Theo Parish talks Homebody

[00:00:00] Your ears do not deceive you. You've just entered the Cryptid Creator Corner brought to you by your friends at Comic Book Yeti.

[00:00:07] So without further ado, let's get on to the interview.

[00:00:11] Hey comics fam! Whether you are a longtime listener or a veteran catching the show today, all are welcome here.

[00:00:17] When we started this podcast, inclusion and diversity were at the forefront of what we wanted to cover and promote with it.

[00:00:23] So in June, we'll be celebrating Pride Month for our second year in a row featuring an amazing group of queer creators and their projects.

[00:00:31] One of those projects is from our friends at Lifeline Comics.

[00:00:34] Following their success with bi-visibility still by, Heralogy and Rainbow Canvas, Lifeline Comics is launching their newest queer anthology,

[00:00:42] Transphoria, a trans and non-binary anthology on May the 30th.

[00:00:47] The 90-page graphic novel will contain 19 stories all about trans and non-binary experiences of gender euphoria,

[00:00:54] crossing all genres like slice of life, supernatural, romance, science fiction, anime and beyond.

[00:01:01] Featuring a vibrant display of artistic styles and storytelling techniques,

[00:01:05] Transphoria is a testament to the creativity and talent of its contributors.

[00:01:10] From sci-fi striking stories to endearing romantic ventures,

[00:01:14] this graphic novel celebrates trans stories while delivering a powerful message of empowerment and affirmation.

[00:01:20] I'll put a link in the show notes so you can check it out.

[00:01:23] As always, thanks for listening and have a glorious Pride Month helping us celebrate.

[00:01:31] Y'all, Jimmy, the Chaos Goblin strikes again!

[00:01:34] I should've known better than to mention that I was working on my DC Universe meets Ravenloft's hybrid D&D campaign on social media.

[00:01:41] My bad.

[00:01:42] He goes and tags a bunch of comics creators we know and now I have to get it in gear

[00:01:46] and whip this campaign into shape so we can start playing.

[00:01:49] Another friend chimes in, are you gonna make maps?

[00:01:52] It's fair to say it's been a while since I put something together so I guess?

[00:01:56] Question mark?

[00:01:57] It was then that I discovered Archonforge.

[00:01:59] If you don't know who Archonforge is, they have everything you need to make your TTRPG more fun and immersive.

[00:02:06] Allowing you to build, play and export animated maps including in-person fog of war capability that lets your players interact with maps as the adventure unfolds while you, the DM, get the full picture.

[00:02:19] Now I'm set to easily build high res animated maps saving myself precious time and significantly adding nuance to our campaign.

[00:02:26] That's a win every day in my book.

[00:02:28] Check them out at archonforge.com and use the discount code Yeti5 to get $5 off.

[00:02:34] I'll drop a link in the show notes for you and big thanks to Archonforge for partnering with our show.

[00:02:39] I think I'm going to make Jimmy play a Goblin Warlock just to get even.

[00:02:44] Hello everybody and welcome to the Crypto Creator Corner.

[00:02:46] I'm Byron O'Neill, your host for today's Comics Creator Chat and we're kicking off my second year of Pride 1 specific coverage today with a new guest on the show.

[00:02:55] I'm delighted to introduce Comics Illustrator and author Theo Parrish on with me to discuss their new autobiographical graphic novel, Homebody from Harper Alley.

[00:03:04] Theo, welcome to the show.

[00:03:05] You having a good week so far?

[00:03:07] Yeah, I am.

[00:03:08] Thank you so much for having me.

[00:03:09] It's great to be here.

[00:03:11] Yeah, yeah.

[00:03:12] Well, thanks so much for coming on.

[00:03:13] I got a chance to read an advanced copy of Homebody and I really enjoyed it.

[00:03:17] I did a quick check of Goodreads Reviews which is kind of, I don't know how big it is over there in the UK, but it's a big website in the US for such

[00:03:25] things.

[00:03:25] And there's over 400 reviews and we're sitting at over four and a half stars.

[00:03:30] So has to be considered a solid start here anyway.

[00:03:34] How are you feeling about now?

[00:03:35] You know, surprised, excited, you know, with how everything's been received so far?

[00:03:40] Yeah, pleasantly surprised.

[00:03:42] Excited.

[00:03:45] It's kind of been a bit of a whirlwind journey for me.

[00:03:48] So it still sort of doesn't feel like it's really happening, even though the book is out and I can physically hold it.

