Month: March 2023

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Interview with Photographer Shaun Simpson

G’day! I’m Shaun Simpson, a nerdy photographer from Halifax, Nova Scotia – on the East Coast of Canada; my preferred pronouns are he/him. 🙂 I can be found @ShaunTheShooter on most platforms, or via my social links site at: http://shauntheshooter.ca/

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Thanks! Quickly summarized, I’m just a hardcore geek with a camera. My fandoms generally include anything Star Trek, Star Wars, Marvel or DC. I love reading comics – especially anything Tom Taylor writes – watching anime (BNHA, Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, Death Note, etc.), and I’m heavy into IRL science geekery as well.

When it comes to photography, I shoot just about everything from landscapes to portraits, although I’m probably most known for my fitness and cosplay photography.

Cosplayer Michael Hamm (@hammy73) as Wiccan http://patreon.com/michaelhamm

Since Geeks OUT is a queer centered website, could you tell us a bit about how your projects relate to the LGBTQ+ community?

For starters, I’m gay (demi/ace) and massively introverted, but photography has always given me an easy way to experience life from a more comfortable perspective. I love Pride events but being solo in the crowds was always a little anxiety inducing. As a photographer I could shoot the events from the sidelines, put the camera down when I wanted to be social, then I’d start shooting again when I needed to retreat. Since starting in photography I’ve shot numerous Pride events, drag performers and performances, and even worked on a few 2SLGBTQIA+ TV/films productions.

Growing up in a conservative small town, when I was coming out a comment I heard often was a variation of “Gay, why? Women are hot, guys are gross.” – so, when my photography started evolving from just shooting nature and landscapes, I made an effort to show that men, and masculine energy, could be beautiful, sensual, and artistic too.

Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to shoot a few cosplays of characters representing the 2SLGBTQIA+ community as well; seeing this inclusive evolution of comic book storytelling has been ridiculously inspiring!

Drag Artist Crystal (@crystal.will.see.you.now): https://instagram.com/crystal.will.see.you.now

How would you describe your creative process? Are there any methods you use to help better your concentration or progress?

Being self-taught in photography and post-production, I took the long way around and trial-and-errored my way into developing a creative process and style.

I digitally develop the photographs in Lightroom, then I load them into Photoshop. I created a Photoshop Action that runs about 60 steps to prepare the image, then I start the retouching process, compositing backgrounds, and adding effects. I have a strict policy of not manipulating a model’s body, but everything else is fair game for my post-production work; my final shots rarely resemble the straight from camera look, even for portraits and headshots.

Work on shots for models/cosplayers tends to be inspired by the people I’m working with; the more I connect and vibe with them, the easier it is for me to focus my creative energy. I think of it the same way as when actors talk about feeding from the energy of a live audience. Some people give that muse-like energy that feeds my creativity – they end up in front of my camera as often as I can book them for a shoot.

When I’m having a creative block, I force myself into doing small steps. Loading the images in Photoshop, completing one simple step no matter how small – just adjusting the cropping and rotation, just fixing a costume imperfection, just selecting a background. Once I get that one step finished, if I don’t feel the creativity flowing, I give myself permission to call it quits for the night, then I try again tomorrow.

Cosplayer Dan Morash (@danmorashcosplay) as Robin https://instagram.com/danmorashcosplay

What’s something you haven’t done as a photographer that you’d like to do?

I’d love to be able to travel and take my best friend with me to do epic location shoots – from luxurious NYC Penthouses, black-sanded beaches in Iceland, castles in Europe, to ancient forests in Japan; the logistics would be complex, but the memories would last a lifetime.

I’d like to travel to comic conventions to shoot as well. There are so many talented cosplayers around the world that I’ve connected with over the years; it’d be great to finally get to collaborate on a shoot together.

Model/Activist Myles Sexton (@mylessexton): https://instagram.com/mylessexton

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

Chasing likes and follows, trying to be the best photographer in my genre – it’s a fun challenge, but it isn’t sustainable for me; algorithms change, one minute you’re on top, and the next you’re buried below a thousand posts. Those goals weren’t motivating, and the self-applied pressure to constantly grow my audience was just pushing me into hardcore burnout.

I eventually realized, even if I paid to promote a post, the only ‘like’ I watched for was from the person I created the image with; if that person liked the shot, then I’d be happy, and if they say my work has been helpful, in any way – it’s the best feeling. What really motivates and sustains me creatively, as cheesy as it sounds, is the time I get to spend creating art with my friends. Creating something with the potential to be more than just a simple photograph; creating something filled with meaning or value, that’s the goal.

Do you do most of your photography shoots in your area? Or do you travel some?

Mostly just shooting in my area these days. I’d love to travel more for both nature and cosplay/fitness photography, but so far that opportunity hasn’t been readily accessible; maybe someday!

Cosplayer Jeremy M. (@jshrall) as Zero Suit Samus https://instagram.com/jshrall

Besides cosplayers, what other subject matter do you work with?

I love finding and capturing beauty in all its forms! I’ll happily shoot pretty much anything – from landscapes and wildlife, to fitness and fashion, and everything in between, with the exception of Weddings – too much pressure, I leave that to the pros.

Are there any new projects you are currently working on and are at liberty to speak about?

A lot of my studio work is dependent on model/cosplayer availability, which is always a bit of a moving target, but I do have a few fun new cosplay and creative shoots in the works; some new and familiar faces, stay tuned! 😉

Fitness Model Kyle Hynick (@kyle.hynick) https://instagram.com/kyle.hynick

Aside from photography, what do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Besides photography, and my day job in the IT world, my free time is mostly spent being a professional introvert. I had a little brain surgery mishap years ago that left me with a permanent CSF leak/headache, so I tend to spend a fair amount of my time chilling online, at home. You can usually find me in front of my computer playing in Photoshop, at the gym, and catching up on shows or talking about comics with my friends.

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet, but wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)?

People often make comments, assuming the best part of a photographer’s job is just getting to work with ‘hot’ models. Most everyone enjoys a bit of eye candy, but for me the best part of the job is the conversation that happens during the shoots. Photographer Annie Leibovitz was quoted saying “When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I’d like to know them.” – I find that relatable, I’m a thoroughbred introvert, so it’s sometimes hard to make new connections, but the camera helps with that. The camera creates a connection and also a safety barrier, but as cheesy as it sounds, after a really good shoot, when I put the camera down, I find I’m no longer talking to just a model or a client, but a new friend.

Cosplayer Michael Hamm (@hammy73) as Superman (Jonathan Kent) http://patreon.com/michaelhamm

Finally, what LGBTQ crafters or creators would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

If you know my work, you almost certainly know my best friend, cosplayer and content creator extraordinaire, the iconic Michael Hamm (@Hammy73 & @Michael.Hamm.Cosplay on Insta). I’ve worked with Michael on dozens of fitness, fashion, and cosplay shoots over the past decade; check out his Patreon, where most of our work together lives at https://michaelhamm.ca/

Big shoutout to my nightly entertainment while editing photos, the phenomenal Twitch variety streamer Loganolio, and his wonderfully inclusive community. http://loganolio.com/

Highly recommend checking out the inspiring work of my friend Akshay Tyagi, a remarkably talented stylist, and co-creator of the new fashion label Happiness Within. http://happinesswithin.ca/

And things wouldn’t be complete without adding my dearest friend (and ex-), the ineffable James Neish to the list – creativity personified; a talented comic book artist, painter, and illustrator. http://jamesneish.com

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Rebelle Re-views: ‘Supernatural’ and the Road to Positive Masculinity

This past Fall I was hot off of working at NYCC and in the mood to indulge in the impending spooky season by deciding it was time to revisit Supernatural. I had watched the series initially as it was airing, but at some point along the way I fell off – something happened in 2020, can’t remember what – and I never saw how it all wrapped up. Enter a large bottle of red wine and a hankering for some classic rock and monsters and I was off on each new case riding passenger in that iconic 1967 Chevy Impala with Sam and Dean Winchester. It’s a long and windy road, full of lore and monsters, of course, deals with the devil/s, and gripes with God. It repeatedly asks us to define and redefine what it means to be family and how far is too far when it comes to our obligations to them

What I loved most about the show in the Before Times was its ability to not take itself so seriously. For all the horror and anxieties the Winchesters’ face there is levity and straight-up silliness in equal measure. It’s that kind of harmony that seemed to keep viewers tuning in for fifteen seasons. That’s not to say that Supernatural is without its foibles. The blatant misogyny and treatment of women, particularly in early seasons, is cringy in the best of circumstances and the well-documented history of queerbaiting in later seasons leaves much to be desired and disappointed by. And none of that should come as a surprise. Of the 16 executive producers of the show, only two were women. With a majority of the creative team or the team with the money making the decisions being white, cis, (presumably) straight men whose views of the world center around being centered, you can typically kiss nuance goodbye.

