December 29, 2006
Snuck away from visiting relatives for a few moments to post the last update of 2006. Please read (and enjoy) Jet Dream #4, by the Scribbler-Supeme of Sixties and Seventies Speak, sagacious Suzanne de Nimes!
Harmony and the T-Girls of Jet Dream* thought their new Athena X-34 Stratolifter would be a big help in their battles against the sinister forces of Z.E.R.O.!** But the Athena's got more than they bargained for! In our latest invigorating ish, Harm discovers that the helicopter's got a permanent stowaway! It's the copter's namesake, the ghost of Athena! But only Harmony can see or hear this ghost-girl warrior of olden times! What does Athena have in store for the gals? Find out in "The Haunted Copter!"
* Joint Elite Team, Division of Raiding-Expert Aeronautical Maidens
** Zoned Extortion and Removal, Occidental
Happy New Year, everyone!
December 26, 2006
I've posted the final (for the moment) set of Lorna Samuel's single panel recaps. Happy Christmas, or whatever holiday ritual you might be celebrating this time of year!
December 22, 2006
Saucy Suzanne de Nimes has produced another pulse-pounding adventure of... well... as I've mentioned, I think we're all better off if I let Suzanne describe her own work (Jet Dream #3):
Ever since her debut in the now-classic THUNDERBIRDS #34 ("Introducing... Lady Thunderbird!"), the origins of Christina Ling - better known to T-Fanatic Frantic Ones as Ting-a-Ling, natch - have been shrouded in mystery! But finally, years later, the time has come to reveal everything about the T-Girls' only "natural woman," in the shocking suspense saga "South Pacific Powder-Puff Power!" Learn the secret of the Polynesian Princess in a titanic twelve-page T-Girl tale that we at TGC predict will be the most talked-about mag of 1969 - if not the whole dotty decade!
Hope you all enjoy Suzanne's madcap mayhem as much as I do. And here's hoping that everyone's having a TG-rrific holiday season!
December 16, 2006
Grendle Swank returns with another wonderfully drawn, all-new comic. Jason and Me is a steamy tale of two best mates discovering new aspects of their friendship. Wonderful layout and colors by the talented Mr. Swank. Enjoy!
December 14, 2006
Okay, now that we're back on track, let's start updating! First up are two new modified comics by Sultry Suzanne de Nimes. She's been a busy girl in the last month, and since she can write descriptions of her work far better than I ever will, I'll let her describe them...
Jet Dream #2: Return to the swingin' sixties with the Joint Elite Team, Division of Raiding-Expert Aeronautical Maidens (or Jet Dream, if you're like me, and get tired of all that verbose verbiage!) The Thunderbird Squadron has gone from he-man T-Birds to dauntlessly daring T-Girls for good! But will the Fem Flyers' first act be finding a new Jet Dream Queen? Find out in "Harmony's Biology Lesson!"
Dale #1: Shoulder pads, roller disco and big hair, oh my! Yes, it's a look back to the '80s with the first issue of Dale Manx, Trans-Fem P.I.! TGC wasted no time after the Trans-Femmation of the star of their popular manly police series MANX, LAPD! Now Dale's all girl, and starring in an adventure we just HAD to call*... "(ROLLER)BRAWL!"
Two exciting stories fit for tomboys and girly-girls alike! Can any damsel deny that this is the TG Timeframe of Comics?
* Because our power-packed penciller had already scribed luscious letters on the first page! Sheesh!
Suzanne is obviously on a roll, and there's more Jet Dream to come (and perhaps more Dale). Be sure to check out her fabulous intro to the Jet Dream series as well as the new story.
December 9, 2006
I'm finally back up and running. What torture! Never expected it to take so bloody long to get my computer working again. Jeez! I do apologize for being unable to stop all the spam on Ix's Cruella page while I was absent. I'm temporarily suspending those forums until I figure out how to allow people to post without spam sneaking in.
