#90% done with the rough sketch and it took forever

[autumnhortsnort]

Multi panel comics are

HARD

I want to finish this though.

[bruciewayne]

only fools

Foolproof April Fools' plan: Ask out your crush, if they reject you, call April Fools'!

In which Steve and Tony have been crushing on each other way too long and maybe the plan isn't foolproof, but they get together in the end anyway.

read on ao3

“Today’s the best day to ask someone out, ‘cause if they say no, then you can just call April Fools’!” Clint says, as wisely as he can, tapping his forefinger to his temple. He’s draped over the back of a couch, facing up at the ceiling, in what they’ve determined as the communal living room (Tony’s).

In the three years they’ve officially been Avengers, none of them had been at the tower for an April Fools’ until today, and Steve is slightly apprehensive, however, he trusts them not to do anything particularly dickish.

In the three years that they’ve been teammates, somewhere along the line, Steve has also developed somewhat of a crush on Tony. Sometime amongst the seemingly endless long line of sleepless nights, back-to-back-to-back missions, movie nights and pseudo-dates, sometime, somewhere, someplace, Steve has fallen in love with his best friend.

And he’s absolutely fine admiring from afar and hoping that Tony doesn’t pick up how fast his heart beats when he leans on his head on him during movie nights or how, on meeting days, when he’s dressed up in a full suit Steve stutters his words around him because, of course he looks gorgeous in whatever he wears, everything from greasy AC/DC t-shirts that have long seen better days to his Iron Man suit, but there’s just something about him in a proper suit, jacket and shirt perfectly tailored to his broad shoulders, trousers hugging his ass and thighs, just on this side of professional, all the way down to his tasteful Italian loafers, something about how perfectly put together he is, how he exudes power and confidence, that makes Steve want to mess him up, run his hands through his gelled-back hair, until none of the strands fall where they’re meant to, tug on his tie and mess with his shirt.

But all of that goes on the backburner for now, forever, not even on the backburner, straight back into the pantry, never to be seen again, because Tony does not, never has and never will feel the same.

How does he know? Recently-ish, he’s always caught Tony avoiding eye-contact with him.

Tasha had said that his crush could be seen from the ISS.

Sometimes he’ll be doing something, painting or reading the paper or a book or something, and then he’ll look up, or look behind him, to see Tony very obviously Not Looking at him. Hell, one time he’d come back from a particularly gruelling run - he’d run almost twice as long as he would have and on the hottest day of the year - sweaty to the point that his shirt was pretty much see-through, not exactly appealing, he got that, but when he’d gone into the kitchen and found Tony in there, Tony had looked at him for a couple seconds and then booked it out of there.

And God does that make Steve feel guilty, he’s managed to make Tony uncomfortable in his own home, if he can’t get his little crush in check - because obviously that’s why Tony keeps avoiding him lately, he’ll act normally (or as normally as Tony Stark’ll act) with Steve, completely disregarding any rules about ‘personal space’ and then suddenly he’ll straighten up or back away and put at least 5 feet between them and avoid his eyes - if he can’t get his feelings in check and stop making Tony uncomfortable then his only choice is to move to DC.

The worst part of it is Tony, Tony’s the reason he’s better than he was two years ago, he’d done so, so much for him, more than SHIELD, he’s the one who’d noticed how he’d been and had helped him, introduced him to therapy, gave him a home when he had no-one. And what had Steve done? Fallen in love with him.

Of course, Steve’ll miss him, but Tony will probably be glad to get rid of him anyway.

“-eve, you still with us?” Tony asks, concerned, throwing popcorn at him from the other end of the room.

Steve mentally shakes himself and then forces an easy grin on his face, “Yup, just zoned out for a moment, don’t worry.”

“If you say so, big guy,” Tony says, uncertainly, “anyway, pranks, anyone up for anything?” He looks at everyone, after he runs a hand through freshly-washed dark curls that Steve-- nope.

“It’s past noon, doesn’t count anymore,” Nat says, shrugging.

Steve gets up and finishes the last of his orange juice, “I’m gonna, uh, go, up.”

