New webcomic: UN/SAFE

Huzzah for a new webcomic! "UN/SAFE" is the story of the Punk and the Artist, and the line between art and humanity. It's based on a real performance piece by Marina Abramović called Rhythm 0, which you can read about here. If you've never checked out Abramovic's work, you totally should: the woman is intense. As outlandish as the events of UN/SAFE may seem, bear in mind that Abramović actually did this.

From the Wikipedia article:

Abramović had placed upon a table 72 objects that people were allowed to use (a sign informed them) in any way that they chose. Some of these were objects that could give pleasure, while others could be wielded to inflict pain, or to harm her. Among them were a rose, a feather, honey, a whip, scissors, a scalpel, a gun and a single bullet. For six hours the artist allowed the audience members to manipulate her body and actions.

o___O Crazy, huh? When I read about the performance, my immediate mental reaction was, well, check out the story and you'll see. This is my response to Rhythm 0, how I think I would have reacted if I had been there on that night in 1974.

The comic's illustrated by the lovely Audrey Weaverling and the brave Devin Mohr (my niece!). They did a fantabulous job, I must say. This one's a shorty, just 8 pages long--we did the first 4 pages as a kind of little teaser, with the rest to appear on May 1st. So watch for that!


ETA:
OH MAN. Someone must be doing an art lecture on Abramovic right now, because this picture just popped up online:

That's a picture taking during the performance piece. You can see her bleeding and someone wrote on her stomach. Which FREAKS ME OUT, because I didn't see this picture before Audrey started drawing the project, and THIS is a panel from page 4 of the comic:

Stumptown Comics Fest 2011

This last weekend was Stumptown Comics Fest 2011. Unfortunately I only went for a few hours both days due to a nasty case of food poisoning; also, I must confess that I'm not a fan of the decision to move the con from the Doubletree Hotel to the Oregon Convention Center. The OCC felt too big and impersonal and showy, like holding a wedding in a football stadium.

At the same time I recognize the necessity of the move: the Doubletree was simply not big enough anymore. I feel like Stumptown has reached its awkward teenage years as a con, where its feet and head are huge but its limbs haven't quite filled in yet. Right now the Convention Center is way too big a space, and that really killed the energy of the con. Hopefully that'll change in a couple of years as the con continues to grow.

On the bright side, I did get to introduce my niece and her girlfriend to DAR! So there's that.


Lesbians: The Next Generation



Oooooh ducky!

WBC leads to to awesome charity drive.

This is the best reaction that I've yet seen to the presence of the Westboro Baptist Church (except for the awesome SDCC counter-protest):


Well-played, sir.