Political cartoon with Barry: "Celestial Politics of Trans Bans"

Hi patrons,

I've finally re-started on the next SuperButch page! I just needed to step away for awhile, reopen the file, realize that I ignored Barry's script, and then ignore it a different way. Then I spilled a full cup of coffee on my desk, splattering the wall, floor, and a bunch of cords. (Coffee cup and electronics are safe, thank goodness.) With a newly clean desk and a clear head, it's all coming together.

In the meantime, here's a recent political cartoon that went onto Barry's Patreon. I dig into the origin of my Shoulder Angel in the post, so I thought you'd enjoy it:

This script seemed like a natural fit for me since I've been doing autobio comics with a shoulder angel for almost 13 years (!!!).

Here was Shoulder Angel's first appearance in a sketch from April 2011:

I started a multi-page Shoulder Angel/Shoulder Devil cartoon soon afterward.

But I had trouble with Shoulder Devil's character design and outfit. What signifies the "evil" version? (Sexy? Corporate? Counterculture?) There are a ton of interesting things that could be explored with this, but...I didn't. The sporty Shoulder Devil seemed to be the appropriate antithesis of Shoulder Angel and I enjoyed watching her wind Shoulder Angel up. That's as far as I went with that idea.

I feel like the shoulder angel/shoulder devil dichotomy is usually between good/evil or rules/mischief. I liked the idea of a shoulder angel who's motivated by varying things like safety and pleasure, giving advice with mixed results. So, Shoulder Angel stuck around.

If your characters are vastly different sizes and you have to draw them together, the smaller character will sometimes be tiny. This is part of why I simplified Shoulder Angel's design over the first few years. She went from being a miniature Becky with freckles and ruffled clothes to being shaped like a tiny cone with wings, arms, and a head. I added a V-neck to her choir robe for a little detail.

I actually found it hard to do the character designs for this political cartoon since my Shoulder Angel is so simplified! I looked at how other cartoonists had handled this challenge with Kronk, Homer Simpson, etc. Their angels/devils pretty much looked like miniature versions of the character with different outfits. I'd originally planned for the governor's angel and devil to be wearing matching blazers, but it didn't look very interesting. Barry came up with the idea of a punk angel and corporate devil. He also suggested the different-colored clouds. I love how this one turned out!

Off the subject, if you supported Barry's Patreon last month, you contributed toward these rad muted purple Doc Martens, so extra thank you!!

Shortly after I sent Barry this Patreon post, we had this exchange over gChat:

It's this kind of trust and support that's so important in a collaborator.

Thanks, as always, for the support on Patreon! I hope you enjoyed this crossover post.