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You were probably asked this a lot, but what was your inspiration for Gastrophobia/Pepsiaphobia?
Darkwing Duck was a huge one. It’s about an egotistical single parent hero.
I thought a heroic fantasy setting like Groo or ElfQuest would be fun. My college thesis was a 24-page comic based on the myth of Persephone, so I guess I had ancient Greece on my mind.
The underlying conflict of the series is a sort of Odd Couple set up where Phobia’s a barbarian warrior, but her kid’s assimilated into Greek culture.
I kinda put some Bobby Hill into Pepsia as a starting point, but also used a lot of myself as a kid, which is why she turned out both trans and ADHD.
I made Klepto a slave because Phobia’s an outcast in Greek society and she needed an adult friend who was also an outcast.
Mania/Mina the dog is directly based on my ex-roomates’ pomeranian.
Mania/Krphxyzwlps is a chimera of sorts. She has a centipede-like shape, but a spider head, ant’s mouth, moth antennas, a bee torso, cockroach wings, dragon body. She has an endoskeleton just like we do.
Philia is based partially off obscure Peanuts character, Charlotte Braun. That’s not a joke. Google her.
I really liked how all the characters in Urusei Yatsura had major character flaws which defined them, so I tried to do that with my characters.
Since most of my back stock of Gastrophobia books were destroyed in Hurricane Harvey, I’ve been wanting to reprint them under my real name.
Since my original artwork for volume one had NO flatting, I have to recolor everything to make it fit for CYMK printing. I to re-letter everything with my personal font anyway.
After I started, I realized re-lettering apparently involves redrawing the word balloons so the dialog actually fits. Might as well fix some anatomy mistakes I made early on while I’m editing line art.
It bugs me how the character designs for Phobia & Klepto were different for the first 6 chapters. It’s not too major an edit to change them to match the rest of the comic, so I’ll just…
Wait.
Some of chapter 4 was ret-conned later on. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to add a little bit of foreshadowing. I want to draw a dysphoric Mania…
OH HEY, I THINK I’LL REDRAW MOST OF CHAPTER 6 AND ADD SOME BRAND NEW PAGES!
Okay, yeah, this kinda snowballed into me drawing new pages of comics that I won’t be showing publicly for at least a year from now. Maybe longer. I’ve been putting them on my Patreon as I finish them since January 2021.
Look! According to the meter, I’m nearly halfway done!
I’d be very grateful if you subscribed. I also put pages of Pepsiaphobia on Patreon early. (Link in bio!)
This question is kind of out of the blue, but did you do comics for Nick magazine back in the early 2000s? Your comic style is super familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
Why, yes I did! (〃˘◡˘〃)
I did some one-panel gags for Nickelodeon magazine, but my favorite thing I did was a comic in the final issue (printed under my deadname) (censored).
We’re used to seeing $ on money bags as cartoon shorthand, but these are drachma, so it wouldn’t make any sense. I was originally going to use ₯ for the money bags, but Δρ fits better with the Ancient Greek aesthetic.
Huh. Klepto’s sister reminds me of someone.
If you like my comics, please consider supporting my Patreon! (link in bio!)
A new page of Dead Winter is ready to read! https://deadwinter.cc/page/637 A long day of work is easier on the soul when you’ve got someone to look forward to at the end of your shift. Happy Pride month! Thanks for reading.
I discovered this awesome webcomic at the beginning of the year. I was reading the TV Tropes article, “The Unpronounceable” when I saw the image of characters struggling to say her real name.
Mania is from Gastrophobia/Pepsiaphobia by @gastrophobia
I just noticed Mina's new name! I remember wondering what the pay-off/narrative purpose of two Manias would be. Never in a thousand years would I have thought that that we'd get a transgender Pepsia! I've been reading GastroPhobia since before I discovered some things about my own gender and it warms my heart to see the story continue, and in ways I never knew I'd relate to back then. Sorry for the ramble; I love your work <3
Thanks! 💕 I love getting feedback like this!
Oh, no, no! You’re okay!
“Gastrophobia” is just fine!
I consider Pepsiaphobia to be a sequel to Gastrophobia, so both names are correct. You didn’t deadname my comic! 😉
Answering this publicly so everyone knows it’s okay.
