Happy Friday, magical ones! Today I have some wonderful in-progress art to share from one of my artists: Sakura Mochi Panda! She’s working on some Cosmic Green art, particularly, her transformation… only she ended up doing two art pieces instead of just one, lol.
The first picture isn’t the final piece (I’m keeping that a secret) but I’ve seen it and it is WONDERFUL! As for the second picture, well… Bree (Cosmic Green) likes being naked, so clearly, that moment mid-transformation is her favorite ^__^
This second picture maaaaay be an add-on if we hit that art stretch goal, so keep pushing the Kickstarter, magical ones! Who knows what else will get added on in the future :)
Today is National Coming Out Day so I thought I’d make a little something for everyone :)
(also it’s 3 days after my anniversary so I’m still swimming in feels)
As I developed the idea of “magnifiqueNOIR” I decided to make the girls college aged (the youngest being 18 and the oldest being 20), and at the time I didn’t think much of it. But as I reflect on what today is I realized… I was 18 and in college when I came out.
Each girl in the group represents a different aspect of the LGBTQ spectrum, and each of them has/will have their own coming out story. I think it’s important to show a variety, because we all have different coming out stories, and some of us are more ready than others and that’s perfectly fine. Even after I came out at 18 it took me 2 years to really start telling the people I was closest to. On campus I was out, but on campus people were meeting me for the first time, so if they didn’t like all the cards I laid out it wasn’t as significant to me as, say, my parents, or my close friends back at home who’d known me since childhood.
I think it’s also worth mentioning that coming out is a process, one that many of us have to do repeatedly. For example: Bree (Cosmic Green) has an older brother who knows that she’s bisexual and knows that there’s a girl she likes… but she’s not quite ready to tell her mother. And sure, her brother reassures her over and over again that it’ll be o.k., but there’s little things that her mother has said or done that makes her apprehensive. That’s not to say her mother is a bad person, but I think in regards to coming out we sort of hone in on EVERYTHING, whether it’s a “joke” someone says or a comment they make toward another queer person.
Then there’s the whole “magical” metaphor to begin with, as the girls get to decide who to tell about their abilities, and they even have to decide if they WANT to be magical girls to begin with. It’s a lot of little things in the story I didn’t realize I was doing until recently, and I really do think it’s an important story to tell.
So here’s a little wallpaper from me to you. I debated putting “HAPPY NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY” on there but I know some people can’t come out or aren’t ready to, so I thought a little subtle encouragement would be best :)
There’s a city. It’s like most other cities. Buildings. People. Monsters who can destroy sidewalks by vomiting acid onto the ground, and an elite group of black, queer, magical girls who work to put those monsters in their place.
See? Just like most other cities.
Bree Danvers would’ve compared it to a video game, maybe a cartoon or comic book, except black girls are rarely the heroines of the story. But there her heroine stood, plus sized and wonderful, rocking a dazzling amount of purple and defeating monsters with galactic sparkles. Galactic Purple, that was her name, and soon, Bree was joining her on a magical adventure full of transformations and after school battles to defend a city like most other cities.
And soon, others would join them, and each one would be magical in their own way… give or take a few bumps on the acid covered ground.
AND WE’RE LIVE!!! The Kickstarter for the first book in my magical girl book series is ready to go! The series focuses on a group of black, queer, magical girls who save the world with sparkles, sass, and fabulous hair. The first book, “I Am Magical,” is the start of the adventure, and will be a full-length novel with full colored picture inserts and mini one-shot comics. There are all sorts of fun early bird extras, exclusives, freebees, add-ons, tiers, stretch goals… THE WORKS!
The Kickstarter is HERE! Thank you to everyone who pledges and/or shares the magic :)
COMING SOON! The Kickstarter for my wifey’s new book series magnifiqueNOIR! Join the even to get all the updates on the Kickstarter until it starts on October 1st! Join us for their magical adventures!
[Book Snippet] magnifiqueNOIR episode 8: Fit Right In
And Lonnie thought coming out had been difficult.
Though, to be fair, she hadn’t done that on her own terms. Having such a large family meant that it was damn near impossible to keep any secrets. One of her cousins had told another cousin who told the third one, who then proceeded to spread the word to the fourth one and the fourth one’s much chattier sister, who then blurted it out during one of Penny Knox’s patented Sunday dinners.
