Stats Squid

This appeared in this year's color Xerox Candy Bar. It also happens to be some sweet Ladydrawers stats and a squid. In case you haven't figured it out tentacles are a major motif of mine.

222 N Hillcrest

These are some pages from my autobiographical comic about the stories my mother told us of her childhood in rural Nebraska. The introduction and conclusion are my words but all the stories are in her own. I owe a great deal to her, both my parents, and this is my way of showing them that comics can be anything, comics can be meaningful, and that I do care about them and where I come from.

Paradicia

I've found I really like doing wordless comics. Not in small part because I hate lettering but also because they have such a completely different vibe and aesthetic to them that really works with the themes I often work with. 

Paradicia is about a bio-mechanical caretaker on a dying planet. She tries to replace the crystals that power all the other beings around her but each of them is slowly going black so she going to find the source of power for all life on the planet and finds the source of the problem instead. This like "The Water Wife" is available on request and also at any conventions. I might put this at Chicago comics in a little while. Possibly after I start working downtown again this summer. Although I might be too busy painting to print off comics.

{TW: Abuse} The Water Wife Comic

These are some pages from my full color 32 page comic "The Water Wife." 

In case you can't tell from these it's not a happy story. But instead one about a young girl who is ostracized and bullied at school and abused at home. The only friend she has is an anthropomorphic pond. Surprisingly this story has an unrealistic but relatively happy ending. Full color copies will be available upon request ( email areswansone@gmail.com) or at any convention I'm tabling at. Feel free to come see me at Wizard World in Chicago in August.

Marginalized in Comic's Meme! It's Funny I Swear!

 Behold the comics industry!

Commentators on the Internet

This is my response to commenters on the first Ladydrawers column on Truth-out.org. I drew every one including myself and AEM as ponies. Seemed like an appropriate response.

Oregon Trail Zombie Comic

Behold! My Oregon Trail Zombie Comic! None of my Zombie comics end happily or very well for the humans involved. Does this mean I have an undead bias? Probably....

Seven Devils

This is some digital fanart I did for the show "American Horror Story" I'm not a big fan of Tate but I do really like Violet and am upset with how that whole situation turned out. The red glow around her might be a bit of spoiler for those who haven't seen it.

Strawberry Pig

Strawberry pig. It's just cuteness. That's all it is.

You're Not Alone, Ladydrawers

This is my comic about Katherine Collins, formerly known as Arn Saba before she transitioned. This was featured in the Ladydrawers anthology "UnLadylike." Ladydrawers is something I've done a lot of work for and in and I shall explain further what it is in another post.

Pinups

I made these pinups last year because I could. No seriously that was the inspiration. I'm in to ladies and the loveliness of the female form and that is all the deeper these portraits go. Amen.

Line Work Masochism

I enjoy tedious amounts of ink and line work. As is evidenced by all these tiny lines. The top is Fred and was a standalone comic about how a dude with a tiny mouth is out of place in a family of big mouth eaters. And the second is my character Dr. Halifax who is a mad scientist of sorts trying to bring his dead fiance Cecilia back to life. Good times. These are from several years ago but they're still nice and I'm trying to use this blog as an archive of my work since I gave up on deviantart.

WHAT THE HELL IS LADYDRAWERS RACHEL

Okay so here is the explanation of a very large part of my current practice, aka WHAT THE HELL IS LADYDRAWERS RACHEL? Ladydrawers is a class offered at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago taught by Anne Elizabeth Moore who is awesome. The classes I took were two semesters ago and one at the off school campus at Ox-Bow over last summer. The first one focused on gathering data we looked at 12 of Comics top publishers and ran statistics on them covering their newest 30 titles as of April 2011. Things like how many books by women they were publishing, prices, and certain stats related to content. Like how many instances of violence, assault, and rape, or nudity both male and female, and how many female characters with NAMES and speaking parts there were in each comics. Needless to say our results were depressing. We decided to take these stats and make them in to postcards and send them out to all the major companies we reviewed as well as industry professionals and fellow comics artists.
This is my postcard that I sent out with a stat on female nudity in the comics we looked at. Also here's a comics beat article on us and the commments are truly a spectacular feat of ignorance and hate to behold. Read at your own risk.