Over the 15 years Supernatural was on air, technology and the internet developed at a rapid velocity and conversations around gender, equity, and justice went through dramatic shifts. It was interesting to see how Supernatural, a show with all-American, blue-collar protagonists assembled with stereotypical “masculine” bits and bobs like a shoot first talk later attitude and predilections for vintage cars, brown booze, and babes would navigate waters that put their own identities as saviors into question. Horror as a genre is predicated on facing our greatest fears about who we are as a society and as individuals. Whether it’s the fear of our capacity for profound evil or the realization of how helpless we really are in the face of a ruthless and unruly natural world we have a lot to be afraid about and much to reckon with. 

Supernatural never shied away from confronting what happens when one becomes the monster. The brothers Winchester went to Hell and back at such a dizzying rate it was hard at times to keep storylines straight. Excuses for delving into monsterdom typically centered on the brothers’ codependent dynamic, where everything was done for each other but was never what either of them wanted. With all the abandonment, parentification, and exposure to significant trauma from such young ages it makes sense that the idea of letting someone you love make decisions for themselves and then respecting them even if you don’t agree would be terrifying. If facing homicidal ghosts, demons, and any number of creatures that go bump in the night wasn’t frightening enough, the possibility of having to face them alone can be even more so. 

Jared Padalecki as Sam and Jensen Ackles as Dean in ‘Supernatural’ formerly on The CW

What is further compelling about the show is that it doesn’t always fall into the rugged, lone wolf trope that it easily could have. Though positioned as the heroes of the series, Sam and Dean Winchester are rarely without and people (human and supernatural alike) who become chosen family. Like the monsters they set out to hunt, they are also people living on the margins of society. Sometimes it’s hard to reconcile whether they are on the margins by choice as vigilantes with their privileges and abilities to “pass” helping them hop in and out of the human world as they deem appropriate or if they are in denial by the privileges they have so they can prolong any acceptance of what makes them the same or similar to those they claim to be protecting the world from.

Monsters and supernatural beings are never just that in this genre. Historically, they are coded as the pariahs and scapegoats of society: Jews, women, queer people. Those that are deemed by “civilized” Christian society to have been born with a darkness inside, that are clearly the cause of all the world’s problems and must be destroyed. Much of the representations of these monsters we see and read about in modern media stem from these medieval Christian prejudices and justifications for continued acts of violence toward the marginalized members of their societies. In Supernatural we see Sam and Dean struggle with this time and time again. Though not explicitly Christian in nature, there are many references to stories and figures from Judaism including, my personal favorite, the scribing archangel with chutzpah larger than their human vessel Metatron, the heavy focus on the battle between heaven and hell and what it takes to get into either is straight up New Testament. 

Other aspects of strict Christian dogma are the “traditional” ideas of who people are allowed to love and how as well as the rigid expectations of the roles of men and women. Though beginning to change now, that worldview has and still is dominant in the stories that are put forth for audiences to consume. Supernatural falls in line in many ways, but also breaks a significant mold. I can’t recall many shows, if any, that showed young men having relationships that included affection, vulnerability, and desire and willingness to try and set things right with each other, even if imperfectly. Sam and Dean heart-to-hearts, typically taking place in the aforementioned Impala, are a common occurrence episode to episode. When something is on their mind or they are in disagreement they don’t succumb to patriarchy-approved “male” behaviors like, beating the shit out of each other or challenging each other to some sportsing thing. They talk it out (or sometimes in Dean’s case, gruffly yells). Their attempts at communicating, of wanting to be heard and get the other to open up is a stark contrast to the societal messaging that the only emotion acceptable for men to express, regardless of everyone who ends up paying for it, is anger and if anything else arises it must be immediately shut down.

Misha Collins as Castiel, Jensen Ackles as Dean, and Jared Padalecki as Sam in ‘Supernatural.’ Photo Credit Diyah Pera/The CW

To see men engage in and explore more of their emotional worlds with each other and develop intimacy based on mutual respect rooted in partnership rather than the more normalized form of male bonding over the humiliation and degradation of women, gender expansive and queer folks feels like a breath of fresh air. So much so that in the devastating scene when Castiel tells Dean he loves him mere moments before his end it feels so loaded that it’s almost jarring. Not simply because this scene, in particular, evokes the queer-coded nature of the #Destiel relationship and the accusations against the creators of queerbaiting all the way  to the “bury-your-gays” trope, but also because it still feels incredibly rare to see men look at each other and express a deep and heartfelt “I love you.” And I wish that was more normalized. 

As a culture we’re in the uncomfortable and frightening moment of reactionary backlash toward conversations we’ve been having about gender, Me Too, CRT, and basic human rights. It’s to be expected that the more inclusive and free from norms and binaries people inherently realize they are, the more threatened people who have not gotten there yet or who benefit from keeping people in particular positions will be. And those struggles are quite apparent in Supernatural as creators tried with some success and definitely big failures to navigate a fan base more in touch with their identities who could bring more insight into characters and their relationship dynamics than the creators possibly anticipated. The struggle to be a person, or supernatural being, or god-like entity is real. For all its missteps, oversights, and messy plot lines, in the end Supernatural is a story about the consequences of our actions, the obstacles we’re able to overcome when we make sure to have a little fun and don’t take ourselves too seriously, and the wild ride life becomes when we find those people we want to go to Hell and back with. Carry on. 

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Interview with Cartoonist Melanie Gillman

Melanie Gillman is a cartoonist and illustrator who specializes in LGBTQ books for kids and teens. They are the creator of the Stonewall Honor Award–winning graphic novel As the Crow Flies and Stage Dreams. In addition to their graphic novel work, they teach in the comics MFA program at California College of the Arts.

I had the opportunity to interview Melanie, which you can read below.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

I’m a cartoonist who specializes in queer spec fic and colored pencil art!

What can you tell us about your latest book, Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales? What inspired the collection?

A lot of the stories in Other Ever Afters originated as 24-hour comics! I’ve been participating in 24-hour comic day every year since 2016. I started drawing romantic queer fairy tale comics every year in part because I love the genre (and if you’re drawing comics for yourself, there’s no reason not to be as self-indulgent as possible about it), and in part, because fairy tales are short! It’s a good storytelling format for something you want to be able to get done in a weekend.

What drew you to storytelling, particularly to the comics medium? Were there any favorite writers or stories that sparked your own love and interest in storytelling?

I’ve always been an avid reader and writer, but I didn’t really fall in love with comics until college when I started stumbling across webcomics. In my early years, I was reading a lot of webcomics by people like Der-Shing Helmer, E.K. Weaver, Kate Beaton, and Lucy Knisley (who are all still active today and doing great work) – as well as any graphic novels I could scrounge up at my local library, which at the time was not a lot!

