From “The Nib” Newsletter

“The Nib” still comes in email sometimes. This is an item that could be of interest, also not about very current US election news (though there could be a tad here and there. I mean this item; “The Nib” still has plenty political for right now.) Anyway, back to this; I keep thinking there are people reading here who don’t comment, and that maybe any of us is an artist interested in moving forward with their art, and this can help. -A

Home

🤷

So, I can’t tell what’s showing and what isn’t. On the posting page, I can see the little block with the title, the hyperlink, and the tiny blurb. When I look at the preview, though, all I can see is “Home” as a hyperlink; it goes to Crucial Comix. So, below, is a snip from Crucial Comix’s “About” page. Check it out!

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home for essential nonfiction comics and zines.

Founded in 2024, we are a cartoonist-run small press that publishes narrative nonfiction comics and offers compelling classes on comics-making and practice.

Our Values

We believe that comics are a powerful way to shape how we perceive ourselves and the world. Comics can capture emotional realities, offering a profound way express feelings and experiences that are impossible to depict in words alone. Comics connect with readers, drawing new eyes to stories about politics, history, and identity. Comics are made around the world by people who want to share their ideas and dreams. In short, comics are crucial.

As cartoonists face down book bans, political censorship, and financial difficulty in publishing boundary-pushing work, it’s more important than ever to build a community of artists that is rooted in mutual support and enthusiasm.

Crucial Comix is all about skill-sharing, accessibility, flexibility, and experimentation. We are a small press that aims to be always evolving so we can be a relevant and reliable resource for artists. Our pitches are always open. Our classes are all offered sliding-scale. Our comics are all free to read. Each season, we welcome a cohort of volunteer editors to guide up-and-coming artists through the process of making a nonfiction comic.

Get Involved

Are you looking to make comics based on real life? You take a class, submit or pitch a comic, or hire Crucial artists and writers to work on your project. You can also hire us to come teach classes or workshops at your school, library, or workplace.

Are you an artist or writer who wants to get involved in our community? You’re welcome to join our mailing list to find out about upcoming events and fun stuff. Everyone who completes a workshop or class with Crucial is invited to join our private Discord. If you’re interested in becoming an editor for Crucial someday, consider taking our editing class.

Want to ask us a question about your particular situation? Feel free to email us at editors@crucialcomix.com. If you’re looking to submit a comic, check out our submission guidelines.

Want to send us a copy of your zines? You can upload a zine to our submissions form or drop them in the snail mail: Crucial Comix, PO Box 17253, Portland, OR 97217

cartoonists4kamala

It’s kinda been a day so I’m just finishing off comics at 9:30 PM Sunday; I found this on the GoComics Non Sequitur page! So cool!

cartoonists4kamala

It’s fun to window shop-enjoy!

Maybe Someone Can Use a Short Humor Break?

Enjoy a quick Cover Snark! Click through and enjoy the comments, as well. It is a safe place there.

Cover Snark: Reptiles are an Unintentional Theme

by Amanda · Oct 28, 2024 at 3:00 am · View all 7 comments

Welcome back to Cover Snark!

Safe in Her Bodyguard's Arms by Katherine Garbera. A man and woman in a swamp, wading through water. The water comes up to their thighs and we can see beneath where an alligator lurks.

From Rachael: I have so many questions:

Does she not want him to save her from what looks to be an alligator?

Is that alligator okay? His hips seem off.

Should his gun be that close to the water?

Why are they casually having a moment in this clearly dangerous water??!!

Did they keep their shoes on?

Sarah: She’s a shifter. So is the gator. That’s her brother and she has to talk him out of shooting the gator because again, brother.

Also, how come his shirt is wet at the neck and pits but his pants, which are IN WATER, are dry?

Sneezy: I respect alligators and crocodiles the same way I respect bears and moose – from far, far away.

