In 2008 I was finishing up my first marriage. In the midst of separation, I was determined to make comics as a form of validation. The stories could loosely be about my experiences, but I also wanted them to have a broader appeal. 2008 was also the year of the great economic recession and I, like many other people, found myself unemployed. When I began working at an art supply store, I was reminded of how another form of validation occurs when we start new jobs. “Their Early Stuff” describes how every time we start a new job, we go through these tasks of trying to impress people to let them know that we’re “cool”.
As a person of color, it’s important for me to tell stories that center around or include other people of color. For issue 1, I really enjoyed creating a fictional version of my friend Packer, aka Stacker. Without a doubt, Packer is one of the most well-known person in the Uptown and Edgewater neighborhoods of Chicago. Packer is also the nicest and coolest guy that you will ever meet. That’s why “Stacker’s Story” was so fun to write and even funner to draw. Stacker pops up from time to time in my other comics.
During that time, I was also interested in quantum physics and followed the construction of the Large Hadron Collider in Europe. Quantum physics is all theoretical and can be very confusing. But the key takeaway is that the pull of gravity in atoms just cannot be explained. Some theorists posited that gravity shifts in and out of existence, like into parallel universes. This idea formed the basis that the experiments with particle accelerators can open parallel universes. This theme is introduced in Poseur 1 and continues throughout the first six issues of Poseur.
As a DIY comic/zine, Poseur was originally sold on consignment in several comic book stores throughout Chicago. As much as I enjoy making comics, I don’t enjoy the hustle of getting them out there, so I never tried pushing Poseur beyond the boundaries of my life. But now I finally have a website and the tools to get Poseur into more eyeballs.
The digitization of hand-drawn comics is a challenge, one that I’m continually refining. The first step was to find the original artwork and scan them into a workflow. Then I begin cleaning up the originals: erasing pencil strokes, inking touch ups , and re-lettering. When you compare the digitized versions of Poseur 1 versus Poseur 2, look closely at the lettering. All of Poseur 2 is re-lettered, and it makes a big difference. Maybe I’ll go back and re-letter issue 1!
I also examine my art and see what can be improved without obscuring my original intentions. From a critical perspective, just about everything can be improved. But if I did that, then the spirit of my original comics would cease. So the challenge is to fix something, maybe a character’s appearance or a line of dialogue, that would keep the comic’s aesthetic and narrative intact. A good example is found in Poseur 2, page 13 in which two characters are wrestling. In the original print versions, the characters are buck naked, but in the digitized version, I felt it would be more playful if they still had underwear on. Although the characters are fucked up on drugs, and one of them is a sex worker, I wanted to emphasize how innocent this night of debauchery really was. Does this make any sense?
And now that Poseur 2 is up, I’m excited to get started on more comics, with a blend of brand new work and archived strips. I’ve got so many stories to tell, if only the demand of a full-time job didn’t get in the way (jk – thank God for work!).
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