Here's the latest strip written by my friend Jerry the faerie. Jerry is an activist and author of note, so I was very honored to have him write an original work for me to illustrate here. The fun challenge was to illustrate it in a different style and tone from the usual NOMEANSYES lexicon. Recently during my cross country tour where I was at a Duluth 40 block long rummage sale I rediscovered a favorite old book " FANTASY The Golden Age of Fantastic Illustration" by Brigid Peppin. It's about the golden age of British fantasy book illustration, and was very helpful for planning out this page's visuals. I also saw a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art which influenced the above work. In designing each panel I used lay-out lines crossing from corner to corner, and a center vertical and horizontal line for placing the visual elements together. Often when laying out an illustration in the planning stages before I do the final inking I use hidden patterns to give the final work an architecture and weight.
I've been fortunate over the years to have collaborated with many fine writers, and do hope for more collaborations with Jerry the faerie and others to post here and publish.
Here's what Jerry himself wrote about this strip:
"Dissident Radical Faerie art exposes the Emperor when he wears no clothes. When a revolutionary movement is diluted by those who say anyone, no matter how reactionary, is a revolutionary just because they say they are, then those reactionaries must be exposed for what they truly are. The artist, like the Mattachine jester, exposes the truths that others are afraid to confront-JTF "
I've been fortunate over the years to have collaborated with many fine writers, and do hope for more collaborations with Jerry the faerie and others to post here and publish.
Here's what Jerry himself wrote about this strip:
"Dissident Radical Faerie art exposes the Emperor when he wears no clothes. When a revolutionary movement is diluted by those who say anyone, no matter how reactionary, is a revolutionary just because they say they are, then those reactionaries must be exposed for what they truly are. The artist, like the Mattachine jester, exposes the truths that others are afraid to confront-JTF "
The Radical Faerie Church NOMEANSYES Comix in order
I'm on the fence about the latest, above strip. Personally it does not quite work once finished. I still might add another dialogue balloon. I wanted to draw a strip about online trolling, how often those who practice it believe themselves to be of a higher creation, when the truth is they are off hiding under a bridge someplace casting shades. The strip does need a few more gags, and perhaps Walla's character is a bit droll and boring by itself. Maybe if She was reacting against a giant chicken...
Above is the infamous NOMEANSYES strip written by my dear friend Jerry the Faerie. When I first drew this, Jerry had fun posting it hither and yon. It got dramatically diametrical responses, some people loved it, others really hated it. One ethically dyspeptic self-described pagan witch even launched an online prayer circle against this particular comic, an effort which rallied a few Radical Faerie trolls to grab their torches and pitchforks for an online attack that didn't make it out of it's virtual wet paper bag. Here it is in all of it's glory, love it or hate it: