Little Women

I love the idea of reinterpreting media. Whether it’s books, tv, music or films there’s so little representations of us, especially positive representations, that it becomes so important to find ourselves using inventive ways.

Newsflash!

I’m off again for the weekend but thought I’d post a little post first. Joe and I are  working on a fun newsletter to hand out to the people in our little neighbourhood. We’re pretty well connected to our little community down here and as Joe starts T and I begin changing my name in a wider sense, we wanted to find ways to let everyone know. We also wanted to find ways to make it fun and open so that people could laugh and be less intimidated by it, and so we, although this is hard a lot of the time too, could point out how happy being trans is.

I Heart Rufus

The day after I finished this comic I went onto Mr. Wainwright’s site only to find that his NZ tour has been cancelled! Alas! But at least it gives me some more time to grow some Rufus-worthy facial hair.

Boys to be…

This isn’t the actual comic for the week, that’ll be up tomorrow, but I want to put this one up too. It didn’t really turn out the way I wanted it to, but it feels like an important idea nonetheless – perhaps in time I’ll be able to articulate it better.

The concept isn’t meant to imply my boyness (or any trans identity) as a facade, it’s something about the silliness of how we all perform our gender in our own ways (trans or not), and that that’s what’s read initially by other people, though obviously not the whole story. I guess I wanted to express something about gender as performance and gender as ingrained and real and more than simply what we present. And something about the way we express ourselves in multiple ways, and the multiple identities we have of ourselves in different contexts. But in four panels that’s kinda hard to do, and I’m not clever enough to express it anyway.

Or maybe I just like that cute red scarf.

Regen Hui

So last week I went to the ReGeneration Summer Jam; Regeneration is an network for empowering young people interested in environmental action and social change.

The hui was up in the Banks Peninsula, went for five days and was a totally amazing and inspirational experience. Young people from around the country came together to shoot ideas around and generally be inspirations and support for one another. I helped run a couple of workshops for my work, looking at relationships, sex, and sexuality. But, really, I ended up learning heaps and heaps and met some super super amazing people.

If anyone in NZ is interested in this sort of thing (or even if they’re not!) they should hook up with their local ReGen crew and get inspired. ‘Cos it’s rad. No, seriously.

ReGen Info

Ning! (what is a ning anyway?)

Bonus one

I found this one that I’d scanned in a while ago but hadn’t coloured, so I thought I’d colour it in and chuck it on up:

A bit early

I’m putting this up a little bit early because I’m away this week. The colouring is a little off for this strip, but I’m sure I’ll get into a better swing of things in time.

Best.Dream.Ever

I drew this on the bus to work this morning.

Last night I dreamed I was Batman.

Batman fighting Catwoman.

Catwoman escaped in the end, but, as it was her running from me, I will take it as a win for me.

I totally remember watching the TV Batman reruns growing up, the ones with Adam West. My brothers and I would put it on after school. I remember we had a really goofy hat we’d call the “egghead hat”, named after one of the villains. It was small and white and no matter who put it on they’d always look like an egghead. If there weren’t enough hats to go around you’d be forced into that one, so you had to get in quick whenever we went on beach expeditions or whatnot. No-one ever wanted to be the egg head, especially because everyone else would make sure you’d never forget you were wearing it and you looked like a fool.

Anywho, that show was awesome, and so was my dream.

Will Power and Man Power

My brothers quite often have family competitions about how manly they are – these competitions involve dress sense, sprinting, sociability, and culminated in a “Man-Decathlon” last summer.

One of the more recent conversations regarding this topic was prominence of facial hair – density and colouring seemed vital aspects.The Orchard boys are quite renowned for being less than hirsute.

A few days later one brother commented on that hair on my chin and remarked that I’ll “get there” with my own facial hair. He only has an inkling that I’m trans, and meant it as a joke, but I smiled and thought,”yes, I am well on my way to competing with them…”.

My facial hair is certainly darker than his blonde stubble.

Sibling rivalry at it’s finest.

Let me begin…

I wrote this one a few months back for the Agender magazine. Agender is a national transgender support organisation in New Zealand.