December Update

Oh man, it's been too long since I've last posted and there's lots of comic news happenin' too! First off I want to say that I am now able to upload comics whenever I want on my website and not at the leisure of my brother who makes the site happen for me. He's busy with other things and I couldn't keep coming to him for assistance all the time so now I have a special part of my website that I can access to upload. I intend on trying to do at least one comic a week until I start making money off of my site and then maybe updates will be more frequent. It'll be random though throughout the week so you never know when I'm updating. You hafta keep checking back regularly to see what's going on in Tom Boy Tara Land.

2nd off, I attended the fabulous Nerd Girl Pinups Burlesque show and I must say it was an extremely fun night! I dressed as the always awesome Tank Girl for the evening and got such a huge response from it random people were introducing themselves and taking pictures with me. I apparently made a birthday boy's night by posing with him and allowing him to wear my helmet. I also got to sign a Frisbee that most of the pinups were signing that night. The burlesque numbers were fabulous, the music wonderful and the comedic acts and host were top-notch as well. Dancing was had in the after party (but being an uber nerd myself I didn't voluntarily dance with the exception of demonstrating for 5 seconds my horrible cabbage-patch routine I often do) and I met a lot of very cool people that night!

3rdly, This Friday...so tomorrow I'm attending a comedy event called "Nerdgasm" which is a comedy show/mini comicon and I will be handing out fliers for my webcomic at this delightful affair. I met the very cool Ian Atlas who's running the whole show and he was kind enough to invite me to the show and let me know I can advertise while there. So needless to say I'm excited about that.

*whew* Lots of stuff happening in the comic realm these days, and I hope it continues to progress, as this comic artist is definitely hungry and I hope I can make some moolah off my wears at least to pay for my site and my dinner. Speaking of which, I have a brand new t-shirt design I made for Tobey a while ago but I just created it in t-shirt form recently. Check it out at:


If you feel like an awesome x-mas present there's free express shipping upgrades to Canada until the 15th of December.

I think that's all the info I'd like to share for now. Hopefully everyone has a wicked Chrismukkah and a happy new year and you'll keep on readin' the comics I'm going to update frequently! Enjoy the Tank Girl Pictures of me from the Nerd Girl Burlesque show.

Nerd Girl Pinups

So I'm becoming a part of Nerd Girl Pinups under the name "Pish Posh" very soon. Just got some really fun photos done by a very cool photographer, Nicole R. It was a fun day for sure, and I'm going to support a Burlesque Show that is going to be held in Toronto which is meant to raise money for the website, hopefully everything goes well there. So I was on the site www.nerdgirlpinups.com and was looking at the other artists that are posted on the site and came across the wonderful art of Victoria Lee Panos who is a local artist residing in TO like myself. I clicked on her deviant art link and saw she did some line art for the upcoming show's flyer. She encouraged others to colour it so that's what I did. I printed off the picture (unfortunately the boots were cut off in the process but in my defense when I began colouring I didn't think it would turn out so well) and coloured it with prisma markers. The results are obviously above, I think it's probably my best work thus far with those markers. I know I have a long way to go to catch up with some amazing colourists as colouring isn't my forte but I sure had fun doing it and like how it turned out.

The Life of a Tomboy

Why is it acceptable to be a tomboy and not so much for a man to be sensitive? I suppose it has to do with the way we're raised.

Some people prefer raising girls as tomboys because parents feel they have less of a chance with dealing with a girl's natural sexual nature and therefore the girl will have less of a chance to get pregnant because they're not going to have "slut potential" when they get older. However, some of the most gorgeous girls in the world when they're older happened to be tomboys at a young age. They often played sports and enjoyed it so therefore they know how to work out and be healthy that way, as well, they know how to be who they are and are confident with themselves. Sometimes they get sick of being just "one of the guys" and do a complete 360 when it comes to the looks department and they eventually try looking girly and all that.

If a boy is sensitive, it's fine for the mom, but the dad often has a problem with that because the boy isn't asserting himself or being dominant with the opposite gender and therefore will never procreate. This is fine if the mom still wants to baby their son and turn him into a "momma's boy" but to the father in a two-parent home it spells trouble and a lifetime ahead of rejection after rejection of the opposite sex which in turn creates self-esteem issues and heartache.

