Vote To Queer The Narrative. Vote Out Of Spite. Vote Like Your Life Depends On It, Because That's True

I have been feeling like this a lot lately.  (Except not the drawing part; I can’t draw at all.)  Sigh.

Pigeon Comic 56 - Sometimes I’m Just Tired

Go, dragon girl, go!

Well, crap.  Raven is a great comic with lots of action, drama, and humor.  I would be very sad to see it end.  If you can’t or don’t want to buy it yourself, check it out from your local library!  If they don’t already have it, please recommend it.

Raven the Pirate Princess is Sinking

I despise doing posts where I ask for help, but here we are.

About two years ago I started a new creator owned project.  It began as a spin-off of Princeless, but the reality is this - Raven The Pirate Princess is its own thing altogether.  I knew this from the first issue and if you’ve been reading, so have you.

Sure, the first few issues of Raven: Pirate Princess had that heroic lady feminist banter for which Princeless has become known both among its fans and detractors.  I mean, Raven had this scene:

and issue 1 had this scene:

But perhaps much more importantly, the first issue of Raven had this:

but that wasn’t where that ended.  This is a book about a community of diverse queer women actively claiming their place in the world and taking what’s theirs.  It’s about Raven, who is desperately in love with her childhood best friend Ximena

It’s about Ximena, a girl who was held captive for years by a pirate king who pretended to be her liberator.  Who fell in love with the pirate’s daughter, only to be left behind by that father when she outlived her value.

About Sunshine, the thief that chose the wrong target and ended up falling in love with a woman already hopelessly in love with somebody else.

It’s about Katie, the bisexual second in command who’s motivated by honor…and occasionally beating the snot out of a dude or two

Oh and in case I forgot to mention, Katie is also incredibly muscular:

And Jayla, the asexual science genius who’s tired of being treated like a little sister

and Cid, the deaf engineer who quietly keeps the ship running

and of course, these two:

The socially awkward poet and the angry sword fighter who couldn’t stand her who have somehow become these two:

But here’s the thing: this comic is failing.  It has a very dedicated and exuberant but at this point SMALL fanbase.  Today I had a hard conversation with Action Lab about the reality of the numbers on this book versus what it costs to produce this book and, suffice it to say, Action Lab isn’t ready to cancel the book, but they aren’t ready to greenlight year 3 either.  After Year 2 #13, Raven is set to go on the shelf until numbers can support continuing it.

This is where I need your help

If you care about this book full of queer pirate ladies and you want it to continue, we need to find a way to spread the word about it.  We don’t need to sell single issues (it would be nice) but ultimately we need the trades sales that back up the continuation of this big YA Pirate/Revenge/Adventure/Romance thing.

Digital copies can be bought instantly right on Comixology: https://www.comixology.com/Princeless-Raven-The-Pirate-Princess/comics-series/46971

You can buy the physical volumes on amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B01BF7U91Q

In fact, if you’ve already purchased volumes 1-4, volume 5 is available for preorder there right now! 

Maybe you’ve bought all the issues already.  Thank you!  If you still want to support Raven, you can review the books on Amazon or other retailers, you can share, reblog or retweet this post.  You can tell a friend about the book! 

If you have a comics review site or, say, a blog where you talk about LGBT media, contact me for review links or interviews.  Please, help us save our ship.

Mmmm, new-release Tuesdays!  (But do they *all* have to come in at the same time?!)

WHEN ALL MY HOLDS COME IN AT ONCE

Check this out if you’re on Instagram and want to try to win a book with an ace character!

Win an asexual book of your choice! [Details here]

Agreed -- this is a very good time to remind voters that US presidents come with a built-in backup.

I wonder...

The media cannot get over the Biden Old thing, and of course the more they talk about it, the worse that is for everyone.

There are Dems in power that are calling for Harris to be the nominee.

What if...

Biden and Harris gave a simultaneous speech. Like they're both on stage. They both have their own lines throughout the speech, trading off to make different points. I wonder if you could remind everyone that Kamala Harris is already on the ticket.

If Biden really is too old and really can't do the job, surprise! That's what we have a VP for! He can step aside when that time comes and Kamala can take over, a process that we already have rules in place for. (And hey, Black female president, everyone!)

And you drive that point home by having them tag team a speech, which I'm pretty sure has never been done before, and acting like a team. Like a well-oiled speechifying machine. Maybe people would feel better if they weren't thinking that it's just one old man, alone?

This is totally a feature!  We should exploit the coat hangers out of it.  

Does anyone know if it works the same for different flavors of English?  If a group of people from the US, Canada, Britain, and Australia are all absolutely coat hangered, are they all in the same condition, or are some of them drunk, some of them shocked, and some of them just confused?

you can make nearly any object into a good insult if you put ‘you absolute’ in front of it

example: you absolute coat hanger

Yes!  There is nothing wrong with phases, or taking time to find the terms that fit you, or changing your orientation.  My understanding of myself has changed over time.

instead of assuring everyone that it “isn’t a phase”, why don’t we just assure everyone that if it is a phase it’s fine? it’s healthy to figure yourself out? because if we tell everyone it’s not a phase and it ends up being a phase, those people are going to feel guilty, like they stole resources or wasted time. It’s not bad to ‘go through a phase’. It’s a healthy way of finding out who you are. And if it isn’t a phase, that’s fine too. But if it is, there’s no reason to feel bad.

I love that this black, spooky-looking house has a lovely garden in front.  Is the garden all foxglove and nightshade and stuff, or does it belong to a family that doesn’t want to get trapped in people’s assumptions (or is really, massively dysfunctional)?

Everyone, regardless of gender, deserves bodily autonomy.  You should not have to hug your uncle or kiss your grandmother or have your cheek pinched by your mom’s best friend or even sit on Santa’s lap if it upsets you.  It’s important for people to learn that they have the right to say, “No,” and have it accepted -- even if the person is a family member, friend, or respected person.  It is also ok for someone to want that contact sometimes but not other times, whether they need to take a little while getting comfortable with people they don’t see often or are comfortable giving a hug now but not later.

Respect other people’s limits and insist that they respect yours.