Tony rolls his eyes at Nat and waves bye at Steve, who gives one of his horribly fake smiles again, ones that look like it physically pains him to make - and that’s saying a lot, he’d once witnessed the man try and succeed in hiding three broken ribs.

Steve, Steve was a ridiculous man that, in Tony’s very correct (and yes he will fight every single person who disagrees) opinion, deserves the entire world and some more. Yeah, Tony’s a genius, but he can’t quite wrap his mind around the fact that a person like Steve actually exists in real life - he’s as selfless and self-sacrificial as the stories say but he’s so, so much more than the shield, under the cowl and the legends there’s an actual, human person, and as someone, who, after New York, is a very avid campaigner for a good mental health (if 90’s Tony could see him now…), he’s ashamed for how long it took for him to realise that.

But the second it clicked, it was like he couldn’t notice anything else, the way the sun shone off his hair early in the morning that made it look like it was spun from gold, how during missions he transformed into almost another person entirely, like Steve Rogers had been shoved down for Captain America, but after he drops, feeling all the consequences of Captain America, how he’s a literal Adonis, but he also had a plethora of problems that SHIELD simply hadn’t noticed - or bothered to, until Tony brought it up, once after he’d witnessed Steve have a panic attack whilst fighting Doom and then refuse to acknowledge that it even happened.

He’s so, so young, to see him act like he had nothing aside from the fight, to see him so jaded already, to see him throw himself into battle without a second thought, he knew that was half the legend, but he also knew exactly what he was doing. Because he’s been there. And he refused to watch another person go through what he did knowing that he could help. So he did.

Which left him here, a small, slight inability to talk to one of his best friends because he was so very hot and so very good.

Sometimes he’d watch him paint and just get struck by him all over again, he made art with a single-minded focus, pouring creativity and thought into each brushstroke, and every single penny he made from his art went straight to charity, he didn’t take any to pay for the materials or for himself, all of it went straight to a myriad of foundations, because he was just that kind of person, too good for the world, and definitely too good for Tony Stark.

Which is why he’d avoid looking at him if he caught him watching, yeah, he loves him, god, he adores him, but he’d never, not in a million years ever love Tony back, and the very last thing he wants to do is drive him out of the Tower, especially when Steve’d told him, drunk on Thor’s magic stuff that Tony’s vowed to never touch for as long as he lives, that the Tower was his home in the new century, that it was pretty much the only place he really felt safe and comfortable, the place where he felt the least like he had to live up to a legend.

Tony’s not going to be That Dick.

“Well,” he says, just as Steve leaves the room, watching him go, still half in ear-shot, “it still counts to me.” Exactly nobody believes him.

“You should ask him out,” Clint says after a moment, “perfect day after all.”

“He’s not gonna say yes,” Tony says, shaking his bowl and picking out any last properly popped kernels.

Bruce rolls his eyes, “Tony, seriously, he will.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what I’m scared of,” he mumbles, not meeting any of their eyes, because Steve was good, the best type of good, the most kindhearted, pure person he’s ever had the honour of meeting, and Tony’s none of that.

“Tony,” Bruce says softly, looking at him until he meets his eyes.

They look at each other for a moment and then Tony sighs and says, “Yeah, I know,” he pulls his wits together and then gets up, “birdbrain, we’re going with your plan.” Once again, exactly nobody believes him, Tony Stark was not a coward.

He asks JARVIS where Steve is and gets directed to the roof, he glances at his watch and isn’t surprised, Steve loves golden hour. “Hey,” he calls out, when he reaches the roof, to Steve who has his back turned, facing the city, he has a cigarette in his hand, smoke curls up into the atmosphere, greying out where the clouds are orange and pink, Tony has a strict no-smoking policy in the tower, but he’s fine with the roof - especially for Steve, he also has an easel with a rough sketch on it in front of him. Steve puts out the cigarette, releases all the smoke in his lungs and takes a long drink of cola and then turns to face him, a small, but genuine smile on his face. That alone does wonders to Tony’s general spirit. God, he’s whipped.

“Hey,” Steve says, as Tony walks closer to him. He stops about a foot away from him, close enough that he can smell the residual smoke on him and he can count every eyelash surrounding his blue, blue eyes. Maybe closer than a foot.

