Posted in: Comics | Tagged: graphic novel, julia kaye, transition, up and out
Julia Kaye's New Graphic Novel Tells Of Six Months In Transition
Instead of a traditional written diary, Julia Kaye turned to art as a means of self-reflection. So when she began her gender transition in 2016, she decided to use her popular and Ignatz-nominated webcomic, Up and Out, to process her journey and help others with similar struggles realize they weren't alone. Super Late Bloomer: My Early Days In Transition was that book, published by Andrews McMeel Publishing in 2018.
Publishers Weekly called it "blunt yet precise; straightforward but nuanced; simple but beautiful. … Kaye skillfully and effectively relates the daily indignities borne by trans women and the triumphs and quiet joys as well. Her tenacity in this hopeful story will be resonant for readers going through personal transitions of many kinds." In 2021, she is following that up with a new collection of her webcomics created since, as My Life In Transition telling, as the listing puts it.
My Life in Transition is a story that's not often told about trans lives: what happens beyond the early days of transition. Both deeply personal and widely relatable, this collection illustrates six months of Julia's life as an out trans woman-about the beauty and pain of love and heartbreak, struggling to find support from bio family and the importance of chosen family, moments of dysphoria and misgendering, learning to lean on friends in times of need, and finding peace in the fact that life keeps moving forward.
Julia Kaye also worked on the Disney Television Animation show Big City Greens, as a storyboard revisionist and storyboard artist, and has recently been doing similar for the upcoming Disney series, The Ghost and Molly McGee. She has worked for the likes of Maxim, Cosmopolitan, BuzzFeed, GoComics and College Humor. The new collection will be published on February 17th, 2021.