How would you describe your creative process?

It’s an everyday process for me!  I have set hours every day where I’m writing and drawing.  It might not sound very romantic, but I’m a strong believer in schedules and habit-building – it’s the best way to make steady progress on your creative work.

What are some of your favorite elements of writing/drawing? What are some of the most challenging?

I love the colored pencil process! (And you really have to love colored pencils to work with them at all, they’re slow and labor-intensive as hell.) Coloring is the stage where I can turn on audiobooks and really get into the zone for hours – it’s hard work, but it’s also meditative and relaxing in a way.

Scripting is often the most challenging part of the process for me – but only because I have a serious perfectionist streak as a storyteller, so it’s easy to get worked up second-guessing even really tiny decisions along the way. When you know you’ve gotten something right though, it’s a high like nothing else.

As a creative, who or what would you say are some of your greatest creative/artistic influences and sources of inspiration?

Outside of comics, I tend to read a lot of history and biology nonfiction, and that definitely worms its way into my comics in a lot of ways, even if most of it stays below the surface. I also will never ever pass up opportunities to visit weird niche local museums and historical sites and have gained a lot of valuable insight from that over the years, too. I think it’s a good thing for storytellers to be curious about the world around them, and to be lifelong students in whatever fields naturally appeal to them. Learning is the compost that good stories grow from – it’s never a wasted effort.

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)?

I rarely get asked about acting in comics, but it’s one of my favorite aspects of the medium!  Comics have a lot of overlap with theater – you can think of every graphic novel as being a one-man show in a way, with the cartoonist performing every role. If you want to get better at this part of the craft, besides the obvious stuff (practice!), as silly as it sounds, I genuinely think it helps to listen to a lot of musicals and sing along. It’s a way to train your brain to mimic professional actors’ expressions and body language in a ton of wildly different roles, and to feel those movements in your own body. Also, as a bonus, this is something you can do while drawing your comics, so you’re sort of doubling up on your practice there.

Besides your work, what are some things you would want readers to know about you?

I’ve gotten majorly into foraging as a pandemic hobby – if you ever want someone who can talk your ear off about eating acorns or wild mushrooms or the various tasty weeds that grow in people’s yards, I’m your guy. On any given day, if I’m not drawing comics, I’m probably neck-deep in a bramble somewhere, filling up a container with blackberries.

Are there any other projects you are working on and at liberty to speak about?

Most of my forthcoming books haven’t been announced yet, sadly! But I can say I’m working on a lot of horror lately, which has been a ton of fun.

What advice might you have to give to other aspiring graphic novelists, whether illustrators and/or writers?

For writers: practice drawing your scripts. Comics is a visual medium, and there are very important lessons about comics storytelling you won’t learn without drawing.  Even if all you can draw is stick figures, do that! You’ll become a much better comics storyteller and a much better collaborator the more you do this.

For artists: you already know a lot about writing, even if you don’t think you do. There are a lot of people out there who seem to have this funny idea that comic artists are not also writers, but those people are wrong. I don’t think you can teach yourself how to draw comics without also learning a whole lot about how to write them. Approach this industry with the confidence that you are a visual storyteller with a full grasp of the medium, not a partial grasp.

Finally, what LGBTQ+ books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

We’re incredibly lucky to be living in a time where we’ve got a wealth of queer comics out in the world to read, with more being published every year! If you enjoyed Other Ever Afters and want to read more fairy tale comics with a queer perspective, two books I would strongly recommend are The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen and The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang.

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Retro Gay-Mer: LGBT Representation in Games Pre-2003!

CW: Discussions of violence, homophobia, transphobia

What is Retro? This post has made me feel old. When I was a child, Atari was Retro. I remember when the first Nintendo Entertainment System came out. I remember excitedly saving up money from farm work to buy a Super NES Bundle with Super Mario Allstars. We are now closer in time to the Playstation 3 than to …. So, since I had to pick a time frame to work with, I picked twenty years (to make the math easy). This list is not exhaustive, as I unfortunately do not have unlimited time to play retro games. Also, one of my favorite games of all times “The Longest Journey” will likely have a future article dedicated to it, and so isn’t mentioned below. Also, there was a game I found from Atari from 1982 called ‘Custer’s Revenge’ which is super messed up, racist, violent, sexist but not specifically anti-LGBT so it didn’t make the list, but definitely avoid it.

The representation of LGBTQ+ characters in video games has come a long way in recent years, but there was a time when the portrayal of queer characters in video games was scarce, problematic, or nonexistent. In this blog post, we will take a look at the five best and five worst video games for LGBTQ+ representation before 2003, including canonically queer characters, queer coded characters, and fan theories about whether characters are queer.

The Best

5. The Sims (2000)

“Apartment via Sims” by spaceninja is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

The Sims is a life simulation video game that allows players to create and control their own characters and houses. The game was groundbreaking for its time as it was one of the first games to include same-sex relationships. The game’s developers did not make a big deal out of the inclusion of same-sex relationships, but it was a significant step forward for LGBTQ+ representation in video games. The newest version of The Sims allows character customization including top surgery scars.

4. Fallout 2 (1998)

“Fallout 2” by Eat your greens! is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Fallout 2 is a post-apocalyptic role-playing game that is set in the year 2241. The game features a character named Angela Bishop, who is a sex worker in the game’s fictional city of New Reno. Angela Bishop is a lesbian character, and the game allows the player to have a romantic relationship with her. Of course, Fallout has largely continued this trend with in-game romance and character customization.

3. Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000)

“Baldurs Gate 2 Ingame” by ap0c42 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn is a role-playing game that features a character named Haer’Dalis, who is a bard and a member of the game’s main cast. Haer’Dalis is a bisexual character, and the game allows the player to have a romantic relationship with him. The Baldur’s Gate series is amazing for classic Dungeons and Dragons RPG play. Definitely worth checking out.

2. EarthBound (1994)

“Earthbound Rocks!!!” by AntMan3001 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

EarthBound is a Japanese role-playing game that was released in North America in 1995. The game features a character named Tony, who is heavily implied to be gay. Tony is a non-playable character, but he is an essential character in the game’s storyline. Even if you haven’t played EarthBound, you likely will recognize the protagonist from Super Smash Bros.

  1. Final Fantasy VII (1997)
“Final Fantasy VII [BG]” by Precision GFX is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

If you’re an RPG fan and haven’t played this game all the way through, and you didn’t grow up in a cellar in Indiana like the Unstoppable Kimmy Schmidt, then please stop reading and immediately go find a copy. 

Final Fantasy VII is a Japanese role-playing game that features a character named Cloud who is the protagonist of the game. The game’s storyline is complicated, but one of the most interesting aspects of the game is the character Barret Wallace, who is a Black man with a gun for an arm and is heavily implied to be in a relationship with another male character named Dyne.

The Worst

5. Street Fighter II (1991)

“Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix 2” by gamerscoreblog is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Street Fighter II is a fighting game that features a character named Vega, who is queer coded. Vega is a flamboyant character who wears a mask and is obsessed with his appearance. The character’s design and behavior have been criticized for perpetuating harmful stereotypes about LGBTQ+ people, particularly those who identify as gender non-conforming or flamboyant. As much as I loved playing this game as a kid on SNES, looking back it was clearly harmful.

