symbolia – Lucy Bellwood

New Comic: Greening Islam

I have a new comic up today in collaboration with writer Audrey Quinn, Symbolia Magazine, and Showtime’s Years of Living Dangerously TV series. It’s a big honor to be involved with this project, which strives to bring greater awareness to the challenges of climate change through comics journalism and media outreach. These are big, scary topics and I often find myself shying away from them because I feel too small and scared to make any sort of difference. Illustrating a story about someone who’s working to change that through an unexpected avenue was really powerful for me. I hope you enjoy it!

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“The Secret Life of Gitmo’s Women” Featured on Narratively

In-depth, human-interest news platform Narratively featured a comic of mine this week. “The Secret Life of Gitmo’s Women” collects the two interviews I illustrated for Symbolia Magazine in collaboration with writer Sarah Mirk early last year. These two stories haven’t been free to read online before now, so head over and take a look. (Note: these comics deal with issues of harassment and sexual assault. Please read with awareness.)

The comic has also been accepted to this year’s Open Engagement conference in New York, where Laura Sandow (one of the veterans we worked with) will be presenting it in May. Unfortunately it sounds like I won’t be able to make the conference due to conflicting convention arrangements, but I do hope those of you in the New York area can go check it out. More on the Open Engagement homepage.

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CAKE Recap

In accordance with the Universal Law of My Rubbish Immune System, I’ve come down with a nasty post-CAKE illness, but at least I made it through the first leg of convention season with my health intact!

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The trip to Chicago was an absolute blast. Not only was the show full of lovely comics and new friends, I got to go out dancing twice* and catch so much sweet live blues. There were also rooftop BBQ parties and thunderstorms and it was splendid.

*There are rumors I won a booty-shaking competition, but I can neither confirm nor deny the fact.

Here’s a big ol’ photodump of images from the trip — including a pilgrimage to Myopic Books, the ACTUAL CAKE they provided for exhibitors, Mr. Sam Alden, my lovely table mate, Ms. Rachel Foss, my new partner in cross-country comics crime, getting a peek at the new issue of Symbolia, selling out of True Believer, various doodles, and the fabulous kale and pulled pork I had for lunch on the last day. More news as soon as I stop feeling like someone shoved a couple golf balls down my throat!

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Symbolia is LIVE!

The latest issue of Symbolia, the tablet magazine of comics journalism, is OUT!

It’s been almost a year since Sarah Mirk first approached me about illustrating this project, so it’s very exciting to have the full issue out in the open at last. Declassified brings to life the firsthand experiences of two women who served at the Guantánamo Bay naval base circa 2001. From witnessing the shift in detention practices post-9/11, to grappling with sexual assault in the military, their stories are raw and powerful. Here’s a page to whet your appetites.

The rest of the issue features stories from women around the world dealing with human trafficking, tattoos, military service, immigration, and more. It’s a powerful and diverse showing, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

To read this issue, subscribe to Symbolia: on iPad // via PDF // Kindle Editions.

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The Niftymancer Kickstarter Campaign & Symbolia Process Photos!

Hey everyone, long time no blog! I have a couple pressing items to throw out before I dive back into finishing these stories for Symbolia magazine. Niftymancer, the lane defense game I’ve been doing some animation work for, is entering the final hours of its Kickstarter fundraising campaign. There’s a chunk of change left to go, but with your help we can push it over the line! The game features character designs by Justin Hillgrove, of Imps and Monsters fame, and has been a ton of fun to work on. You can check out the characters I’ve been animating below:

In the land of comics, I’ve been hard at work on the finishing stages of my story for Symbolia Magazine. Here’s a quick bunch of photos from the two weeks I was away in California. Lots of inking, lots of toning, lots of lettering, and even a little color! All that’s left are the interactive elements and then this thing will be finished.

More news to come later this week, including an exciting announcement about the publication of Navy Ink, the tattoo-based story I posted a few months ago. In the meantime, check out Niftymancer on Kickstarter and enjoy the rest of the weeekend!

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Assorted Doings

Hello everyone!

Still recovering from Emerald City over here, but I’m excited to say that I’m well into inking my story for Symbolia Magazine, which will basically be my full-time job for the next few weeks. Things will be quiet while I’m working on that, but afterwards it’ll be on to Baggywrinkles #4 and beyond! I’ll post previews as I can.