The way I see it, if you're a tomboy for life though it's because you enjoy everything that world has to offer. I've had the occasional comment that I'm "too pretty to be a tomboy" from random people at conventions I go to. To be honest I wasn't always tomboyish in nature right off the bat. To be truthful when I was really young about 2 or 3 I wanted to be a ballerina, my favorite colours were pink and purple and I adored unicorns or anything that resembled a horse. To be fair I still like some of those things but I'm not as into those things as I was at the age of three. At 5 I wore frilly dresses and my hair was super curly and I loved My Little Ponies, however instead of sitting in the front row with the girls who braided each others hair while the teacher read us books and showed us pictures, I would be in the back with the boys making fart jokes and whispering obscene things about poop.

Later I discovered Ninja Turtles and even faked doing karate moves, imitating the shelled creatures I loved to watch after school. When I got to my awkward adolescent phase I wore baggy shirts (some of which I took from my older brother's drawer that he left behind when he went to University) and jeans with holes in the knees. I didn't wear make-up, hell I didn't care. I refused to tell anyone who I had a crush on in school for fear the guy would find out and be repulsed by the notion that an ugly tomboy would remotely like him. When I didn't tell people about my crushes I was called a lesbian because of how I looked and my too secretive nature. I opted to eventually reveal my celeb crushes because no one would let them know how I felt.

In High School there were a lot of guys around my locker. Some of which were very nice and not bad to look at. It wasn't until I saw a horrible photo of myself that was mandatory for us to get on picture day that I realized how hideous I have become. I eventually bought more girly clothes and started to experiment with make-up. It wasn't until the end of high school that I had my first boyfriend and I admit I wasn't really ready for it then, especially since I was alone my whole life up into that point in time. When I got to college I still looked fairly girly and even ended up being annoying in relationships doing things I know guys hate like pouting to get my way and raising my voice an octave higher to put on a cutesy baby voice that I know now makes guys shudder. I realized I wasn't being true to who I was by acting this way, I was just giving into how girls think they should act and be. I eventually went back to my tomboyish ways and hung out with guys and rather liked it. Not that girls aren't fun to hang out with, but guys are more chill and they have a guy code so they'll keep some big secrets of yours if you don't want them to spread the word. To me giving into my tomboyish nature isn't about not caring about what I look like or being mean to people. It's about being chill, being yourself and being confident with who you are naturally and not about what society tells you how you should be.

Mini TBT Updates!

So recently I received a picture I got taken of me standing with the REAL Tom Boy Tara. No, I didn't base the comic about her, she was a random girl I met at the Fan Expo by the name of Tara who just happens to be tomboy-ish in nature and also managed to randomly find my webcomic as well as save it under her favorites on her computer.

Also, another very cool thing that's happened to me recently is I got a mini article written in a very sick online 'zine giving their recognition to my crazy webcomic. If you wanna check it out the post is here:
http://screwthestatusquo.blogspot.com/
Enjoy guys! :)

Fan Expo '09

So Fan Expo 2009 was an interesting experience. It was my first giant convention and needless to say it was a bit over-whelming at first, especially for a brand new web comic artist who's entering the scene. I've been to conventions before at least once a year for about 3 years now but I still consider myself a newbie in the comic world. Hopefully with a lot of hard work and time that will eventually change.

I got only a few pictures at the Fan Expo of myself and table-mate CK Russell. The pic of the girl in the center is my roommate and model for my Tom Boy Tara photo shoot, Sarah Jay. She played Tara...she looks different without the short, blue wig I know, like a whole different person. I'm standing next to Darren Kelly in the picture of me in my glasses. He was sitting beside us at my very first comic convention and he does sick CGI art. He's such a cool guy! Very sweet and funny, and a tremendous artist and supporter of all things comic related.

I must admit I cried when I got home my first night from the Expo, I thought I was going to have a horrible next couple of days, however Saturday was a whole new day and it turned around for the better, even though it was packed with people who had been waiting ever so patiently to get into to the expensive con and I made less money on Saturday than I did on Friday it was still a fun and interesting experience and I got to see some familiar faces (friends and family attended the event) as well as new faces. I also got to meet the real Tom Boy Tara who was an actual tomboy coincidentally named Tara who found my comic randomly in a search on the computer and saved it under favorites. How nuts is that? Sunday was the day I made the most money and it was fun and chill and I got so in the groove of the con I was actually sad when it came to a halt at the end of the day. I had lots of little merchandise pieces at the table like posters, paper dolls, stickers and buttons and lots of examples of crazy art I've done to show what my website was all about.

I hafta admit my "edible business cards" I created went off without a hitch! I came up with the idea to make fortune cookie business cards randomly and made real fortunes that had to do with situations in my comic in some way or another. It had a teeny tiny logo with my website on it that turned out to be tinier than I had hoped and told people to use a magnifying glass to read it but I told them what it said in case they couldn't read it. My actual business cards were instantly out on Saturday (I should have made more for sure) and I was glad I had back up fortune cookie biz cards at that point in time.

