dusting off the cobwebs because a friend threw me an idea for a funny comic and i had to draw it. I really cant believe i havent done this joke in the five years i worked on this thing, it seems far too obvious
long long ago, back in 2008, i made a deviant art account and i started sharing my works online. i made the very concious and very deliberate choice back then, to fake it until i made it. every time i posted something, every time i updated my journal, every time i left any kind of note for a potential audience, i would talk with the register and confidence of someone speaking to a huge audience of adoring fans. would apologize for delays, i would advertize big ambitious porjects i had in the works (which i never finished or published). i would explain what i was going for with every work as if i had my dms filled with questions and fan theories.
much of that was me mimicking the style with which pretty much everyone posted at the time in deviant art. i did this when i only had like 4 followers there.
i carried this attitude with me when i came to tumblr and started posting my work here, but it wouldnt find much use until i started my webcomic Disregarding Reality back in 2016. in there, much like i did in deviant art, i would post extensive authors notes explaining my thought process behind every strip, id make announcements, id update people on my schedule, i make big celebrations of milestones achieved and would give tearful gratitudes to my audience for sticking with me all those years. again, i did all this for an audience of probably less than ten people.
a part of me was perfectly aware that this was all theatrics, it was me roleplaying as a famous artist and comic creator, because that had always been my dream, to be recognized for my art. it wasnt even necesarily fame what i was looking for. i was perfectly content to be someone on the same tier as, say, tom sidell or zach morrison or scott dewitt. someone with a well liked webcomic who could feed a relatively small but loyal group of fans that would spurn discussion, analisis and fanart. that was the thing i was looking most of all, praise i can do without, i wanted engagement, i wanted analisis, i wanted the kind of fan interaction that is measured in fan content. i wanted reviews, even bad reviews, it meant people were thinking about my work.
one thing i started with disregarding reality was to make small self contained story arcs, that is where we got mama bird, soft boys, hexen snatch and the begginings of max splosive.
and every time i concluded one of this arcs i would post a giganting wall of text as a sort of retrospective, an after game analisis, where i would explain what i was going for, what inspired me to do this, how was the process of creating the thing and to what degree i succeeded or failed. i did the same for my novel there is a crack in the world.
and is time to do the same for Jenniffer. except this time is special, is it not?
this time i do have an actual, proper audience.
this is no longer theatrics, this is no longer me roleplaying, now there are a significant ammount of people listening.
dreams do come true after all.
in many ways that was the second greatest success of this project. the fact that i actually garnered a following of some kind. to be sure, i doubt there are more than a hundred people who have seen jennyffer, but that is irrelevant to me, i got engagement, i got comments and analisis and fanart, that was all i ever wanted and i got it. i am realized, i am fulfilled.
the actual biggest success of this project id say is the fact that people got me. people truly understood what i was going for. i have heard many analisis of what is art in the last few months, wether there is such a thing as objective criticism of art, what is art for, what is the purpose of art, why we make art. and one position i heard over and over again was that art is not for communication. you know, death of the author and all that, what the creator meant has no bearing on the work and the experience of the work itself.
and yet i cannot help but disagree on some level, because if so what else can i call jennyffer other than an absolute triumph of conveyance. people understood it, time and time again i would see comments where people descrive pointedly, incisively, precisely what i was going for. i felt seen. so in that regard, im going to pin the blue ribbon upon my chest, sorry barthes.
there is a lot more that i want to say about this project, loads and loads. do you have any idea how many easter eggs i hid? how many references? do you know whats the story behind the little dinosaur painting in the therapist office? do you want to know?
well all those questions and more will be answered in the ~JENNYFFER COMMENTARIES~
thats right, every week on my patreon, starting today, ill be posting two videos (thats right TWO) with a director's commentary of a jennyffer episode. so if you want to know all the cool super secret details you can go to my patreon and subscribe, these are going to be patreon exclusive so i wont be releasing them to the public for a long long long time, sorry! i gotta eat!
***
Now i want to end this with a talk about the characters themselves in this story. Jennyffer and Peter.
They are based on many many different things, things that i have descrived many times in the past. but one thing i want to put emphasis on is that they are very much two sides of myself. the sensitive, morally punctillious and enciclopediacly nerdy Peter, and the assertive, sarcastic and ebullient Jenny. those who have known me for a while would have seen my inner peter poke out whenever in talking about some interest of mine, or when i first met them and want to cause a good first impression, or when im kinda tired or melancholic. and they would have also noticed my inner jenny get out whenever im salty, or stuck in debate mode, or excited or enthusiastic.