[00:03:57] Yeah, yeah.

[00:03:58] That's the nature of those things.

[00:04:00] Well, let's start with your comics journey to kind of give everyone a little bit of a background.

[00:04:04] I know you're a graduate of Norwich.

[00:04:06] I'm hoping I'm pronouncing that correctly.

[00:04:08] There's no W in there, right?

[00:04:10] So Norwich University Arts.

[00:04:12] But I'm imagining comics was fairly foundational to you prior to that.

[00:04:16] Is that a safe statement?

[00:04:18] Yeah, I've always read comics for sort of as long as I can remember.

[00:04:25] We have a set of comic strips here in the UK called The Beano, which has Dennis the Menace in it.

[00:04:32] I don't know if you guys are familiar with that and as much in the States.

[00:04:36] But yeah, that's kind of the foundational first kind of comics that I remember reading was getting The Beano every week.

[00:04:45] But yeah, I've always, always enjoyed reading comics.

[00:04:48] I actually studied, I didn't study illustration per se at university.

[00:04:55] I actually studied video game design.

[00:04:57] OK.

[00:04:59] So I kind of left illustration for a little while,

[00:05:05] focusing more on designing for games.

[00:05:08] But what really inspires me and kind of binds all of it together is like just a love of storytelling in all of the different different ways that you can tell stories.

[00:05:19] And at the moment, it's comics.

[00:05:22] OK. So you have designs to do video game stuff later on or?

[00:05:27] I would love to do video game stuff.

[00:05:29] Yeah.

[00:05:31] OK.

[00:05:32] Yeah, one day maybe.

[00:05:33] I would love to.

[00:05:34] I want to write more comics.

[00:05:38] I guess that's where my focus is at the moment, but I'm open to anything really.

[00:05:44] OK.

[00:05:46] Homebody is a very positive narrative voice.

[00:05:50] Perhaps it's kind of my own recent experience bias and exposure bias.

[00:05:53] But you know, many of the trans specific stories that I've read recently kind of focus on trauma and working through it.

[00:06:00] And and I'm by no means saying this looked easy, right?

[00:06:04] But it comes off as you know, you got this, right?

[00:06:07] That's the overall sort of tone.

[00:06:09] Was that kind of your own experience or just the best way you thought to kind of present this story?

[00:06:17] I want I really wanted to make something that was hopeful.

[00:06:23] Obviously, I didn't want to stray too much into kind of that toxic positivity thing of like everything's fine.

[00:06:30] Yeah.

[00:06:31] Because that's not the reality.

[00:06:34] But as you say, there are a lot of stories out there already that focus on maybe the harder things.

[00:06:42] And I think just in general, the kind of political climate that we're in at the moment,

[00:06:49] there is a lot of negativity, particularly surrounding trans identity.

[00:06:56] So I just really wanted this book to be a sort of positive light amongst some of the more negative things.

[00:07:05] Because I mean, I try not to get bogged down in thinking about it all too much.

[00:07:13] And but it does affect me.

[00:07:15] And but it does affect me.

[00:07:18] And I'm an adult, so I can't imagine how much kind of pressure and like what kind of effect that might have for someone who is sort of early teens

[00:07:32] and beginning to struggle with their identity or to question their identity.

[00:07:37] And so I really want to be a voice of saying, hey, like it is it might be hard, but it is possible to have a joyful and successful

[00:07:49] and happy existence as someone who is non-binary or trans.

[00:07:54] Because I think if we if you don't see people kind of happily living queer people happily living their lives,

[00:08:02] you don't really know that that's possible for you.

[00:08:04] So I wanted to kind of be that person for someone.

[00:08:08] OK, well, did you start out originally with kind of the reader in mind or was it more of a, you know, a cathartic self reflective exercise?

[00:08:17] You know, obviously, like these things tend to morph right as you go on.

[00:08:21] But so it could be both.

[00:08:25] Yeah, it's definitely both.

[00:08:27] And I think it's changed a little bit throughout the process.

[00:08:30] I think initially so homebody actually at the very beginning started as it was a poem that I wrote really just to express my own feelings towards the relationship

[00:08:47] that I have with my body.

[00:08:50] And that's where the kind of metaphor for the difference between a house and a home and finding some some way to exist within yourself that feels more like home.

[00:09:06] And so in the beginning, it was just kind of for me, really, it was a cathartic exercise of expressing those feelings.