4. Final Fight (1989)

“Final Fight Poster” by Wootang01 is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

Final Fight is a side-scrolling beat ’em up game that was released in 1989. The Japanese version of the game was initially intended to feature a character named Poison, a drag queen who would be a member of the game’s antagonist gang. However, the character was changed to a cisgender woman in the North American release of the game due to concerns about the portrayal of a Queer character in a violent game. After further controversy about violence towards women, the game developer noted that the character was trans and therefore the arguments had no merit. The developers have gone back and forth multiple times on this. This decision has been criticized for perpetuating harmful stereotypes about transgender people and erasing their representation in video games. In later releases of the game, Poison was eventually revealed to be a transgender woman, but the controversy surrounding her original portrayal still remains. 

This one despite the controversy has been reclaimed to some degree in recent years and generated a fan favorite Cosplay at conventions, with folks of all genders dressing as the character.

“FanimeCon 2010 Cell Phone Photo Bonus! Poison and Andore from ‘Final Fight’!” by raider3_anime is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

3. Vendetta (1991)

Vendetta, also known as Crime Fighters 2, is a side-scrolling beat ’em-up game that was released in 1991. The game features a stereotypical gay enemies in leather who attack the player by humping and licking. The enemy does the same thing if the player is knocked to the ground. Obviously, this is problematic for multiple reasons and feeds into the harmful rhetoric of LGBTQ people as predators.

  1. Leather Goddesses of Phobos (1986) 
“Leather Goddesses of Phobos, Ages 9+” by Travis Goodspeed is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Leather Goddesses of Phobos is an interactive fiction game that was released in 1986. The game features offensive jokes and stereotypes about LGBTQ+ people, including jokes about gay conversion therapy and cross-dressing. The game’s portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters was harmful and insensitive. The game is rated for ages 9+.

  1. Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (1987)
“leisure suit larry collection” by patrick h. lauke is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards is a graphic adventure game that was released in 1987. The game’s protagonist is a sleazy womanizer named Larry Laffer, who is on a quest to find love. The game’s portrayal of LGBTQ+ people is particularly problematic, as it perpetuates stereotypes and offensive jokes about gay men and trans women. In several versions of the game, you automatically lose if you sleep with a trans woman.

While some games before 2003 had positive representations of LGBTQ+ characters, others perpetuated harmful stereotypes and offensive jokes. It’s important to acknowledge and critique these problematic portrayals, as well as celebrate the positive representations. Over the last twenty years, progress has been made in the gaming industry to improve LGBTQ+ representation, with many games featuring complex, multi-dimensional queer characters and storylines that challenge stereotypes and help to normalize LGBTQ+ identities. As we move forward, it’s important that game developers continue to prioritize inclusion and diversity in their work, and that gamers continue to demand and support positive representation of marginalized communities. By doing so, we can create a gaming landscape that is truly inclusive and welcoming for all.

Title Image: “the Retro Gaming Shelf comes into being” by blakespot is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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Interview with Artist Deb JJ Lee

Deb JJ Lee is a Korean American artist currently living in Brooklyn, NY. They have appeared in the New Yorker, Washington Post, NPR, Google, Radiolab, PBS, and more. Books they have illustrated include The Invisible Boy by Alyssa Hollingsworth (Roaring Brook Press, 2020) and The Other Side of Tomorrow by Tina Cho (HarperCollins, 2024). They enjoy reality tv, sparkling water, and pretending to be an extrovert.

I had the opportunity to interview Deb, which you can read below.

What can you tell us about your upcoming graphic novel, graphic novel memoir, In Limbo? What inspired you to write this story?

On the surface, IN LIMBO is about the intersection of Korean-American diaspora and mental illness, and difficult maternal relationships. But deeper down, it’s about the trials of asking for and granting forgiveness to and from those you have hurt, including yourself. 

The roots of IN LIMBO started in 2018 in the form of a weekend project—a four-page comic about trans-generational language barriers that made its way around Twitter when Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast retweeted it! My agent Ed and I were working on a picture book pitch at the time when he suggested the idea of a graphic novel, which I never thought I’d be capable of doing. That four-page comic was my longest sequential work, so a 350-page graphic novel was unheard of.

But I knew I have always wanted to make a story like this, even back when I was in the 5th grade. I was so miserable even as a 10-year-old since so much has already happened in my life that I wanted to write something to let it all out, but I’m glad I waited. Then you had those draw-my-life videos on Youtube in 2012, 2013? I must have been around 16 or 17 around then. I didn’t partake even I wanted to so badly, but again, I’m glad I waited. But at the end of the day, I wanted to make this book for me—a letter, a therapy session for myself. I wouldn’t change a thing about it.

How did you find yourself getting into storytelling, specifically comics? What drew you to the medium?

Though I didn’t think I could make comics into a career until I literally started the pitch of IN LIMBO, I think there were instances throughout my life where I should have known it would happen. I remember making tiny little comics (early zines?) when I was very little, maybe around 7 or 8. I would fold a piece of computer paper into a book, write little fanfiction and draw fanart along with it and put them on display on my windowsill. I suppose that was my first solo tabling experience? But I think I stopped because my brother found them and told my friends, haha. But then afterwards I’d sneak into the comics section of Barnes and Noble when my parents weren’t looking and inhale as much material as I could. Though that, unfortunately, stopped at around 12 for a reason I cannot recall.

Growing up, were there any books/media that inspired you as a creative and/or that you felt personally reflected in? Is there anything like that now?

Continuing on from the previous question, I wasn’t allowed to read manga or any comic medium as a kid, so I had to find loopholes (sitting in the comics section of Barnes and Noble, reading Death Note or Fruits Basket on my iPhone 3GS before bed). But in 2007 I did convince my parents to buy me a copy of Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which is half prose, half illustrations, probably one of the first mediums that made me want to be serious about drawing well. I remember doing little studies of certain pages because Selznick was *the* artist I wanted to be back then! And even though Hugo Cabret isn’t a comic, I think the medium comes close.

However, there were no books that I knew of that I felt personally related to in the 2000s, the early 2010s. Obviously there a good deal now—I know I would have loved Almost American Girl by Robin Ha. Though Robin’s takes a different tone, the parallels on paper are quite similar to my own life—Korean in Alabama, art as solace, difficult familial relationships. 

As an artist, who or what would you say are some of your greatest creative influences and/or sources of inspiration?

For IN LIMBO in particular, I had Inio Asano, Brian Selznick, Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki, and Shaun Tan’s work sitting on my desk. But for art in general, I’m lucky to be in a community full of artist friends who inspire me with literally every piece they make, and to even take the time to blurb the book(!) Other sources of inspiration include Art Deco, Japanese woodblock printmaking, Moebius, and everything maximalist.

For those curious about the process behind a graphic novel, how would you describe the process?

Making a graphic novel gets emotionally taxing, no matter the topic. If a book has, say, 350 pages, with each page having 3-6 panels, that would be up to 2100 drawings. I worked on this book almost every day for three years, pumping out one page a day, and it was exhausting. However, to have it printed and in your hands has to be one of the most rewarding experiences, and a unique one too, especially for us digital artists. And when it’s out, it’s out—the book has a life of its own.

What are some of your favorite parts of the creative process? What do you find to be some of the most frustrating/difficult?

The best parts of the creative process has got to be the beginning and the end—writing the story, thumbnailing it out. The freedom is yours, the book can be everything and anything you want it to be. The possibilities are endless! And the end of the creative process is, well, you’re done, you can pop a bottle of champagne with your friends, and then start the next project.

The most frustrating/difficult parts is everything in the middle. Cutting things out, learning that parts of your story doesn’t land or make any sense. Figuring out what it’s like to work under the timeline you’re given, realizing that it’s unrealistic in this economy, and having to ask your editor for a 2-year extension and holding your breath as you wait for their response.

I made a promise to myself that my future graphic novels will be worked under my own terms of being given as much time as possible—it will be done when it’s done. 

What are some things you would want readers to take away from In Limbo?