They are two lovely kids. they are endearing, they are funny, they are a little messy and sometimes a bit too much to handle. but it was an absolute delight and a priviledge to have them live in my head for four years and im very greatful that i had the time, the energy and the will to bring them to life.
now, as they grow old and mature and have to get ready to leave their mother's house for college i do have to let them go, im going to miss them a lot and im sure they will ocassionally come back to visit. but is time for them to do their own think. all i can do is say goodbye and thenk them for letting me tell their story.
The titular Jennyffer from Jennyffer, featuring Jennyffer (and Peter (from Jennyffer)). Had a lot of fun watching this today, but mind the content warnings.
Jennyffer is, of course, a product of Fip Industries (Fipindustries)
(1810)
Notes on my Watch-Through of Jennyffer by F.I.P. Industries
This week I watched the animated webseries Jennyffer, by @fipindustries / Amanda Avila. It’s a short series about an assholeish trans girl in high school, just living life in our silly world. You can watch it on YouTube!
TL;DR: This series is funny, witty, edgy, delightfully absurdist, and full of visual richness, gags, and allusions despite the minimalist style of the drawing and animation. Jennyffer grew on me as I watched it and I definitely think it’s worth the hour or so runtime. There are nine episodes averaging about 4 minutes apiece, plus a few small bonuses.
Fip is a friend of mine so I wrote down my thoughts as I was watching, but I am posting them here (with her approval) in the hope that folks happen to get intrigued and decide to go check it out. I’ve adapted my notes a little bit to make them easier for you to read, but for the most part these are extemporaneous notes speaking directly to Fip.
Indented (“ ---> “) comments are written after I watched the entire series and went back to review my notes.
“TUMBLR PEEPS / TP” comments are additional comments I’ve written for you lovely people on this huggable hellsite. I’ll also give you my overall review and recommendations at the end.
* This post contains spoilers for Jennyffer.
Title Sequence
Very fun! :3
TUMBLR PEEPS: Not very useful for you, I know. Fip is both an illustrator and an animator, and I think this title sequence sets the tone for what she’s aiming for with the series. There’s always a moment of disorientation when stepping into the world of an artist whose style you’re unfamiliar with, but if you hang on it begins to make sense soon enough.
Ep. 1
I appreciate subtle touch of “Panoptic” High School, with the round building, etc. TP: This series is full of background references. It’s one of my favorite things about it.
Lol @ the identical 😮 faces on the pack of Mean Girls in the background.
Wasn’t expecting the confrontation to escalate that hard! 😮😂
----> You don’t really go this hard ever again in the series! Both the shooting and Jennyffer’s primal scream are unique to this episode in their tonal intensity.
LOL @ the Mean Girls actually turning into a pack of feral monsters when their leader falls; unmasked at last!
---> This is a candidate for my favorite single joke in the series just because of how economically and absurdly it encapsulates so much about this trope.
I appreciate that Ashley admitted defeat; that’s cathartic because this (almost) never happens in real life.
TUMBLR PEEPS: When I watched this episode, it came across to me as uneven on the audiovisual production values. Things like Fip’s audio recording setup not being as good as the guest star’s, sound levels being a little imbalanced, etc. I would encourage you not to be scared off by that! Although it doesn’t completely go away over the series, it does improve a lot, and in any case it doesn’t interfere with the storytelling or worldbuilding basically at all. I wanted to lampshade this because I know some people nope out of a series if the production values aren’t AAA. Give this one a chance!
Ep. 2
I appreciate that Mom is trying her best.
---> To build on this point, I appreciate that it’s true to life for many trans kids whose parents are willing to accept them when they come out, but don’t really know “how.”
TUMBLR PEEPS: That’s my only note for the entire episode, lol. This episode is probably my least favorite in the series. Fip’s style of humor is very much old-school Simpsons in that it keeps dropping joke after joke; so you’re always smiling because even if one joke doesn’t land there’s another one coming up in a few seconds. This episode is different in that it’s basically one joke that gets hit over and over again. And since it’s a joke that doesn’t land for me, it’s kind of forgettable. (When I was preparing this post for Tumblr I was like "Why did I only write one sentence for Episode 2?" And then I went back and realized why as soon as I saw the thumbnail.) This is my most negative criticism of the entire series. In my opinion, things get significantly better from here!
