TG Webcomics you must read: Second Stage by Shawna Strobel
Second Stage - Friday, June 4, 2004
First of all, congratulations on your graduation, Shawna! You show 'em girl!
Second Stage is a very sweet and at the same time powerful comic of what are presumably Shawna Strobel's own experiences as a transgendered girl in college. Indeed, her Keenspace bio says simply "read the comic". She is the main character and around whom the rest of the strip's world revolves. It is a vague, hazy world too, drawn in isolated pencil strokes which wander around the unforgiving white of the page.
This minimalist, black and white, doodle-like anime style adds more than it subtracts in its effective portrayal of loneliness and separation. Shawna is rarely ever actually happy and one of the things you notice from the first strips are her sad, droopy eyebrows which tell you everything you need to know about her past life and the world she lives in. This is one of her most prominent features and she manages to convey great emotion in the way the eyes are drawn.
One of the things that make this comic very different from other TG comics (maybe excepting Matt Nishii's Transe-Generation) and what appealed to me especially is the fact that Shawna has to contend with people who knew her as Shawn and with those that fall on her mercilessly when she doesn't pass (meaning she is seen as a guy in girls' clothes and not as the woman she feels she is, ye unwashed), which is most of the time. In strips such as Venus Envy, the pope of transgendered online comics, all TG characters pass flawlessly and their only concern regarding the matter is keeping their discordant body parts well hidden. "Second Stage" manages to keep it real (passing is an important issue for all of us TSs, whether we place any value on it or not, and something we all have to face) and still infuse itself with the magic and endless possibilities of a fictional world. Shawna oozes cuteness and friendliness, what makes it harder to understand why others are so mean to her and will not see her for what she is.
It's a strange feeling you get when a line like "I fear... I fear I will find no one to love" is presented in such a way as to make it credible and corn-free but Shawna manages it. It's like we're reading words off her diary and we can see the tear stains on the page at the same time that character Shawna touches us with tender expression. A very nice harmony of feeling between the "real" Shawna and "character" Shawna which the comic always manages very well. Or her treatment of the classic "face your parents" sequence where a painful vignette reinforces the feeling of basic transgender loneliness and is completed with a wonderful two page working of U2's "One".
It is not easy being who we really are if we don't happen to like the options we're given and every transgender knows this at heart. It's not just coincidence that the community sports a lot of high-iq or otherwise insightful people: questioning the received shape of the world sets gears in motion which most people never exercise, and that shows.
All in all, a beautiful webcomic which should it continue it will change a lot in the future I'm sure as Shawna's style evolves, but won't lose its sweet heart. Keep it up, girl.
PS: If only now she would add some email address for comments or a guestbook, that would make it even better!
First of all, congratulations on your graduation, Shawna! You show 'em girl!
Second Stage is a very sweet and at the same time powerful comic of what are presumably Shawna Strobel's own experiences as a transgendered girl in college. Indeed, her Keenspace bio says simply "read the comic". She is the main character and around whom the rest of the strip's world revolves. It is a vague, hazy world too, drawn in isolated pencil strokes which wander around the unforgiving white of the page.
This minimalist, black and white, doodle-like anime style adds more than it subtracts in its effective portrayal of loneliness and separation. Shawna is rarely ever actually happy and one of the things you notice from the first strips are her sad, droopy eyebrows which tell you everything you need to know about her past life and the world she lives in. This is one of her most prominent features and she manages to convey great emotion in the way the eyes are drawn.
One of the things that make this comic very different from other TG comics (maybe excepting Matt Nishii's Transe-Generation) and what appealed to me especially is the fact that Shawna has to contend with people who knew her as Shawn and with those that fall on her mercilessly when she doesn't pass (meaning she is seen as a guy in girls' clothes and not as the woman she feels she is, ye unwashed), which is most of the time. In strips such as Venus Envy, the pope of transgendered online comics, all TG characters pass flawlessly and their only concern regarding the matter is keeping their discordant body parts well hidden. "Second Stage" manages to keep it real (passing is an important issue for all of us TSs, whether we place any value on it or not, and something we all have to face) and still infuse itself with the magic and endless possibilities of a fictional world. Shawna oozes cuteness and friendliness, what makes it harder to understand why others are so mean to her and will not see her for what she is.
It's a strange feeling you get when a line like "I fear... I fear I will find no one to love" is presented in such a way as to make it credible and corn-free but Shawna manages it. It's like we're reading words off her diary and we can see the tear stains on the page at the same time that character Shawna touches us with tender expression. A very nice harmony of feeling between the "real" Shawna and "character" Shawna which the comic always manages very well. Or her treatment of the classic "face your parents" sequence where a painful vignette reinforces the feeling of basic transgender loneliness and is completed with a wonderful two page working of U2's "One".
It is not easy being who we really are if we don't happen to like the options we're given and every transgender knows this at heart. It's not just coincidence that the community sports a lot of high-iq or otherwise insightful people: questioning the received shape of the world sets gears in motion which most people never exercise, and that shows.
All in all, a beautiful webcomic which should it continue it will change a lot in the future I'm sure as Shawna's style evolves, but won't lose its sweet heart. Keep it up, girl.
PS: If only now she would add some email address for comments or a guestbook, that would make it even better!
posted by V. at 6:21 PM
3 Comments:
hii!! ( this is the transe-generation man)
what i love mostly about her work as an artist. is her simplistic touch with the anime style. its soo refreshing to see that with her work. and i love her sense of humor.. thats why i spread the word on her work. because its beautiful.
shes a sweet woman to me and a cute friend to have.
Hi! I like reading Shawna's comic as well. I just wish she would post an email link so I could send her some supportive email.
I too wish I she would leave an email link....so I could send ehr supportive email. I =HAD= her email once, but my computer crashed and had to be completely wiped clean....so I lost everything important (yeah, I consider her email addy important!)
I have been where she has been... and know what the pain often feels like ( of course, hormones don't lighten the mood a lot for a girl....yeesh! If mood-swings were propulsion, we would have WARP DRIVES by now!)
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