As hinted earlier, forgiveness is really hard to earn and grant. You may never accept or want to give it. And that is ok. Our problems will usually never disappear, but we can learn how to tame them as they fade in and out.

What advice might you have to give to other aspiring creators?

To find or build your community! To have friends who understand what it’s like to struggle with yourself and the industry despite the level you’re at, and to have people you feel comfortable giving and receiving help from is an unparalleled experience. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to recommend and share each other’s work, to bring each other up. Being a freelance illustrator and/or artist is a lonely practice, so to have people who you genuinely care about vastly improves the experience.

And on a similar note—kindness sometimes goes a longer way than being a good artist. There are plenty of people in the industry who are at the top of the game who have repeatedly been rude or mean to their peers, and word gets around. You don’t have to let your boundaries loose, just be kind!

In terms of skills, don’t be afraid to keep building your basic foundations. It’s always encouraged to break the rules, but you have to be very familiar with what those rules are. For instance, I think I have quite a ways to go in improving lighting and coloring—while I think I can tell what works and what doesn’t, there’s still a lot I am confused by. 

Also, avoid fixating on one artist to take inspiration from! Look back into history. Chances are if you have a visual problem you need solving, it’s been done 182379 times, multiple different ways. Looking into the past also helps you avoid emulating trends and saturated methods of drawing—it will make you stand out as an artist!

And when working on book projects, one of the most important things of the process is to have a good relationship with an editor, preferably one who understands the intense labor of drawing and can give you more time, which you should never feel shy asking more of. You only have one body!

Besides your work as an artist, what are some things you would want readers to know about you?

Related to IN LIMBO, I do see myself exhibiting similar patterns of hopelessness but I definitely improved a long way! My problems have never really disappeared, but I like to say that I’ve gotten much better at coping with them. 

And even though I’m a she/her in the book, I’m very much a they/them. The nonbinary bit came in after the book was finished, but I decided to keep it she/her in the book still because that’s who I wanted to be at the time. But a lot of people don’t know the difference, so I’m still misgendered in a lot of notes, unfortunately 🙁

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but wish you were (and the answer to that question)?

Question: How has writing a memoir make you look at your past differently?

Answer: Wow thanks for asking! Making IN LIMBO was therapy about a parallel universe. I’m much more comfortable talking about my past; writing about it for the public was the best way for me to process it all. The events that happened in the book vs in real life are as similar as I could make them, but the book version is much more palatable for readers. I wish I could have included every aspect (like how there were *three* orchestras I was part of instead of one, two different Korean schools, bullies in the New York art program, and how Quinn and I did meet up in Korea and were on good terms until 2018) in 350 pages, but that would make the story too complicated. The conclusions are the same, but the means to get there are slightly different. But I do worry that as time goes on I will start confusing one memory for one that I fabricated for the book. 

Are there any projects you are working on or thinking about that you are able to discuss?

I’m working on THE OTHER SIDE OF TOMORROW with Tina Cho over at HarperAlley, which is about kids escaping from North Korea. I should be done coloring it by the end of this year so I think it’s publishing in Fall 2024!

We also just announced MONSTER SEEK, a picture book with Rainie Oet at Astra Books about gender identity.

As for projects that only exist in my head, I do one day want to work on a book that mixes PACHINKO and CLOUD ATLAS. I have no idea how I would be able to accomplish that but that’s part of the challenge, isn’t it?

Finally, what LGBTQ+ books/comics would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

The classics: SKIM by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, SUPERMUTANT MAGIC ACADEMY by Jillian Tamaki, DON’T GO WITHOUT ME by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, MAGIC FISH by Trung Le Nguyen, STRAY by Molly Mendoza, and SPINNING by Tillie Walden.

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Interview with Author Sarah Lyu

Sarah Lyu grew up outside of Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. She loves a good hike and can often be found with a paintbrush in one hand and a cup of milky tea in the other. Sarah is the author of The Best Lies and I Will Find You Again. You can find her on Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, and Facebook.

I had the opportunity to interview Sarah, which you can read below.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Hi there, I’m Sarah Lyu, YA author of The Best Lies and the upcoming I Will Find You Again. I write books about love and loss, trauma and hope. 

What can you tell us about your latest book, I Will Find You Again? What inspired the story?

I Will Find You Again is the story of two girls, Chase and Lia, childhood best friends who fall in love and fall apart before one of them disappears. It’s about how far we’re willing to go for love, what sacrifices we’re willing to make, and what happens when it’s just not enough. It’s also about the idea of choosing to be internally happy or to be externally successful in life, about suffering when you’re young for some undefined golden future. And it’s about sleepovers on a yacht, playing hooky in NYC, and the pure, unadulterated joy of being with someone who sees the real you and loves you, flaws and all. 

I was initially inspired by some of my high school experiences—all-nighters spent cramming for tests, intense pressure to be perfect all the time, the abstract fear of failing at life. This sense of never living in the moment and always chasing a future defined by achievements and outward successes when we think we can finally be happy. But that happiness never comes because all we know is the chase so if we ever catch the thing we thought we needed, we just move on to needing something else. (There’s a reason the main character’s name is Chase, ha.) I wanted to write about that feeling of never being enough but in a way that’s empathetic to anyone who’s ever struggled with it because I’m still struggling with it myself. 

What drew you to storytelling, particularly young adult fiction? Were there any favorite writers or stories that sparked your own love and interest in storytelling?

I love young adult fiction so much because the teen years are such a wonderful and terrible period of transformation and realization. So many firsts and so many intense emotions! It’s often the time when we start to see the complexity of the world and when we start to figure out how we fit in that world. My favorite author is E. Lockhart, and I read The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks about once every year or two. 

How would you describe your writing process?

I usually start with a concept I’m intrigued by and it can take a while for the characters to speak to me. I do outline but only the major plot points to keep the writing fresh. I like the advice that the first draft is for telling myself the story first and subsequent drafts are for telling the story to readers. 

What inspires you as a writer?

I find human beings fascinating, particularly when we do things we know we shouldn’t do. When we self-destruct or hurt the people we love even though we never intended to. The ways we mess up and the ways we try to fix things. The ways we lie to hide how we really feel, even (or especially) to ourselves. I’ll spend my whole life trying to uncover why we do what we do and I’ll still never get to the end, but that’s part of the fun. 

What are some of your favorite elements of writing? What are some of the most challenging?

I love getting lost in a conversation between characters. Sometimes when I’m deep in a scene, it feels like there’s a movie playing in my brain and I’m just trying to keep up with what everyone’s saying. That’s how it often felt when writing I Will Find You Again—the love between these two girls was palpable and I was sometimes just a third wheel watching Chase and Lia argue and make up, fall in and out of love, find each other again and again. 

I find plot and structure to be a huge challenge. Both I Will Find You Again and The Best Lies are thrillers with complicated plots and I facepalmed a lot during the process because I had no one but me to blame for choosing to write such un-straightforward stories. 

One of the hardest parts of writing a book is finishing one. Were there any techniques/ strategies/advice that helped you finish your first draft?

If I’m completely honest, I managed to finish the first draft only because of a deadline. I think in theory I like the idea of touching the book every day and trying to write something in the story so that it stays fresh in my mind. In reality, I write in spurts and stops, and I’m trying to just embrace it because we can only be the person we are, right? 

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)? 

How does love fit into your books? To me, love is the whole point of life. Not falling in love or romantic love necessarily, but the love that connects us to each other and more than that, to ourselves. These connections are what give us meaning in a world where nothing really lasts. They’re what reveal us and preserve us, what we crave in good times, and what sustains us in bad. And for Chase, someone who believes in the sandcastles she could one day build (money and power and possibly fame), love is something she takes for granted because what she has with Lia has been there since they were young and so she thinks true love is something that comes easy. It takes losing that love for her to not only appreciate it but to understand the honesty and attentiveness and vulnerability it takes to build a relationship that feels like home.

