week standing on a sidewalk with a sign, or walking through a neighborhood yelling about current issues. So my schedule has been a little out of whack.

In panel 2, McCune is doing "the Rusty dance," named after my aunt's toy poodle (RIP) who used to spin around on his hind legs to ask for table-food.

I looked up popular 1930's recipes for this page, since 1941 America wasn't yet in the war that shaped 1940s ...

Some Watercolors

Hi patrons,

The next SuperButch page is taking longer than I expected, but some of the delay is due to spending several hours a week at sign-wavings and demonstrations against racism and police brutality, which seems appropriate.

Sometimes when I'm working on a page, I feel like I have to keep listening to the same podcast or album until the page is done (or at least in a new phase in the pencil/pen/ink process). So when I post page 140, you can think of Little Shop of Horrors...

Book 1, Page 139

Hi patrons,

First of all, thank you to my partner Naomi for the translation! (I know she worked and studied really hard for many years to become fluent in Japanese, but it still seems like some sort of benevolent superpower to me.)

Here is Barry's original script, along with Naomi's translation. Because Japanese is a pretty different language from English, there wasn't a one-to-one relationship with Barry's dialogue, so Naomi also provided the literal meaning.

PANEL 1

...

A comic from the Before Times

Hi patrons,

The next SuperButch page is almost ready. In the meantime, here's a comic I've been meaning to draw since Rose City Comic Con 2019! (I knew all those cosplay photos I saved would come in handy one day.) This comic is going in the theater newsletter in the next couple of weeks, but I wanted to share it with you first.

Side note: I'm curious how many total hours Barry and I have spent at comic conventions, asking each other who we were just chatting with. Those are some ...

Book 1, Page 138

Hey patrons! Greetings from Portland.

This postcard is from a small neighborhood demonstration:

We've gone to the same spot a couple of times. The response has been mostly smiles and honks, a few middle fingers, and one unintelligible comment that we thought might be some kind of curse, until the driver circled back around to clarify. Things felt relatively light-hearted, on our end.

I've ...

Self-indulgent yoga comic :)

This was a true story I've been meaning to draw for awhile. When I had a couple days off and no looming art-deadlines, I jumped at the chance!

I like turning Shoulder Angel's flight path into an elongated word balloon every now and then. However, I spent almost as much time drawing this one as I did drawing the rest of the comic. Here's what the initial sketch looked like:

I traced over t...

Issues 5 Cover

Hey patrons! Here's the cover for Issue 5. If I can figure out where I put all our preliminary sketches, I'll show you those, too. :)

I feel like I should re-share this cartoon Barry wrote (and I drew) last summer:

Barry and I have been hearing from out-of-town loved ones who read/watch the news. There's a balance in trying to A) reassure them that Portland is unchanged except for a few b...

Book 1, Page 137

Annnd that wraps up Issue 5! I hope you like cliffhangers.

Here are some more postcards from the last couple weeks:

The children's theater where I work assembled and hand-delivered hundreds of Seuss-themed Activity Kits for our patrons...

Assembling the Activity Kits involved going inside the theater, which was an adjustment. (Don't worry, the crowding depicted here is metaphorical.) 2020-07-14 18:58:50 +0000 UTC View Post

Page 135: extras

Hi patrons,

As promised, here's some of the reference material for the detail-filled "Richard Scarry page"! And here's some information about Dawson Park, as well as a 1967 documentary about Albina on YouTube.

Enjoy!

Book 1, Page 136

Hi patrons! Becky here, with some more Tales from Behind the Clothing Choices.

In Barry's original script, Lillian's second dress was described as "Too librarian." Naturally I didn't want to besmirch or offend our stylish librarian fanbase! So I looked for another adjective that would contrast with "fancy," but be equally unpleasant to wear to dinner. "Horse-and-buggy" was on a list of old-timey slang for "out-of-date," and it totally made sense to me that Lillian would have a hand-me-d...

Book 1, Page 135

Hi patrons! It's getting late and I am very tired, but I wanted to post this as soon as it was ready. Stay tuned for fun details about the visual references I used for this page!

Book 1, Page 134

Hi patrons! Becky here.

When I choose outfits for the main characters in SuperButch, I try to keep in mind that in real life, people re-wear clothes all the time. It's not a movie where they're in a different fashion-plate outfit every scene. But I also don't want to have the cartoon-character effect where everyone wears the same outfit all the time. The last time I drew Kansas in this dress, I got SO TIRED of drawing plaid over 27 pages! This time, I decided that the dress could make a...

