#i dont wanna sound like a pretentious dick im just ramblin

[conejitomareador]

what made you wanna write the story for bitchless?

this question is so important to me... so i'll do my best to answer in full detail okay !!

i've been on and off in the south park fandom since i was in grade school, posting art on deviantart, alright? i love south park and i consume a lot of fan content. it's the autism, definitely. i got diagnosed during my second year of art school.

but i think that if art school gives you a specific mindset it's one of questioning visual art in all its forms. so, after my last comeback to these spaces in february 2022 i came to the conclusion that i don't like a few things that i see in fanart:

(this is not me saying that you shouldn't. if you or anyone reading this like them it's totally cool!! tropes and ships are popular for a reason, you know?)

1- i don't like stan's characterization. cishet (and in denial), popular, jock stan was a very common headcanon/trope that i grew up with, especially during the last decade. it made a lot of sense when the show started, but as we watch the current seasons, we see stan evolve into this nerdy kid who is obsessed with board games, quotes anime and enjoys metal music. we see him pay little to no attention to his girlfriend and growing more and more fixated towards his male best friend, he's always been curious about gender to the point of imitating big gay al. we see him literally question his own gender in bathroom doors. we barely see him play sports at this point? i don't think that the stan we currently have is headed to the direction the fandom had pointed towards him. so i started drawing him like a nerd. moving on.

2- i don't like how weirdly protective people are about canon ships (a.k.a. if someone made me date my grade school boyfriend right now i would hate it so much). stendy, creek and tolchole (to a lesser degree) are often kind of treated like a monolith- they're unquestionable and unmovable and always there, "because it's canon". i know how important was for creek to become canon, i was there. but after watching post-covid... man. does it give me a weird aftertaste that these two ten year olds who were forced into a relationship ended up married and these other two ten year olds who have lived in the same town for decades are now in a weird situationship. they should date other people at least for a little bit, develop emotional maturity and decide if they wanna stick together at least lol. and with stendy, i'd stay first love should be a first love and that's it (i was talking with pom about that!!), making it endgame after such a long time of seeing that stan barely cares makes me feel weird. people being super weird about creek or style to the degree of calling themselves purists and DNI'ing whoever ships other things threw me off immensely as well. i'm sorry. this is just a me thing probably.

3- this is very similar, but i like to see different dynamics and how they play out!! after almost 30 years of existing, south park fan content often falls in the same common places. nothing wrong with that of course!! but i wanna see things playing out in ways i don't see often.

4- this is just a pet peeve of mine and it's not as common nowadays but why are we giving older designs of characters a big version of their childhood outfits. i don't know a single person who still wears or even keeps the winter hat they wore as a kid. the characters should be recognizable through their outfits!! there's so many possibilities, we should make it fun you know!!

edit: i believe it’s important to add that i really enjoy not only being a contrarian and venting about not liking these things, but i also wanted to make this sort of essay about loneliness experienced in different ways and how it affects your personal relationships. for stan it’s realizing when depression takes over and you’re missing out on everything your loved ones are doing— the world is moving, time is passing and you’ve been in bed the whole time. for everyone else? well, we’ll see.

i started out just drawing these guys, but i felt like making a full story would be more compelling. i love doujinshi and fancomics and i believe that we should always question the quality of the content we consume- and if we don't like it we should just make our own interpretations and stories. that's the beauty of fan content!! reflection and creation, not just mindless consumption. canon is not a guarantee that things are good!! so many things don't even make it to the final cut, the original content gets digested by networks and companies and sponsors and political interests before we even get to see it!! making a comic is rough (and i've spent three years of my life creating this material about characters i don't even own legally), but a start is a start and well. i like this, i've always liked graphic novels and i always wanted to make one. i kind of owed it to myself too.

in conclusion, i just wanted to make something that i found fun and new and i could share with my south park fandom friends after my autism diagnosis (it was rough, but i was medically cringe and thus i felt very justified to be obsessed with my childhood special interest)!! i'm very lucky to be able to complement and elaborate on some of my choices with theory about art and media analysis that i get at uni, and i'm even luckier that so many people have taken a liking to it as well!!

so thank you for enjoying my comic so far <3 and thank you for showing interest in it. thank you so much!!