Ep. 3
RIP his Gains 🤣🤣🤣
Lol, and they still win the big cup! 💪🎀
---> I appreciate the continuity on these jock girls later in the series.
You have a great sense for comedic layering of different jokes operating on different wavelengths happening close together or even at the same time. (That’s more of a sense from everything I’ve seen so far than just this specific episode, but it stood out to me when Jennyffer’s friend Peter gets his lights punched out just as a side gag.)
---> I originally wrote “when Jennyffer’s friend gets his lights punched out…” here because I couldn’t make out Peter’s name whenever you first introduced it. I am hard of hearing and the audio mixing, especially in the earlier episodes, is a little low at points. One frequent constructive criticism I have for people is to make sure that dialogue is sharp / non-mumbly on the soundtrack, otherwise people like me get lost, especially with names and proper nouns.
---> (I hope that isn’t an unwelcome criticism. A friend of mine just started a new podcast, and he had this same issue on his soundtrack. He got so upset when I gave him this feedback, because of course the reasons we do things are often not closely connected to the things we do, and I realized too late that he was doing this podcast for validation and self-empowerment, so it turned out that he wasn’t in the mood for constructive feedback at all. But that's about the only kind of substantive feedback I know how to offer. So I hope you understand my intent isn’t to shoot down your work; I’d just like to be able to hear it better. You got better with this as the series went on, but I think there’s still room for improvement.)
Ep. 4
That is some Grade A, all-natural, free-range School Counseling for sure. I have a hard time dealing with this shit in the media (including in this comic) because I’m already rubbed so raw at the dysfunction of systems (in this case the healthcare system) that are supposed to help (and which I very much want to support in principle) and I just don’t have much resiliency left to deal even with fictional accounts of it.
I think the Mean Girls are my favorite background part of this series so far. They come across as (tragically) true-to-life, and your depiction of them is just utterly unapologetic. Going so hard on that is what makes it work.
---> I’m also just weirdly fascinated by Mean Girls, so I love the attention you give them here. I guess they live in a tonal space that’s fairly close down the block to the tonalities of the types of female characters I tend to like to write. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to push Mean Girls off a cliff when they’re actually Being Mean, but in terms of the “vibe” there’s something I find compelling about it.
I think it makes your work a lot more real that you’re willing and able to illustrate the transphobic worldview as a fact of life among many people and the background cultural default in society, with all of the transphobic jokes and wrong pronouns etc. that this entails. I see a lot of queer artists choose not to do so, probably in some cases because they can’t (see my comment above about not having much resilience myself to put up with systemic dysfunction in fiction). The willingness and ability to be able to do this is the difference between art that is capable of also being subversively realistic (among its other qualities) versus art that is limited to being escapist or revisionist. It’s always empowering to be able to depict “the enemy,” in whatever guise they might take.
I’d never heard of Hannah Daigle, but since the Credits told me I need to go look up Satina, I looked it up, and wow! Going by her subscriber count, that’s a pretty big get!
3’44” This isn’t even half the true power of high school students and their superability to befoul school bathrooms. 😭😭😭
Ep. 5
For a minute there it seemed like things were going well. Too well. One thing about a series this ruthlessly cynical is that the expectation that “Nothing Good Will Happen and Nothing Good That Does Happen Can Be Kept” sets expectations for the other shoe to drop (indeed, many an other shoe).
3’15” Just the one cat ear up as she’s leaning in and talking secretively…great attention to detail! This is something I often notice with illustrators who get into animation (as opposed to artists who go directly into animation). So many details in virtually every frame! Both in support of the story and simply there for environmental embellishment. (Like the rose that hasn’t bloomed yet.) I can only imagine how many references I’m missing! TP: Seriously, I love the depth of subtle background references in this series!! I’m not calling out most of them in these notes, but they’re a constant presence in the background of the story.
She [the tutor] got there! Yep. As soon as it occurred to me to notice that the rose hadn’t bloomed yet, I knew how this one was ending. 😏
Ep. 6
* breaks computer *
MOM: "You know you don’t have to break your computer every time I come into your room, right?"
