Somewhere in this we gave this monster the name Ptarro, not sure why. That's what we called him when we had to talk about him.
Word balloon trouble here, which happened a few times. Lettering is harder than it looks.
2022-04-30 14:49:41 +0000 UTC View Post
We had a lot of detail worked out about how things functioned for Quillian and her buddy, Inkypus. The joke about not being a potato was part of this. Potatoes have eyes and Inkypus does not. How does he see? He uses Quillian's eyes. There are a couple of other places in the story where it is evident that he can only see what she sees, for the most part. Some of these are subtle and even arguable, but that's how we decided it worked. Inkypus has other senses but no eyes. He ain't no potato. :...
2022-04-28 15:42:31 +0000 UTC View Post
by Erin Halfelven
I tried to talk to Joe Stonebridge, the youth pastor, about my problem after the regular service. I’d sort of made an appointment with him before we all sat down in our pews, touching him on the arm as we passed through the nave and asking if I could speak to him privately after the service.
“Sure, Pete,” he said. “See you about 12:45?”
I nodded, then I took a seat in a back pew in the right-hand corner of the sanctuary. The room collected more pe...
2022-04-27 09:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
The cover collage was designed and put together by Maddy Bell and I think it is terrific. Thanks Maddy!
The book will be available on Kindle later this week and features transgender fiction about historical characters. The large central image above is of the Chevalier d'Eon. Anyone want to guess who the other images are? :)
2022-04-26 18:19:44 +0000 UTC View Post
Daniel kind of went nuts with the Easter eggs in this one.
We were going to make a running gag of the kid in the turtle costume being seen in the backgrounds of campus life. :)
2022-04-26 01:25:52 +0000 UTC View Post
The next few days of school were excruciating. I tried to talk to no one, and not look anyone in the face. I did have to take my note from the doctor to the school office, and they changed my schedule so I would go to study hall instead of gym.
And I wore Mom’s little elastic chest-band every day. Heck, I even tried to sleep in it, but it turned out to be a little too uncomfortable for that, riding up under my armpits in my sleep and stabbing me in the back with the stiffeners.
...
2022-04-22 08:35:56 +0000 UTC View Post
These guys, like the ones around the table were intended eventually to be recurring characters -- minor annoyances with slightly satiric presentations.
2022-04-20 07:20:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Two Easter eggs. (Appropriate weekend this is.) Can anyone spot them?
The joke about Q's name was going to be a running gag.
Mrs Fremond continues to display her prominent prominences.
2022-04-16 17:52:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Mrs. Fremond was one of Daniel's favorite people to draw. He did some near pin-up quality of drawings of her on the side. LOL. She had a good figure for a landlady. :)
BTW, if you wonder what Daniel looked like, the drawings of Quentin William above are a close approximation except Daniel had dark blond hair.
2022-04-14 20:37:30 +0000 UTC View Post
The first real view of the male version of our character. :)
Ad I dunno... the idea of thought balloons coming from his ass where Inkypus is somehow still conscious cracks me up. Daniel had nothing to do with that, I added the thought balloons and content myself. :)
Meant to post this yesterday but failed, sorry.
2022-04-12 18:55:40 +0000 UTC View Post
This was the payoff page, the reveal that, yes, this was a TG story. :) We're about 1/4 of the way through the first tale of Quillian and Q's human male self makes his first appearance.
The backstory here never explained is that Quillian must spend some time in each form everyday and the transformations can be done at will, but just after midnight is demon-time and just after sunrise is human-time. More drama that way.
2022-04-08 15:58:26 +0000 UTC View Post
The joke here with "I never listen" really needs the reader to imagine Gilbert Gottfried doing the voice. Don Rickles could have done it. :) The joke started on page 9 and the punchline is on page 11. I get carried away sometimes. :)
Note bullet-riddled valentine poster on the wall. Daniel did some odd things in the corners, look for them.
Inkypus is doing the crowd noise chant from my theater training in the last panel. Gromish, gromish!
2022-04-06 14:19:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Daniel often did more work than was required to tell the story. His backgrounds were frequently lush. I kept the panel count on pages low to give him room to shine.
The artwork was done on 2-ply 11x17 smooth Bristol board. We would have preferred kid Bristol but the only varieties available to us were smooth (plate) and vellum. And vellum was too rough for Daniel's pen style.
The pros mostly use kid surface in either 11x17 or 12x18 sizes, and this is often supplied by ...
2022-04-05 00:56:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Another character from the upcoming webcomic by Melanie E and I. This is Dustin. He's obviously into torture because he plays the oboe. More about him later. :)
2022-04-02 23:38:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Inkypus was lots of fun to write. :) Imagine having a sarcastic growth on your ass, someone whose comments you couldn't escape. LOL.
Daniel snuck in a lot of symbolism, too. Some as obvious as the cross on the top of the chapel, some more subtle.
