More Loren and Sylvia pages 10-12

I took a week off posting more Loren and Sylvia for the Comic-Con in San Diego.  No, I didn't attend...I hear it was quite the event as it always is, but I was actually busy camping in the mountains and since there has been little commentary or interaction here (thanks for your comment, Carolyn!), I figured I was safe while many of the comicbook geeks are out of town. I doubt many of them are reading here...:P

There's not much to say other than the introducing of even more characters.  I think this was a problem with Loren and Sylvia, the list of characters began exploding exponentially as the party scenes kept getting wilder.  We get to see Adam, Tia Marge's beau hitting on Wayo, Sylvia's co-worker.  Remember from the "crab" chart, they've already done "the nasty".  There's another musical reference, and I really can't remember if we named all the kids that show up at this party.

Eiri's sister, Erma is here with a new boyfriend Randy and two girlfriends.  Randy brought along a couple of friends, including the mo-hawked punk.  It may be a problem to name them all correctly as I didn't keep copies of the scripts and I haven't spoken to Kathy in many years, assuming she kept them.  I think in the long run it doesn't matter as what was written is soon to run out.  I don't have immediate plans to add anything new, although I've begun to assemble notes I've made over the years and I do hope to have something more complete as a premium eventually.

More Loren and Sylvia pages 7-9

Other influences include the master of the panel comic, Charles Schultz and the editorial strip, Garry Trudeau.  Here we are introduced to a role call of "Loren and Sylvia" characters.  Besides Uncle Chuckie, who is mentioned but doesn't appear until later in the story, there is Adam, who is Tia Marge's beaux.  He is primarily a background character, but we wanted to show that even Tia Marge, who is clearly much older than most of the other people in Loren and Sylvia's lives, has a sexual life and the good sense to be knowledgeable of her partner's sexual behavior.

Perhaps the biggest enigma presented here is Sylvia's liaison with Genise.  You can assume they were highschool sweethearts of a sort, but there is still plenty of emotion between them.  But I don't want to spoil what happens next with too much information, so I'll stop here.

Just one more comment about background material, though.  I've peppered these scenes with references of music we were listening to at the time.  Can you guess what they were?  The first person to post all of them correctly in a comment will be eligible for a complimentary copy of the premium comicbook, when it is done.

More Loren and Sylvia pages 4-6

Sylvia is a complex character and not simply because she emphasizes her recycled bonmots by brandishing her beer bottle.  She sees the world through her own uniquely-colored lavender spectacles. She wears her pink flamingo sweatshirt not only because it is a practical piece of clothing, concealing more than revealing, but because it declares her affinity with things absurd and otherwise termed "gay" (it would be teal with puffy pink ink if this were in color).  Eiri, too is a lesson in contradictions.  She personifies that rare creature: the semi-butch, leather-coat-wearing straight woman.  In a more innocent age she would have been openly bi-sexual, without really experiencing anything more than trading kisses with girlfriends at slumber parties, you know, the ones Sylvia never got invited too.  We get to see her in action reprimanding her sister later.

Jared is on the other hand a deliberate stereotype, the misogynist self-aggrandizing queen.  If it isn't about her, she hates it.  I perhaps needn't italicize those pronouns, but how else would you identify an adult man who behaves like a fearful self-loathing child, verbally sparring with anyone who cares to cross her and speaking archly in case anyone is overhearing.  Loren exhibits some of these characteristics (smoking in bed, indeed!) but his focus is just on daily living and getting laid, a bit like most of us.  Being college age, he still hasn't given up the trappings of childhood: a poster of a dead hero, a favorite blanket with whimsical animals, airplanes on his curtains (were they there when he moved in?) and Mickey Mouse alarm clock; symbols of the adolescent emerging into adult life.

The juxtaposition of all these personalities I think come together well on the page, but there are consequences to all actions; what develops here will de-evolve in the next few pages.  I was always referring to other gay comic books when I was drawing this, Jerry Mill's "Poppers", Howard Cruse's "Wendel" and Jeff Krell's "Jayson", so naturally the stories that I personally experienced are repeated here in Loren and Sylvia.  You may see the similarities too.

More Loren & Sylvia pages 1-3

Here are some of the elusive pages that have never before been published.  I will post as much as I drew back in 1990, when I was last working on this. I'm not making any promises, but I have some notes which expands the story to include some "adventure" characters that Kathy and I developed.  Because they don't really fit with Loren and Sylvia, they will likely appear in a dream.  I also have sketches of versions of the Loren and Sylvia characters that were intended for potential dream sequences, so this is not so much out of the ordinary.

In these pages we are introduced to Jared, Sylvia's awol roommate; Erie, their straight friend who has a sister living with her; Genise, Sylvia's on-again-off-again girlfriend and notorious neighborhood bi-sexual; among many more characters.  The story has a lot going on behind the scenes, but I think it is an accurate portrayal of the lives of college age students learning about sexuality.  Of course, Sylvia is old-hat at it, but later she does find her desires acknowledged.  Oh, wait! I can't give away secrets too early!

I packed a lot of little bits of information into these drawings and some artistic bits.  You can find collage clippings scattered in the background as artwork and posters, reflecting the modern environment Loren and Sylvia inhabit.  These are pretty subtle reminders that these characters have lives beyond the panel.