🤔🤔🤔
But seriously, that’s what I’m talking about when I say you have a great sense of comedic layering. It’s also a good example of something I haven’t articulated yet, which is that your comedic style is ultra sharp and punchy. It’s so economical, so efficient! It goes really hard with minimalist support, and, in my experience with other creators’ work, that only works for people who have a genuine gift for being funny. I think this is one of your strongest suits as a potential entertainment creator, and you could potentially develop it as a possible pathway to get noticed / get bigger.
---> This is a skill I could only dream of. I’d like to think I have a good sense of humor and can be funny not infrequently, but I need way more words to do it than you do, and my efforts are rarely as clean.
Lol, Jennyffer is the true master of the schoolyard. I appreciate the continuity from Episode 3. TP: When I was writing my notes during my watch-through, this is the comment where I realized “Oh no! I haven’t been checking to see if I’m writing ‘Jennyffer’ with two Fs!” I was like “Did Fip do that just to catch people who aren’t paying close attention?” And I figured, probably not! But I went back and made sure I got all my spellings right, and corrected a previous erroneous instance of it, and tried not to mess it up again going forward. I hate to get names wrong, especially when it’s the title of the goddamn series, lol.
That first stringer chord was great. Then I stopped noticing the next few. Then the ones after that actively grated on me. I get what you were going for (I think), but it didn’t work for me.
That confrontation with Dad went surprisingly well!! I was prepared for (and about halfway-expecting) this conversation with Peter’s dad to go in a much darker direction. <3
Interlude
0’39” That Whale is TOO CUTE omg :3333
---> Seriously, that Whale is the cutest friggin’ whale on the planet. Too wholesome for this world; too pure! <3333
Happy Birthday, Jennyffer! So sweet. I think it’s important for cynical works to have moments like these. I mean, that’s just my opinion, but it really humanizes the work, I think, which makes it easier to connect with and perceive as “real” in the sense of reflecting reality as opposed to being a purely stylized fiction.
TUMBLR PEEPS: I just want to emphasize that point. If you’re writing a work that’s heavily cynical, I would suggest that, unless you’re going for a very specific stylistic effect, a few moments of wholesomeness here and there, where you’re willing to let characters care about things and not get punished for it, is really important to adding depth to the story and humanizing the people in it.
Ep. 7
1’09” “No, that’s not how that works.” 😂 The deadpan here (and really through the whole series on this same joke) is so good. This kind of straight-man (figuratively speaking of course) reaction to an insane world is pure 😒😒😒, and 😒 is one of my favorite forms of absurdism. TP: This is in reference to a joke about how cis people sometimes misgender trans people because they just flat-out do not understand gender or queerness.
Also, can I just say, I’ve been noticing it for a few episodes, and I have no clue what it’s called, if it’s called anything, but I absolutely love Jennyffer’s ridiculously high and short ponytail. I wish we saw this hairstyle more in real life, because I always love it when I see it, but in American culture anyway it’s usually played as a joke / a sign of somebody who isn’t being serious. Then again, maybe that’s exactly the point with Jennyffer wearing it; I could see that being a decision she’d make. So maybe its mockédness and unpopularity are exactly why I get to see it here?! 🤔
2’40” lol, I am delight. TP: You’re a rotter, Mister Grinch…
That ending! 🤣 Yep. Jennyffer is chaotic neutral for sure, and a USDA Prime goofball.
---> I think this was the tipping point where I basically started liking Jennyffer as a character and identifying with her / rooting for her to succeed. It often takes time for characters to build on me, especially cynical assholes. (I have a hard time with cynicism despite having devolved into a cynic myself from my many years of woe.) And coming around on Jennyffer basically meant this was the point where I came around on the whole series. I certainly hadn’t disliked it at any point, but I originally came to watch it because you had recommended it to me and as a friend I wanted to check out your work, and not because I was actively seeking it out for its own sake. But now I think I can say I like it on its own merits.
A personal anecdote: In this episode, there is a moment where Jennyffer gets the wind taken out of her sails over the crotch bulge in her bathing suit and how it is making other people uncomfortable, and, instead of fighting or being an asshole about it, she is defeated and retreats. A very rare moment for her in the entire series, and thus a potent illustration of how humiliating it can be to be the target of bigotry. I love the creative decision that was made to play it this way. I can sort of relate to this issue in my own way. When I was a kid I never swam in public without a t-shirt on, because, for me, my attraction to fat is a sexual orientation which has been with me my whole life, even before I adolesced and understood it as a “sexual” thing. So as a kid I was always super sensitive to being perceived as fat. And I had a big ol’ round belly my whole life, not even because I was actually overweight as a kid (I mostly wasn't) but because I’m just shaped that way. I am convex at all weights. And I was very embarrassed about it! So, in my childhood memory, public pools were always a minefield of me trying to have fun versus trying not to be humiliated. Also, I couldn’t swim until I was like 12 or something, so that was embarrassing too, and I tried to fake it by splashing around in the 4’ zone.
