So, last week, I accidentally ran TWO strips on the same day, because I am sooo smart. This week, instead of trying to rush an extra strip out, I am taking the week off to relax a smidge. Here's a wee doodle, and happy whatever to those who celebrate things. I get to eat hot dogs with wild abandon, so that's good enough for me.

Yes, this really happened. (there is photographic evidence, lol) All except the machete, which I do not own. But it was funnier to draw to me than just the hedge trimmers. I also went SO all-out on that hedge that my arms stopped working and they hurt for WELL over a week. I am WILDLY out of shape. lol

There's not too much to add to this strip, as it's pretty straight forward, really. That said, I DID draw it during a live Zoom meeting of the National Cartoonists Society, which was a LOT of fun. 

Well, then THIS comic should be a BLOCKBUSTER! It's got it ALL! A Gorilla! A dinosaur! (Sorta!) A badly drawn motorcycle! PURPLE!!! I can only hope Carmine Infantino would approve! ;)

And I didn't even plan on this coming out in the same month as a new Indiana Jones movie. Totally a happy accident that being reminded of mortality and my ever-encroaching 50s happened to evoke an obvious "Last Crusade" homage. lol And yeah, I know the social rules. By complaining about my age, I have now opened the flood-gates of anyone and everyone so much as 2 minutes older than I am to tell me I have no IDEA what it feels like to be getting older. Bring it! lol. 

Soooo, I generally DON'T get political or divisive in the strip... buuuuttt... it's PRIDE and, like with last week’s strip, I am kinda burnt out with seeing the same asinine arguments online over and over. Why do I have to defend my legal right to exist with people who learned biology from "Kindergarten Cop"?

Some folks would prefer that I keep politics OUT of my comic strip, but... uh... it's a comic about my life as a transgender woman, and it's KINDA hard to not be a smidge political when one party keeps pushing and passing laws that make it a crime for me to exist.  So, sorry if you feel this is unfair, but it feels pretty frickin' unfair to be labeled a literal criminal for existing. 

With Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse coming out this week, I decided to take an old sketch I made, clean it up and finish it for fun. It is, of course, an homage to the now-classic "Spider-Man #1" cover by Todd McFarlane.  (And yeah, I KNOW that comic was adjective-less, but it felt funnier this way.)

Sorry, Transphobes. You can't have Pride month OR Dinosaurs. 

I really wanted to do my level best Bill Watterson-esque nightmare monster in panel one to contrast with the REAL threat.  Annnnnd yeah, this did happen. Lucipurr attacked a dangling foot, dug his claws into the soft middle and HUNG off of it. We... do not let them sleep in the room with us anymore. lol

It's spring, which means for Western PA, the spiders are back. YAY! I'm actually still trying to be better about freaking out when I spot one, but don't always succeed. And when I basically DID this ON CAMERA while working with Sabrina on a Giant Girl Adventures page, she informed me in no uncertain terms, that a strip pretty much HAD to be made of it. lol  Also, in the interest of authenticity, I did NOT add a "VMMMMM" sound effect to the lightsaber because mine was bought at an "as-is" discount at the end of the day at a convention and it still doesn't have a sound chip. Such is life. I still have to make the sounds though when I'n NOT trying to distance myself from spiders. lol

Yup, I do. Upper left arm.

I've been asked about our lack of tattoos before in the strip, and decided it was a good time to address it IN the strip itself. And yeah, they look cool but NO, these will not be becoming a regular feature anytime soon. lol

As an artist, I LOVE creative collaboration. It's not a thing I get to do all that often, on the art side of things, as I tend to do all my own artwork from beginning to end on most of my projects, from pencils to final art. So, I'm always thrilled when I have the occasional opportunity to work on pieces with OTHER artists.  When I was doing the Wellkeeper, about half of the covers were inked by the fantastic Tony Kordos, and I adored that team-up. And recently, for the Finding Dee Kickstarter, I worked on a studio JAM cover for that book. An homage to the classic, Gil Kane "Giant Sized X-Men #1", I did reasonably tight digital "pencils" for the piece featuring Me, Heidi, and Poe bursting out of a shot with other characters from UNLIKELY HEROES STUDIOS! The awesome Laurie Foster did the inks over my pencils, which were then given awesome colors by Katy Rewston, who colored the book interiors as well. I am SUPER happy with how this came out, and now that the Kickstarter is in the can and folks are all receiving their books, I wanted to share the process a little! Hope you enjoy.

I may have a problem. I have been playing that Jack Black song from the Super Mario Bros. Movie OVER AND OVER again. And at this rate, I'm fairly certain Heidi is going to end me if I ambush her with it one more time. Heh heh. What? PEACHES is catchy as all get out. That, and my heart will always belong to the David Lynch DUNE first and foremost if I'm parodying any version of it. 

Always love any excuse to muck with color for the generally black and white strip, and since I absolutely DO dream in color, it seemed a fun way to visually distinguish the "dream" panels here. 

This is a gag that was developed from a conversation between Sabrina and I, as I talked about having to pull Poe off of Mewsikeen all the time lately. (SHE'S fixed, HE'S not. Wheee.) We imagined the horrid, mutant spawn of my doofus puppy, and once pictured, it had to be drawn.

Yeah. Tex Avery was brilliant.

I shuffle, toss, turn and fidget a LOT in my sleep. As such, no trick or technique I've tried has worked particularly well. And anything TOO tight on my head will trigger my anxiety, so waking up with wild bedhead is just how it's gotta be.  Also, this was a particularly tricky strip to make into “panels” for handheld devices, but hopefully this worked, and the full strip is still available so the intended layout can be enjoyed.

Just me doin' the dumb things I gotta do. I know this is a joke that will pretty much ONLY land hard with people, and mostly other cartoonists, over a certain age. But I'm pushing frickin' 50, and it's MY comic, so if I want to reference a mostly forgotten 80s sitcom that I loved for one reason, then this is the way. There. The kids will get THAT reference, right?