According to the author, the picaresque adventures of Bold Riley were inspired by such classics as The Epic of Gilgamesh and Beowulf.

“I like stories where there’s one character, and everything is broken up so it could almost stand alone, but it builds to a bigger narrative,” Weathington said. “I really like that mode of storytelling.”

The idea for The Legend of Bold Riley began during Weathington’s second year at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, and was soon published as a series of webcomics on the Girlamatic website.

She later printed minicomics for some of the stories, but the money required to print each one separately was money she would not have to create a Bold Riley graphic novel, her ultimate goal. Rather than continuing with individually-published stories, Weathington decided to focus on the collection, intending to self-publish.

“I got fortunate enough that Zan Christensen of Northwest Press asked if I would give it to him,” she remembered. “He’s one of those people who wants diversity in comics, especially in the queer community, and he’s such a great person to work with.”

That’s just a taste; there’s a lot of great stuff in the article and it talks about a lot of the artists, Leia’s balance between being an artist and a writer, and her move from San Francisco to Portland.

Check out the whole feature on Examiner.com!

I was brought up on Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories. They were so stereotypical—fierce, strong, heavily muscular barbarian swordsman, confronting evil priests and bizarre monsters and bedding wenches of all kinds, that kind of thing. I loved “that kind of thing.”

I have basically been waiting my entire adult life for someone to write “that kind of thing” starring a lesbian Princess who leaves her home to find adventure, because she can’t stop herself, and who confronts gods, creatures, demons and the like. And, of course, beds wenches.

Leia Weathington’s The Legend of Bold Riley, is, at last, that story.

Check out the whole review on Okazu!

[Hall] takes that idea of superhero-as-drag and spoofs it to the end while demonstrating how useful the drag trope is in thinking about superheroes.  Using the deliberately outrageous and delightfully narcissistic patois of drag-speak, Hall gives Glamazonia five different secret origins, has her constantly reject the attentions of a would-be sidekick (Rent Boy), puts her on the grassy knoll at JFK’s assassination and has her compete in a Contest of Champions (the prize: super-pets!).  Even better, he collaborates with an all-star team of queer cartoonists in a series of short “One To Glam On” segments that are the best part of the book.  The segment with Ed Luce of Wuvable Oaf is a particular highlight, as Glamazonia gives a group of bears advice on keeping their body hair healthy and free of split ends.

I think he’s really captured the spirit of Glamazonia who—for the uninitiated among you—is not what you’d call an adherent to the notion that “with great power comes great responsibility”…

Glamazonia is unrepentantly sarcastic and self-centered, willing to save the world but not if she’s busy with her nails.  She’s not so much a real character as she is a smartass alter-ego.  She reminds me a little of DiDi Glitz, Diane Noomin’s cartoon alter-ego.  Blond, bewigged, fabulous and a little bit bitchy, but their hearts are in the right place.  Both characters seem to be a way of exercising a particular part of the artists’ personality that’s ultra-extroverted, outspoken, witty, obnoxious, a little trashy and not afraid to get what they want.

Check out the whole review for more glowing Glamazonia glory!

Cartoonists Northwest was founded in 1981 as an association of professional and amateur cartoonists who meet monthly to network, collaborate, and promote community among local artists. It is one of Seattle’s longest-standing organizations and boasts membership of such artists as: Lynn Johnston (For Better or For Worse), David Horsey (Seattle PI), John Lustig (Disney and Last Kiss), Brian Basset (Adam @ Home and Red and Rover), Donna Barr (The Desert Peach and Stinz) and many more.

In keeping with CNW’s irreverent spirit, Saturday’s banquet was quite an experience: press-on moustaches, a clay sculpting competition, live music with delightfully nerdy cartoon lyrics, and a fantastic speech by special guest Scott Kurtz of PVP. They also had a silent auction, in which I bid on and won some Alan Moore trade paperbacks to give to the uninitiated.

Even though I’ve only been in the publishing business a short time, I am so grateful to organizations like Lambda Literary and Cartoonists Northwest who have recognized my efforts and encouraged me. 2011 was as good a first year in the saddle as anyone could hope for, and that was in large part due to being embraced by the book and comics worlds so warmly.

