Hey all! I will be tabling at Kickstarter’s booth at Flamecon THIS SATURDAY from 3 to 5:30! I’ll be selling both my zine and my (newly printed!) comic. Hope to see you there!
Page without text from You Can’t Outrun Your Shadows, written by Luz Bianca, illustrated by Mary Anne Mackey and lettered by Julie Gravelle for Who is The Silhouette?
Why were you interested in doing a comic for Who is the Silhouette?
I was actively on the hunt for comic anthologies to submit to, and this one really grabbed me. Not too spoil too much, but certain details in the prompt comic really inspired me. From the beginning onwards I really wanted to play with the idea of secrets and what it means to forget the past.
How did you get into comics?
I didn’t really care about comics at all until I was about fifteen. I used to go to boarding school, and my roommate told me all about several comics she’d read, including Peter David’s X-Factor Investigations. The character of Rictor, a gay, depressed latinx man, really spoke to me, a gay, depressed latinx woman. I picked up the first trade, and the rest is history. I got into writing comics for similar reasons. I want to tell accessible stories about underrepresented people, whether they’re saving the day or not, so I can do for others what Rictor has done for me.
Panels from a comic that Luz wrote, titled “Sara”
What are some of the comics that inspire you?
The Sailor Moon manga has been a huge inspiration recently, but whether or not that’s readily apparent in my work to an outside reader is another question altogether!
Are you a fan of superhero comics? If so, what are a few of your favorites and why?
I used to unabashedly adore superhero comics, but as I’ve grown older and heard more about the industry landscape, I can’t say I’m a fan in the same way I used to be. Still, some spectacular stories are out there. Tom King’s Vision is one that immediately comes to mind, along with too many X-Men stories to count (but I have to give a quick shout-out to the Dark Phoenix Saga). I’m also really enjoying Humphrey’s Green Lanterns.
Who is your Silhouette?
Andrea Bloom went missing in her college days. Some rumors connect her to one Mia Yu and an interdimensional lab experiment, but she’s been largely forgotten, swept away with the past. Until now. She’s kind and selfless to the point of self-sacrifice, determined, a bit of a dork, and quite the lesbian.
How do you describe your work?
Ooh, that’s tough. There’s usually a sort of distance from the real. I usually ignore or disregard logical realism, and go more towards emotional realism. If it conveys a feeling, and that feeling lands, I’m doing my job. There’s also almost always lesbians. Take that as you will.
Photo excerpt from a zine Luz wrote
Any other fun facts, stories or info you’d like to share?
My favorite emoji is the sparkle heart.
You can find more of Luz’s work at https://luzbianca.com/ and @luzbianca417 (twitter) and in the superhero anthology Who is The Silhouette? currently taking pre-orders on Kickstarter!
Allison Bannister is raising funds for Who is The Silhouette? on Kickstarter! This quirky black and white superhero comics anthology offers 8 different possible answers to the question "Who is The Silhouette?"
We have SEVEN MORE DAYS to make WANDERLUST a reality!
We’ve just about reached the $15 000 CAD point, achieved 48% of our funding goal, and we’re still going strong! Please be sure to continue to share with your friends, family, followers, EVERYONE! And of course, a huge thank you to every single one of our backers.
Without further ado, here is our second batch of creator profiles from our wonderfully talented creators! Links to all of their social media is available via our Kickstarter page. All creator profiles can be viewed at once right here.
Check out Wanderlust, A Mythology Anthology on Kickstarter!
“FTL, Y’all’s” Official Line-Up Has Been Determined!
Congratulations to all successful applicants!
Unlike previous Iron Circus anthologies, the concentration of excellent submission to “FTL, Y’all” was so high that we’ve completely foregone invitees. For the first time in ICC history, ALL the anthology participants were picked from open submissions.
Successful applicants were picked from over 400 submissions. And they are:
Ahueonao
Ainsley Seago
Alexxander Dovelin
Blue Delliquanti
CB Webb
Cheez Hayama & Earl T. Roske
Chris Williamson & Molly Kennedy
David Andry & Paul Schultz
Evan Dahm
Iris Jay & Skolli Rubedo
J. Piechowiak
Jonathon Dalton
Kay Rossbach
Luz Bianca, Mary Anne Mackey & Julie Gravelle
Maia Kobabe
Miss Jamie Kaye & Sunny
Mulele Jarvis & Cindy Powers
Nathaniel Wilson
NN Chan
Olivia Northrop
Rachel Ordway
Sara DuVall & James F. Wright
seren krakens
Xia Gordon
Look for this anthology on Kickstarter in the first half of 2018. Follow Iron Circus on tumblr, Twitter, or Facebook, or join our mailing list to keep updated!
We are thrilled to announce the final list of contributors for the anthology! After a long and grueling process of looking through all applications we received, we’ve finalized our list. We were blown away by all the talent the applicants had to offer, and it was extremely hard to narrow down. We would like to thank everyone who applied; it was a joy to see everyone’s work. The book will include a grand total of 44 contributors (including the anthology moderators, Mar and Zoe).
Without further ado, WANDERLUST, A Mythology Anthology will be featuring works from:
Inspired by The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us! By Sufjan Stevens
It is snowing outside your room, and you are writing in cursive. It’s 3 am. You are writing letters to people who will never read them, you are writing letters to those long gone. Loops and connections flow out of you with nowhere to go.