So yeah, the con went well, better than I thought it would for a person without a fan base at the Fan Expo and hopefully I got a few more people reading my stuff...I hope.

So I started off having the idea of using an old pic of me and trying to do something fun by mixing cartoons with real life (something I always wished was true, but it's not...oh well) and I started off messing around with the image of me and the thought bubble which eventually evolved into me in the shades with Tara on my shoulder which got me thinking about the devil on the shoulder routine and how Deena seems all good and innocent and Tara seems like the bad girl. There's two sides to every girl, even if it's the girly girl or the tomboy, one is more prominent than the other just like good or bad sides. I'm sure every man has a more masculine or sensitive, good side. So whatever, these pix were pretty fun to do, and it felt like I was bringing my ideas more to life. Not only that but it sorta visually shows my constant inner struggle with my inner tomboy and girly side which I feel Tara and Deena strongly represent.

Women Like Comics Too?

I read recently while creeping the internet and checkin' out upcoming comic cons that 25% of the comic conventions these days consist of women. Which is actually waaaay better then it was just a few years ago. Why the recent rise in females? Well, if you notice, a lot of cartoons appear to be girl friendly these days. Not only that but Manga and Anime are constructed in such a beautiful and cute way that women can enjoy it too. Men, most likely enjoy it for the sexual appeal it has and the cool costumes, which often brings the really hot girls to cons later.

Many girls are really into making the elaborate outfits to be their favorite character, and some get into it more than the guys do. Lots of attention to detail goes into it, I mean, I guess there are a lot of seamstress' out there, and not a lot of men like to admit that they have the ability to sew 'cuz that's a "girls past time" but I must admit, I am often impressed when a man tells me he knows how to sew or even has a bit of knowledge of fashion. Some girls (these days) don't even know that sorta stuff.

Anyways, the industry needs this, for sure. Comic books are dying slightly, with the exception of the growing popularity of comic book movies, this recent recession bringing about cheap ways for people to entertain themselves and with women becoming involved it's not as bad as it could be. If you think of statistics, the high percentage of people who shop and decide what products to own are often women. They are the people who tell men what they can or can't have when they become a couple, and often times (I've seen it time and time again, not always mind you, but often) a woman will clean out a man's comic book collection and say they need to grow up and get rid of it. The woman is brainwashing the guy to give her their undivided attention so the woman doesn't just sit around bored while a man reads and enjoys his comic books, which is what he often did before she came along, let's face it. The man goes along with it, cuz, well it means sex, let's face it. However, if the woman is into comic books too, she can enjoy the books with the man, read her own, even get into something he is reading too.

To me I see comic books as kind of a storyboard for an even greater idea, one that can easily be animated if it looks like the plot is interesting enough, and women are also getting into animation too. A vast majority of characters in cartoons have strong, sexy females in it. Perhaps it's the way guys view some women, or it's how they want their fantasy woman to be, I guess it depends on the creator of the female character, but most of the time, I don't know about all women, but I relate to more of the women in cartoons than I do on TV shows that have been filmed with real people. I related to Daria, and Jessie from Undergrads, and even Joan of Arc from Clone High. It's funny, how even though cartoons are not entirely supposed to be a realistic portrayal of people and yet I relate to them more than anything I often watch. Perhaps this recent revelation that cartoon women are more easily related to, has been the outbreak epiphany a lot of women have been having too. Now if only we can harness that more and introduce it to even more women, and show them that cartoons are not just for children.

The whole "girls mature faster than boys" thing may be true, but it doesn't have to be, there are plenty of girls who want to stay young. Perhaps not as young as a 12 year-old, but I think my youthful mind and constant need to moisturize is partially what makes people mistake me for almost a decade younger than I actually am. I take it as a compliment, because as most women strive to stay youthful, I know I AM youthful, I don't even really need to try. So cartoons are good for the mind, body and soul apparently, at least that's my philosophy. Of course you have to find the cartoon that you like best, and it's hard when there's so many books out there you don't know where to begin. Ask a man who knows you well what they think you may like, or even if you know a fellow female comic enthusiast don't be afraid to ask her what she recommends, you never know, you may end up liking it.