Steve’s still smiling when he teases, “Came to enjoy the--”

“I’m in love with you,” Tony rushes out in one breath, staring right into Steve’s eyes.

Steve immediately shuts down and turns away from him, “That’s not, that’s not funny Tony,” he whispers, sounding broken, “I, I’m sorry for making you feel uncomfortable with my feelings and I’ll--”

His feelings.

“Steve,” Tony gently takes his elbow and spins him around to face him. He still won’t look him in the eyes, seemingly finding the cement very interesting.

“Steve, I’m serious.”

That gets him to look up, still guarded, a little, scared.

“Tony, if you're- are you- if it’s an April Fools’ Tony--” he almost pleads.

“It’s not, baby, Steve, I’m in love with you, I swear on your life, God knows it’s more important than mine, I’m serious,” Tony says, determined to fully settle the idea in Steve’s mind, that he, Anthony E Stark is head-over-heels for him.

“Really,” Steve asks, still disbelieving, because, surely, it can’t be real, but Tony’s not that kind of guy.

Tony nods and slides his hands up to settle on Steve’s shoulders.

Steve rests his hands on Tony’s waist, fitting along his curves perfectly, “Can I kiss you?” He whispers, leaning down, their faces inches apart.

Tony nods again and leans up to close the gap, touching his lips to Steve’s ridiculously soft ones. The entire world falls away as he feels solely his lips on his, New York could look more as beautiful as it’s ever been and Tony wouldn’t care, because Steve’s surrounding him and he tastes of cola and faintly of smoke and he smells like Steve, like home and he never wants to leave.

Eventually, they have to come up for air, because Tony’s only human.

“I love you too,” Steve murmurs, grinning brighter than he’s seen him all week. Tony makes it his mission statement to change that.

Tony leans in to kiss Steve again, because he can now, he’s allowed to do that, and that in itself makes him giddy in a way he hasn’t felt since his teenage years.

Steve’s smiling bright, bright enough to make up for the setting sun, as he kisses Tony, “Best April Fools’ ever.”

all fic masterpost

[houseofvans]

SKETCHY BEHAVIORS | Interview w/ STACEY ROZICH (LA) 

From animal mask wearing people sifting through antiques to creepy mascots being arrested by equally creepy looking officers, Los Angeles based artist Stacey Rozich’s watercolor works are all things awesome. Strange, familiar, dark, humorous, and pleasantly eerie at times, Rozich’s paintings, while done in the style of folk traditional painting, are filtered through her own lens of modern pop culture. With some upcoming shows in the New Year–a group show at New Image in LA in February and a two-person show at Portland’s Talon Gallery in September–we couldn’t wait to chat with Stacey Rozich about her early experiences with drawing, her collaboration with Subpop Records, and her sketchiest story involving loud raucous metal heads and a little out-of-the-way saloon in Malibu in this latest Sketchy Behaviors. 

Photographs courtesy of the artist | Portrait by Kyle Johnson

Tell us a little about yourself.  My name is Stacey Rozich, or Stace, Stace Ghost, etc. I’m from Seattle, but I now live in Los Angeles. I’ve been painting in watercolor for the past twelves years, and drawing before that since forever. I sometimes do large scale versions of my work as acrylic murals, which is something I stumbled into. I dig painting in the folk tradition, but through my own lens of modern pop culture, and way too much tv watching as a kid. Seriously, I was an insomniac in middle school and for some reason my parents gave me a tv in my room, so I stayed up all night watching VH1 Pop-Up Video and Adult Swim (circa late 90’s). I have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of The Simpsons seasons 3 - 8 — I used to recite monologues from the show to my family when I was a kid. And I still do!

What was your first experience with art / drawing? And who were some of your early artistic influences? In Kindergarten I drew a many-legged leopard in the forest with crayons and I got a lot of praise for it from the other kids and the teacher. I felt a combination of pride and complete embarrassment for the attention I got for something I created without thinking. My earliest artistic influence was probably Sailor Moon. I wish I could say I was one of those really smart arty kids that loved Picasso, but honestly I wasn’t that aware of what “real art” was until later in pre teenhood. The flashy colors and character designs of Sailor Moon were so exciting for me! Even the lush watercolor backgrounds captivated me. I liked drawing people then so the outrageous proportions of the girls was something I could mimic in my own drawings.