Some contributors to the site have been hard at work while I've been absent, so I hope to start updating in the next week or so. In the meantime, here's a new cover sketch I hope you'll enjoy. And let's hope this new computer lasts a lot longer than the old one!
November 17, 2006
My computer died on October 29th. The new processor has been on order ever since. It's still not here. Maybe next week. Maybe not. So no updates until I get it back (sigh). Right now, I HATE Apple!
October 26, 2006
I'm posting two new comics today. Two comics that are very different in tone and content. You may like one, the other, or perhaps even both!
The first is Slut to Order. It's by an artist who has gone by many names, and on this site shall be known as Grendle Swank. Grendle sent this comic to me a little while back. It is greatly inspired by the popular and prolific fictionmania author, Stacyinlove. Slut to Order was going to be a longer tale, but unfortunately, Grendle got discouraged with the results he was getting, and abandoned the project (purging, as many of us know, is a TG trait!). What's left is a nice 6-page comic that stands on it's own. It's definitely for adults only, so people who are shy about those things should avert their eyes. And maybe, if he gets enough encouragement, we can get Grendle to someday make another comic!
The second comic is Jet Dream, a 10-page recapped effort from Suzanne de Nimes. I'm thrilled to have Suzanne capping for the site. Some of you will recall that, back when I was running Captioned Cover Contests, Suzanne won quite a few. Her caps were always witty and smart, and her comic is in the same vein. I hope you'll enjoy meeting the grooviest T-girl spies ever assembled as they make the adjustment from boy bombers to fem flyers! Suzanne will be doing more recapped comics for the site, very exciting news indeed!
October 15, 2006
Saw Zerophilia yesterday. I have to agree with pretty much everything Raven said. Pretty much the best TG movie I've ever seen (not that I've seen them all). It's like a well-filmed version of a story you'd read on fictionmania, if it were one of the best stories ever posted there. It's original and funny/romantic. Great dialogue. Good characters. Nice acting. Sweet message. I hope everyone gets a chance to see it in the theater or eventually on DVD.
On other matters, I've posted another batch of single panel recaps by Lorna and me.
October 7, 2006
Hey! If you're in the New York City area next weekend, come to the premiere of Zerophilia! The Zerophilia team want to get a good turnout for opening weekend, so they're making a special offer to visitors of this site. In their own words:
As you may know, the opening weekend of an independent film is extremely important to its overall success and often determines the scope of its theatrical release. With the hope of encouraging you to come see the film on its first weekend and in gratitude for your support, we’d like to extend to all fans of TGComics.com and their friends the following offer:
Screen Credit on the DVD Release!
If you’re in New York City and plan to see Zerophilia, please buy a ticket and see the film on Friday or Saturday night, October 13th or 14th, and bring along this voucher.
So go see one of the greatest TG films of all time, get your name (real or online identity) immortalized, and help make Zerophilia a success!
October 1, 2006
A third batch of single panel recaps have been posted (10 from Femur, 9 from Lorna Samuels). Enjoy!
september 23, 2006
Another batch of single panel recaps have been posted (10 from Femur, 9 from Lorna Samuels). Enjoy!
september 21, 2006
I want to put up a big plug for the movie, Zerophilia, which is finally going to open in theaters in October. I'm very excited about the chance to finally see the film (it's been floating around at festivals for quite some time now). I'm sure a lot of you have already know about this flick, but if you don't, it should be right up the alley for anyone who likes this site. As the author/director describes it, "Zerophilia is an unusual coming-of-age comedy about a young man who discovers he's a Zerophiliac, with the ability to switch gender at will." You can find out more about the film and view the Trailer at www.ZerophiliaMovie.com or on IMDB.
If that's not incentive enough to see this film, I'm putting up a review that Raven, one of the all-time great TG authors, wrote about the film after being lucky enough to see it at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival. Raven posted this review on Siren Song last November, and has given me permission to re-post it here in order to help spread the word. And who could not be excited when Raven opens his review by saying:
"Best TG movie... ever!"