[00:09:15] And so I wrote this poem and then I realized that I could see some images that I thought went well with wide written.

[00:09:25] So I made just a short four or five panel comic.

[00:09:31] And I posted that online, not really expecting much to come of it.

[00:09:37] But it did sort of get some traction and a lot of people seem to identify with what I'd written.

[00:09:46] And I had some interest from literary agents here in the UK who asked me if I thought I could extend into like a full graphic novel.

[00:09:59] So I worked with my agent to kind of make a plan for how we could make my story into more of a full length graphic novel.

[00:10:08] So then I began to think about like who I was writing it for other than for me.

[00:10:14] And when I'm asked this question, it feels kind of cheesy to say, but I do think that I did write it for myself at that age.

[00:10:26] So if I could, if I had a time machine, I would love to go back in time and give it to, you know, the 14 year of me.

[00:10:34] Because I think it's the kind of thing that I would have really benefited from reading.

[00:10:41] Yeah, I get that all the time actually on interviews and in talking to queer creators is I wanted to make the book that I didn't have access to when I was that age.

[00:10:50] Constantly, I hear that so makes a lot of sense for sure.

[00:10:54] Yeah, I think it's so great that we're seeing so many of those books now.

[00:10:58] Like there's so many more options for queer and trans stories.

[00:11:04] So it's amazing to see.

[00:11:06] Yeah, and it's changing so fast.

[00:11:08] Like I'm amazed.

[00:11:09] Like we've just had this podcast like maybe two and a half years at this point.

[00:11:14] And at the beginning of it, the landscape looked entirely different.

[00:11:18] I was asking entirely different questions, you know, like we've had to march on, which is which is fantastic.

[00:11:23] I feel like I feel like we're in a better place.

[00:11:26] Yeah, for sure.

[00:11:27] Yeah. Well, I have to admit, I've never seen cosplay personally as a liberator.

[00:11:33] But maybe that's because it doesn't appeal to me all that much.

[00:11:35] But, you know, kind of as a lifelong player of Dungeons and Dragons, you know, which can do much the same thing.

[00:11:41] It's not a big leap between those two things.

[00:11:43] It seems like both were kind of pillidally you along this journey.

[00:11:47] So how are you introduced to them and kind of what did they help you unlock?

[00:11:53] I think they both sort of unlocked different parts of me slightly, but sort of in the same vein.

[00:12:01] Cosplay came into my life first.

[00:12:05] And yeah, I still remember very vividly the first comic book convention that I went to

[00:12:12] and just the feeling of like walking into a space with that many people who were all

[00:12:20] like we were all there for the same kind of reasons.

[00:12:23] And we all had the same sort, like maybe not in particular the same interests,

[00:12:27] but we all had this love and appreciation of something.

[00:12:32] And I feel like at comic conventions, there's just a really nice atmosphere

[00:12:38] of like belonging and welcoming.

[00:12:42] I think a lot of fans of Comic Con are probably people who have perhaps been

[00:12:50] pushed to the outskirts of society.

[00:12:53] So I think that does make us more kind of welcoming and inclusive just by default.

[00:13:00] And yeah, I started to Cosplay, which was kind of one of my first

[00:13:09] more grown up experiences of sort of becoming someone else and getting the chance

[00:13:14] to dress as someone else.

[00:13:17] And yeah, that was my first experience of kind of dressing as a male character

[00:13:24] and getting to kind of look in the mirror and see something

[00:13:31] which more aligned with how I felt inside and having people

[00:13:38] kind of refer to me as the character I was playing.

[00:13:43] And yeah, having that just what felt like a safe space and a welcoming

[00:13:51] space to kind of experiment with the way I presented myself and the way

[00:13:56] I saw my gender identity.

[00:13:59] And I know that I have a lot of friends who have the same kind of experience.

[00:14:05] So a lot of my trans friends who are also into comics and stuff also say

[00:14:10] that like Cosplay was something that kind of gave them the opportunity

[00:14:16] to maybe experiment a little bit and kind of unlock those feelings

[00:14:22] and realise what those feelings were.

[00:14:26] And I guess in a similar way Dungeons and Dragons, it kind of allows

[00:14:30] you to be another person.

[00:14:33] And again, in a safe space where it's OK to do that and it's quite normal

[00:14:38] to do that to play a character who's a different gender to you or to experiment

[00:14:44] with playing a character who's maybe a different sexuality to you

[00:14:48] or from a different background.

