Cheery Chungus, everyone!
Here's TransCat Santa Chungus! She's the GOOD one! Don't worry! You can trust your Christmas wishes with her!
If you follow me on my various socials, you have probably noticed that this lil guy has become my user avatar since the beginning of December!
What does she mean? What's going to happen with her? Oh, jsut you wait and see, my dearest lads and lasses! Just you wait and see! Maybe nothing? Who's to say? Maybe it will be THE most intense experience of all time!
Either way, you'll have to come in a check again on Christmas to find out for sure!
Hey, you know, it's been a long time since I updated this site! How do you like the new look? Let's just say I watched that short documentary on Brigitte Bond on Youtube, and was inspired. If you ain't seen it yet, HERE it is!
I've always been kind of a casual Ska fan, but I've never attempted to work the look and the aesthetics into TransCat. I've actually always been more of a punk fan, which, as you can see, is really represented in the site's new look as well. I would like for this to be a prooject I keep adding more to as the comic goes on and the site continues to evolve. There's a lotta punk rock icons that could TransCatified, and they will surely come to me more and more over time. When I got another two rows of brick walls worth of doodles, I'll add to the scroll.
Did you know I went to another con recently?
That's right, SF Fan Expo was just two weeks ago.
I practically INSIST you check out all my photos! Click the picture below :3
It was a GREAT con. And I'm not just saying that because it's the first con I've been to since March. It was legitimately very fun, and I did really good business there.
I also need to thank my table buddy, Stephanie, for accompanying me, helping me set up and break down every day, and guarding the table during my many bathroom breaks and explorations around the convention.
This was actually NOT a great con for merch! I hardly found anything there I wanted to buy. And the few things I DID want were FAR too expensive for me to justify. Maybe that's a good thing though, cuz I need to be better with my money.
I was sitting just over 50 feet away from the infamous Ken Penders himself.
I was so, SO tempted to cause some kind of incident over at his booth, but I really wasn't looking to get kicked out of the con either. Plus, I know Mr. Penders to be a very litigious person. He certainly ain't working on or releasing comics these days, so he's got all the time in the world to sue Sega, Archie Comics, IDW, Paramount Pictures and the like. Surely he would not mind adding me to the list of defendants.
For context, Ken Penders is the man who is most often credited for sinking the ship that was Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog adaptation. He is definitely also some kinda weird sex pervert too, if the storylines he kept trying to explore are any evidence. But yeah, he wound up adding like 100 new characters to the Sonic the Hedgehog roster during his time working on the comic, and for some reason, neither Archie nor Sega took the time to make this guy sign any kind of forfeiture of ownership agreement when he got hired. Both Sega and Archie CLAIMED this document existed. But after Ken got fired from the comic for being a sex pervert, and he made the claim that all of his original characters actually belonged to him, neither side could produce the document. So, they had no choice but to allow Ken Penders to take his army of cartoon furries with him, many of which had become INTEGRAL to the plot, thus sinking the comic.
You can make the argument that it was Sega and Archie that really dripped the ball here, but I still choose to think of Penders as the bad guy here because when you think about how fucking STRANGE the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom is, I feel like you can trace it directly back to this man.
But I guess the GOOD news was that IDW picked up the Sonic license afterwards, and decided to ONLY use characters from the games, which, should have been Archie's strategy to begin with. But, in all fairness, in November of 1992, when they first picked it up, Sonic the Hedgehog had exactly three main characters, Sonic, Tails, and Robotnik. So I guess the need to create a supporting cast WAS there. i just wish Ken Penders hadn't had such a heavy hand in creating it.
Anyway. I let the whole con go by and never gave this man a piece of my mind. I was actually kind of surprised that NO ONE did, considering how infamous he is. I cannot think of anyone who is a "fan" of this guy. Maybe that's why, honestly. Maybe people just walked by his booth not knowing who he was or what he did. Maybe I'M the weirdo for knowing all this, and wanting revenge after all these years. I am at least willing to explore the possibility.
Anyway, it wasn't all bad. I had a really cute incident where this little kid was walking by my booth with his parents, and he excitedly pointed at my booth and shouted "CATBOYYYYYY!" I smiled and simply said "CatGIRL", to which he responded "CATGIRRRRRLLLLLL!"
Probably the highlight of the entire con.
I was also sitting next to a really talented Filipino artist named Kristian Kubuay who I wound up buying two books from.
The first one is COMPLETELY in Tagalog, and I cannot read a single word of it. I am not even sure what it's called, but it is apparently a fashion magazine from the Philippines that features a friend of his who is a transgender model, and is not only working on transgender advocacy, but is also very vocal and outspoken about sharing Filipini cutlure that existed pre-colonization, and urges fans and followers to not forget these roots, and actively fight back against homogenization, etc.
I could be wrong, but i think her name is Geena Rocero. That's what I get when I type "Filipino Transgender Model" into google, and those pictures KINDA look like the pictures in the book, and since I can't read it, iIam going on faith.