Some of our favorite aspects of your work is your use of gouache and watercolors. Can you share with folks what it is about this particular medium you enjoy so much?  I absolutely love watercolor, and truthfully I don’t use gouache that much to consider myself proficient in it since it’s a slightly more opaque medium and I use it for accents. Especially the fluorescent gouaches I picked up in Tokyo, those against my watercolors pop nicely. But watercolor, yeah, I think I have that one in the bag. I remember using it in high school and absolutely loathing it — where was the control? One wrong move and it all just blended together into one big wet puddle. When I was a freshman at CCA (California College of the Arts in San Francisco) I took an intro Illustration class and the first thing our professor did was give us a watercolor demo; I was not looking forward to it. He was such a wizard with it! He gave us really smart instructions to not use very much water, and really “charge up the brush” with the pigments and paint it in and let it dry fully. That way edges of the paint have dried and created a barrier for the next application of color next to it. That’s why the barrier for entry with watercolor can seem too high, when it gets too slippery to work with there’s an overuse of water. I got that suddenly and it all clicked. Since i grew up drawing habitually I liked that I could use a very small brush and almost draw with watercolor, and large brushes to fill in certain planes with tonal washes. I like that I can wipe and dab away little pools of color and it creates a nice stained glass effect — that looks really lovely against a matte layer of watercolor that I’ve used extremely little water with. 

Are there other mediums you’d like to try in the future? In the future I would really like to start painting portraits of people in my life. Like, Alice Neel style portraits in oil. Oil intimidates me greatly so I think I’d start in acrylic.

What’s a day in the studio for you like?   I get to my studio around 10am since I’m not a very early riser, unfortunately. I so envy early morning people! One of my girlfriends who’s an incredible textile artist is up and at ‘em and hiking in Griffith Park by 6am. And there I am under the covers with a cat on stomach looking at her Instagramed hike thinking “Some day that will be me” — I like to lie to myself. Anyway! Once I roll into my studio I settle in to write some e-mails, putz around the Interwebs, and then get down to the task at hand. It’s usually 11 around this time so I’m usually really chugging along by 3, and then I’ll keep going for a few more hours. If it’s a painting for a commission or gallery show I tend to spread my timeline out so I don’t get burned out. If it’s a commercial gig there’s a lot more scanning, Photoshop clipping out and editing which can take me later into the evening.

What’s that process like? My process always starts with loose sketches on paper, which can mean in a sketchbook or whatever blank piece is lying closest to me. I work out compositions with really doodly lines — they’re virtually unintelligible but I know what they mean. When I move to the final I mostly wing it when it comes to the color palette. If anyone has ever seen my watercolor palette they know it’s a goddang mess  which works for me. I usually work with whatever shades I’ve pre mixed and let dry in the pan.

You’ve worked with various clients and companies over the years. Do you enjoy collaborating and what do you find the most challenging about it? I do like working commercially, the collaboration with art directors can be incredibly rewarding. Though there are times it becomes a slog when you’ve created about four or five killer rough ideas and they go with the weakest one. Why does that always happen? You have to do what they say essentially, but still keep your voice even when it feels a little pinched.

In 2015, you collaborated with Subpop Records on some amazing record art and design? Can you tell us a little about that collaboration and process? Subpop is one of my favorite labels to work with hands down. Their art director Sasha Barr is such a boss. I was really lucky when I was working on the Father John Misty album that I got to create the art and not worry about the editing process. I sent it up to them since they had access to a gigantic scanner to get a full high-resolution image. It meant a lot that I was able to do the art as an actual full scale piece, as opposed to broken up to little scraps and then scanned on my wee little ancient scanner. Sasha did all the leg work to clip out the whole thing and to figure out how to stage the multi-layered pop-up interior gatefold. Usually when I work with smaller clients they ask me to do all this which is…not a good idea. Ultimately that album packaging was nominated for a Grammy in Packaging Design in 2016, but we lost out to Jack White because of course. Damn you, Jack White!

