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What Happes When a Queer Angel Goes Punk

Published Sun, 19 Jan 2020 13:00:54 -0600

Comic creator Omar Coronado has something – or someone – to share with us all. He writes,

His name's Angel, the prince of serotonin deficiency, and his story is based around what every typical gay boy's journey is about; anxiety, discovery, and maybe a little taste of self-worth, as a treat.

In all seriousness now, I first came up with the idea a few years back when I started to get back into comics thanks to the dream team of Greg Capullo and Scott Snyder. It made me hungry to tell a story, and like any person without a hint of experience in writing I did the only thing I could do, write a story about what I know, and what I know is what it's like growing up gay in a Catholic setting, punk music, the depressingly funny lyrics of Morrissey, literature, politics, and the wish to have been able to have been who I really was from childhood on. I put everything together and came up with a character that for me, was the answer to every insecurity I ever had, the happy-go-lucky-skirt-wearing-punk kid who's only goal in life was to find something fun to do.

It took me a long time to figure out what the right look was, but this time, instead of looking in my stack of comics, I went back to look at my anime watch list, and noticed that white-haired anime characters really resonated with me, and so I went with that. I loosely based his face on my friend Alex who posed dressed as an angel (see the catholic renaissance theme recurring here?) for a photography class a few years back. The cross-dressing and makeup wearing came near the end, when I met my friend Gabriel, he really inspired the final look of the character and made him solid enough for me to start this story. Thanks to him Angel really came into his own.

What I really hope to do here is to make something for every queer kid who was ever teased or bullied and give them someone that represents them in all their flaws and virtues, not just a comic relief character or some minuscule prop to make a claim of representation in a story. And while it seems obvious that I'm making a story that I can live vicariously through my characters, isn't that every story that we hold dear?

You hate to see it, and I hate to do it to you, but now comes the part of the piece where I ask for money and my apologies for that. It's a drag but we really need you, not just for supplies and to continue using programs like photoshop and clip art, but to buy better equipment since me and my colorist Gabriel (different one) are using stone-age computers (poverty is a d*ck like that). We are also looking to get an assistant artist since my and Gabriel's schedules are pretty tight. You can see Gabriel's work as a colorist and digital portraitist on Instagram. I personally despise social media but for this, I have just created an Instagram for the purpose of the comic. Since this is barely the beginning, supporters can expect personalized letters (and I don't mean plain and boring letters, I mean tinted paper that smells of coffee, gall ink that smells like wine, wax sealed, the works) and sketches sent to them. I would love to have a close relationship with supporters and readers and hopefully, our Patreon facilitates that if we are lucky enough to have any backers. Thank you for reading, much love.