[00:14:52] So I think again, that's a really safe space to experiment

[00:14:58] and try those things on in a way that feels

[00:15:02] yeah, just accepted and safe.

[00:15:07] Yeah, I need to know more about your your D&D Twitch group to some other heroes.

[00:15:12] I checked out the channel and I've got a pen to watch it later.

[00:15:15] You know, I'm dipping my toe doesn't quite encapsulate what I'm trying

[00:15:20] to do personally at D&D because I'm it's been a while.

[00:15:23] So I'm trying to learn fifth edition rules and I'm DMing a campaign on Twitch.

[00:15:28] Probably with a group of comics creators that myself and my co-host Jimmy know.

[00:15:32] So tell me about the campaign that you're in.

[00:15:35] And I need to know all these details because I'm trying to light speed

[00:15:39] myself back up into being a little less off.

[00:15:42] Sure, sure.

[00:15:43] So yeah, we we are called some other heroes

[00:15:48] and we play every Sunday on Twitch and we have past episodes on YouTube.

[00:15:55] And it's a it's a D&D fifth edition game.

[00:15:59] It's a homebrew world made by RDM Chris

[00:16:04] and it's set in a world where kind of a big magical war calamity happens

[00:16:13] and there was no other way to save the world than to kind of break it up

[00:16:18] and send it into the sky.

[00:16:20] So now everyone lives on islands in the sky

[00:16:24] and there's lots of sky ships and magic and mystery.

[00:16:28] It's very cool.

[00:16:29] Yeah, that sounds pretty cool.

[00:16:31] I definitely have to check this out.

[00:16:33] Well, one of the things that I love is your willingness to experiment

[00:16:37] with with all these different things, be they games, cosplay or words

[00:16:42] in this kind of progression towards finding your true self.

[00:16:46] You know, words have a tremendous amount of power when you when you let them

[00:16:49] for good or for ill.

[00:16:51] I know I've had quite a bit of difficulty personally embracing the concept

[00:16:54] and we're disabled, which is something relatively new to me.

[00:16:59] I was terrified to ground myself in it at first.

[00:17:02] You know, let's say, you know, younger queer

[00:17:05] the questioning reader is listening to this or even a parent, you know,

[00:17:09] like your own who they see as positive and supportive.

[00:17:12] You know, what do you say to them

[00:17:13] to help them move through those words that can be challenging?

[00:17:16] Right.

[00:17:17] Gay, queer, trans, you know, all these things that

[00:17:21] sometimes can feel quite loaded, especially when you you utter them to somebody else.

[00:17:27] Yeah.

[00:17:29] Yeah, it's a complicated one.

[00:17:31] I think I talk about this a little bit in the book.

[00:17:36] But I think we generally as a society have this idea

[00:17:40] that calming out as a queer person means

[00:17:45] like sharing your identity with everyone around you.

[00:17:49] And it's seen as this like big one off thing.

[00:17:53] I think the process of coming out really starts with

[00:17:58] coming out to yourself and starting to acknowledge

[00:18:02] and find those terms that you feel like fit you

[00:18:07] and come to accept those terms,

[00:18:11] because I think all of us have this kind of degree of

[00:18:16] internalised homophobia, transphobia, ableism.

[00:18:22] So I think sometimes it is difficult to.

[00:18:25] Overcome that and come to terms with those terms.

[00:18:32] I know I fairly recently have been

[00:18:38] diagnosed with ADHD and autism.

[00:18:42] And I had to unpack a lot of kind of internalised ableism about

[00:18:48] yeah, using the term neurodivergent or disabled or thinking of myself

[00:18:54] differently, and it is a process.

[00:18:57] But I would say the best thing to do is probably to talk to other people

[00:19:02] in your community.

[00:19:04] And I think the best advice I could give anyone is to kind of find

[00:19:10] your people and find people who are either going through

[00:19:14] the same thing as you or who have gone through the same thing as you

[00:19:18] and just have find people you can have open conversations with.

[00:19:23] And it's OK to feel, I think it's normal to feel those kind of

[00:19:29] feelings of internalised shame or yeah, it's not necessarily it doesn't

[00:19:34] make you a bad person.

[00:19:36] I think we all have those kind of walls that we have to break down

[00:19:39] and that's not our fault.

[00:19:41] That's just the product of society as it is today, I think.