Double Dare by Wynema McGowan. The bottom half of the cover is an older looking wooden house with a porch and a large tree. The orange sky is filled with the image of woman setting at a desk and writing in a journal. She is wearing a dark green, off the shoulder dress. However the woman is copied and flipped vertically and image makes it look like the two woman are joined at the shoulder.

Sarah: That cover is so disturbing to me. Every time I look at it I get a low-grade ick.

Amanda: Yeah, the shoulder area in particular.

Sarah: Looking again, yup, still ick.

Sneezy: My ick is how OBVIOUSLY COPY AND PASTE they are! THIS IS LITERALLY THE LARGEST AND MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS DESIGN!

Wed to the Alien Warlord by January Bell. A headless and shirtless green, well-abbed man with scales. He has long, green hair and a leather strap across his chest. The title is in bright red and orange.

From Lillian P: Green with fish scales? Red belly and abs? Floating in space? And red and yellow font for the title.

Sarah: Someone got reeeeally excited about learning how to use textures in Photoshop.

Amanda: As someone who owned snakes and has touched many a reptile, I don’t know how I’d feel about sexy time with someone with scales.

Sneezy: I’m really into snake people, but only if they have hemi-penises. What’s the point otherwise?

Captive Mates by Corin Cain, Three shirtless men wearing leather straps are in space. Their skin is grey and all are looing down at their crotch. The man in the middle is wielding a green, glowing sword. Behind them are three blue planets in space.

Also from Lillian P: Not one, not two, but three floating aliens all checking themselves out?

Sarah: I’m so sorry I cannot stop laughing at this. It’s so funny. They’re all so pensive! Glowing swords and kilts and a wee-wee stare-off.

Claudia: Oh man I feel we’ve done this one but maybe all the wee-wee staring is blending together!!

Amanda: They all look like they’ve fallen asleep standing up. Like horses.

Sonnet on The Spectrum

Sonnet on The Spectrum (Diary of An Autistic Neuroscientist) | Abhijit Naskar | The Humanitarian Dictator

Reblog from Janet:

Odessa’s New Law: Targeting Trans Rights in Texas

Mel Manuel, Trans Candidate for U.S. House, Injected T on Camera in a Campaign Ad

Manuel is running on a platform of abortion rights, universal healthcare, and gun control.

BY SAMANTHA RIEDEL

(Way to go-run for office! Especially in and as opposition to people like Steve Scalise-A)

A trans nonbinary Louisiana candidate for the U.S. House released a defiant campaign video this week, showing themself injecting testosterone to defend bodily autonomy.

Mel Manuel, who is running to unseat far-right House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, released the video on social media platforms on Tuesday. In the video, Manuel called on voters to “take a stand” while performing a routine testosterone injection.

“I believe that you, not the government, own your own body,” Manuel told viewers, wearing a “My Body My Choice” T-shirt. “LGBTQ+ rights are human rights.”

Manuel, who is running on a platform of abortion rights, universal healthcare, and gun control, highlighted a recent analysis that found Republicans had spent more than $65 million in anti-trans advertisements since the start of August. They also promoted Louisiana’s “Geaux Vote” app, which allows voters to find their polling location and get ballot information.

“To my LGBTQ+ family and our allies… No one is coming to save us,” Manuel wrote in the video description. “We have to show up at the polls for ourselves and for those we love. I’ve spent the last year and a half campaigning because we need to speak up and be represented before it’s too late. You can speak up now with your vote.”

Manuel is the cofounder of Queer Northshore, an LGBTQ+ activist organization based in St. Tammany Parish, and has previously organized against conservative book bans and anti-trans laws in the state. In contrast, Scalise has earned a reputation as a staunchly anti-LGBTQ+ Republican since first taking office in 2008, voting against the Byrd-Shepard Hate Crime Prevention Act, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and the Respect for Marriage Act; he is also firmly anti-trans, condemning “the left’s radical gender ideology” in a 2022 statement calling for trans girls to be banned from school sports. Scalise even once described himself as “David Duke without the baggage,” referring to the infamous former leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Given that Manuel is running in opposition to all that, injecting T on camera is a pretty big flex. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean they expect to win; as their campaign website notes, Manuel’s goal is simply to get 35% of the vote. “Even if your candidate doesn’t win, if we can move the needle to 35 percent or 40 percent of the vote, that means the next progressive candidate will get more funding,” they explained to The Nation last year. “There’s a very, very small chance at winning, and I understand that, but we can still use the role of candidacy as a platform in and of itself.”

