Recently I told some jokes a stand-up show and as I was getting off stage, the host said, “Go give her a hug after the show!” I shuddered back into my seat and pulled my beer in front of my chest like a protective shield.
“For those of you who don't know me, I'm not wasted, but the doctor who delivered me was." So begins the standup comedy set from Maysoon Zayid: disabled comic, actor, humanitarian, and “Arab Gone Wild.”
Defying nondisabled persons outdated notions of what disability is like is difficult enough; making people laugh while doing so is a feat of its own. Thankfully, there are some badasses taking that immense challenge head on and succeeding.
Tig Notaro has been getting a heaping dose of publicity lately. It’s well-deserved. You may already recognize the charming comedian from her standup, or watched her play the feather-haired policewoman who briefly (and understandably) lesbianizes Sarah Silverman on the latter’s eponymous “Program,” or listened to her discuss her frequent run-ins with 80s pop star Taylor "Tell it to my heart" Dayne on This American Life. Maybe you’ve also read that earlier this month Tig released a half-hour standup comedy set (care of friend/comic superstar Louis C.K.), recorded after a diagnosis of breast cancer (in both breasts) only a few days prior. The performance was instantly touted as legendary, with audience member Louis C.K. calling it “one of the greatest standup performances I ever saw. I can't really describe it but I was crying and laughing and listening like never in my life.”
Last year in Canada, there were two nation-wide campaigns to fight mental health stigma.
The first focused on the financial cost of mental health. It was launched by one of our major banks, and had a slick advertising campaign full of dark colors and statistics. There were multi-page discussions in the national newspapers, as well as multiple bus shelter advertisements driving home the point: Mental illness is a cost to the Canadian economy.
The other, Stand Up For Mental Health, was launched by actual people with mental health conditions. The program is open to people with a variety of diagnoses, and trains them to become stand-up comics, making jokes and wise-cracks about the experience of being mentally ill, as well as other aspects of the lives of the comics. Last year, Stand Up for Mental Health did a cross-country tour to university campuses in the hopes of raising enough awareness to get a Pepsi Refresh Grant so they could get more funding for their work.
I encountered both of these programs at university.
Today I'm sharing the second part of my interview with the delightful Christine Smith, the very talented artist behind webcomics Eve's Apple and The Princess. Check out the first part here, and then read our conversation about The Princess, flipping the script, and feminism after the jump!
Christine Smith is the author of two webcomics, Eve's Apple and The Princess. Today I'm interviewing her about Eve's Apple (EA), a three-year-old webcomic about the titular Eve and her friends, love interests, enemies, and everything in between. Read our conversation about newspaper comics, fat bodies, and Betty and Veronica below!
Rooster Tails is a year-old comic by Sam Orchard in which he "explores [his life as] a simple transguy transitioning in the lower half of the South Island of New Zealand." Sam and his boyfriend Joe are both joyful and thoughtful as narrators, discussing their relationship, their masculinity, and their community. It's a colorful, funny, and optimistic weekly journal comic that I found through his guest strip on previous BTP interviewee RJ Edwards' Riot Nrrd. Find out more about him and Rooster Tails after the jump!
This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing a cartoonist whose transition to webcomics has been rather recent: Gabrielle Bell. She started out self-publishing zines, and eventually made the leap to Alternative and later Canadian comic book publisher Drawn and Quarterly. Her print collections include When I'm Old and Other Stories, two volumes of Lucky,Cecil and Jordan in New York, and Kuruma Tohrimasu. She's also been in several editions of Best American Comics, which is how I first became acquainted with her work.
Sophie Goldstein and Jenn Jordan are the creators of the mythological and mundane webcomic Darwin Carmichael is Going To Hell. According to Jenn: "Darwin Carmichael lives in mythical Williamsburg, the coolest of burroughs, populated by hipsters, minor deities and a host of preposterous creatures. The day-to-day of Darwin's world is much like ours, concerned with making ends meet, dating, and the like." DC is a very fun strip with a fantastic visual sense. Learn more about it after the jump!
“For those of you who don't know me, I'm not wasted, but the doctor who delivered me was." So begins the standup comedy set from Maysoon Zayid: disabled comic, actor, humanitarian, and “Arab Gone Wild.”
Defying nondisabled persons outdated notions of what disability is like is difficult enough; making people laugh while doing so is a feat of its own. Thankfully, there are some badasses taking that immense challenge head on and succeeding.
This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing a cartoonist whose transition to webcomics has been rather recent: 
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