And here's a little more from Raven's rave:
"Folks. Awesome movie. Before this, "Dating the Enemy" was the most realistic/human TG movie. This blows it away. This is a must see. I only hope my review has done it justice. I can't capture the emotion, pathos, and character development, which really makes a movie breathe."
If you want to read all of Raven's astute analysis and or want a detailed plot breakdown, click here, but beware, it contains SPOILERS!
I hope you'll all support this film if you're lucky enough to have it open at a theater near you. I know I will!
september 16, 2006
Lorna Samuels, the venerable TG author, has been producing single panel cartoon recaps on her various Yahoo groups and SmartGroups for awhile now. Inspired by her efforts, I've made a batch of my own. There is now a new section of the site called Single Panels (under the Modified Stuff tab), where I'm posting our recapped cartoons. Lorna has allowed me to collect all of her previously published caps, and she'll be doing a few new ones for tgcomics.com as well. I hope you will enjoy these simple combinations of words and drawings.
Just to keep things lively around here, I'm going to post our caps in small batches -- ten at a time for me, nine at a time for Lorna (well, actually, ten for Lorna this first time around). New batches will be posted on a more-or-less weekly basis. Also wanted to mention that you can email Lorna at lornasams [at] comcast [dot] net. And, as always, you can email me at femur [at] tgcomics [dot] com.
The other thing I wanted to mention (that probably no one will care about but me) is that, in my endless efforts to improve the site, I've added "First," "Previous," "Next," and "Last" navigation to the galleries on the site that lacked them. So now you'll have two ways to navigate through the modified cover galleries, artist portfolios, and Tebra's covers. Oh boy!
September 12, 2006
The 69th page of The Reign of Cruella has been posted.
August 31, 2006
If you're reading this message, you're seeing the site on its new webhost. The content is exactly the same, but if you poke around a little, I think you'll find pages load significantly faster. If you sent an email in the past day or two and didn't hear from me, there's a chance I missed it during the transition, so please email me again. And do let me know if you see anything that looks odd or different (send email to femur [at] tgcomics [dot] com).
August 29, 2006
For Ix's fans, the 68th page of The Reign of Cruella has been posted.
August 27, 2006
The final six "self-recapped" covers from Tebra. These are the last I have in storage. Perhaps there will be more at some later date.
August 20, 2006
Seven more "self-recapped" covers from Tebra.
And thanks again for the feedback from everyone who took the time to write. It means a lot!
August 14, 2006
Oh boy! This is another exciting date for me. I'm finally able to add one of my all-time, absolute favorite TG artists, Tebra!
This site would not exist without Tebra. When I first saw the Sandy Thomas publication, "I Became My Sister," I realized for the first time that TG comics could be done on a level I'd never before seen. Tebra has set the mark, and the rest of us have been trying to hit it ever since.
I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to host Tebra's work here. There will be another dozen more "self-recapped" covers to come in the next few weeks. Kind of an interesting melding of the different sections of this site (original art and recapped comics), don't you think?
And that's not all. I'm happy to reveal that tgcomics.com will be selling a 20-page comic by Tebra later this year. When the time comes, it'll be available in an online version only (sorry, no hard copies). It won't be posted for a few more months (I still have to set up the store), but you can currently see a few "teaser" panels on the Store tab (the art underneath the "Coming Soon" letters). The final version will be full color. I hope that, when the time comes, you'll all be willing to plunk down a few dollars to see this magnificent work!
Finally, on a completely different note, I've restored the "rules" for the various universes for the modified covers. If you've ever wondered what the rules were for Altered Fates or Spells 'R Us, take a look here.
August 13, 2006
Thanks so much to all the people who took the time to write after my whining yesterday. I promise I won't do that very often! I now want to ask anyone who's interested, do you want to see a general forum on the site? Or would you rather see a specific forum for each comic (a la Cruella)? Or something in between? I was thinking for a comic like Festival, I could put a forum that remains constant as one scrolls through the pages. If anybody has an opinion, email me (femur [at] tgcomics [dot] com). Thanks again for the feedback!