Okay, so I have no patience to animate whatsoever, but on occasion I attempt to animate by doing a series of action positions, leaving out a lot of other positions but putting in the cool ones to get my point across at how the action is being done. I'm not the greatest at it, especially since it's all directly from my head, using no reference at all and not even giving a damn about perfection nor proportion. So this is what comes out. A fun, little piece with pen and pencil crayon on coloured Bristol board of Tara doing a cool little flip and then creating a handgun with her...well hands. How many girls or even guys for that matter have attempted to do this or at least seen others do this? It's cool when you do the tuck n' roll, which is what my old college friend Adria did frequently when she showed us how her karate lessons were being put to good use. Tara takes the "tuck n' roll" to the extreme and does some crazy flip. She makes it look so easy...if I attempted to do this her way, I'd no doubt severely break something, so I have to live vicariously through her I suppose. It's just an awesome little piece that shows "girls just wanna have fun"...as the song goes, and yes, sometimes girls too like pretending we're some sort of bad ass super villain or heroine off to take care of someone. Even though tomboys aren't often seen as graceful, they can be if they know how to put their grace to good use.

New Board Game!

I've created a new board game. It's fairly simple and straight forward and can be easy or hard depending on how complex you want to make it or how people work together. It's mainly for those who would like to break out of their writers/creative block and to see how people work as a team. I've tested it out on a few groups of friends, played it with just two people and then with four. The game is good for a few laughs. I thought it was interesting that those that were naturally creative and those that weren't still found it very fun. It wasn't about creating the perfect end result, but more about the process of it and having fun while doing it. The game is fairly quick, but if you like your end result you can make a better version of the finished product if you wish to do so. It's sorta like Pictionary(TM) but not really. Nobody wins or loses, there is no real "end goal" only a beginning. The end goal I suppose is to come up with an idea for a comic and collaborate as a team. It also seems to make people comfortable with showing their art or writing to people, because it's not supposed to be perfect and everyone is in the same boat, it allows people to laugh at themselves if their art or writing isn't the best, but it shows that even though they aren't the best they can still come up with a half-way decent finished product and perfection doesn't mean anything. The art and writing is quick, and the artist or writer only has control over one half of the finished product, so often the end result is very funny upon completion. There aren't a lot of games out there that aren't competitive. This has nothing to do with competition, in fact, it's more about teamwork, just the opposite goal of most games. I think it's a different game that everyone should play at least once in their life, in my humble opinion, and perhaps the world would be a more peaceful place if everyone worked as a team instead of competing.

Sample photos!

Here are some sample shots of the wonderful Tom Boy Tara cosplay photo shoot taken by photographer Jonathan Cowper! Wicked shots man! Can't wait to see the rest! :) The graffiti wall featured in the tunnel is done by artist Trevor Goodwin. Jonathan and Trevor are both found through the links section of my website @ www.tomboytara.com if you are interested in contacting either one of them or checking out even more work by them. The models playing my characters are:
Tara- Sarah Jay
Tobey- Troy Edwards
Deena- Shannon McGrady
A special thanks also goes out to: Alex Ragozzino(videographer for a behind-the-scenes video currently being edited), Tania Flemming(hair stylist), Terry Gordon(assistant art director), Andrea Dinardo(wig and hair extension stylist), Sarah Jay(make-up artist)and Meagan Austin(moral support). I was the art director, costume/accessory provider (for certain parts of the costumes the models didn't already own), and also a model in certain pictures as "The creator" ha ha! Hopefully those pix will soon be released.

Customized Tom Boy Tara Dolls

This is a doll photo shoot I took. I customized an Obitsu doll (painted her face, cut her hair and attached the head to the body) and a random other doll from some dumb Disney movie and bought some clothes I thought they'd wear. Painted Tobey's hair, glasses and mouth (the lips looked too girly) and customized their t-shirts as well. I also painted the CD inside the boom box and put "The Cicadas" logo on it (the made-up Indy band in my comics) and I love how the stupid Disney doll actually came with that stereo...it also has a cell phone and a microphone, but it wasn't necessary for the shoot.

TBT Photo Shoot!