[00:19:46] Yeah, it's interesting to see for me, because I'm a spectrum person

[00:19:50] myself, but had a friend online who was talking about

[00:19:54] his child was just diagnosed and he put something out there on Twitter

[00:19:58] kind of like this help.

[00:19:59] Right? I need some positive reinforcement here, but it's so amazing

[00:20:06] now these differences between when I was growing up.

[00:20:09] We just didn't have the words for it.

[00:20:12] And it was so nice to just be able to be like, yes, here is me.

[00:20:16] This is who I am.

[00:20:17] You're going to be fine.

[00:20:18] They're going to be fine.

[00:20:19] There's helps.

[00:20:20] There's help there.

[00:20:21] Right?

[00:20:21] You just seek it out.

[00:20:23] And those people that help us along the ways, it's funny how

[00:20:28] when you read something, you know, Homebody for me, the odd thing

[00:20:31] that I kind of stuck on was your mom singing Annie Lennox in the

[00:20:37] kitchen because Little Bird is one of those things that I don't

[00:20:41] belt out myself, you know, very softly.

[00:20:45] And I'm sure in comparison to your mom and really anyone else

[00:20:48] for that matter, I do a real poor job because I can't sing

[00:20:52] and we didn't have much music playing when I was a kid.

[00:20:55] And then it's funny, then I heavily respond the other direction to it

[00:20:58] and ran off to work in the music industry for a decade and a half at 21.

[00:21:02] So but how much did having the support along the way help you?

[00:21:12] Yeah, immeasurably, I think I'm quite lucky in that I have

[00:21:19] a supportive family who have not always known the right thing to say

[00:21:28] immediately, but they are always very willing to learn.

[00:21:33] And I think at the bottom, the bottom line is that they love me

[00:21:40] and want me to be happy.

[00:21:41] So whatever, whatever, however I do that, that's what's important to them.

[00:21:50] And I also have a lot of supportive friends who are also LGBT or neurodivergent.

[00:21:59] So I'm lucky to have had those kind of communities to support me.

[00:22:07] All right, let's take a quick break.

[00:22:09] Hey, comics fam.

[00:22:11] Itty Comic Book publisher Banda Bar has just got a level up

[00:22:14] and announced it is now a cooperative.

[00:22:17] This heralds a new era for them, including a partnership with Dallas Stories.

[00:22:21] And they added several new members to the ownership group.

[00:22:24] Marcus Jimenez is now chief operating officer Brent Fisher takes on

[00:22:28] the role of chief diversity officer and Joey Galvez is introduced as head

[00:22:33] of Kickstarter Ops and social media manager, which is sure to

[00:22:36] increase their capabilities overall as a publisher.

[00:22:39] And it further promotes their mission statement of advancing

[00:22:42] representation, inclusion and diversity in the media.

[00:22:46] They also established a new board of directors to help chart the new

[00:22:49] path of their journey with new projects in the works like Alaska by dropping

[00:22:53] in June, unbroken soon launching on Kickstarter and pond coming up with

[00:22:57] Dallas. Stay tuned to this space for more exciting news from the growing

[00:23:01] Bards family.

[00:23:06] Let's get back to the show.

[00:23:08] I want to get into kind of how you structure things as an artist.

[00:23:12] The layouts were very interesting in the book.

[00:23:14] They're very open.

[00:23:16] You know, there's a flow to them that your eye doesn't get

[00:23:19] stuck on any one thing for too long.

[00:23:21] And it flows the analogy I would make is there's like, there's

[00:23:25] like a water, you know, it's very organic in terms of how it moves.

[00:23:29] So you use, yeah, we use squirrels and you use these horizontal waves

[00:23:33] a lot across the page.

[00:23:35] You know, is that a feature of your own style or something you kind

[00:23:37] of gravitated towards for this project specifically?

[00:23:41] Um, I think it's a little bit of both.

[00:23:46] I often do have like the little sparklies and like the the wavy lines

[00:23:54] are good ways to like fill space that I don't really know what to do with.

[00:23:58] Okay, okay.

[00:23:59] Good cheat. Gotcha.

[00:24:01] No problem.

[00:24:01] It looks good.

[00:24:03] In the book, I did want to use that sort of as a running.

[00:24:07] There's several kind of running visual themes in the book.

[00:24:11] So there's kind of the main one of like the theo character with the house as the body.

[00:24:22] So throughout the book, there are several times when either I will look in the mirror

[00:24:28] or sometimes other people will be represented as houses as well.

