[Description: Line drawing of a nude young woman with shoulder-length dark hair and hairy legs; she stands with arms extended. She has a pained expression on her face, and arrows of varying sizes pierce her body. Both her chest and crotch areas are covered with large “X” marks.]
What I imagine my toes might say, if they could talk. As usual, click for large.
[Description: Black and white line drawing of two feet; all of the toes have gleeful facial expressions, and a few of them have dialogue lines. Third left toe: “My nail grows at a weird angle”; Big left toe: “My large calluses will never go away, Ped Egg or no”; Big right toe: “The joint just below me will hurt in cold weather, and you will have no idea why!”; Smallest left toe: “My nail grows at a 45-degree angle!”]
The reddish reflection here is from the sweatshirt I was wearing when I photographed this piece, and for some ungodly reason, I liked the effect enough to post the photo. As usual, click for a larger version.
[Description: Black and white painting of a bunch of random splotches, in the midst of which is a woman who stands uncomfortably while holding her right arm out to the side. Her arms and hands are composed of large, random shapes, her legs are thick black lines, and her feet are rectangles. She stares directly at the viewer, and does not appear to have a mouth.]
Inspired by — you guessed it — a bad headache that OTC pain relievers could not touch. Click for a higher-quality version.
[Description: Black and white line drawing of a dissatisfied-looking woman standing as a bunch of squiggles, random swirls, explosions, hands and sharp objects emerge from the top of her head. Some of the swirls emerging from her head wrap around her body.]
New-agers are always a-titter about individual willpower as the response to everything. Often, this does not work for those of us with health issues, no matter how hard we may try (as demonstrated in the cartoon above)! Click for large.
[Description: Line drawing of a woman, obviously in pain, with a thought bubble over her head that reads “Willpower. Willpower. WILLPOWER.” On her left, a very happy-looking giant pill leaps from a bottle of prescription pills while saying, “Just TAKE ME already, asshole!” to the woman.]
I’ve been trying to do some stand-alone line drawings recently, with mixed results. Here is one that I completed a few days ago that I quite like (as always, click for larger):
[Description: Photo of an ink on paper drawing with lots of random, grey ink splotches and splatters. On the right side, a figure (*~ARTISTIC~* black and white line drawing version of Annaham, the artist) stands in a large blob of grey, with a somewhat blank expression on her face. Her hands and arms are depicted as sharp, jagged claws.]
I will probably upload more of these when I can get access to a scanner, instead of having to settle for crappy laptop camera pics.
[Description: Line drawing of a woman in a bed, sitting up against the pillows as her eyes—popping out of her head—focus on her body parts, which have detached from their sockets and are floating around the room.]
[Image description: A line drawing of a young woman with a quizzical facial expression who has a rocket embedded in the left side of her head. A thought bubble to her right reads, “It’s time for Vicodin.”]
Ink on paper, 2009.
Here’s the scoop: Despite the fact that I am sort of a cartoonist and “into” graphic art, I am, sadly, not totally on the up-and-up when it comes to comics and graphic novels! So, I need recommendations from you fine folks for a project that I will be starting on rather soon. I am mostly looking for autobiographical comic/graphic novels, comics/graphic novels having to do with illness or disability, race, and/or gender and sexuality (I prefer non-fiction for these categories), and comics/graphic novels that cover awkward situations in childhood, adolescence, or young adulthood (fictional or not). Also, how-to books (such as Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art, which I already own and have dog-earred to infinity) are also welcome as suggestions, as I will definitely need inspiration for writing a long-form graphic piece.
Here’s a list of stuff I already have that is in one or more of the above categories: One! Hundred! Demons! (Barry, 2002); Fun Home (Bechdel, 2006); Funny Misshapen Body (Brown, 2002); The Spiral Cage (Davison, 1992); Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person (Engelberg, 2008); Jokes and the Unconscious (Gottleib and DiMassa, 2006) Stitches (Small, 2009), American Born Chinese (Yang, 2006) [thank you Anna for reminding me of this one!].
PLEASE, SUGGEST AWAY!
Anna Hamilton | Writer 