So today was an amazing day, not only was the weather gorgeous but it was a perfect day for a photo shoot (of a few friends of mine dressed as my main characters for my comic)that I had planned to do for months now. We had kept pushing the shoot back a lot due to schedule changes from the models or the photographer and I was so ready to throw in the towel with it. If it weren't for everyone being so into the idea for the shoot and tellin' me to just pick another date we can all agree on and stick with it I woulda said, "forget it." Thankfully despite my constant stressing and worrying that something would go wrong on this shoot things actually came together quite nicely. Everyone showed up so that was a good sign right there that things were going to be good. At first the shoot was a bit rocky cuz I'll admit I've never been an art director before, and I don't easily work well with others with my art (I'm a solitary artist) but the collaborations with the photographer and the models went off without a hitch. They were telling me to give them direction more, and I realized 'crap, right, they don't entirely know their characters, I need to inform them how they are a bit to give them an idea, to see what ideas they can come up with'. I gave them some direction and they eventually began feeling comfy once we got to the graffiti wall and saw all the possibilities with it. I think the key is not to put too much pressure on your models to be a certain way, even if it is about a certain character. I love candid photos and I knew this would be hard to do, so I tried to come up with a way to do something candid, though they were playing very specific characters. I just let the models call the shots. I let them improvise some ideas and get into their character's head and we actually ended up pulling out a whole bunch of props that worked well for the shoot that I never would have even thought about. The creative ideas were definitely flowing with everyone and people got really into it. We even caught some attention with people walking by. My brother even shot some behind-the-scene footage that we may post on the website too eventually. All in all we got some sweet shots and everyone had a blast doing it! A total adventure to remember. How often do people do photo shoots of cartoon characters? I guess it happens at Hallowe'en or comic conventions and even once in a while for other pro shoots, but it's a rare thing to do, and I think it turned out awesome, in my humble opinion.

Tom Boy Tara Dollfie Dolls

So I've been looking into customizing dolls and I came across some beautiful Dollfie Dolls that my friend Elisha used to customize when I was in college. I recall loving the look of them but I forgot what they were called. She used to make their clothes out of tiny chain mail and they looked absolutely exquisite when she was done. Anyways I wanted to make my own Tom Boy Tara doll and found some parts, they're currently being shipped to me, so I'm going to have fun customizing Tara for sure! I noticed though that the male Dollfie dolls often looked extremely feminine. So I tried to photoshop a head to look like how I would make Tobey look and I found some clothes that looked like it might suit him a bit and photoshopped it slightly and he turned out like this pic! Maybe some day I'll make a Tobey doll that looks kinda like that. I think the secret to keeping them looking male is to cut the hair super short, keep the face plain and if you're not making them with glass eyes, keep the eye templates masculine with little to no eyelashes on them. LOL! I'm sure gonna have fun with this! YAY!

A fun little pic I decided to do for fun with the three main characters of Tom Boy Tara! I have it as my desktop wallpaper! Ha ha!

This was just a fun little picture I did of Tara...I like how her leather pants turned out. I decided to make it into kinda an ad for my comic, showing people what it's about more. It was definitely fun to do.

Hey guys!

I've created some new products on zazzle.com and have also created new t-shirts at T-shirt Monster! Go to: http://www.tshirtmonster.ca/designer/gallery.asp?Designer=pishposh555 to check out my t-shirts and also check out my zazzle products at: http://www.zazzle.com/pishposh555


create & buy custom products at Zazzle

Comic Artist or Fashion Designer?

So I've been busy makin' many products, t-shirts, tattoos, dog sweaters, etc. Am I a web comic artist? Am I a fashion designer? Who can tell? Ha ha! I've been havin' a blast comin' up with random t-shirt logos and cool products. I do love fashion, playing with it, dressin' in cool costumes and comin' up with creative clothing combinations. I actually enjoy dreaming up fun styles for my characters to wear and t-shirt logos for Tobey to own. Some days it is challenging, other days it appears to come to me naturally. I think that's a bit of my mom in me, she went to Sheridan the first year it was established and graduated from Fashion Design, so I watched her come up with clothes from tablecloths and sew our Hallowe'en costumes every year and eventually took a fashion course in high school. I've also worked at places where clothing was a dominant part of my job, like Suzy Shier and Value Village. I guess I enjoy clothes and people appear to enjoy the designs I produce. In my first ongoing comic with human characters "Pish Posh" I had a few of my friends say they liked the clothing some of the teens wore in the strips. I even designed purses with my mom one summer before she got really sick. We designed the look together, made them reversible, customizable, useful and fashionable. Mom sewed them and I came up with the graphic designs on the pockets. We made them so you could show off your fun cute personality through the kooky animal on the pocket or you could play it down with either a vertical striped or solid colour interior (normally the colour matched the colour of the animal) and they were great for shopping bags, beach bags, diaper bags, you name it. We sold them at $40 a bag which was pricey to some people, but cheap to us, seeing as they were handmade, and technically 2 bags in one and we needed to cover the work and cost of the materials that went into each one, so technically it was a steal. They all sold, every one of them. When my mom passed on I thought I'd never bring the designs back. But then I found sites like T-shirt Monster and Zazzle and not only did I bring back the purses in a similar design (not quite but it works) but I also put them on shirts as well! They can all be found in the product section of my site if you wanna look at them. I even made Tom Boy Tara wear a Psyko Kat (which is my original design that started it all) shirt in one of my pinups I drew of her. It's fun bringing back old designs and mixing them in with my new art! Hope you all enjoy them!