Ep. 8
1’43” Glam!! Even cynical dystopic trans girls aren’t immune from the siren song of the shutter and flashbulb! That jacket is sweet, too! I love that look.
This is the second time you had a chance to completely change the tonality of the series into something way darker because of a scary father figure, and this time I genuinely didn’t know what would happen. But I’m glad it turned out this way, not only because it’s totally one of the many different reactions that are true-to-life among real-world parents but which don’t get highlighted as often as the more awful scenarios, but also because I just really struggle with grimdark stuff and I kinda just want everyone in this series to turn out okay. <3
Also: John Jingleheimer, eh? (Jennyffer Jingleheimer, lolol!) So, if Peter’s dad is named Jacob Schmitz, then I totally see what you’ve done. I’m pretty sure their family name is Schmitz (right??), but I don’t remember what episode(s) I got that from. I went back and watched Ep. 6 but his name is not mentioned. I personally appreciate all the J names in Jennyffer’s family. 😏
Stingers at the end of episodes really suit this series’ style! I found myself explicitly missing them in the beginning of the series. I’m glad they found their way to you.
7’06” The happiest we’ve ever seen her, 😂! 💖 (Give or take the birthday episode.) I just wrote that same moment in Galaxy Federal a few nights ago. (Cherry’s parents get her a spazer after she sneaks out one time and is gone all night.)
I appreciate the clearer-to-read credits at the end as the series has gone on. I had decided in the early episodes that I wasn’t going to criticize the original cursive because I kind of hate it that we live in a world where we can’t have nice / bespoke / Weird things because people always want something easier / more convenient / more accessible (I’m still upset they killed the big clock a block away from my apartment, whose chimes had been a charming part of living here; I’m sure it was because of “noise” complaints). So, since they weren't a content accessibility issue the way, say, the sound levels were at the start of the series, I was actually rooting for your cursive credits to never give up! Let the people struggle to read them! Long live the glory of the impenetrable! It would be very much in Jennyffer’s spirit for her credits to be totally unreadable if she were to make an animated series herself. Oh well! With legible credits I win and lose at the same time.
Ep. 9
Love the comment at 6’57” (from somebody who had written that your series is doing work to advance trans acceptance in society). I think there’s some truth to that, too. A lot of people can only come around on issues of acceptance by being introduced to it through the humor of this sort. More medicinal / academic / intellectual approaches don’t work on them at all.
April Fool’s
Caramelldansen!! A Desert Bus classic. I watch this every year! They’re both doing it right. Lol, Jennyffer is the best; it’s like Fate has put her in this skit so she has to do the dance, and she hates it, but she also secretly loves it.
I love seeing them in color.
Also, “Episode 10, Part 1,” lolol. Beware scope creep! 😂
Final Thoughts
Like I said in the TL;DR, this series is funny, witty, edgy, delightfully absurdist, and visually rich. It packs a lot into a small space.
Fip is freakishly smart, has a lot of insight and perspective to offer as an artist, executes on her concepts well, and has a distinctive style all her own. This, together with her artistic talents, makes her art very approachable, very easy to enjoy once you settle into it. On a more personal note, Fip has been the most supportive person I know here on Tumblr. I am inexpressibly grateful for the work she has done to try and boost my own art, and it is an honor to have the chance to offer something like that to her in return. She works hard to get her work noticed without being spammy about it, and deserves more attention than she gets, so I hope at least one (and preferably more than one!) person reads my notes here and checks out her work. It’s very important for small artists to support each other, and moreover it’s an honor to support a friend.
Go check out Jennyffer! I went into it with an open mind and no expectations, and I enjoyed the ride, and came away liking the series. You can also see more of Fip’s art on her alt account, @unbeknownsttomen.
some random sketches! im really loving having post it notes, there is something so satisfying about having these little neat squares to do 1 (one) little sketch on
the first four are character for a project from @syngirl which shes still working on and she was kind enough to let me see early drafts of!
the second is a little jenny sketch i had to do for reasons that will become clear son enough