The other book I got from him is called Apoy Ni Lakapati, which apparently just means "Lakapati's Fire". Lakapati is a Filipino God who blesses not only the harvest, but also pregnancies. I am not SUPER well versed in the story behind this figure, but apparently, different interpretations of this God's stories lead people in the modern day to think of them as a transgender figure. I guess there's certain aspects of them that are thought of and conveyed very masculine, and others that are very feminine. I have not read the book yet, so perhaps I'll learn more about it after I do, but the good news is, I CAN read it, because it is in English! Phew! More to come, perhaps! If you wanna read it for yourself, you can get it HERE.
Anyway, I could go on and on about the con. Perhaps I'll say more later, but there's a lot going on in my house and I can't be on the computer all day. I'll close by saying my application to go to Queer Comics Fest in SF is in. Fingers crossed I get in. That will be February 18th.
I'm also considering going to Galaxy Con in August, which is a far way off still, but it's on my radar.
Pray for me :3
I also need to thank my table buddy, Stephanie, for accompanying me, helping me set up and break down every day, and guarding the table during my many bathroom breaks and explorations around the convention.
This was actually NOT a great con for merch! I hardly found anything there I wanted to buy. And the few things I DID want were FAR too expensive for me to justify. Maybe that's a good thing though, cuz I need to be better with my money.
I was sitting just over 50 feet away from the infamous Ken Penders himself.
I was so, SO tempted to cause some kind of incident over at his booth, but I really wasn't looking to get kicked out of the con either. Plus, I know Mr. Penders to be a very litigious person. He certainly ain't working on or releasing comics these days, so he's got all the time in the world to sue Sega, Archie Comics, IDW, Paramount Pictures and the like. Surely he would not mind adding me to the list of defendants.
For context, Ken Penders is the man who is most often credited for sinking the ship that was Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog adaptation. He is definitely also some kinda weird sex pervert too, if the storylines he kept trying to explore are any evidence. But yeah, he wound up adding like 100 new characters to the Sonic the Hedgehog roster during his time working on the comic, and for some reason, neither Archie nor Sega took the time to make this guy sign any kind of forfeiture of ownership agreement when he got hired. Both Sega and Archie CLAIMED this document existed. But after Ken got fired from the comic for being a sex pervert, and he made the claim that all of his original characters actually belonged to him, neither side could produce the document. So, they had no choice but to allow Ken Penders to take his army of cartoon furries with him, many of which had become INTEGRAL to the plot, thus sinking the comic.
You can make the argument that it was Sega and Archie that really dripped the ball here, but I still choose to think of Penders as the bad guy here because when you think about how fucking STRANGE the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom is, I feel like you can trace it directly back to this man.
But I guess the GOOD news was that IDW picked up the Sonic license afterwards, and decided to ONLY use characters from the games, which, should have been Archie's strategy to begin with. But, in all fairness, in November of 1992, when they first picked it up, Sonic the Hedgehog had exactly three main characters, Sonic, Tails, and Robotnik. So I guess the need to create a supporting cast WAS there. i just wish Ken Penders hadn't had such a heavy hand in creating it.
Anyway. I let the whole con go by and never gave this man a piece of my mind. I was actually kind of surprised that NO ONE did, considering how infamous he is. I cannot think of anyone who is a "fan" of this guy. Maybe that's why, honestly. Maybe people just walked by his booth not knowing who he was or what he did. Maybe I'M the weirdo for knowing all this, and wanting revenge after all these years. I am at least willing to explore the possibility.
Anyway, it wasn't all bad. I had a really cute incident where this little kid was walking by my booth with his parents, and he excitedly pointed at my booth and shouted "CATBOYYYYYY!" I smiled and simply said "CatGIRL", to which he responded "CATGIRRRRRLLLLLL!"
Probably the highlight of the entire con.
I was also sitting next to a really talented Filipino artist named Kristian Kubuay who I wound up buying two books from.
The first one is COMPLETELY in Tagalog, and I cannot read a single word of it. I am not even sure what it's called, but it is apparently a fashion magazine from the Philippines that features a friend of his who is a transgender model, and is not only working on transgender advocacy, but is also very vocal and outspoken about sharing Filipini cutlure that existed pre-colonization, and urges fans and followers to not forget these roots, and actively fight back against homogenization, etc.
I could be wrong, but i think her name is Geena Rocero. That's what I get when I type "Filipino Transgender Model" into google, and those pictures KINDA look like the pictures in the book, and since I can't read it, iIam going on faith.
The other book I got from him is called Apoy Ni Lakapati, which apparently just means "Lakapati's Fire". Lakapati is a Filipino God who blesses not only the harvest, but also pregnancies. I am not SUPER well versed in the story behind this figure, but apparently, different interpretations of this God's stories lead people in the modern day to think of them as a transgender figure. I guess there's certain aspects of them that are thought of and conveyed very masculine, and others that are very feminine. I have not read the book yet, so perhaps I'll learn more about it after I do, but the good news is, I CAN read it, because it is in English! Phew! More to come, perhaps! If you wanna read it for yourself, you can get it HERE.
Anyway, I could go on and on about the con. Perhaps I'll say more later, but there's a lot going on in my house and I can't be on the computer all day. I'll close by saying my application to go to Queer Comics Fest in SF is in. Fingers crossed I get in. That will be February 18th.
I'm also considering going to Galaxy Con in August, which is a far way off still, but it's on my radar.
Pray for me :3
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