You are wrapped in coats and legwarmers, a behemoth of layers. Your landlord still hasn’t gotten back to you about the heating. You turn to the window next to your bed and see your own breath on the glass.
You lay still in bed, and as quiet as the world seems right now, sleep is an impossibility. You ponder getting up and making yourself some coffee. Or calling your ex. Or praying to the Lord Himself for something to ease your mind.
Then you hear it. A soft buzzing, one you know well.
You turn around, and you see her, on the wall, directly across from you. A wasp, wings outstretched.
It is summer, and you are 15 years younger. It is a few miles north of Savannah, Illinois, and you are swimming in the river adjacent to the boys’ Methodist summer camp you’ve been going to each summer for the past two years. You are wearing your brother’s red hat, which you know will make him angry, but at the moment you do not care. You have always liked hats.
Matt, who is more than a little afraid of swimming despite being seven months older than you, is waiting for you on the bank. He cheers for you.
He is your best friend, and has been for the past week. The two of you are swimming buddies, crafting buddies, lunch buddies. You are in the process of discovering how close two human beings can become in the span of a three-week camp.
And there is a wasp on his shoulder. You shout, but it is too late. The wasp has already bit. He runs, and you go after him.
Crying, somehow, evolves into laughter. Matt brushes his tears away and faces you. He smiles. You smile. And, giddy, high on adrenaline, you reach in to kiss him.
It doesn’t scare you. You’re in love, and love doesn’t scare you. It might scare Matt, but it doesn’t scare you.
You forget how long you are with him, and you almost don’t notice the wasp crawling up your arm.
Certain things you will forget about summer camp. The taste of the beef jerky, how the daily prayers went, the name of your bunkmate. But certain things you will never forget. Horseshoe Lake, the view of the sunset on your fifth day there, and Matt. How could anyone forget Matt?
Matt runs away eventually. Love scares him too much, you think. The last time you saw him, you were watching him sleep in the backseat of your mom’s car. It was the calmest he ever looked.
You don’t know if Matt thinks about you even half as often as you think of him. But it doesn’t really matter. Late at night, you reach into your closet and bring out the old memories, the sparkle in his eyes, the taste of his mouth.
A surreal five-page comic script I wrote as part of a class on comics writing, with the prompt “Why did the chicken cross the road?”
Transcript under the “read more”.
PAGE ONE
Panel 1: Mid-afternoon. A frazzled brunette running up to a crosswalk in Times Square. The electric stop/walk sign says WALK.
Panel 2: The brunette, looking over her shoulder nervously as she runs.
Panel 3: The brunette, now having reached the crosswalk, bent over, panting. The stop/walk sign says STOP now.
Panel 4: The brunette, looking up and across the street, wiping sweat off her brow.
Panel 5: The brunette, shocked.
PAGE TWO
Panel 1: A group of costumed Times Square performers, all in the background except for one in a Chicken costume, who is facing directly ahead. The STOP electric sign should be in the background as well.
Panel 2: The chicken, pointing a feather-covered finger in front. Pointing directly ahead. The STOP sign still in the background.
Panel 3: The stop sign changed to WALK.
PAGE THREE
Panel 1: The brunette, on the left, watching the chicken suit, on the right, beginning to cross the street towards her. The brunette should have a rigid, panicked body language.
Panel 2: The same as Panel 1, only the chicken suit is now halfway across the street.
Panel 3: Close up of the chicken suit reaching into its suit pocket and pulling out a PISTOL.
PAGE FOUR
Panel 1: The brunette, still rigid, frozen as we see her over the shoulder of the chicken suit.
Panel 2: Two shot of the brunette, on the left, and the chicken, on the right, on the same side of the street. The chicken suit has its gun pointed at her. The brunette, looking down at the gun, defeated.
Panel 3: The Brunette beginning to tear up.
1 Brunette: F-forgive me, ch-chicken, for I have sinned.
Panel 4: The brunette, face in her hands.
2 Brunette: I-I don’t want to die.
Panel 5: The unchanged expression of the chicken suit.
PAGE FIVE
Panel 1: The brunette being shot in the stomach.
Panel 2: Close up of the smoking gun.
Panel 3: The chicken dragging the brunette’s body through the street. People avoiding their eyes.
Panel 4: The chicken disappearing under a manhole with the woman’s body.
The Weapon Plus program gave us some of the greatest creations in the Marvel universe including Captain America, Wolverine, the Stepford Cuckoos, Fantomex, Allgod, and that Squirrel version of Wolv…
I drew some (very, very bad) drawings for Xavier Files. Bit of cheeky X-Humor.
You cry under lights, bright and medicinal,
And a woman in white hands you over
To someone who wore perfume during labour.
Fake flowers and clean cotton.
She holds you close, rocks you
Back and forth, leans in to whisper
Some sad, broken promise
That you're too young to understand.
You show her a gold star,
Your first gold star,
And she keeps on drinking
Nesquik mixed with gin.
She wavers in the night,
Her words turn to song,
And she cries for
A man you've never met.
You tell her to quit holding your hand.
It's embarrassing, ok?
No one wants to be
Seen with someone like her.
You find her strung up,
A million miles above
The bathroom floor.
"I'm sorry, so sorry."
She's in the most expensive bed
She's ever had, and
You can't help but remember
How pretty she used to be.
You lean in,
Give her a kiss on the cheek,
And you can still smell it.
Fake flowers and clean cotton.
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