https://www.them.us/story/mel-manuel-campaign-ad-injection-testosterone

U.K. Teacher Who Outed Trans Student Banned From Teaching in England “Indefinitely”

In a series of posts on X, Camilla Hannan outed a trans student by name and made several disparaging comments about trans identity.

BY MATHEW RODRIGUEZ

A teacher in Manchester, England, who outed a trans student and posted transphobic messages on social media is now banned “indefinitely” from teaching in England.

Prior to the decision, Camilla Hannan had admitted to posting a series of tweets in which she outed a student of hers as trans and disparaged the trans kids at her own school. Though the panel convened in September, the UK’s Teaching Regulation Agency posted the decision online on Tuesday.

(snip)

“In particular, the panel found that Miss Hannan had a deep-seated attitude, and that, whilst she was entitled to have that attitude and hold the views that she did, it was not acceptable for her to have posted these on social media in a way that was damaging to the profession, the school, pupils and in particular Pupil A,” the report reads.

Hannan will be allowed to appeal the decision in two years, though the panel’s decision did not bode well for any future lifting of the suspension. “It is necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession,” the report reads.

This summer, a group of 20 trans teen activists gathered outside the U.K. Department of Education’s London Headquarters in order to demand greater protections for trans students. Activists hoped to underscore the “urgent need for policy changes that respect and protect the rights of trans youth, including their rights to autonomy, safety, trust, respect and inclusion.” One of their demands included protection from transphobic bullying, misgendering, and deadnaming, something that is apparently just as applicable to teachers as fellow students.

https://www.them.us/story/manchester-england-uk-teacher-camilla-hannan-outed-trans-student

American Bird Conservancy: “The Sleeping One”

Common Poorwill

The Facts on Anti-Trans Ads: Years in, Anti-Trans Attacks Remain a Political Loser

https://www.hrc.org/news/the-facts-on-anti-trans-ads

Again I wish to thank Janet, whose link I will place below, for showing me the article that had this link. I was in a bit of despair of having to fight all over the same fights I fought as a kid. Not realizing for years my fight was over while hers has continued. I realized how self centered I was being. I am not sure if the links will come through, but if you go to the site linked above they list states where anti-trans attacks have failed. Again thanks Janet. Hugs

https://janetannelogan.com/

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by Brandon Wolf • October 3, 2024

Voters have routinely rejected candidates who peddle transphobia and try to control their personal health care decisions, and polling shows widespread American support for equality, Democrats as defenders of young people, and a rejection of anti-transgender rhetoric.

In State After State, Anti-Trans Attacks Have Failed

In Arizona…

In Georgia…

In Kansas…

In Kentucky’s 2023 gubernatorial race…

In Michigan…

In Nevada…

In Ohio…

In Pennsylvania…

In Wisconsin…

In Virginia…

In 2022 Post-Election Polling, Equality Was a Winner and Anti-LGBTQ+ Attacks Were A Dud

Equality Voters delivered huge margins to Democrats at every level of the ballot.

At the U.S. House level, 81 percent of Equality Voters supported the Democratic candidate. Equality Voters delivered similar margins for Democratic U.S. Senate candidates and Democratic candidates for governor.

That number was comparable to the level of support Equality Voters gave Joe Biden in 2020 (also 81 percent) and nearly matched the level of support Black voters delivered this cycle (87 percent).

Among self-identified LGBTQ+ voters, who made up a midterm record 7 percent of the 2022 electorate, fully 80 percent supported U.S. House Democrats. LGBTQ+ voters delivered similar margins for Democratic U.S. Senate candidates and Democratic candidates for governor.