By then, the story had morphed into an otherworldly being where Lonnie had gone from holding a girl’s hand on the way to school to having a full-blown make-out session in the locker room of her eighth-grade gym class. A mortified Lonnie had no choice but to tell the true story and reveal her feelings for the cute girl in her class, and she swore that no junior high make-out session had happened. She should’ve ratted out her pimple-faced cousin, who she’d seen kissing a boy – tongue and all – but Lonnie had been too busy worrying about her Grand-Penny’s reaction to her liking girls that way. She’d expected some tears and some, “Where did I go wrong in raising you,” but, to her surprise, her grandmother told her cousin off for sticking her nose in other people’s business.
“And I know damn well yo’ fast ass be out there with them little boys,” which had proven that Penny Knox was, in fact, a mutant fresh out of Xavier’s School of the Gifted – a reference Lonnie held dear because her crush had a thing for Storm.
Sometimes we come out of the closet.
Sometimes, there was never a closet to begin with.
Top pic is Marianna Jacobs, aka “Galactic Purple.” Her looks include:
1. Her look when she’s baking delicious treats <3 2. Her normal, everyday style 3. Pajama fun time!
Bottom pic is Bree Danvers, aka “Cosmic Green.” Her looks include:
1. Her look when she’s doing Let’s Plays for her YouTube channel, “Cosmickaze Bree.” She would do it completely transformed, but Marianna yells at her when she does. Also notice her love for Game Grumps <3 <3 <3 2. Her normal, everyday style, which still has a geeky touch. 3. Pajama fun time! She would be naked, but Marianna yells about things like “decency” and “other people living here, too.” However, if Marianna comes into her room unannounced when she’s naked then that’s Marianna’s fault ;)
Check out more info and updates on the girls on the magnifiqueNOIR Facebook page :)
I need to see two black women fall in love on screen
I can’t watch black media without it being tailored for straight people. I can’t watch queer media without it being completely white. I’m sick of having to imagine what a relationship would look like outside
of these constricting boundaries.
All of
my queer black friends are imitating heterosexism in their
relationships because that’s what they’ve been conditioned to accept as “normal.” Ideas of what it means to be
dominant and submissive are predicated on heavily on masculinity being
the pinnacle of control and assertion. It’s like if there’s no dom/sub then it’s not a “real” relationship. But in order for someone to feel strong, their partner must be perceived as being weak.
This constricting, binary way of thinking is toxic and often goes unchallenged, especially in the queer community. It’s painfully obvious that the lack of black queer relationships in the media has created a vacuum in which we feel pressured to mimic the dominant society’s practices. We can do better. Discussions about people at the intersection of blackness and queerness is something that doesn’t get talked about enough and I’m over it. No more silence.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll bring it up again.
When I was 18 years old and experiencing my first girl crush, I actually thought I couldn’t be into girls. Not just because I was worried over people’s reactions, but I actually thought queerness was a white thing. Because that’s all I ever saw. Any LGBT character I saw in the media was white. So I actually thought, “This isn’t a thing with black people.”
Well, I suppose I should take that back, because on rare occasions the sassy gay black friend made an appearance, but heaven forbid that character actually got shown in any meaningful relationships beyond giving the heterosexual friend advice.
And I suppose there’s the exotic black woman. So being into girls just added to her sexiness.
But an actual meaningful relationship? HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Hell, even the Stonewall movie whitewashed the black, queer characters, and that was supposed to be a movie based on actual history. And this movie was released in 2015. Imagine what kind of impact that could’ve had on the black, queer crowd, to see those people on screen aiding in the LGBT movement. But nope. Guess we’re meant to be sassy friends or exotic eye candy.
I’ve been in a relationship with the same woman for 14 years. Tell me again how my relationship isn’t meaningful?
Representation
So this is random but it’s part of my NaNo story so it’s in my head.
When I was coming out (I was 18 at the time so 2001) I actually, legitimately, thought that being gay was a white thing because I couldn’t think of any black queer people in my life who I could look at. To my knowledge there was no one in my family, the one girl I knew of on my block was labelled “confused” because she was bisexual, and I couldn’t think of any positive representation in the media at the time.
This is the story of a geeky anime/gaming gal by the name of Chibi. Please fasten your seat belts and prepare for... some sort of ride? Oh! I love to write, and I also love doing crafty things. I go to conventions with my partner and sell woodburned things, clocks, mirrors, and more! So expect to see those on here too :)