Onward and upward in 2012!

So we were more than a little dismayed to hear that Bent-Con was having trouble officially launching their new website and releasing tickets for sale. It turns out there was a problem with the company that was recommended to them to handle credit card transactions: Cornerstone Payment Systems didn’t want to do business with a queer comics show.

From the official Bent-Con site:

Credit card payment gateways are the mechanism the internet uses to exchange information between websites and mobile phones and the banks. When the general public buys a pizza or orders tickets over the web, the gateway verifies all the information is correct, authorizes the transfer of funds, and takes a percentage for the effort in “fees”. These fees can add up to significant amounts of money for both the seller and the gateway service. Getting the best deal possible is what every seller requires.

“In setting up our ticket service, our ticketing agent signed us up with an established company that offers low rates to non-profits like us—Cornerstone Payment Systems—that’s when things got odd,” [Bent-Con President Sean Holman] said.

Typical approval time is 48 hours. Several days of no word prompted Mr. Holman to inquire about the delay, first to the ticketing agency, then to Cornerstone itself. Two weeks later, a Cornerstone representative sent a cryptic email that said, “Unfortunately because the type of business we cannot get this account approved. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Puzzled, Mr. Holman inquired further with both Cornerstone and the ticketing agency about the rejection and the language. Apologizing, the ticketing agency indicated that Conerstone’s “underwriting criteria will be problematic” in regards to Bent-Con and quickly made arrangements with a different company, ACH Direct, to handle the processing. ACH approved Bent-Con and the website is now live and taking ticket orders for the December 2012 event.

It turns out that Cornerstone rejected Bent-Con due to the fact that it was an LGBT nonprofit.

Cornerstone’s website says they put “Christ at the Cornerstone of our business… we will not process credit card transactions for morally objectionable businesses”. In addition to rejecting customers based on their sexual orientation, they also funnel a portion of their fees to a number of anti-gay groups through a service called “Processing with a Purpose”, one notable beneficiary of which is The American Family Association, which the Southern Poverty Law Center certified as a hate group last year.

Here’s AFA Executive Director Bryan Fischer explaining how it’s perfectly appropriate to discriminate against gays, using the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr:

Cornerstone also provides these services to related organizations like the Home School Legal Defense Fund, American Family Association, Teen Pact, World Magazine and Florida Family Policy Counsel. Cornerstone advertises that they’ve processed several billion dollars and worked with 30,000 ministries.

Again, from the Bent-Con site:

“No wonder they rejected us,” Mr. Holman said. “We’re the kind of people they hate!”

The most troubling aspect, though, is that Cornerstone, directly and through partnerships, has provided gateway services to unknowing groups who support equality and fairness in other ways.

“There are several charities—cancer prevention, poverty reduction, even Little League organizations—that use Cornerstone due to its low rates and inadvertently fund the anti-gay hate industry in the United States,” Mr. Holman said. “Had things broken in a slightly different way, we might have wound up providing money to what is, essentially, the ‘bag-man’ for internet funded hate groups. I wonder how many otherwise great organizations don’t realize they’re helping to fund such hate with their own internet sales.”

I’d like to encourage organizations that use credit card gateways to check and see if Cornerstone is your provider. Cornerstone is free to work with whomever it wants, but we’re also free to point out their policies and encourage people who support fairness and equality to take their business elsewhere.

In any case, I’m happy that the matter has been resolved and that the community can now buy tickets for this fantastic event without worrying that we’re inadvertently funding groups that work against us.

You can find out more about Bent-Con (and buy tickets!) by heading to their website. See you in December!

Northwest Press is pleased to be part of the first annual Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, or CAKE, taking place June 16th and 17th in Chicago! (What’s a swapped C and K amongst friends?)

Come and visit with Charles “Zan” Christensen (The Power Within, The Mark of Aeacus), Justin Hall (Glamazonia: The Uncanny Super Tranny), Jon Macy (Teleny and Camille) and David Kelly (Rainy Day Recess: The Complete Steven’s Comics) and celebrate the queer side of indie comics!

Also, CAKE will mark the debut of the brand-new Northwest Press book The Legend of Bold Riley! Be the first to get your copy of the breathtaking sword-and-sorcery epic!