Besides your work, what are some things you would want readers to know about you?

I have two dogs that I absolutely adore. I love going to new places and meeting new people and hearing their life stories—if you end up sitting next to me on a plane or train, there’s a good chance I’ll walk away knowing the names of your family and pets and all about what drives you and what you hope the next five years will bring. I also love painting and lug brushes, tubes of paint, and blank canvas panels with me wherever I go, much to the annoyance of my travel companions, ha. 

What advice might you give to other aspiring writers?

This is advice for me too because I am constantly reminding myself: write for yourself first. What is something that’s troubling you? What are you struggling with? What do you love and why? What are your dreams and what gives you hope? What haunts you and what soothes your soul? Each of my books are stories I needed for myself, and often when I’m struggling with something (an old trauma, my perennial perfectionism), I’ll think, hey, I wrote a whole book about that. Fiction is how we learn through imagination—writing is self-exploration first to me and a way for me to work through the ghosts that I carry and understand the world in a different way.

Are there any other projects you are working on and at liberty to speak about?

I’m currently working on a story about clones but it’s in the very early stages—more soon, I hope.

Finally, what LGBTQ+ books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

Nina LaCour, David Leviathan, Victoria Lee—they’re all wonderful!

Header Photo Credit Anna Shih

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Interview with Author Sacha Lamb

Sacha Lamb is a 2018 Lambda Literary Fellow in young adult fiction and graduated in Library and Information Science and History from Simmons University. Sacha lives in New England with a miniature dachshund mix named Anzu Bean. When The Angels Left The Old Country is their debut novel.

I had the opportunity to interview Sacha, which you can read below.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself? 

In my day job I’m a librarian. I graduated with degrees in library science and history in 2020, and I work for a scientific organization. When I’m not working I take walks and practice tricks with my dachshund mix. 

I was a Lambda literary fellow in YA in 2018 and my first published pieces were short queer stories online—Avi Cantor Has Six Months to Live from Book Smugglers (2017), “Epistolary” with Foreshadow YA in 2019. 

What can you tell us about your latest book, When the Angels Left the Old Country? What was the inspiration for this story?

When the Angels Left The Old Country is my debut novel, an Ellis Island era fairytale about an angel and demon who study Talmud in a little village in Poland, until a girl from the village goes missing on the way to America and they have to go after her to find out what happened. It turns out that America is a complicated place full of magic and murders, and the streets are not paved with gold. 

When I started writing Angels, I’d just finished a draft of a YA contemporary that was focused on grief and loneliness, so, not a very cheerful project. I wanted to do something fun to decompress, and my comfort zones are fairytales and the history of immigration (my master’s thesis in history focused on Jewish immigrants to the USA in the 1920s). I really pulled together a lot of inspirations, basically everything I enjoy the most: historical queerness, immigration, supernatural creatures, bickering. 

As a queer and Jewish person, what does it mean to you writing a book like this?

The best thing about having this book out in the world is seeing people respond like “this is me, this is my culture, my life.” Especially to have people from traditional Jewish contexts respond like that to a queer story is very powerful. I hope that the book can help broaden for people the idea of what’s possible with a very deeply Jewish context and Jewish life, and help people see that history is complicated and many-layered. 

Queer people may not be well-recorded in history, but we do have enough sources to know that we’ve always been around. I like to think of queer history as a sort of mycelial network, where you have the mushrooms popping up above ground and those are the stories that managed to get written down, that’s what we see, but there’s a whole vast underground network of stories we don’t see. You have to extrapolate from what you do see to the thriving ecosystem underneath. And I hope this book helps people imagine that ecosystem in our past. 

As a writer, what drew you to the art of storytelling, specifically speculative and historical fiction?

It was really something I grew up with. My parents are big audiobook listeners and when my siblings and I were small we listened to a lot of books just around the house or on road trips, including Lord of the Rings and the Earthsea series. My siblings and I were also obsessed with Redwall and I was the fastest reader so I’d sometimes read them out loud and do voices. My sister and I would do a lot of collaborative roleplay storytelling. I just stuck with it. 

For me, speculative and historical are serving similar purposes—you’re exploring possibilities. Either “what would the world look like, if”, or “how might people have felt, when”. I read a ton of history for fun and I’m always fascinated by the things we just don’t know, and can’t know, about what people were thinking at any given time. How people whose thoughts weren’t written down experienced events. The historical and the fantastical are both full of mysteries. 

How would you describe your writing process?

I tend to gather a lot of inspirations from reading, and eventually, they come together to create a story. Often I’ll have a scene in mind, or a character dynamic, that becomes the seed of the plot. My stories are really focused on characters so it’s usually some idea of how two characters relate to each other that sparks inspiration. For instance, my first published story, “Avi Cantor”, began with the idea “psychic kid accidentally predicts a classmate’s death”, which is a situation that implies already some conflict and a certain relationship between two characters. For Angels, it was “angel and demon Talmud study partners.” How are two supernatural creatures with opposing roles in the cosmos, but an intimate personal relationship, going to handle cooperating together on a single quest? And that question powers most of the plot. 

Growing up, were there any stories in which you felt touched by/ or reflected in, in terms of personal identity? If not or if so, how do you think this personally affected you as a writer? 

My earliest exposures to queerness in fiction were through fanfic on Livejournal. It wasn’t until after I graduated from college that there really started to be a push for diversity in traditionally published YA, and there was an explosion of queer YA just as I was getting back into fiction (my undergrad degree was pretty intense and I didn’t have time to read for fun). I think fanfiction can teach you a lot about open possibility, but it’s important to see fully-formed original stories that reflect yourself as well. I’m glad that I don’t feel like a total outlier on the shelves and I hope we can keep expanding the industry so that everyone has equitable access to stories that speak to them. 

As a writer, who or what would you say are some of your greatest creative influences and/or sources of inspiration in general? 

I mentioned that I take a lot of inspiration from history. Obviously from folklore as well. My shelves are full of folktale collections (Jewish and otherwise) and academic history books. I’m also really fond of children’s book illustration and I’m a big fan of some of the classics—Ivan Bilibin’s Slavic fairytale art, Edward Gorey and Maurice Sendak, Quentin Blake, Tove Jansson. A contemporary illustrator whose work I really like is Shaun Tan. 

I read pretty widely within YA, although I’m most drawn to fantasy and horror. Horror is fun because even if a horror story is bad, you can learn a lot from the failures. Maintaining suspense requires a really good grasp of structure and pacing and sometimes I just enjoy picking apart a story that doesn’t work and figuring out what I’d do differently. The most effectively suspenseful YA I’ve read recently was Ace of Spades, by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. Even if you guess what’s happening there’s nothing you can do to extract the characters from the narrative, so you’re just internally screaming the entire time. 

What are some of your favorite elements of writing? What do you consider some of the most frustrating and/or difficult? 

There’s a feeling when you really get a handle on your plot that’s like when you’re getting to the end of a jigsaw puzzle and each piece you fit makes the next one fit faster. I love that feeling. Rewriting to add foreshadowing and strengthen the themes, that’s really fun. The hardest thing is to write action scenes. And for this book, the most frustrating part was making sure the Hebrew and Yiddish were consistently transliterated! For that, I have to shout out the copy editor, Anamika, who had to flag all my inconsistencies. I’m sure I’m going to do it again but there was a moment where I briefly regretted using so many Yiddish words. 

Aside from writing, what are some things you would want others to know about you?

I love sheep. If you meet some sheep you can send me photos of them, I will always want to see them! 

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but that you wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)?

