Comic book series celebrates Queer and Trans people in New Zealand
A Different Kind of Story .
A new comic series that celebrates the New Zealand LGBTI (lesbian gay bisexual transgendered and intersex)/rainbow community.
Sam Orchard has been drawing since he was a little girl, and is passionate about drawing comics that celebrate the LGBTI community. Sam has spent the last four years drawing the Rooster Tails (www.roostertailscomic.com) a webcomic exploring his life, as a queer trans guy, and his genderqueer partner Joe.
Sam has recently launched a kickstarter to fundraise money to share his story, and the stories of other New Zealanders in the rainbow community. “I love sharing stories about how awesome queer and trans people are. A lot of the time movies and tv shows tell us that not being straight or cis (not trans) makes us sad or bad. But actually we are amazing!” Says Sam.
Sam captured the stories of a group of kiwis with a range of different ‘rainbow’ identities, and wrote short comics about them, and put them into a comic series called “Family Portraits”. He says “I really want to share these stories around, because I’m super inspired by them, and I think we need more and more and more stories about our awesomeness.”
Family Portraits is an inclusive comic book series of short stories about a range of different Queer and Trans people in New Zealand. It celebrates the many different stories we have; “I have been really lucky to chat with some amazing kiwis to create stories that explore a range of topics, like what it was like to be in a gay relationship before law reform, and what it’s like to be a first-generation queer kiwi from a migrant background”.
This series is a first-of-it’s-kind in New Zealand (as far as he’s aware), and it’s all about celebrating our lives, our diversity, and our selves. Each story is told using a different comic style (taking influences from Calvin and Hobbes, Ant Sang’sDharma Punks, Superhero comics, and many other comics).
Sam hopes that the comic will be used as a way to educate, breakdown barriers, and help people to understand more about LGBTI communities. “The first issue of my comic features my ‘Queer 101’comic guide to sexuality, sex, and gender, it’s a resource that has been used all over the world to help demystify sexuality and gender. But I also think that all of the stories can be used as educational tools, and conversation starters, to help people feel safer about belonging to rainbow communities.”
In under 2 weeks he has already achieved his goal of raising $US6,300 and is now moving on to stretch goals in the hope of printing a third issue of Family Portraits.
You can read more about his project, and back it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samorchard/queer-and-trans-comic-series-launch-and-usa-tour
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