What WOULD BE your ideal collaboration? I would like to work with a great publishing house to do my own young adult series. Basically all the characters and worlds I’ve been painting distilled down into a serialized art book/graphic novel type thing. That’s a big dream of mine that swings from feeling so possible and exhilarating and then feeling completely futile because everyone has the worst things to say about the state of publishing right now. I still have hope that someday I’ll get it together to at least put forward a proposal. 

On a different level I’ve love to design some patterns for Gucci. I’m not really up on the latest collections of luxury brands but Gucci is one I’ve noticed has been doing a fantastic job incorporating illustrations into their garments either as accents or printed motifs. The uniqueness of the artwork coupled with excellent hand done detailing makes my brain feel fuzzy in a really good way.

What type of music do you listen to when creating? Can you give us the top 5 bands you’ve been checking out? I waffle back and forth between music and a lot of podcasts. For the times when I can’t listen to anyone talk anymore, I listen to Jim James, Solange, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Shabazz Palaces. I just started listening to Andy Shauf’s new album which is lovely, it reminds me a bit of Harry Nillson. Also there’s a great massive playlist on Spotify called Twin Peaks Vibes that is excellent.

What’s your strangest or sketchiest art story that you want to share? I was eating lunch with some friends at this little out-of-the-way saloon in a canyon east of Malibu after a hike a few months ago. It’s pretty isolated down there — they’ve been using this place for filming Westerns since the 30’s so it’s a very specific strange and cool gem. I was sitting at the bar and these bros come in, being loud and raucous. I kind of internally rolled my eyes at them and ignored them. I hear one of them say “Excuse me — are you Stacey Rozich?” I got scared for a moment because anytime someone recognizes me by name I feel like I’m going to get into some trouble. I told him I was, and then he and his friends got very excited since they all were huge Southern Lord fans, and loved the album artwork I did years ago for the band Earth. I was really surprised (and relieved) and we had a good chat! It was a very unexpected encounter down at this little far away rustic saloon.

What’s a common misconception about artists?  Perhaps that we’re all lazy. That we don’t have a good work ethic since what we do is hard for most people to wrap their brain around. It’s a completely unconventional path to go down, and you have to be extremely dedicated to it. Yet somehow this doesn’t quite translate to most folks since it seems like basing your life and career on an unknown pursuit like art seems insane. And there’s an idea that artists have a lot of free time to spend laying around waiting for inspiration to strike. 

What’s been the biggest challenge for you as an artist? The largest challenge for me, honestly is: myself. I’ve been working solely on my artwork for the past six years and it’s been full of a lot of ups and downs: emotionally and financially for sure. There’s always a feeling of not being good enough, why aren’t I as good as this or that artist, why aren’t I doing X, Y or Z. Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of myself for what I have accomplished but I need to remind myself of that before I go down a spiral of anxiety. It comes from a fear of rejection which can prevent me from pursuing things, submitting a proposal for the aforementioned young adult series for example. Sometimes I need to remind myself to get out of my head and to get out of my own way.

What do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t an artist? I’d probably be in finance, on Wall Street most likely. Kidding! I think about this sometimes. Being someone who creates has always been so tightly wrapped up in who I am as a person that it’s hard to extract myself from what I would be without. I would hope I would do something in Slavic studies. My dad’s side is Croatian (by way of Detroit) and while that’s been a huge inspiration for my artwork I’ve always been really fascinated with that region’s history of conflict and resilience. When I spent six weeks there back in 2012 it only deepened my love for that place and also my curiosity for what makes it tick.

What are your favorite Vans? A pair of beat up, worn in, maybe a couple of holes at the toe blue or red Authentics. A true classic.

What’s a question you never get asked in an interview and would like to ask and answer yourself? It would be, ‘If there was one person living or dead who you wished owned or could have owned your art — who would it be?’ To which I would say that’s such a hard question there’s so many people I admire! But as of this moment I think it would be rad if David Lynch had some of my art. I love his unstructured style of storytelling, all the loops and the sometimes frustrating dead ends his narrative world has. The effect of creating an unusual if not downright confusing vignette just for the sake of it reminds me of how I approach the storylines in my work.

