Tatiana Gill’s Blog of Wax

I’ve been unemployed and sitting out in the sun reading comix whenever possible (I live in Seattle, so you have to lay in wait and strike like a cobra, running out at the first cloudbreak!)

First off I’ve been reading “Wanted,” I saw the movie and I loved it. I was just dying to see how some of the cooler effects and narrative techniques of the movie were translated into comics.

Haha, well what can I say, I was blown away. It’s not at all like the movie, and I understand why none of the un-PC stuff made it to the big screen (like him raping an “A-list movie star”). It’s like a FOX News anchor wrote this comic, then again it’s about being a supervillian (not “assassins” like in the movie), so maybe the writer knows exactly what he’s doing. Getting into the mind of a supervillian, which could admittedly be riddled with right-wing, racist machismo. Or the writer is another Miller-esque stroker loving his 12 year old mantasies, in which I case, I still enjoy a good softcore stroke book as much as the next reader, galling politics aside. The funniest part is all the people are drawn (excellent art, I might add) to look like certain movie stars, only it’s not who was cast. The Fox is drawn like Halle Berry in the GN, only it’s played by Angelina Jolie in the movie, and the protagonist is a dead ringer for Eminem in the GN. I want a remake!

Next up I’m almost done with “Need More Love” by underground matriarch Aline Kominsky Crumb. It’s a mixture of old comix and narrative text. I’ve dug her work and been a bit scarred by it since my mother brought home her “Bunch” comix when I was a pre-teen. She’s sloppy and disgusting and wholly obsessed with her famouser husband, but I love it. She’s also passionate and dedicated and unflinching in the face of her real thoughts and desires, something I also admire about the Mister. I also enjoy their rearing of their daughter Sophie Crumb, especially considering how she embraced their experimental 60s lifestyles in her own comix, two decades later. It’s pretty hilarious to watch Aline and Diane Noomin go OFF on the drama behind Wimmen’s Comix and Twisted Sisters…I always assumed these ladies were one big collective of grrl power. It’s pretty clear we’re only getting one side of the story, I still admire Trina Robbins work and what it’s done for female cartoonists everywhere. But it’s fascinating to be let into her life like this, in the center of the cutting edge comix world for the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Dalton Webb writes:

Kitty Pryde at Floating World Comics
Floating World Comics in Portland, OR, is hosting a charity art show and auction called “Full of Pryde” to help raise funds for the hemophilia research dept at OHSU. The theme is Kitty Pryde, one of the X-Men characters.

The show is curated by Jason Leivian and Douglas Sherwood and includes Kitty Pryde art by a lot of cartoonists: Rob G, Brandon Graham, Zack Soto, Tom Neely, Becky Cloonan, Chuck BB, Bryan O’Malley, Hope Larson, Farel Dalrymple, and many more! Posters will be available of each piece of art. The show will be on May 7th, in Portland Oregon at Floating World Comics.
And here is my piece:

SWOON. I want to be Ellen when I grow up. This is the coolest, most beautiful, most inspiring book of art ever. Her brushwork knocks me over with a 2×4. The beautiful paper used makes her formerly-newsprint-published work gleam like the magnificent museum-quality specimen it is. ALL HAIL ELLEN FORNEY!

I Love Led Zeppelin: Panty-Dropping Comics By Ellen Forney

Several of Forney’s strips fall into the “How To” category, although this is not your standard advice column fare: topics range from the practical (”How to Smoke Pot and Stay Out of Jail”) to the whimsical (”How to Twirl Your Tassles In Opposite Directions”) to the fascinating but hopefully impractical (”How to Sew an Amputated Finger Back On”).Other strips include “The Final Soundtrack,” a death fantasy involving blood, glamour, and Led Zeppelin; “How to Be a Fabulous Fag Hag,” an illustrated interview with Margaret Cho; “Seattle’s Erotic Landmarks”; and “Memories of Love,” a graphic tour of Courtney Love’s rise and fall of celebritydom.

I love, love, love this comic. I love, love, love, this concept (sorry fellaz). This comic is hawt and awesome and well-drawn and keeps me on the edge of my seat. I haven’t enjoyed a new-to-me title so much in YEARS! I bought the first 5 TPs with a gift certificate, I’m waiting for the rest from the library as we speak.

Download issue #1 if you don’t believe me! And that’s just the start, the writers surprise and tantalize me at every turn.

http://www.dccomics.com/vertigo/graphic_novels/?gn=1736

From the intro to Book 2:

In the summer of 2002, a plague of unknown origin destroyed every last sperm, fetus, and fully developed mammal with a Y chromosome (with the apparent exception of one young man and his male pet).

This “gendercide” instantaneously exterminated 48% of the global population, or approximately 2.9 billion men. 495 of the Fortune 500 CEOs are now dead, as are 99% of the world’s landowners.

In the United States alone, more than 95% of all commercial pilots, truck drivers, and ship captains died… as did 92% of violent felons.

Internationally, 99% of all mechanics, electricians, and construction workers are now deceased… though 51% of the planet’s agricultural labor force is still alive.

14 nations, including Spain and Germany, have women soldiers who have served in ground combat units. None of the United States’ nearly 200,000 female troops have ever participated in ground combat. Australia, Norway and Sweden are the only countries that have women serving on board submarines.

In Israel, all women between the ages of 18 and 26 have performed compulsory military service in the IDF for at least one year and nine months. Before the Plague, at least three Palestinian suicide bombers had been women.

Worldwide, 85% of all goverment representatives are now dead… as are 100% of all Catholic priests, Muslim imams and Orthodox Jewish rabbis.

I took a walk around my neighborhood, Capitol Hill, yesterday, and took these pix of spring and the dawning of a new day. I couldn’t be more thrilled about the new direction America is headed.

My lastest drawings….bear with me as ye olde wheels get greased.

WOW, this girl is my hero.

My day-job was at the end of the contract, so now I’m unemployed. I’m taking advantage of this time to sketch up a storm! Here’s my work from this week.

 ”Parents” is a new gag strip I’m making with a friend who is collecting the real things our parents say to us. I’m hoping to submit it around once I get a bunch going and inked!

I wrote this poem with a yiddish refigerator magnet set. Then Dave Lasky turned it into an awesome comic, and its being used to promote the second annual Comixtravaganza!

I simply have to, to see these amazing costumes IRL. I can’t stop staring at the costumes in these photos! How were they made? Who designed them? Look at this HAIR!