In other news, blogger Greg Burgas picked up a copy of True Believer at the convention, and was kind enough to give it a very thorough review on Comic Book Resources this week. Here’s a teaser:

“[Death can] become hackneyed, the way a writer approaches it, but Bellwood manages to let the emotions come out without going too far and getting into mawkishness […] As we move through the book, it becomes more intense and more personal, in a way that grabs the reader and doesn’t let go […] ‘True Believer’ is an intense work that has a lot going on in it, and Bellwood transitions easily between many different moods.”

What a guy! You can read the whole thing here.

For those of you who stopped by, thanks for saying hello! To those who couldn’t make it, never fear. I’ll be at tabling at the Stumptown Comics Fest next month with all these goodies and more.

When we met, Greg was also quite taken with the table’s squeaky walrus, so here’s the ridiculous photo he took of my cheesiest convention face.

Aaaaand finally, Grace Allison did a wonderful marker coloring demo at Periscope yesterday, so here’s the portrait I whipped up to practice on (we only had super skinny scraps of Bristol. Can you tell?).

Until next time, friends!

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Doing It Anyway

Although it’s been one of Those Days, I’m excited to say that I’m finally through to the backend on my first story for Symbolia Magazine! Here’s the whole thing all tinylike (no spoilers!) before I print it out and start inking.

After spending all this time researching uniforms and protocol and environments and guns (oh God, the guns), I’m really excited to work on other projects next month. Give me environments I know full of things I can draw! Still, this has been a fantastic challenge so far and I’m really excited to finally get it off the computer and onto the drawing board. Until I’m splashing ink on things, it just doesn’t feel like making comics.

In related news, I scripted out Baggywrinkles #4 is a sleepless fever last night.

Turns out everything I thought was hilarious at 2am held up in the cold light of morning. Success!

The story will be around 12 pages and should be out in time for the Stumptown Comics Fest in April. But first, I’ve got another story to pencil and ink. So I’ll get back to that.

Onward, ever onward.

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New Year, New Hats, New News!

Hello everyone! It’s 2013! Isn’t that crazy? I think so.

This year was my first as a Real Live Cartoonist, and it’s been a hell of a ride. I was about to start writing a list of all the stuff that happened, but I got exhausted just thinking about it. Let’s just say A Lot of Stuff went down. Comics, dance, work, travel, freelance, moving, breakups, unbreakups, practice, growth, change — and 2013 just keeps looking better. I have another two months at Periscope (which, for the record, is the most inspiring and wonderful work environment ever), two of my comics will be published by people who are not me before July, there’s a new issue of Baggywrinkles in the works, and it’s looking like I’ll be traveling to at least FIVE conventions this year. I’m excited, inspired, and ready to make more art. What more could a girl ask for?

I also got a very kind mention in Tony Cliff’s 12 from 2012 list for Paste Magazine. Tony is the mastermind behind the adventures of Delilah Dirk — one the most beautifully-executed and delightful webcomics out there today. I’m immensely chuffed to see Baggywrinkles alongside such an impressive gaggle of names, and I highly recommend that you go check out the rest of the group. There’s just too much awesome stuff happening in comics right now.

Speaking of awesome stuff, here’s some exciting news! The story I’m illustrating for Symbolia Magazine is now officially underway. Here are all my thumbnails laid out and ready to go:

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The issue with our story won’t be out until June, but expect several sneak peeks as I work through pencils and inks over the next couple months. Sarah Mirk has put together some really powerful stories, and I can’t wait to start working on them in earnest.

Weekly drawing challenges continue unabated. Here are the 50 Hats I promised last week:

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And I’m making noises about doing an alphabet series involving figures from Classical Greece — gods, goddesses, heroes, legends, etc — as a tactic for improving my inking technique. Here’s a photo of the Athena sketch that got me started on the idea.

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If you have any favorite Greek figures, perhaps you’d care to leave their names in the comments? I’ll probably be taking suggestions as I go…

Apart from that, work continues unabated. I’m in California until next week, and then it’s back to the grey northwest for more drawing, more food carts, and more…nope, those are basically the only two things I’ll be paying attention to for a while. OH! I’m also going to be teaching some workshops later this month: Freelance Badassery and Kickstarter Bootcamp. Keep an eye out for dates and times as soon as I have them.

OKAY. PHEW.

We’re really done now.