This is just a taste of what’s in my free Substack newsletter. There’s the tale of my Wicked adventure and news about my Think Fast/Talk Smart podcast interview. I’m plugging our new ornament and giving details about the30% off print sale at Comics Kingdom.com
Do you know Rina Piccolo has new own Substack newsletter too?
This post originally appeared on Sep 18, 2024. Head over to my free SUBSTACK newsletter to see the toons, the pics and the full story!
Here’s the summary:
It’s been a cartoonist-filled last few weeks. We had our big shindig in San Diego, and I came home with a coveted piece of brass. Then there was a sojourn into Alfred E. Neuman country, followed by a boozy adventure in Rhode Island…
It’s $2.99 a month for a single comic subscription, (which is the best way to support us.) You still get to see all the other comics on the website, but just Rhymes With Orange gets emailed to you. Your three bucks gets split with Comics Kingdom, and then Rina and I split that.
In June I was on a Zoom panel with fellow Comics Kingdom cartoonists Bianca Xunise and Olive Brinker to talk about being queer and being cartoonists. Our audience was a group of LGBTQ folk who work for the Hearst Corporation. (Comics Kingdom, run by King Features Syndicate, is one of their ventures.) One member of the group asked in advance how readers responded when we did comics that incorporated LGBTQ themes.
…So I made a comic to share with them about my most recent experience.
When Rhymes With Orange got syndicated by King Features in 1995, we were in pre-Ellen Degeneres times. School teachers were getting fired if they came out. Having just landed my first big job, I was spooked.
I was out to family and friends, but not professionally. I think my editor knew, and I knew he knew, and he probably knew I knew that he knew. But such were the gay contortions of the 90s.
As a single panel strip, Rhymes With Orange works differently than a comic strip with characters. Since there are no known personalities, and it is something new each day, single panel artists rely on a cultural shorthand.
What that means is that if a reader sees a man and a woman on the page, before even reading the word balloon, they just know it will be a relationship joke. If there are two people of the same sex, they know it is a buddy joke. It is the air we breath.
So when my then-girlfriend said to me, “I realize that the things you do are not done for the sole purpose of annoying me,” I couldn’t be mad— she had just given me a great line for a cartoon! But for it to translate to a general audience, I drew a man and a woman talking.
As I struggled with this disconnect, I came up with some workarounds. Here are some snippets.
Don’t show the bodies.
2. Keep the love interest off screen. Use non-gendered words like “Cutie.”
3. Draw monsters instead of people.
And guess what? Queer readers caught on, because these were signals, and gay people were well-versed in this coded language. They reached out to me on their AOL accounts. “Psst…Are you gay?” I came out to these folks five years before I came out to my editor.
This next strip has been one of my most popular because so many couples (straight, gay and everyone in between) can see themselves.
For all those of you who ate matzoh this last week, sink your teeth into a bagel. Just don’t sink your knife into your palm.
During the week of Passover, observant Jews eat matzoh in the place of any bread product. That’s lotsa matzoh, but today is the last day.
Things are looking up!
Making a Matzoh ball that is not as hard as a baseball takes a practiced hand.
At Passover dinner, it is custom to invite folks from all walks of life to join you at your table.
Moses is always pictured with a beard. What if he had peach fuzz?
The guy had skills. Come back for more Passover cartoons each day!
There is an array of foods on the ceremonial Passover plate, by and large symbolizing oppression. Ironically, oppression can be tasty.
The Haggadah is the book used at the Passover seder to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt. Matzoh is mentioned. Meat is not.
Part of the story of Passover is that 10 plagues descended onto Egypt. My favorite one has always been frogs. Pour me another glass of Maniribbetz!
For those new to Passover, some families clean out all the leavened bread, called “chametz,” from their homes before the start of Passover. It’s a big day for pigeons.
Passover is eight days, but we’re celebrating for twelve. Have some laughs with your matzoh.
Hey, folks, just wanted to let you know the Rhymes With Orange store is open! T-shirts, mugs, gift-wrap and so much more! Check it out: Rhymes With Orange STORE
The Award
My Halloween Costume
Making Spinach- Things We’re Trying
From Way Back in The Archives
The Dog Does Chores
This September I left the National Cartoonists Society weekend with this big hunk of bronze. It’s the Elzie Segar Award for Outstanding Contribution to the field of comics, named after the creator of Popeye. It was a real honor. Less than a week later, I learned that Rhymes With Orange lost a hunk of newspapers (and revenue) when Gannett Newspaper Group decided all their comics pages should be the same across the country. Their tastes were very male and mostly pale. I was face down for a good few days, but now I’m looking to borrow some of Popeye’s courage and find new ways to make some spinach. More on that below.
To offset the paper loss, we’re making merch. See the new designs in the ComicsKingdom.com store. We’re showcasing them every week on Facebook , Instagram and X. Some folks have asked if we wanted to do a Patreon account. We’re holding off for now, but will have an interesting arrangement to offer in February.
Puppy pants! The only time you want a dog on your leg.
Wrapping paper- Watch your real pets chew it off.
I draw comics on my iPad now, but I’ll redraw them on paper just for you. It’s fun, and I can even customize it!
It was in a mega craft store and saw the mini Hannukah display tucked near the back. It reminded me of a toon I did 25 years ago, when I was only 3 years into drawing the strip.
It will still be free for you, and with Substack, it will now be free for me. So keep an eye out!
Thanks for reading! Take good care!
Hilary
This week’s Furry Friday cartoon: Ah, what romance…!
Read MoreThis week’s Furry Friday cartoon: The alternate ending…
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