End of May Update!

Ok, I know it looks like I haven't done any comics in a while. Not true...well partially true. I'm just working 2 jobs at the moment so I'm sorta doing comics when I can and when I'm not tired, or doing website stuff. I have updated my t-shirt section on my website and even added a couple of new products too to my products section (including a Jack the Ferret doggy sweater for your little pooch) if you care to take a gander at: http://tomboytara.com/products.html it's been fun! I'm also in the process of trying to put together a possible photo shoot that will hopefully be done near the end of June if all goes according to the plan. It consists of a couple of my friends modeling for me as the characters of Tom Boy Tara and I'm hoping to photograph the REAL Jack the Ferret! Yes yes! You will all be able to see him hopefully if this goes well. If not, perhaps I'll take candid photos of him to post eventually. I am also possibly attending the Fan Expo August 28-30 so hopefully I'll see some friendly faces there! :) So even though I haven't written in here for a while, it's cuz I've been busy trying to figure out future comic endeavors. I hope everything goes according to the plan!

TCAF

Wow, it's been a few days since I last wrote in here. No I'm not slacking on comics, just haven't had the time to bug my brother to post my newest stuff on my website. I've got quite a few comics that are in dire need of being posted, but alas they will remain in my sketchbook for the time being. I really must learn to post stuff on the website on my own...soon enough. Anyhoo, I attended the TCAF (Toronto Comic Arts Festival) on Sunday May 10th. It was a fabulous day! Lots of amazing art and artists attended the event! It was really a wonderful show, with a mixture of established and not so established Indy artists. I bought a t-shirt from the very nice and extremely talented Michael Cho! I also saw a friend of mine I ended up meeting at The Butler Did It (which is a catering company I work for sporadically and I even did a bimonthly comic 3 times in a row voluntarily in their newsletter) James Turner who has a few cool comics out such as, Nil: A Land Beyond Belief and Rex Libris. It was an amazing day! Many talented artists indeed! Canada definitely has a huge selection of creative minds! I chatted with many cool artists and starred at many of their pieces that looked as though it may have taken hours, weeks or even months to do. After the show the artist friends I hung out with all day became inspired so we all headed toward Curry's art supply store and ended up purchasing art supplies and I got a much needed portfolio that I hope to bring with me to the Fan Expo if we get a table. Anyways, I hope soon enough I will have some more comics posted. Been busy working and makin' money so I can keep affording art supplies to produce the comics, so hopefully those will be seen soon. Workin' on a fun little storyline I hope everyone enjoys! :)

Joe Shuster Awards

Wow, I'm beyond psyched right now! Hafta get my feelings out in blog form! Ha ha! So I was visiting the store Cyber City Comix in TO and the owner Darryl has taken my books to sell in his store. He doesn't often do that because indy books don't sell very well in there. However, being the nice guy that he is he told me he'll enter my book "Why I Hate Cheerleaders" in the 2009 Canadian Joe Shuster awards! Yes yes, you heard right, THE Joe Shuster the Canadian creator behind the oh so popular Superman! I was all, "Come again?" when he told me he was going to do this and I honestly didn't know what to say. It didn't sink in until I had a nap after coming home and I realized how big a deal this really was...I think I was in shock. He's probably entering me in the new category out this year the Gene Day Awards for Canadian Self Publishers. There's a bursary of $500 too for the winner along with a plaque. Now I'm not saying I'll win and lord knows if I'll even be nominated, however the fact that I'm being entered by someone who doesn't normally sell independent comics in their store is still leaving me in a daze. It's an honor and privilege I honestly thought I'd never remotely be a part of, but I'm so glad I have such a wonderful opportunity!

So I've been trying to apply to actual artistic jobs online and I stumbled across a job at Webkins the stuffed toy made for online and offline play. I went to the website and they're all really cute and cuddly looking. I noticed they didn't have any ferret animals...perhaps it's because some people (especially moms) don't seem to like ferrets, they can be a little smelly...but they have a toy skunk. Perhaps they just never thought of it before or came up with that concept yet. So I thought, what would happen if I turned Jack the Ferret into a stuffed animal? What would he look like? I think he'd look a little something like this:



Pretty cute huh? Maybe he will be a stuffed toy someday. *Sigh*

An A-Sexual Comic

So I suppose the core reason I probably made Tom Boy Tara is because I never really liked all the girly cartoons and all that stuff as a kid. I think My Little Ponies was cute but found it barf-o-rific when I saw little girls kissing them on the commercials, there was no way I'd be kissing my toys. I didn't see much of a need for playing with dolls as a youth either and changing their diapers, cuz I never really thought I'd have or want kids as I got older...still kinda feel that way too, which is odd. I hated Barbi with a passion and I suppose Deena is partially my inner hatred towards her. Though I don't despise Deena. I think she's essential in my comic, I actually think she's very sweet natured though a tad naive to her surroundings, but it's her obliviousness that makes her work in the comic. I guess it gives Tobey and Tara something to bond over when they're all, "Can you believe her?"

Tobey I think is my inner nerdy self, though he's extremely likable and cool. I had a friend make a passing comment that he's the kind of boy you deep down wish had a secret crush on you, which to me is true. Tobey is more vulnerable than Tara and Tara is the tough-as-nails type of girl that never likes to show a boy she's close to that she likes them. She'd rather go about her day not thinking of the opposite gender and doing her thing and because she's so hellbent on not making romance the main focus of her life (like some girls do) she often doesn't realize the guy she truly likes actually may even like her back. Such a confusing life tomboys lead.

But yes to circle a thought back around from where I originally intended it to go, Tara is the kind of character I always wanted to watch on TV or even read about in comics. She's smart, has a personality, thinks like an individual and doesn't follow a certain way women should be, she does things on her own terms. Doesn't focus on love but sees nothing wrong with dating, she just feels like everything has it's time and purpose when it comes along. She adapts to change very well and is very mature even though sometimes her artistic look may make her appear immature. She has many dimensions to her, not just a pretty face though she is attractive she just knows that there's more to girls than sex appeal. She doesn't try to be manly but just prefers things perceived as manly by society, it's just what she likes and she's not afraid to show what she likes or who she is.

I wanted to make an a-sexual comic, and although I know many people think this is a "girly" comic because the main character is a female, I think it has enough male jokes in it and observations on the two genders to make both sexes enjoy it equally. Just because a girl writes and draws it doesn't mean I don't have outside inspiration that causes me to write and draw the things I do. I think when you are considered a "tomboy" in people's eyes it gives you the perception of two different types of lives. You live the life of a girl and know how they feel because you are one, and understand what they go through. Although you still have a deep understanding of men in the sense that you hung out with a lot as a kid and/or even now and maybe even played sports with them or played in the mud and didn't care about looking pretty all the time. It definitely gives you an interesting perception on life and social scenarios, that's for sure!

Hey guys! I've posted a few pix that were randomly taken of me at the Toronto Comicon I went to on Sunday. A couple are of me holdin' up Neozoic which is a really awesome comic coloured by my good friend Jessie Lam who has a site @ http://axl99.net her stuff is wicked and check out her animation "Last Stop"! She's an amazing animator! I also posted a pic of me talkin' to a cool artist by the name of Attila Adorjany who has a site at www.600poundgorilla.com so go check that out. Anyways, here's me at the con, just a few pix but whatev:

Toronto Comicon-Fan Appreciation

Well I only unfortunately attended the last day of the Toronto Comicon today and it got a little hectic with people in there at one point. It was fun, I meant to go there and hand out a bunch of fliers but I didn't nearly hand out as many as I should have. I met a lot of cool artists and got a lot of cool free stuff and wicked deals while I was there. Not too shabby. Fun fun. Got a Lionel Hutz action figure for $1. "Who cares?" You say..the selling point is it came with a cute little smoking monkey. Ha ha ha! Too adorable...well, the sad truth is the monkey wasn't really smoking (probably cuz kids may buy the toys and it's kinda promoting cigarettes and such) but it was too cute to pass up none the less. I also got a 25 cent drawing from a little girl selling pictures to pay off a munny doll she bought herself. She actually wasn't selling much stuff surprisingly. I dunno why, it was only a quarter and 'sides gotta support the young artists. Anyways I bought a Pikachu sketch from her. I also got some free sketches too from a few people and bought a t-shirt with the Flash symbol on it for my boyfriend...cuz well...he really wanted one and wouldn't shut up 'bout wanting one every time we watch the Big Bang Theory and Sheldon sports a similar shirt. I also didn't get him much for his b-day that just went by so this was something nice for him. Hell, if he didn't want the shirt I woulda taken it. I was originally trying to buy something for myself but felt a big ol' bunch of selfless comin' on so I went with it. I think over-all the con was pretty fun, can't wait to attend the next one honestly. Hopefully I won't have too long to wait, this is only the beginning of the nice weather, which means more cons are a comin'.

My Zazzle Pannel


make custom gifts at Zazzle

Check out my gallery at:
http://www.zazzle.com/pishposh555*

Website Info!

So it's finally here! I have my webcomic up and running! Yay! No longer a blog comic, but I still will update on here quite frequently...maybe no more art will be posted but you can always check that stuff out at: http://www.tomboytara.com and this blog is still featured there, it's a vicious cycle. Ideas and news about my comic and I'm sure comicon info when my upcoming conventions will be, pix and how it went will be posted, etc. So don't fret, just 'cuz I have a website doesn't mean I'll ditch my blog. It's kept me sane during this whole making a webcomic ordeal, and I'm sure it will remain as my technological therapist.

New Cover Possibility for First 100 Comic Strips!

So I entered a drawing contest recently on Facebook in the group "Facebook Comic Convention" in which you have to draw a character from The Watchmen. I drew a pin-up of the original Silk Specter and I had so much fun doing it I couldn't stop drawing pin-ups, which gave me a great idea while I was brain-storming art this morning for my comic. I'm going to publish 100 of my first comic strips plus extra art and such and I decided to do a fun pin-up style cover that sorta lets the reader in on what's going on in the strip but not really. The thing I love about it is it totally oozes sex-appeal. I dunno about you but I'd snag it off the shelf to have a good read, but that's my humble opinion...ha!

QUIZ!

I made up a fun little quiz for my cartoon characters. Check and see which character you are.
Which Tom Boy Tara Character Are You?

This is a fun piece I wanted to do for a while and ended up playing around with it this morning. Looking down on the cast of Tom Boy Tara with Tobey holding Jack way up high. I like the circle frame, it sorta looks like they're on a record or in a crazy little bubble or something. Perfect picture for a pin!

Joe Gallagher (my roommate and part owner of the real live Jack the Ferret) asked me to draw this commission of Jack as a slinky going down the stairs inspired by my picture I did for Jessica Carr. He wanted it coloured in too and is buying a frame for the finished product.

This commission is for Karolina Cwiek who donated a portion to my website fund. She wanted the cast in black and white but I went the extra distance and coloured it in for fun. It's an interesting cast picture. She specified to have her fave character Jack front and center.

This is a black and white piece I drew specifically for Jessica Carr who donated a large portion to my website fund. Thanks for your support! Jessica's commission and others I do will be featured on the website.

Donations for Tom Boy Tara Website

Ok, so I don't have a large amount of money at the moment so in order to get my website up and running on the internet I need to spend money to make money unfortunately. So, I came up with a fun little way to make money to get my website out there.

A donation of 5 dollars or more will get you an original hand drawn picture by me for you to put on your wall or do whatever you like with. Not only is this excellent practice for me, but you get an original picture (that may be worth more than $5 some day…who knows) and a scanned copy of your picture will be featured in my portfolio section of my website. So here's the deal:

A donation of $5 will get you a black and white drawing of your favorite character in Tom Boy Tara: Tara, Tobey, Deena, Jade, Eddie, Charlie or Jack.

A donation of $7 will get you 2 characters of your choice in blk and wht.

A donation of $10 will get you the whole cast in blk and wht.

If you want colour of these it may be a couple of dollars more than their original price.

A donation of $15 will get you a caricature of yourself in blk and wht but a picture of yourself must be provided as well.

A donation of $20 will get you a full colour caricature and again you must provide a picture.

If you're ordering a piece online and I need to mail the piece to you I may need a little extra cash before I give you the original piece. Shipping and handling costs. If you want to work out something you can send me your information to emilyrags@hotmail.com and we'll discuss things from there. Please include your full name, phone # and/or e-mail, address (if needed), the amount you wish to donate, and what you would like done for your piece. I'm also creating a part of my site with special thanks to those who have donated. Your name will go there as a tribute to your support. Thanks all who choose to participate!

No this isn't a real picture...though I wish it was. This is only me dreaming big. Ha ha, my friend introduced me to the site www.faceinhole.com and I've been playing around with it a lot. This was something I thought that would be fun.

A funny and kinda dirty little t-shirt logo I made for Tobey to eventually wear. LOL!

This sketch is a lot more grainy and compressed than it's original I drew. This is why I often don't post my sketches, I find everything looks better after I darkened lines with ink. But anyways, here's a pin-up I was sorta playing around with:

A prophecy of what's yet to come for Tara.

I used bold primary colours on this stylized version of Tara.

Manga-style Tom Boy Tara.

Tom Boy Tara comic #87

Tom Boy Tara comic #86

Tom Boy Tara comic #85

Tom Boy Tara comic #84