[00:24:32] And it's just kind of to like a visual metaphor of moments where I'm starting

[00:24:36] to kind of feel more become more at home or when I start to like the first time I get

[00:24:43] like a gender affirming haircut.

[00:24:46] The end scene is me looking in the mirror with my good haircut and like the body of a house.

[00:24:53] And I think like the kind of wavy line sort of rainbow buckles.

[00:25:00] I wanted to use that throughout as well in a kind of similar way just to show kind of emphasis

[00:25:07] to those moments of like either being supported by the people around me or coming into my own

[00:25:14] kind of power and my identity.

[00:25:17] Okay, is the background in more game design?

[00:25:22] How do you see that play itself out in the panels?

[00:25:24] Because it's very a lot of people especially I've noticed with more of their

[00:25:30] first big project, right?

[00:25:31] I don't know why everybody seems to want to take on graphic novels but that's what y'all do.

[00:25:37] So it seems like terrifying to me.

[00:25:39] But it kind of was honestly.

[00:25:42] Yeah, I can't imagine it.

[00:25:43] Like I'm trying to get a little bit of do a little bit of comics writing and oh my,

[00:25:49] how do I fill out 22 pages let alone 200.

[00:25:52] But anyway, not trying to cause more anxiety.

[00:25:54] The layouts, I'm just curious about how that game design plays itself out structurally because

[00:26:02] there's not like a five or six panel five or six panel in your work.

[00:26:08] That's like think where that organic read comes in.

[00:26:12] Because you move quickly because you don't get locked into this rhythm of sequence,

[00:26:18] sequence, sequence, sequence, I guess.

[00:26:20] Yeah, I actually also took a lot of inspiration from picture books.

[00:26:29] So I really love picture books.

[00:26:31] I think the design and the illustration for picture books is really cool.

[00:26:36] And I don't think we should stop reading things like that just because we're not children anymore.

[00:26:42] I agree.

[00:26:44] I really was inspired by the way that Fond is used in picture books.

[00:26:51] And often it's instead of being like here's a picture and here's some words,

[00:26:57] they're kind of much more tied together in their design.

[00:27:03] So I think there were a lot of, there's a lot of pages in Homebody

[00:27:08] that don't have any panels at all.

[00:27:11] And I really wanted the words to be sort of part of the image rather than to be

[00:27:18] separate because I think there's a lot you can add in terms of like tone or impact just by the

[00:27:24] way that you arranged the words on the page.

[00:27:29] So I'd say yeah, probably my main influence was picture books actually.

[00:27:36] Okay, okay.

[00:27:37] That's funny how the throw up will let you.

[00:27:40] No, no, that's okay.

[00:27:42] Eric Carle is, I love Eric Carle.

[00:27:45] I will never tire of Eric Carle's work ever.

[00:27:47] Yeah.

[00:27:48] It's just absolutely amazing stuff.

[00:27:51] Well, the coloring aids to your layout choices as well unless I'm way off,

[00:27:56] the palette is restricted to the color of the trans flag.

[00:27:59] Am I on there?

[00:28:00] Okay.

[00:28:01] Okay.

[00:28:01] That's why I bought it.

[00:28:02] Hooray, it worked.

[00:28:03] Yeah.

[00:28:04] Well, as a student of color myself and as an aspiring comics colorist, I'm always curious

[00:28:08] about kind of motivations behind restricted color palettes.

[00:28:13] Obviously here, motivation is pretty straightforward.

[00:28:15] But when did you decide on it?

[00:28:17] Did you first draw things out or?

[00:28:20] Very early on we had discussions about in terms of production I guess quite boringly.

[00:28:28] There was questions about whether it was going to be in full color or in just black and white.

[00:28:36] And I think from the get go, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do in terms of the color scheme,

[00:28:43] but I knew I didn't want it to be just black and white because I am a very colorful person.

[00:28:52] I love color, especially in my artwork.

[00:28:55] I love the relationships between different colors and the differences that that can have on an image.

[00:29:02] It's really fascinating to me.

[00:29:04] So I knew I wanted to have colors, but I really do enjoy working in a limited palette.

[00:29:13] I think kind of in what may seem counterintuitive, I think it gives a lot of freedom by having

[00:29:21] limitations because if you have some restrictions, you're then kind of forced to find ways to work

[00:29:28] around them. And I think that gives, well, I find it inspiring in terms of creativity because

[00:29:36] I think I just like to creatively solve problems.