2022-04-01 20:26:35 +0000 UTC View Post
I have always been drawn to the sea, and I guess that was down to my father. He was a ship’s engineer and I saw little of him when I was very young, but whenever he was home he would bring strange objects and stories from the places he had been. It seemed as if his life was like a fairy tale. I wanted to follow him.
It annoyed my mother that I would ignore or even disobey her, or treat her as badly as I now recognize my father treated her. The fact is that wanted to be with him, and i...
2022-03-31 18:24:18 +0000 UTC View PostOur servers were moved by the server farm and did not come back up after the move. Piper is working on it and is running a re-install while she takes a nap. The database had to be rebuilt, almost by hand. Piper has been at it for over 24 hours with two trips from Brick to Staten Island.
2022-03-31 04:40:48 +0000 UTC View Post
I like the flexing of Ptarro's toes as Quillian kicks him where it will hurt most. He got his knees together a little too late. The script had her saying, "I - Have - Had - Enough - Of - You!" but we decided it wasn't needed.
I don't think anyone calls him Ptarro in the story but we needed names to be able to talk about the monsters. Ptarro is an anagram of Parrot.
Q's tails all had names too. Inkypus, of course for the talking vegetable. Tom Stabbo for the metallic spade. A...
2022-03-30 18:58:56 +0000 UTC View Post
DRAGON’S FANG
Shauna J. Rousseau
Cover Typography by Joyce Melton
Cover Image Source: Photo 6936442 / Girl © Marek Paju | Dreamstime.com
Author's Note: I will am back from travel but am still catching up on things, so there will be a slightly longer period between postings (maybe two week intervals) for a while – until I can get back into my normal writing cadence.<...
2022-03-29 17:23:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Quillian isn't a hero, so it's okay for her to run away.
We made the choice to go light on vulgarity despite several scenes of near nudity. Besides, this style of dialog interruptus always makes me smile.
I have no idea what viewpoint the monster's mouth and tongue in the lower panel is being drawn from. :)
2022-03-29 00:07:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Melanie and I are working on a new project together, an ongoing webcomic about a new transgender character. There will be magic, transformation and superheroics. This is a pinup of sorts for a character planned for the strip. (She's not the heroine.)
I've got my ideas about who she is and what her role in the story may be. Until I saw Melanie's art I hadn't even an inkling. :) What do you guys think?
2022-03-26 21:34:50 +0000 UTC View Post
You have to imagine Gilbert Gottfried doing the voice of Inkypus. :)
The loquacious gourd serves the function of the chorus in Greek theater and represents the audience from the early days of cinema who usually thought of themselves as part of the action. :)
The "That's a Big Chicken" line is from Woody Allen's Sleeper and always just destroyed me when delivered in Woody's Manhattan deadpan. :)
2022-03-25 22:25:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Pete’s Vagina
By Joyce Melton
Chapter 10 – Timeout
Sunday morning came a little too soon, but Mom had made piggies-in-their-beds, link sausages snugged into biscuit dough and baked until brown. With Dad’s scrambled eggs with cheese and chives, breakfast made a powerful statement about the world spinning the right direction.
I honestly forgot about my problems while eating and clowning with my sisters. Other than the earlier solitary emba...
2022-03-24 17:17:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Sometimes... the humor is a bit, I dunno? Subtle? :D
2022-03-23 19:56:20 +0000 UTC View Post
It was one of those hot Italian days that strike the Tuscan Apennines and the pine trees around "The Lake of Idols" offered no protection when standing at the ragged altar stone. Perhaps the heat kept any crowds away and that was why Mike stood alone on Mount Falerona, staring at the muddy pool.
Or at least he thought that he was alone. The trail up had been bare in front of him or behind, and it seemed the only access. But then a stranger stood beside him as if he had...
2022-03-22 22:38:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Daniel snuck little Easter eggs into some of these panels, like the 70s Rockers poster on the wall. The goriness of this image exceeded my expectations, to tell the truth. :)
2022-03-21 20:44:05 +0000 UTC View Post
This illustrates a gag we never made explicit. Quillian's invisibility only works as well as her confidence in it. If she doubts it is working, it doesn't. :) Daniel and I thought this hilarious and there are a couple instances of it later in the story.
2022-03-19 15:45:34 +0000 UTC View Post
About twelve years ago, Daniel Ford and I started posting our graphic novel, Quillian, Teenager from Hell. That website is currently down, and Daniel died of complications of diabetes about four years ago. I've decided that Quillian deserves another airing, so I am going to be posting a page or three a week until it's all up here. I hope you enjoy our quirky little tale. -- Joyce
2022-03-17 02:41:19 +0000 UTC View Post
DRAGON’S FANG
Shauna J. Rousseau
Cover Typography by Joyce Melton
Cover Image Source: Photo 6936442 / Girl © Marek Paju | Dreamstime.com
Author's Note: I will am back from travel but am still catching up on things, so there will be a slightly longer period between postings (maybe two week intervals) for a while – until I can get back into my normal writing cadence.<...
2022-03-15 21:27:40 +0000 UTC View Post