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/06/14/mystery-postcards-highlighting-comics-gender-issues-hit-mailboxes/

Then Anne took our stats and used them to make a series of comics with comic artists. Here are all of them in chronological order on TruthOut.org

http://www.truth-out.org/lady-drawers/1308413043
http://www.truth-out.org/comics-world-women-are-invisible-except-when-theyre-naked/1309876116
http://www.truth-out.org/no-great-women-comics-artists/1311001778
http://www.truth-out.org/why-have-there-been-no-great-woman-comics-artists-part-2/1312292657
http://www.truth-out.org/why-have-there-been-no-great-women-comics-artists/1313420504
http://www.truth-out.org/comics-publishers-who-are-they/1314629970
http://www.truth-out.org/graphic-evidence-inequality/1315924156
http://www.truth-out.org/manufacturer-suggested-retail-prices-suggest-comics-companies-think-womens-work-worth-less/131712851

All of the Ladydrawers work is available on Truth Out on the feed here.

http://www.truth-out.org/ladydrawers/1312312269

Another Ladydrawer and I named Abe did a Vocalo interview for ladydrawers found here,

http://www.truth-out.org/vocalo-feature-ladydrawers-feminist-comic-series-radio-segment/1312314155

The second class was at Ox Bow and we spent two weeks making comics about our stats in the woods culminating in the show "No Sleep Till Comics" and the published anthology "UnLadylike." But that wasn't the end of my work with Ladydrawers as Anne asked Nicole and I to look in to DC's New 52 and run Laydrawers stats on them which were very detailed and extensive. But some of which Anne used to make this comic,

http://www.truth-out.org/how-draw-comics-new-52-way-more-women-fridges/1323181363

Another thing Ladydrawers is excited to be holding the Adventure School for Ladies which will be going on this summer and will be using that class to make comics for C.A.K.E. in June.

http://adventureshoolforladies.wordpress.com/

And you can download "Unladylike" the graphic novel we made at Ox-Bow here. It's limited in actual print number but digitally you are more than welcome to download it.

http://www.scribd.com/Ladydrawers/d/85414532-Unladylike

This is just the bare bones of the project and what the group is trying to do, which is basically document and bring awareness to all the gender inequalities and job discrimination that goes on in comics whether it's accidental or on purpose. If you have any questions feel free to drop me a line or to email Anne.

Batwoman

Some lovely Batwoman fanart because Kate Kane is my favorite. Also one of DC's only openly and  unapologetic lesbian characters. "Batwoman: Elegy" is beautiful and a very good read. Not so much the new 52 but that's an entirely different mess I could get in to. I won't. I'll save that rant for another day.

Goldicocks and the Three Butches Comic

This is my porn comic "Goldicocks and the Three Butches." If you're wondering why she's called Goldicocks you need only look very carefully at her hair. This is entire comic is full of little easter eggs like that, if you peruse every panel try and see how many genitalia or sex toys you can find. If some one guesses the right number for the whole thing I'll draw them something appropriately dirty. :D Also this comic is for sale at Chicago Comics and Quimbys in Chicago!

Vomit Party

I think it is probably pretty self evident as to what is going on in this comic but as for why I do not know. Something Courtney and I said about sympathetic vomiting and how if one of us does then so do the rest and it would be a vomit party then. And hence this Vomit Party comic.

The First Time I Felt Gendered

This and the accompanying essay were featured in the third issue of the University of Florida's Queer literary magazine "Subtext." Here is the essay if any one is interested.

I tried really hard to remember the absolute first time I felt like a girl but in reality from the first time I knew I was a person I knew I was female. The thing was I never liked or conformed to “traditional” feminine gender roles.  I never wanted to pretend to be Spice Girls or paint my nails or talk about how cute Justin Timberlake was with the other girls. The only kind of makeup I ever had an interest in was face paint and that was for its artistic merits.  And so in elementary school all the girls hated me, and it didn’t help that I was giant with bigger feet than my teacher in second grade.  At the tender age of eight I was already bemoaning my existence and wondering why I was even alive. Kids can be cruel, mostly because they haven’t learned to hide it behind smiles and backstabbing words. That kind of thing comes in middle school.  Fortunately with the advent of Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh I found common ground with the boys in my grade. At first they were wary but then I proved that our interest in video games, trading cards, and soccer were similar enough for me to be welcomed in to the fray. And so I talked trash and shoved and kicked and played Bridge Troll Invasion instead of Britney Spears Concert (who I liked but couldn’t talk to the guys about).

 And it was great. I knew I was a girl but I wasn’t a prissy wimpy little bitch like my sister. I was just as badass and awesome as any of the boys. But there came a time when I realized I wasn’t as manly as I thought.  It was the first time I felt like the female gender stereotype that I had come to loathe.