[00:29:40] And one of the big things that I had a lot of fun trying to figure out was how to render

[00:29:47] pride flags in just two colors.

[00:29:52] So yeah, I ended up taking a lot of inspiration from...

[00:29:57] There's a printing process called rice graph printing. I don't know if you're familiar.

[00:30:02] So I took a lot of inspiration from that. I've done some rice graph printing before,

[00:30:08] but basically it's just a way of getting more than two colors by using only two colors.

[00:30:17] In terms of the opacity that you layer each color on top of each other, you can get

[00:30:21] additional tones. So although the two colors we used were pink and blue, the overlay of those

[00:30:29] can produce different shades of purple, darker pinks and lighter blues, etc.

[00:30:36] It was really cool to kind of figure out how to do all those things.

[00:30:40] Yeah, my brain was going back and being like, I've never asked that question before,

[00:30:44] but can you... Does the pride flag translate into CMYK? Like I've never tried that.

[00:30:53] Yeah, it was fun to try and... Because obviously contextually, if you're reading a book like Homebody

[00:31:04] and you see a flag with several stripes that are different colors, you're going to assume

[00:31:07] that's the rainbow pride flag, right? But then there are scenes like there's a scene

[00:31:13] at my local pride where myself and a friend paint pride flags on each other's faces.

[00:31:20] And so there's like a picture that we had with all of the different pride flags,

[00:31:26] so like the non-binary flag, the bisexual flag. So trying to make them all look like

[00:31:33] they're retrospective, like different flags, but only using those two colors was fun,

[00:31:39] but kind of challenging. I'm picturing more challenging than fun in the moment.

[00:31:46] Maybe it's just me.

[00:31:49] Yeah, the layout and the color and everything like that compositionally, it's great because

[00:31:56] you're able to focus on what matters. If that makes sense, you know, you don't have a lot of

[00:32:02] topography in the background, that kind of busy thing. And I think that really is what made it

[00:32:08] feel so organic and it flows and the ideas connect in a really nice way. I enjoyed it.

[00:32:16] Thank you. Well, towards the end there's a statement that reads,

[00:32:20] there's no one way to be transgender. And I've asked this before about kind of the

[00:32:25] pressure of writing queer characters. And we alluded to before even like when we started

[00:32:30] the podcast, you know, how much things have changed over two and a half years just in what I'm reading

[00:32:35] and stuff. It takes several years to make a graphic novel. Did you ever feel any of that pressure,

[00:32:41] you know? Or did you feel a need to check a box of any kind, if you will, with how you're writing it?

[00:32:47] I guess not in a way that this is my story and it's about me. So I'm only writing it from my

[00:33:02] perspective. So I did kind of want to, I think I do reference quite a lot in the book that,

[00:33:13] you know, there's no one way to be non-binary. There's no one way to be transgender. Like this is

[00:33:18] how it is for me, but it's not necessarily like this for everyone. And it's okay if you don't

[00:33:25] feel the way that everyone else feels. I think particularly as trans people, there's,

[00:33:33] I think I do feel or I have felt pressure to prove myself in certain ways. And I think there's a pressure

[00:33:47] on trans people certainly to feel a certain way about their body or to have a certain level of

[00:33:55] discomfort or dislike for their own body. And that's not true for everyone, particularly non-binary

[00:34:02] people because a lot of non-binary people kind of existing in this gray area. And so I wanted to just

[00:34:12] be careful about making sure that that was the message that I put across like this is my

[00:34:19] experience, but this isn't necessarily the only experience. Okay. And going, opening the lens

[00:34:29] up, you know, you're a younger creative. I've asked this before, like have we broken the glass

[00:34:35] ceiling where queer writers and artists don't need to modify anymore for this straight readers?

[00:34:45] Yeah, hopefully. Okay. I think the more types and varieties of queer stories that we see

[00:34:57] is only going to benefit everyone, not just people in the LGBT community, but also cis and

[00:35:05] straight readers as well. I think that comics and books in general are a great way to

[00:35:13] kind of put yourself in someone else's shoes. I think it's Philip Pullman that says that

[00:35:18] the books are like an empathy engine. So yeah, it's not just important for obviously it's very

[00:35:27] important for LGBT people to be able to see themselves represented in stories, but I think

[00:35:31] it's just as important for cis and straight readers to have access to that as well,

[00:35:36] to allow them to kind of empathize with experiences that they may not have

