#cold hard teeth

[livschromaticcreations]

Gord and Elisa from my comic Cold Hard Teeth in a Y2K themed setting 🖤

It’s been several months since I’ve been able to draw something purely for fun, and it feels very refreshing 😳 I know I’m goth and super anti-establishment, but I would NOT have been safe from Sony and makeup ads from 1997-2004. They just went so hard, I’d be duped into buying some mediocre appliances in a heartbeat 🤣

[fortressofserenity]

A Goth sensibility

When it comes to the portrayal of Goths in comics, I feel there's a line between Goths as done by outsiders and those done by people who're really into this stuff, that becomes obvious going by what they're really into. There's a difference between a character like DC Comics's Black Alice and Cold Hard Teeth's Gordon Carnegie, the latter's actually written by a Goth, or at least somebody who grew up with the classic Goth canon of Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy. From what I've seen of Black Alice, she's practically a non-Goth's Goth.

Not that non-Goths can't get into Goth bands like Sisters of Mercy, most notably the cartoonist JH Williams (I think), but even then there's a difference between somebody who's really into this stuff and those who aren't. Somebody who's obviously not into any Goth band (most notably the Goth canon proper) wouldn't homage them in some way or another, whereas somebody who's into this would. This is like the difference between Marvel's Storm and Love and Rockets (as done by the Hernandez brothers), since the latter don't just listen to punk bands but were also part of punk bands themselves.

So this is reflected in the way the characters are portrayed, as people who're into the same stuff their authors are or were into. So there's going to be an element of authenticity that the stories at DC and Marvel usually lack, since JH Williams has worked for either one of them before. This may not always be the case but it does make sense why somebody who's into this sort of thing would either homage it or have this sensibility that others lack.

[fortressofserenity]

Between the two

When it comes to Goth cartoonists on the Internet, I feel that while Kai Decadence is one of the first that I got really interested in, it's Arden Wachowski who's the more talented of the two. Generally better sense of anatomy and while their comics aren't always so polished, there's something of an interesting story and angle not commonly found in Anglophone North American comics. As they're Canadian, Cold Hard Teeth is more interesting than say Captain Canuck.

The latter's a Canadian superhero as conceived by actual Canadians, but while the stories he appears in are serviceable, Cold Hard Teeth blows the waters off of it because it's not only more readable but also has a more interesting premise. It's about two musicians who go Goth upon realising that they're monsters, also they're into bands like Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy which makes the Goth angle all the more authentic and sincere. In ways those written by non-Goths don't get immediately.

There's a gulf of difference between something like DC's Black Alice and the characters at Cold Hard Teeth, or for another matter Courtney Gripling's Goth makeover. Courtney being this character from As Told By Ginger, but like I said earlier Gordon's and Tanner's Goth makeover is sincere as their author actually got into Goth punk music at some point and stuck to it. For all its faults, it's really well-written and it's refreshing in a sea of bland superhero stories.

Kai Decadence's stuff tends to be more sexualised, in the sense that he fetishises not only muscular men, but also bodybuilders and it shows in the way he draws cartoon characters. The less is said about his fursona, the better. While Kai Decadence is one of the earliest I got into, Arden Wachowski's better even if their art's not always polished but is at least interesting.

[fortressofserenity]

On Goth characters

When it comes to Goth characters in fiction, there's a difference between them as written by people who're sincerely into this sort of thing and those who are outsiders, despite being informed about it the latter remain outside of the Goth subculture. Something like Cold Hard Teeth is written by someone who's actually into Goth music themselves, especially bands like Bauhaus (a seminal post-punk band), whereas something like the Spinsterella series is written by somebody who knows something about Goth but isn't sincerely into it.

As in from what I recall reading whatever story the character of Matilda Crowley appears in, she doesn't seem to socialise much with other Goths, let alone a male Goth that she becomes the girlfriend of one of the author's self-inserts. Basically and practically a glorified sex fantasy, instead of being a character genuinely rooted in someone's love for Goth music. Cold Hard Teeth differs from the Matilda Crowley stories in that the Goth characters do socialise with one another, none of them come off as sexual fantasies about Goths the way the Matilda Crowley stories do.

Like I said before about the former's author being into Goth-punk bands like Bauhaus that it makes the namesake duo's makeover as a Goth punk band all the more poignant and meaningful, since they started out as a pop music duo called Quiet Dream. I really don't get the impression that Crowley's own author is actually into any Goth band beyond mere appreciation, he seems to like hip hop much more. Not that there's anything wrong with hip hop music, but it does speak volumes about what he's actually passionate about.

He seems far more passionate about superheroes and professional wrestling than they are, which is reflected in the way he writes stories. He even sets up a shared universe not unlike Marvel and DC, which means their influence on him is far bigger and deeper than he realises or something. Cold Hard Teeth's own author is barely into this sort of thing, well not to the same extent as he does which is saying. They may have mentioned a Marvel character like Wolverine in passing, but it's not something that deeply fascinates them.

Superheroes aren't really their thing that much, so that's why Cold Hard Teeth's written the way it is. They're not too particularly beholden to both DC and Marvel, so they don't go out of their way to creating a shared universe a lot. Cold Hard Teeth's better off for it, because it would be really boring if it was more superhero-inspired. The DC and Marvel school of writing might not suit it that well, so it's better off doing its own thing: having musicians realise that they're folkloric monsters.

So there is a gulf between Goth characters written by somebody who's really into this sort of thing and Goth characters written by outsiders, this is the difference between the Cold Hard Teeth duo and almost any Goth character DC and Marvel have. Characters like Nico Minoru sometimes plays into Goth stereotypes, especially when it comes to the self-cutting part to activate her powers or something. It's kind of weird to think that I'm not that depressed as often as my two relatives are, despite the latter being not into Goth punk bands themselves.

But this goes to show you that the Goth sensibility is something else altogether, it's something outsiders don't immediately get. Cold Hard Teeth's characters are legitimately Goth because its author's really into Goth-punk music themself, the same can't be said of Matilda Crowley who seems like her author's idea of a Goth girlfriend no matter how well-informed he is about it as a subculture. So there is a legitimate difference between something made by a Goth and something not made by a Goth, however subtle it may be to outsiders.