What cool and interesting projects or shows that you’re working on - should folks keep an eye out for next year? Since it’s the end of the year things are usually pretty quiet in terms of projects, but I’m in a group show in conjunction with Luke Pelletier’s solo show at New Image here in LA in February. I’m scheduled for a two-person show at Portland’s Talon Gallery in September and! Hopefully, if it all aligns, I’ll be headed Internationally to do some muraling. I’m stoked for it!

FOLLOW STACEY | Instagram | Website 

[g33khq]

New Post has been published on G33k-HQ

New Post has been published on http://www.g33k-hq.com/culture/artist-spotlight-sara-woolley/

Artist Spotlight: Sara Woolley

BODYMOD: Are you woman enough to survive Bitch Planet?

Imagine a world where women are subject to punishment for being “non-compliant” and sent away to prison, literally on another planet! That is the premise of the smash hit Sci-fi series “Bitch Planet.” In this dystopian universe, when women are seen as being defiant and resistant they are sent to The Auxiliary Compliance Outpost, aka “Bitch Planet.”

  Bitch Planet

I recently started reading the Image Comics series (Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick & Valentine De Landro) after first being introduced to Triple Feature issue #4 (contains 3 short stories in one book!) The short stories coexist in the Bitch Planet universe and you can read them without reading the bitch planet series and vice versa. However, it captivated my attention so I am now reading the initial BP series! Check them out Here: 

I’m going to focus on one of the mini stories from Triple Feature Issue #4: Body Mod written and illustrated by the super talented Sarah Woolley.

This original story is a perfect demonstration of an extreme sci-fi extension of today’s society.

Body Mod: Written and illustrated by: Sara Woolley

Triple Feature #4

Bitch Planet Triple Feature #4

RATED M

BodyMod is a sci-fi world where plastic surgery is a norm and done to the max. So extreme that there is literally a Build a Babe! Can you imagine, modifying bodies as a part of everyday life.

This mini story presents some touchy subject matter, heavy themes and can relate to society today, which is pretty disturbing. I think it’s alarming thinking of this world as a reality and potentially something that could be likely in the future when our youth is so heavily influenced by what’s trending in pop culture, social media, and “enhanced beauty”. Today’s beauty standards are already disturbing, and Body Mod demonstrates a perfect exaggeration of today’s society with a sci.-fi twist.

Here Sara takes us into the deranged world of BODY MOD.

1. How did you first get involved with the Bitch Planet series?

I met Kelly Sue DeConnick at Heroescon in Charlotte NC, 2 years ago.  She not only took the time to check out my work, but wrote to me after the fact to let me know she liked it so much she had passed Los Pirineos all around the Milkfed Criminals office.  I love work so needless to say I was totally floored.  It was really very cool of her. I sent her the 9th of april when it came out the next year and maybe a few months later we saw each other at ECCC in Seattle.  She was looking for contributors for the anthology, and asked if I would be interested.  HELL YES!

2. Congrats, as this is your first independent comic that you have both written and illustrated! How did you go about the process of accomplishing this?

When Kelly Sue asked if I wanted to be in the anthology she said “You do it all, right? Write and Draw?”  I said yes… and then panicked a little inside.  This story is my first professionally published solo work.  Up to this point I have always written with collaborators, for example the Los Pirineos Books which I coauthor with my mother.

3. Any issues, you faced or did you have the creative freedom to do you what you wanted with the story?

I definitely had a lot of freedom on Bodymod. Kelly Sue and the managing editor at Milkfed Criminals whom I worked with primarily, Lauren Sankovitch guided me through the pitching and writing process, but they gave me the space and encouragement to come up with and to pursue my own vision.  They had me come up with several different story ideas that would make sense in the context of the Bitch Planet Universe – but made me limit myself to very rough, brief ideas.  So I was able to really be broad about the story generation process without investing too much time into it.  My biggest issue was figuring out how to tell the story I wanted to in 8 pages.  I still feel like there was a 24 pages comic in there somewhere… but I tend to be long winded.  I learned a ton from Lauren and Kelly Sue working on this project.

4. You typically write children’s books, did you find it difficult working on this storyline, and how did it feel crossing over to more mature themes?