MAGA efforts to spread propaganda about and attack transgender people failed.

In this survey, voters were asked which specific issues motivated them to vote this year. Inflation (52 percent) and abortion (29 percent) ranked first and second on this list. Less than 5 percent identified gender affirming care for transgender youth or transgender participation in sports as issues motivating them to vote – last on this list.

This confirmed extensive research prior to the election that found anti-transgender attacks were only effective in riling up extreme members of the conservative base

While the attacks were ineffective with the general electorate and in fact repelled swing voters, they still caused harm, including increasing stigma, discrimination, and violence against the transgender community.

A Super Majority of Americans Support Equality

New data from Navigator Research shows strong majority support for LGBTQ+ equality, and deep concern over MAGA attacks on fundamental freedoms.

Nearly two-in-three Americans support federal nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, including 58% of independents and 42% of Republicans.

61% say they will not support candidates who want to ban health care for transgender people, including 59% of independents and 41% of Republicans.

70% say they are concerned that politicians are attacking gay and transgender youth to divide us, maintain their political power and control, and score political points, a clear indication that the American people see through the MAGA anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.

A majority of Americans agree that parents, mental health professionals, and doctors are best equipped to decide the kind of care a child needs, not politicians.

The vast majority of Americans — 7 in 10 — think that politicians are not informed enough about abortion and gender-affirming care to create fair policies

According to September 2023 polling by The 19th and SurveyMonkey, Americans would prefer that politicians either protect transgender people or not focus on transgender issues at all. Only 17% of Americans, and only 29% of Republicans, say politicians should focus on restricting gender-affirming care.

Americans Believe the Amount of Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation Is Excessive, Agreeing It Is “Political Theater”

Likely voters across all political parties look at GOP efforts to flood state legislatures with anti-LGBTQ+ legislation as political theater. Polling indicates that 64% of all likely voters, including 72% of Democrats, 65% of Independents, and 55% of Republicans think that there is “too much legislation” aimed at “limiting the rights of transgender and gay people in America” (Data For Progress survey of 1,220 likely voters, 3/24-26, 2023).

This quote from Cuban-American former Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen sums it up:

“Intolerance is not a good look on anyone. I remain optimistic that voters will see through this charade and will encourage their elected officials to solve the real problems of America instead of masquerading as Moral Police Officers.”

Majorities Disapprove of Banning LGBTQ+ Content in Schools – and Seem Prepared to Punish Candidates Who Do So

When asked if middle school libraries should include materials related to “gender identity” (57% “should”) and “sexual orientation” (56%), the majority of Americans believe this content should be available. In fact, by a margin of 32 percentage points, Americans are more worried that “materials that could be valuable to students will be removed from school libraries” (62%), than worry that “materials that could be harmful to students will remain in school libraries” (30%).

Yet again, Democrats and Independents are in a different place than their GOP counterparts suggesting headaches for Republicans in the 2024 elections. (Grinnell College National Poll, 3/14-19, 2023)

Indeed, it looks like this issue could be a disqualifier for elected officials who support curriculum censorship and book bans, based on recent polling (Ipsos, 4/24-25, 2023 among 1,005 adults nationwide, the vast majority of whom are registered to vote). More than six in 10 Americans say they would be less likely to back a candidate who “supports policies that ban books in schools and in school libraries on subject matter that deals with sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity” (38% more likely, 62% less likely).

And Americans Trust Democrats to Defend Equality, Youth Wellbeing

The 2024 Navigator Research poll showed that President Biden and the Democratic Party are more trusted than Republicans to safeguard LGBTQ+ equality and protect America’s youth.

60% of those polled say they trust Democrats to protect the LGBTQ+ community, compared to just 19% who say they trust the GOP.

54% say they trust Democrats to protect the rights and freedoms of the community, compared to just 22% who say they trust the GOP.

46% say they trust Democrats to care for children’s wellbeing, compared to just 37% who say they trust the GOP.