August 12, 2006
Have to confess, I'm kind of disappointed that there's been zero feedback on Festival. Heard from a few folks regarding the redesign (seems to be going over well), but there hasn't been a single unsolicited comment on Jenny Stipple's great work. Am I the only fan of Jenny's? Would it help if I set up a general forum on the site for people to leave feedback?
If you do care to make any comments, wildly enthusiastic or not ;), write to femur [at] tgcomics [dot] com. I'll pass on any thoughts you'd like to share with Jenny.
August 7, 2006
The RSS feed for the site is finally set up, so if you're jonesing for the next page of Cruella and get frustrated checking back every day on the off chance that there might a new page posted, then this is for you! Save your mouse finger and subscribe to the tgcomics.com RSS feed. You'll get all the news and updates about the site delivered straight to you. Click on the little RSS icon on the bottom-right of any page for the link. In some browsers, such as Firefox, Opera and Safari, you'll see an RSS icon on the right side of the address bar as well. Remember, RSS can't be read directly in every web browser (such as Internet Explorer). Google "RSS Feeds" for more info.
August 5, 2006
This is a pretty exciting day for me.
First off, I'm thrilled to be posting Festival, an eight-page comic drawn by the ultra-talented Jenny Stipple. She's previously done some single pieces for the site, but nothing as ambitious as this. I love Jenny's lines, colors, and compositions, and hope you will too. It was, at least for me, a fun collaboration. I'm very proud of the final product. I'm forever in Jenny's debt for working so long and hard on this.
There's also a great new page from Ix. His Reign of Cruella has single-handedly been keeping this site alive while I've been working behind the scenes on the redesign (and other stuff). Thanks for everything, Ix!
The other big news, which I'm sure you've noticed, is that the site has been completely redesigned, a project that seemed like it was going to be simple when I first started ("Just a few weeks," I told myself and anybody who asked), and turned into a nine-month slog through the worlds of css, php, mysql and other wonderful web stuff.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way the pages now look, though if I had it to do over again (and knew what I know now), I'd definitely do some things differently. It's basically the same content as before, but folks who have previewed the site have said it feels more "interactive." I hope that's true.
I tried to set things up for easy navigation (and there's usually more than one way to navigate). Among the highlights, I redid all the stories based on modified covers so they're now web pages on the site instead of PDF files. If you haven't read any of these stories before (and there are some good ones) it's definitely worth checking out!
I could go on and on about the redesign (there are a thousand little changes that probably no one will notice but me), but I'll restrain myself and stop here.
If you see any problems with how things look, if something's disappearing or doesn't look aligned correctly or is going way off to the side of your web browser (everything looks perfect in mine ;) ), let me know and I'll try to fix the problem (not promising I'll be successful). I know I didn't do enough testing on different browsers (couldn't get access to IE5 on the PC, for instance). And I hope the site doesn't break down too much when IE7 is released. Someday, I'd like to convert the site to AJAX, so that when you're navigating through a comic or story, only the changed portion of a page has to reload (but I don't think I'll be tackling that as a project for quite some time!).
Since I've been consumed with the technical aspects of being a webmaster during these past months, there's now a slight back-log of work that needs to be posted. Some new projects and new artists will be popping up in the coming weeks and months. And later this year, I'm even going to try to selling some comics (the first one won't be done by me). When that time comes, I hope you'll be willing to spend a few dollars to support the creation of tg comics in general and the talented artists who create them for this site.
I hope to occasionally write some comments on this page (does anybody read this?) between updates, try to make it something of an informal blog. We'll see how that goes. Will most likely be pretty sporadic.
Finally, thanks, as always, to Geoffrey Kidd for his unflagging support behind the scenes. To Lorna Samuels, for coining the site's new slogan, "Gender-Mix Comix." And to Bendu Monk and all the other brains I've picked over the last months while attempting to solve a few of the mysteries of coding.
If you care to, send an email to femur [at] tgcomics [dot] com regarding Festival, the redesign, or anything else.
All the best,