            It was the fourth grade on a cold slushy day in the middle of winter. There was too much snow on the ground for the teachers to let us play on the playground ground equipment but it was warm enough for us to be outside for recess anyway. And so they made us go play soccer and four square in the side parking lot that had already been plowed several times. I remember drifting away from a game of H.O.R.S.E. because I was bored when I spied the class jerk, Richie, giving one of my friends a hard time. Sammy got picked on a lot because he had a high girly voice and acted fairly feminine. To my shame I’ll admit that I wasn’t immune to making fun of him for acting gay either. But even so he was a friend and if any one besides my group of guys made fun of him they were in for it. I had decided several years earlier that if I was going to be a hated outsider I might as well be a force for good and justice, like Batman.  And so I had made it a personal mission to stand up for kids who were being picked on or ignored, mostly because I wanted some one to do the same for me.  Also it was really just the right thing to do.  So I went up to Richie who was throwing ice at Sammy and calling him a “faggot” and said for him to leave Sammy alone. I believe my line was something cliché about picking on some one your own size. And so Richie did stop harassing Sammy and moved over to me saying, “What do YOU think you’re going to do it?” I can’t remember my exact words but I know they were a threat to bodily harm because the next thing I know he punches me as hard as he can in the stomach. It wasn’t like how I imagined it was going to go, mostly that I got the air knocked out me and I went down like complete loser.  I remember lying on the ground gasping for air and the sound of some one yelling for a teacher. But really nothing else mattered except the fact that I had failed epically. I was a lightweight girl who couldn’t even stand up to a bully properly. I felt weak, helpless, and painfully stereotypically female. I had to go the office to explain what happened but I was completely in the right and all the kids on the playground backed me up on it. But the damage was already done. When I got home my Mom knew about what had happened because the school called but mostly what she relayed to me was that all of my guy friends had called while I walked home. She said they were all asking if I was okay or if I wanted them to beat up Richie for me tomorrow. I muttered to tell them I was fine and that they didn’t need to do that. That was really the icing on the cake. Not only had I discovered I wasn’t invincible but now all my guy friends were treating me like a damsel in distress.  It took a long while for me to regain my self esteem and I ended up spending most of my time in middle school kicking guys in the nuts to prove to them they weren’t invincible either. I tried to remain strong and tough and not fall prey to anyone, let alone a boy, ever again. But by High School I had started to realize that one could like girly things, like girls themselves, and still not be the stereotypical weak, emotional, woman figure.  That really even the super dainty looking girls could be just as badass as any superhero, maybe more so and that acting stereotypically feminine didn’t mean you were weak. Girls could come in varying degrees of toughness and still never be the weak incessant creatures society had taught me they were. And because of that belief had made me hate them. But like most stereotypes, that woman doesn’t really exist. And she never has. 

Captain Martin Crieff, Cabin Pressure Comic

This was for the monolog assignment for my Advanced Comics Writing class. And of course being a fangirl I chose Martin Crieff's monolog from the "Qikiqtarjuaq" episode of Cabin Pressure. 
 

Believe Me When I Say...

This is a single page comic I made for Advanced Comics writing in which a sexy pirate captain indeed fucks a mermaid. Good times. The assignment was to make a comic with only images and one with only words about the same story and compare them. People in the class appreciated the porn. I live to please.

Secretly Scary Princess

This is Secretly Scary Princess. I intend to make more comics about her and color these for a compilation of random reject royalty I'm making. There's Salad Princess, Murder Princess, and Pregnancy Princess in these but I've already started drawing 90's Hair Princess and Lint Princess. Look for a Lint Princess pinup in the future my friends....

Over Winter Interim I did several sketches of my stupid face using Photobooth as a reference. Yes it's true. I really am this hideous in person. XD

Hipster Souls Project

This is for a fibers piece I'm currently working on but who knows when it will be done with all the work left I have to do this semester. The idea is that in order to be a hipster you have to loose your passion and soul. To become so blandly apathetic about everything including the stuff you used to like requires a great sacrifice. So in the fiber element I'm crocheting the soul sacks and making the individual dolls that represent the loves and excitement these hipster gave up to become what they are.

Christmas 2011 Comic

I was really bored this year for Christmas so being a comics artist I made one about the whole situation. Super meta. All in all it could have been worse though, my family could have spent the entire time bugging me about getting a boyfriend. Ugh.

Moleskin Monday February 20th, 2012

Okay so in an effort to update my blog more often I've decided to do moleskin Mondays. In which every Monday I post a doodle from my Moleskin. Pretty self explanatory. In this instance it is the cover of "How To Take Care of Your Kitten Sweater" An Informational Comic. Which if any one is interested I can post the entirety of later.

Hello and Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my art blog!
 My name is Rachel N. Swanson and I'm a interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago. This will be a place where I post current work, whether it be drawings, comics, links to audio and video, sculptures, or fiber arts. I will also be posting information about where and when to buy and see my work on here so over all if you're interested in my stuff this blog would be a good thing to follow. I also have a several other sites with different content on them. First would be my Etsy store followed by my twitter, tumblr, soundcloud, and youtube. Feel free to stalk me on all fronts.
Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/chicagoartnerd
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/chicagoartnerd
Tumblr: http://chicagoartnerd.tumblr.com/
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/rnswanson
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/squeeeeetv?feature=mhee
And below is squid for you on this most auspicious day of first blog post. Here here!