Shameless Anthology Launch Details

She’s Shameless / She’s Writing: June 23rd.
Save the date! She’s Shameless launches June 23rd in Toronto at The Gladstone Hotel! Join the facebook group here!

SHE’S SHAMELESS / SHE’S WRITING
Shameless magazine and This Is Not A Reading Series celebrates the launch of She’s Shameless: Women write about growing up, rocking out, and fighting back

What media event five years ago transformed the lives of teenaged girls across North America? Here’s a clue: it had nothing to do with a boy wizard or the misadventures of trust fund brats. In June of 2004, Shameless, a magazine for “girls who get it”, first appeared on newsstands. We’ve assembled She’s Shameless: Women write about growing up, rocking out, and fighting back (Tightrope Books). To celebrate the launch of the inaugural Shameless collection, contributors will perform short pieces, and five teenaged girls will join them on-stage and present monologues from a writing workshop conducted that afternoon by acclaimed writer and teacher Ibi Kaslik. The evening will conclude with an early ‘90s-themed, Sadie Hawkins prom, featuring a noted local DJ. – A This is Not A Reading Series event presented by Pages Books & Magazines, Tightrope Books, Shameless, NOW Magazine, Gladstone Hotel and Take Five On CIUT.

Gladstone Hotel Ballroom, 1214 Queen St West, Toronto

Tues June 23; 8pm (doors 7:30pm) $5 (Free with Book Purchase)

She's Shameless anthology 2009.

These are the rest of the Illustrations from
"Things I wish Someone Had Told Me as a Teenaged Girl"
For the She's Shameless anthology 2009.

Text by Zoe Whittall. Illustrations by me ;)

Illustration : Things I wish Someone Had Told Me as a Teenaged Girl

So its Oh-9 and I'm a busy bee already.

The wonderful folks at Shameless Magazine are putting together an exciting anthology for their teen girl readers. The anthology is called "She's Shameless: Women write about growing up, rocking out and fighting back" its edited by the super sassy eds of the mag Stacey May Fowles and Megan Griffith-Greene. Look for it May 25 2009.

I've been working on 10 illustrations to go with 10 hilarious points written by talented writer Zoe Whittall for said book.

The piece is called "Things I wish Someone Had Told Me as a Teenaged Girl".

Its been fun inking something for the Young Adult demographic.

An example of one of the pages is shown above.

The Essential DTWOF - Review

We've been framedBook review / Alison Bechdel's amazing running documentary of our fractious, passionate community

S Malik / Toronto / Thursday, December 18, 2008

Comic-strip wonder and graphic-novel darling Alison Bechdel has distilled her signature collection of comic strips into one hearty package just in time for Christmas. With The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, Bechdel has taken her impressive 527 comic strips and managed to edit them down into a seamless read. This collection is sure to satisfy both hard-core fans and those newbies inspired by Bechdel’s lauded 2007 graphic memoir Fun Home.

Maybe you started reading the strip in Toronto back in 1992 when Xtra started to run it, or maybe you followed Dykes to Watch Out For (DTWOF) in one of the other 50-plus newspapers that gave the series a home over its epic 25-year run. Those who have followed the series will be happy to know that you don’t notice the few strips that have been dropped in order to make this collection book-friendly. You will surely enjoy the earlier work that dates as far back as ’87, and there is the added bonus of an amusing graphic-ly rendered intro where Bechdel explains the origins of the series and how she “forgot to get a job.”

For those who are new to Dykes it’s a perfect way to get acquainted. Bechdel’s strip is literary, politically astute, wonderfully lefty and insightfully topical. Yet it also manages to be entertaining, laugh-out-lout funny and above all human.

Bechdel’s characters are flawed but ultimately endearing. You care about them. You worry that Mo worries too much; you hope Clarice and Toni stay together. You can’t help but vicariously live a little through Lois’s sexual escapades and you really do hope that Ginger finishes that dissertation.

Bechdel writes and draws with equal talent and grace; what evolves is an incredibly nuanced exploration of a relatable group of lesbian and bi friends. Fans have welcomed this cast of characters into their lives. Readers are able to navigate familiar terrain and can cheer, wince, laugh and cry along with the DTWOF gang as they take on the best and worst of what real life has to offer.

Essential is such a brilliant snapshot of the past two decades, refreshingly filtered through a queer archivist lens. DTWOF reminds us that lesbians cared about the environment long before Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth made it trendy; it reminds us of how trans identities helped to expand the queer landscape; and that arguments for and against same-sex marriage have played out in similar ways for a generation.

It’s no surprise DTWOF has a cult-like following of devoted queer readers. It’s still pretty rare to see ourselves, our communities and our lives reflected back to us as candidly and with the kind of care Bechdel has put into every frame. It was important in the 1980s and it’s still important now.

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For is essential indeed and it’s the perfect way to find solace during Bechdel’s bittersweet sabbatical from the series.

Click here to see the review on xtra.ca

Auction Updates

Several people have been asking me how the Youthline Auction went so here is an update.

The Auction was held at the newly renovated AGO which was fantastic! The turn out was great - they were at capacity in the space before the auction even started. There were lots of people sipping wine and checking out the artwork, paddles in hand ready to bid. Elvira Kurt hosted and was hilarious as per usual, and the super quick-tongued auctioneer was such a pro.

The drawing that I donated titled "Carefully Placed" went for a little over 3 times the value of the original piece! It was the very first time I stayed in the room while they put my piece on the "block". There was a wee bidding war between a few interested people and it was exciting to see people excited about the possibility of winning the piece.

In the end all the art donated generated over $40 000 for the Youth Line!

So really everything about the night was a great success.

Illustration for theatre poster

Super talented designer Jonathan Kitchen from JAK creative and Buddies In Bad Times Theatre approached me to do a "pulp novel" style illustration for a show poster. The idea was that Anne of Green Gables made them gay - LOL. It was a lot of fun to illustrate this one. Above is the final poster.

Youth Line Auction 2008

I am again honoured this year to be included in the Youth Line Auction. I am especially excited that this year's collection of artwork will be on display from December 2 - 11 at the AGO just three weeks after the re-opening of the building!

Above is the piece that will be in the show and will be donated to the auction.

There are lots of other amazing artists involved - click here to visit the auction's official site.