There are a couple of sneaky classic Yiddish literature jokes in the book that I hope someone notices. If someone were to ask “when you said they got a ride in a bookseller’s cart, was that Mendele Mokher Sforim?” The answer would be yes. 

There’s also a line near the end where I describe Little Ash and Uriel as “the good angel and the wicked angel” and to turn things around and ask my readers a question: which of them is which? 

What advice might you have to give for aspiring writers?

Think about what elements of a story speak to you and play around with mixing and matching them. And don’t worry too much about what the meanest person on Twitter is going to think of your story. No one likes the meanest person on Twitter. 

Are there any other projects you are working on and at liberty to speak about?

I have another queer Jewish fantasy in progress, but no details on that yet because I don’t want to jinx anything! 

Finally, what LGBTQ+ and/or Jewish books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT? 

We’re in a great moment for Jewish fantasy right now. I’d recommend Rebecca Podos and Aden Polydoros for queer Jewish fantasies, and Gavriel Savit’s The Way Back for Jewish fantasy that’s not queer. A backlist title that I think not enough people read is Chris Moriarty’s Inquisitor’s Apprentice, which is a middle-grade Jewish fantasy. And I also want to shout out my Lambda cohort. Jd Scott has a short story collection, Moonflower, Nightshade, All the Hours of the Day, Lin Thompson has a middle-grade out called The Best Liars in Riverview and another book upcoming, Jas Hammonds has a YA contemporary We Deserve Monuments, and Jen St Jude’s apocalyptic love story If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come is out in May!

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Interview with Author Blake R. Wolfe

Blake R. Wolfe (he/him) is an LGBTQ+ fantasy and romance author of over a dozen books. His work is known for its heartfelt characters, daring adventures, and commitment to preserving the magic and wonder that readers love. Blake resides in Muskegon, Michigan near the shores of the Great Lakes. He spends most of his time writing, usually while sitting on the beach, and cooking/gardening with his partners.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Of course! My name is Blake and I’m a fantasy/romance author. I’ve been writing for a couple of years at this point, although I’ve been dabbling for most of my life. Up until recently I almost exclusively wrote epic fantasy. However, in the past couple of months I’ve been diving into Shifter Romance and let me tell you, it’s been a wild ride!

What can you tell us about your newest story, Alpha’s Rejection? Most of your previous books have been fantasy, what made you change to paranormal romance?

I hate to admit this, but Alpha’s Rejection was a complete experiment and an “I don’t care” project. I’d been listening to some shifter romance on Audible and I thought to myself, I can do this. So I gave it a shot. You wouldn’t believe it, but I wrote 99% of the book in 15 days. It just flowed so easily that I could barely put it down. I fully intended it to be a one-off romance novel, have it flop, and never come back to it. But in less than two weeks, it’s become one of my most popular books I’ve ever written. I guess it’s true that good things happen when you’re having fun! Now I’m halfways into the next book in the series and have at least a handful more planned for this year.

Since Geeks OUT is a queer centered website, could you tell us a bit about the LGBTQ+ characters featured in your books?

All of my main characters, regardless of the series, are LGBTQ+. I try to make them as real as possible and convey some of the struggle of being LGBTQ+, but I also like to put them in worlds (especially in the fantasy stories) where being queer isn’t a taboo. Sometimes, in situations where people are required to produce an heir (like nobility or royalty) I can create some tension with the characters coming out and going “against the grain”, but usually I just want them to have problems outside of their sexuality. I want them to be first and foremost compelling characters, not just queer people struggling BECAUSE they are queer. I had to go through that growing up and I can’t bring myself to do it to my characters.

As a writer, what drew you to writing fiction/fantasy, especially that intended for LGBTQ+ audiences?

Pure and simple, I wanted to read about people like me growing up and I couldn’t. There were no queer characters in fantasy. It was always the knight in shining armor and his princess. Reading those books, I always saw myself as the hero, but when they got to the romance with the princess, I found myself losing interest. So, when I started writing, I decided I was going to write the kinds of stories I love, for a younger version of myself.

Were there any books that touched you or inspired you growing up?

Most of the books I read growing up were things like Animorphs, Deltora Quest, Jurassic Park, Eragon, and Harry Potter. However, I didn’t really get into the big name fantasy stuff until I was nearly thirty. That being said, movies played a HUGE role in my understanding of the fantasy genre. The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, Stardust, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, Studio Ghibli, and a ridiculous amount of anime, not to mention almost every Final Fantasy game. All these pieces of media evoke a nostalgia that’s so deeply comforting and I try to bring that into my work while weaving in a bit more realism. I love dark and gritty stories, but at the same time, I know it can be overwhelming if it’s overdone, so I try to make sure there’s quite a bit of levity at the same time.

Where did you get your start in creative writing? What pulled you to fiction?

As a kid, I used to make up stories all the time and I loved to draw. When I learned that art got me more immediate attention (I was like seven), I leaned into drawing. But there were always little stories happening. During high school and college I would make an attempt, at least once a year, to write a novel and never really got anywhere. However, in 2019, after my divorce, I found myself too emotionally compromised to draw, so I began to write. And wouldn’t you know it, I finished something for the first time in my life. It was a horror novella composed of eleven short stories about a killer mermaid. I published it with a shrug in May of 2020, figuring it would never go anywhere. But people liked it, so I kept writing. Now, nearing on my third anniversary of being a published author, I have fifteen books written, over 1.3 million words under my belt, and more ideas that I could write in a lifetime. This has become the most euphoric and difficult (in a good way) creative experience of my life.

How would you describe your writing process? Are there any methods you use to help better your concentration or progress?

I am 100% a panster (a writer who flies by the seat of their pants). My method is similar to Stephen King’s, although I don’t claim to be anywhere near his level of competency. I come up with a “what if” scenario and then I go nuts. Usually I’ll develop a character, or a magic item, or a problem, and then I sit down and try to solve it. The great thing about this method is that since humans are genetically wired to tell stories, my brain takes care of most of the story beats without me realizing it. However, I do go back, once the draft is done, and clean it up, add foreshadowing, and make sure it flows. I write with a goal of 1500-2000 words per day and I write every single day. That usually means I’m done with a book in less than 60 days unless it’s super long.

As for concentration, I find being excited about the story really helps. If I’m bored while writing it, my readers will be bored, and that simple will not do. I also like to write at night while I’m tired. I close my eyes and leave my fingers on the keyboard, writing what I see in my mind. Sometimes I can bang out 1000 words in twenty minutes if I really get lost and I love that feeling. Definitely hitting that elusive “flow state” that people talk about.

What’s something you haven’t done as a writer that you’d like to do?

One of my biggest goals is to go full-time as an author. That is really the one BIG thing I’d like to accomplish. As for the actual creation of books, I want to write a big meandering epic fantasy, something like The Lord of the Rings, but more easily readable. I’m currently working on building a world for that project, but I don’t expect it to be finished anytime soon. I’m in it for the long haul.

What magic systems/worlds/characters draw your attention?

I love intuitive magic because frankly, it saves me a lot of time making up hard magic rules. Hard magic is great, it’s just too stifling for me when I’m trying to be creative. However, I see that as a challenge, so I’m actually trying to figure out a way to make it fun. As for worlds, the bigger and more high fantasy they are, the better. I adore giant magic crystals, floating islands, gods that meddle in the affairs of men, and mages that can grow so powerful that they control the fate of the entire world. Make it big and chaotic and I’m in.

When it comes to characters, I like them to be a little bit broken (I blame Disney for that) and I like them to be a little morally ambiguous. Fantasy worlds are nothing like our own and sometimes that means defending yourself (murderously) with a sword or magic. I think that makes them more real when faced with a problem. There’s an easy way out and there’s the hard/right way and sometimes, they make the wrong decision. It’s relatable, because there is not a single person on this planet who has not made the wrong decision in their life. We can watch these characters fall and then cheer them on as they rebuild themselves from the ashes. So, in reality, I tend to write a lot of phoenix characters.

Are there any projects you are currently working on and at liberty to speak about?

Absolutely! As mentioned, I’m working on Beta’s Bliss, the sequel to Alpha’s Rejection. It’s another shifter romance. After that, I’ll move onto Gamma’s Delight, probably the last in that series. However, that won’t be the end of werewolf romance for me. I’ve got another series idea brewing in the back of my mind.

My giant fantasy project is currently being worked on as well. Right now I know the premise and the name of the world, Eadronem. This will be a much larger epic fantasy, probably a trilogy with pretty thick books. I imagine it will take me a year or more to complete it with other projects going on.

I also have one book, that is incredibly stupid, coming out in March called The Quest for Cowmelot. It’s a fantasy satire/spoof about a cow that pulls Excalibur from the stone instead of Arthur. It makes fun of the entire fantasy genre, it is incredibly ridiculous, and I think I make fun of every major political/rich person figure in the world today. It’s another giant experiment, but I’ve laughed so much writing it that I think people will like it.

Aside from writing, what do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I love to garden and I love to cook, I think those are my two big ones. My partners and I just bought a house in late 2022 and we finally have enough space for a big garden. I’ve got lots of little plants growing already for this season and I can’t wait to cook with those veggies! I actually bought a new wok recently and I’ve been only making Cantonese/Japanese food for the past two weeks, haha. I’m sure they’re getting tired of it, but I really do have a lot of fun learning all these cooking techniques and making some of the best food I’ve had in my life.

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet, but wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)?

I think a lot of people focus on the creative aspect of being an author, which is awesome. It’s inspiring and it gives people more of a “story” to attach to that author. However, I’m surprised nobody ever talks about the business side of being an author. Being an indie, I have to not only be a good writer, but I have to know how to balance spreadsheets, run ads, hire narrators and cover designers, do taxes, and run marketing campaigns. I LOVE the business-y side of being an author, but I think it’s something a lot of people struggle with. It’s not often that people love math and writing at the same time, so some of those less “fun” skills have to be learned. I’m definitely privileged in the fact that I enjoy both and a successful marketing campaign feels just as good as publishing a successful book.

Finally, what LGBTQ books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

One of the best LGBTQ+ books out in the past year is definitely Perception Check by Astrid Knight. She is an incredible author and wordsmith. Her characters and worlds are so ALIVE, you can practically feel the book breathing in your hands. I have the greatest pleasure of working with her and Taiylor Wallace on novelizing one of our recent Dungeons and Dragons campaigns (The Obsidian Archive). It is incredible to work with them both and the stories we create together are so much richer because of that. We recently released book one in the series, The Wayward and the Wanderer, and it’s just amazing. I don’t usually claim one of my own books is good, but this one is GREAT because those two were part of the team!

Find Blake R. Wolfe here:

Twitter: twitter.com/BlakeRWolfe

Facebook: www.facebook.com/blakerwolfe

Patreon (exclusive content): https://www.patreon.com/blakerwolfe

Website and Newsletter: www.blakerwolfe.com

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Queer Project Spotlight: Hairology with co-creators Kat Calamia and Phil Falco!

In this installment of the Queer Creator Spotlight I had the opportunity to talk with Kat Calamia and Phil Falco. You may be familiar with those names as they are the creators, editors, and publishers behind the wildly successful anthology, “Bi-Visibility!” They have another fantastic project running right now on Kickstarter called “Hairology Vol. 1“.

Hair. Love it. Hate it. We all have it. Mostly. Kat and Phil have assembled a wonderful compilation of writers and artists to tell us their own personal hair-raising tales and take us on some very funny and relatable stories about hair. Let ‘s get to it…

Hairology 1 cover art by Maru Davalos from Lifeline Comics

Chris Allo: What prompted the idea to do an anthology about “Hair?“

Kat Calamia: I’ve always had a complicated relationship with my hair. I love my curly hair, but throughout my life I’ve had people try to tell me how I should style it. 

I would learn that everyone has a complicated relationship with their hair, and these are stories we should showcase. I’m very proud of the diverse amount of narratives and genres we were able to stick into this one.  

CA: In terms of the talent, you have on the book, did you put out a call for ideas/stories?  Were there people you knew you wanted to have contribute to the book?

KC: We received all our stories from a submission form that we shared on our social media platforms. We had a great range of writers submit including veterans like Sterling Gates and even newcomers making their comic book writing debut. 

We also had a handful of artists that we hired through the submission form, but we also hired artists we worked with in the past and new artists that we’ve had our eyes on from their social media posts. 

CA: You’ve used KickStarter before, quite successfully, with Bi-Visibility. What is it about the platform and the experience that keeps you coming back?

KC: The community! We love the community we’ve been able to create with our readers, with fellow comic book creators, and the people of Kickstarter themselves. 

Art by Kameron White; Colors by Dorilys Giacchetto

CA: What are some must know/must do when running a KS campaign that you’d like to share with future and current creators?

KC: Know your elevator pitch. What makes your comic book stand out compared to other comics in that genre. 

And have a good thumbnail and sub-header because that’s going to be the first thing potential readers are going to see before committing to clicking.

Art by Kenan Halilovic

Chris Allo: We all love hair!  What do you want for people to take away after reading this amazing book?

Phil Falco: We want our readers to come away from the book with an overwhelming feeling of self-love. Everybody has a different relationship with their hair — it’s such a huge part of everybody’s self-expression. And while every story in “Hairology” is very unique and different, I think it’s fair to say that each of them has an undercurrent of learning to love/accept yourself more through your unique relationship with your hair.

CA: Which are some of your favorite stories from the anthology and why?

PF: We genuinely love all of the stories in “Hairology”, but to name just a few stand-outs: we have an anime-inspired action story about a young professional literally”fighting” her hair before her first day on a new job, a hilariously heartwarming autobiography about a protagonist always considering himself “ugly” finding self-confidence through his hair, a dystopian story that touches on the oppressive feelings of dress codes and hair length requirements, and a beautiful autobiographical story about a trans woman’s first time growing out her hair as part of her journey of self-discover and being surprised by the result.

Art by Yonson Carbonell

CA: Do you have any personal “Hair” stories that you’d like to share that were not included?

KC & PF: We both have plenty of our own hair stories — Kat especially surrounding the brash way people sometimes regard curly hair. But we decided early on not to contribute our own stories to this anthology. One of the main reasons we create these anthologies is to give other writers/artists the opportunity to tell their own stories. And we wanted to give our creative team as many pages as possible to do so.

One hair story we’ll leave you with that actually partially inspired “Hairology”: Phil was on a professional phone call related to a gig that Kat and he were both working on. For whatever reason, Kat couldn’t join that call but had been on previous calls. And completely unprompted, the other party told Phil that we needed to “think big, like Kat’s hair”. We were both baffled by this random declaration and discussing it after the call is part of what led to the conversation about creating “Hairology”.

CA: Since you’re both editors, can you share some advice for aspiring creatives on some of the ways to get their work seen and read?

Art by Dorilys Giacchetto

PF: Just keep putting yourself out there! We’re fortunate to be in a time where there are so many different avenues to break into creative spaces. So we always encourage creatives to try it all — whether that’s pitches, self-publishing, posting on Webtoon and other digital comic platforms, building an engaging social media, etc. Just always been putting your work out there and keep creating new and diverse work!

CA: Kat and Phil, thank you both for your time and for another great project!

Please click on the Kickstarter link below and get your copy now and continue to support our Queer Creatives!

Hairology: A Celebration of Hair! by Kat Calamia (Lifeline Comics) — Kickstarter