I felt absolutely fine with it.  I’m not a child, and I the work I generally read is not aimed at children.  To be honest, it actually felt very freeing.  However, the different content definitely confuses some people.  I’ve had fans of my previous books get a bit freaked out when they find out this is also my work.  I’ve been told that it doesn’t look like my work and seems like another artist did it.  I definitely don’t agree with that, but I can see where they are coming from.  I hate the idea of having to be pigeonholed into one genre of stories and one way of making art.  So… I’m just not allowing that to happen.

5. How did you come up with the premise for Bodymod?

The premise behind all the stories I came up with for the anthology came from the experiences of just being a woman navigating daily life. The premise behind Bodymod in particular comes from my feelings around the social pressures that are omnipresent in our lives every day asking that we conform to an idealized and unrealistic concept of feminine beauty.  Growing up I had my own struggles with body image. I’m 5’10 and just under 200 lbs, and I’ve been this size since High School.  Lets just say the 90’s were not kind to thick girls, and being strong was not thought of as sexy.  The anger and sarcasm present in the story is the current me, who feels great about who I am and what I look like, telling the world world just how little a fuck I give about fitting into a role and size I was never going to be anyway.    (steps off soapbox.)

6.  Although its sci fi, this subject matter touches some heavy themes pertaining to real life. How do some of the themes in the comic tie into issues our society faces today?

The whole premise of Bodymod comes from the idea of redesigning your body to be beautiful to the point of discomfort, in the story its taken to an extreme because the Bitch Planet, sci fi world allowed me to really push it.  However its important to understand that the cultural norms that Julie and Monica are assimilating to are not Sci Fi.  Whats the difference between lotus feet, stilettos that can only be worn in bed, or feet surgically altered to become mermaid fins?  Yes in my story the women essentially turn themselves into helpless pets, but all of them sexualize fettered women.

There’s a spread on pages 2-3 where Julie is on a bus and you see background advertisements behind her.  I had intended to make up some really jarringly misogynistic ones… until I looked them up. There is NOTHING I could come up with that was worse than reality.  ALL the ads on the page, including the magazine cover, are real.  I never stop hating this one ever time I see it:

7. Who has had the biggest influence on you in or outside of the comics industry, and how did they affect your life?

Ok now THATS hard.  I would say my mom has probably had the biggest influence on me, but I’m not sure if that is really what you meant.  She’s a feminist and raised me to be one too.  I wore overalls and did science experiments and was encouraged to be messy and do whatever I wanted to do better than the boys.  I am really very lucky.  She is a role model for me, but she’s also my inspiration, my writing partner and my biggest fan… which since we work on her memoir together maybe that also makes her, her own biggest fan?  hmmm…

8. What’s the most important “big idea” that you’ve learned in life – in or out of comics – and why is it important?

I’ve learned by watching the amazing comics pros that I am proud to call my friends that you must work hard, and I mean REALLY hard, to make comics.  That sounds obvious but its not.  There are a lot good creators out there who make very little work and just peter out.  But the truly brilliant ones work incessantly and when asked how they do it, discipline and tenacity is usually the common denominator.  I know an artist who told me he videos his comics commissions so he can see later where he is loosing time on them by “just fucking around”.  I know another who every time she is asked for advice says “Draw whether you are sick or well.  Draw whether to feel like it or not.”  Now, I’m not saying I’m like that, but I aspire to be.

Also what else can we look forward to from you in the near future?

I’m currently working on the next Los Pirineos book to follow up last year’s release of The 9th of April.

So hopefully by next year’s MOCCA I’ll have that one in hand.  FINGERS CROSSED.  I also have a book of watercolor sketch painting I did while traveling in Thailand for a month this winter.  I’m still trying to figure out the format of it.  Its a mixture of painting people and places on location… and all my meals!  I’m obsessed with food and theres no explaining just how good the food in Thailand is, so I painted it all to help mark it in my memory forever.  I might try including photos and recipes too… not sure yet.

To see more of Sara’s work visit: http://www.sarawoolley.com/  @saritajeanine

MOCCA ARTS FESTIVAL

Also catch Sara at Mocca Fest this Saturday & Sunday table A106

Society Of Illustrators

https://www.societyillustrators.org

http://www.sarawoolley.com/

https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/bitch-planet