Book 1, Page 133

A note on the costumes: The script specified that it's mid-afternoon on a weekday, and "At the next table over, two drag queens are discussing the sinking of the Robin Moor." (Fun fact from Barry: The boat was actually sunk about a month earlier than this conversation, but the survivors were just discovered, so it was in the news.) My first instinct was to take "drag queen" pretty loosely, and draw them in casual dresses with minimal makeup, like they're enjoying a quiet drink before the even...

Book 1, Page 132

Hi patrons,

We're actually nearing the end of Issue 5! Barry and I are excited to reach this milestone (and excited to see this page layout of Barry's on paper). By next week, we may have some cover designs to show you!

$5+ patrons will get a PDF of Issue 5 in their Inboxes next month, when it's ready.

...I keep starting to type "I hope you're doing well," and then start thinking about various directions that your lives might have taken this year and what does "doing well ev...

Book 1, Page 131

(This is part of a double-page spread; that's why there's a mystery blob on the right-hand side.)

Since you're a SuperButch reader, I assume you're already being deluged with emails decrying police brutality, expressing solidarity with the protesters, and listing worthy bail/mutual aid 2020-06-03 18:16:59 +0000 UTC View Post

Book 1, Page 130

Hi patrons!

After a few marathon days of inking and toning comic pages, I'm finally catching up to...myself. It's a webcomic, not a race. Still, it feels good!  ^u^

Here's a postcard from a recent bike ride:

I used to bike 30-40 miles a week just from commuting and socializing, so it's been weird to be out of the habit. I've started taking longer rides (10-15 miles) to get a change of...

Book 1, Page 129

Happy Friday, patrons! I hope you're doing [as] well [as possible].

I've been watching a lot of watercolor videos by Mateusz Urbanowicz lately. He does watercolors of cool Japanese buildings, and they always leave me inspir...

Book 1, Page 128

We're back! It feels good to be finishing SuperButch pages again.

I've also been finishing journal comics and theater comics like whoa. I was worried that staying at home would make it hard to come up with a weekly newsletter comic for the theater, but instead, I have a bigger buffer than I've ever had. Here's a recent favorite:

...and a postcard from home.
2020-05-15 22:47:24 +0000 UTC View Post

Book 1, Page 130

I love how Barry writes Erwin. The story would be so much less interesting if he were either a reliable ally or a straightforward antagonist! Instead, Lillian's career opportunities seem to depend on the whim of a self-serving colleague who is taken more seriously by her editor. It feels more interesting AND more realistic to me.

Also, great news: I was able to go into the theater and use their schmancy printer! So now pages 128-132 are printed lightly on Bristol board, ready for inking...

Sneak Peek at Page 129 (take 2!)

Here's Page 129 again, with the full process post below: 

"Panel 2
This is a large, multiple-panels-in-one panel. It shows an old-fashioned newsroom - desks in a huge open room - and, moving from left to right and background to foreground, three figures of Lily and [Editor] with a cigar in his mouth. He’s trying to walk away from her, and she’s following."

This page is the ultimate example of comics being faster to write than they are to draw!

After a couple atte...

As promised, here's my Show Tune Lip Sync

Hi patrons,

Please enjoy Ring of Keys from Fun Home: the Musical!

The graphic novel and the musical are both really close to my heart, and...I may have listened to the soundtrack a few times. Once I got over the initial nervousness, I had so much fun putting this video together! I feel really lucky that Naomi was willing to spend a day sharing her film and costuming expertise, and that my housemate Gia was willing to sit behind a newspaper for an hour and do some filming in exchan...

Sneak Peek at Page 128

Hi patrons,

This is what a SuperButch page looks like after a few drafts. At this point, I usually print the digital drawing onto Bristol board, and then break out the pens and ink wash. I like to use the fancy printer at the children's theater, but the building hasn't been open for a month.  So I decided to get the next few pages to this stage, and then make one big trip to Barry's studio to use his printer. I'll keep posting these digital pages, so as not to leave you hanging! 2020-04-15 20:47:14 +0000 UTC View Post

Working from home

Hey patrons!

No page update yet, but here are some newsletter cartoons from the children's theater:

PS We did move forward with the Dance Challenge. Enjoy!

-Becky