[00:35:43] come across in their own lives. Yeah. Okay. Well, lately I've gotten away from asking for advice

[00:35:53] because it's always gone dark places, but I'm going to return to that today because, you know,

[00:35:57] homebody in effect is like a blueprint, you know, in a way for questioning young person or an ally,

[00:36:03] a friend or a parent, you know, they just finished the book and set it on the desk. And

[00:36:07] are there any additional, like words of advice or, you know, pieces of wisdom that you'd

[00:36:12] like to share beyond what's in the pages themselves? I think my main one for this book,

[00:36:22] I think I had two kind of main motivators in mind. And one of them was for trans and

[00:36:35] non-binary or questioning young people to read and see themselves and feel understood

[00:36:43] in those pages. But I also really wanted it to be accessible for people who are cisgender,

[00:36:50] who are perhaps supporting a family member, a friend or just generally want to know more about

[00:36:59] the kinds of things that queer people may be going through. And I just really hope that the book

[00:37:09] allows people to kind of start those conversations. So yeah, my advice would be

[00:37:18] to have conversations, to use the book as a starting point for a conversation. If there's

[00:37:25] things that you don't, you still don't understand or you're unsure about, yeah, use the book to

[00:37:32] start some conversations, I think that would be really cool. Okay. Yeah, I mean, there were

[00:37:37] things in there, despite the fact that my best friend is trans or things that I didn't. I wasn't

[00:37:42] aware of it. And I guess I'd never put a name on them, like a dead name. We went through that,

[00:37:51] but I didn't have a word for it and it added a lot of context for me just to be,

[00:37:55] oh, I should know this. Well, what have you been up to lately? Any new projects on the

[00:38:02] horizon that you could talk about? Yeah, I am starting to write my second graphic novel,

[00:38:11] which will be out in 2026. I think yes. So yeah, that's going to be another sort of personal

[00:38:23] book I'm going to be writing based on my experiences as someone who is autistic and ADHD.

[00:38:32] But late diagnosed. So I guess it's kind of a similar thing, like growing up, I didn't really

[00:38:38] understand why I thought the way I did or why I had problems doing things in the same way as other

[00:38:47] people. And for a long time, I thought that that was because there was something wrong with me.

[00:38:52] But yeah, turns out I just didn't have this kind of integral knowledge about myself.

[00:38:59] And again, I'm writing it for sort of similar reasons to writing Homebody really just to

[00:39:06] A, kind of get those experiences out into the world just in case someone else

[00:39:13] needs to hear them and then realizes, you know, oh, that kind of sounds like me actually.

[00:39:18] Because I didn't know the only reason I discovered that I had ADHD and autism is because

[00:39:26] of other people sharing their experiences. I think I had like a lot of us, I had a very

[00:39:32] and a limited understanding of what being neurodivergent was and what that looked like.

[00:39:38] So I think it's really important for us to share our experiences because that will help other

[00:39:45] people. And yeah, to help people who aren't neurodivergent who want to understand what

[00:39:52] that might be like. Okay, well, where can people find you online?

[00:39:58] You can find me. My website is theobluelistration.com and that has links to all the places you

[00:40:07] can find me on social media if you wish to. All right, we'll throw it up in the show notes

[00:40:12] so everybody can easily find that and track you down if you want them to.

[00:40:15] You know, lately social media is a dumpster fire. Yeah, yeah.

[00:40:22] Well, Homebody is out on shelves now. I encourage you to pick this one up. Everybody

[00:40:26] who's listening is quite compelling. You know, this personal story of self-discovery and hope.

[00:40:31] And I'll thank you Theo for being brave enough to put yourself out there into the world

[00:40:36] and living your most authentic self. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

[00:40:40] Thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for coming on today.

[00:40:43] Well, this is Byron O'Neill on behalf of all of us at Comic Book Yeti. Happy Pride Month

[00:40:48] and which I'll continue to beat my drum again and say if you want more diversity and representation

[00:40:52] in comics and beyond, you need to show the corporations that you need it and you need to

[00:40:58] buy it. So do that and thanks everyone for tuning in and we will see you next time. Take care,

[00:41:03] everybody. This is Byron O'Neill, one of your hosts of the Cryptid Creator Corner,

[00:41:08] brought to you by Comic Book Yeti. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast.

[00:41:14] Please rate, review, subscribe, all that good stuff. It lets us know how we're doing and,

[00:41:20] more importantly, how we can improve. Thanks for listening.