C'mon Season 8! Let's get COLORING! That's right, I'm having a COLORING CONTEST to celebrate the start of RuPaul's Drag Race, Season 8! I'll pick winners from multiple categories who will receive DUMB DRAG GRAB BAGS full of stupid stuff.
Click here to download the high-quality files to get started! Share them on Instagram, Tumblr, or Twitter and tag them with #coloringwithqueens by 5pm (Central Time Zone) Thursday, February 25th to enter!
I had a major revelation on Thanksgiving. While rooting through an old closet at my parents' house, I dug up my old HE-MAN toys. And I realized, "Wow, these are everything."
It's fair to say that HE-MAN has had a major impact on my artistic inclinations throughout my career.
The original line of HE-MAN figures all shared the same ridiculously muscular torso and weirdly small, bow-legged feet. The heroes all had absurd, homoerotic harnesses and skimpy armor, but I was obsessed with the villains. They're the beastly ones with freakish tongues and appendages, but with that same delicious torso.
(I have no idea what this guy's actual name is, but I call him Randy Reacharound.)
I loved the bizarre variations on the same basic template, the bold colors, and the utter weirdness of them all. Other toy lines, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, had their share of fun characters, but HE-MAN always had the greatest hold on me.
I wanted to create my own character designs, inspired by the original spirit of HE-MAN, but playing more with gender and sexuality. Thus was born HE-RA: Masters of the Everything!
Here's the hero HE-RA, who clearly isn't based on any pre-existing characters at all.
And here's SKELLETRA, the wickedest bitch in the land.
This is KLOR, HE-RA's greatest rival.
BOLTT, one of my favorites.
This is COBRELLA, lookin' pretty in pink.
And.... KAROL.
ZIEFGANG is not intended to bear any resemblance to any sexy bear characters from any videogames whatsoever.
He is fast, he is deadly, he is... WHISKRZ.
Obviously, I played around with the same basic pose and ridiculous musculature throughout all these, but with GLORZOK, I wanted to show a gloopy, formless character who literally molds himself into shape with his armor.
As you might guess, I have prints of all these lovely creatures available on Etsy! Just in case you want to add some hunks to your wall.
As an art student, you can spend countless hours learning to draw models and still lives as realistically as possible, mastering the subtleties of shading, form, and anatomy. But as a cartoonist, if you try to convey that same level of detail and accuracy in each panel, you'll probably go mad, and you'll miss a lot of what makes cartooning so magical. It's taken me a long time to learn that lesson, and I often need reminders.
Maybe there are times when you need to sink whatever amount of time is necessary into an illustration to show off everything you can do. The cover illustration of your book? Sure. But as I've developed a career in art and illustration, I've learned the importance of doing more with less. There are deadlines to meet, hours to bill, priorities to make. Do you want to sink more time into fewer pieces, or get a lot done in a simpler style?
Which of these drawings is better? I don't know, that's a complicated question. But I can tell you that the goofy drawing on the right took me a lot less time, and I like it a lot more.
When I was first diving into my own comics after college, I was trying to make every single page as gorgeous as it could be. But I had a hard time making any progress, because I would keep going back, fixing any perceived mistakes, doubting every step.
A good cartoonist is quick. They develop a set of tools and tricks that get the job done: they're efficient, effective, and they're fun.
One of my very favorite artists working in superhero comics today is Chris Samnee. He manages to capture a sense of solidity and life with minimal details, clever compositions, and simple use of shadow. (Seriously, check out that gorgeous work on the left! He's great.)
All of us develop our own style, one that involves our own ways of simplifying the world – whether it's through playful abstraction of the human body, whimsical linework, or whatever. That's the magic of cartooning!
So what are some ways to simplify?
Stop worrying about what looks "real" and concern yourself with what works. 
If you're not working digitally, take frequent breaks to step back from your desk and see how it looks from afar.-----------------
This post was made possible by my supporters on Patreon! Click here to find out more and support my work!
Although the vast majority of my work is done digitally, sometimes I need to set aside the screen and draw on some paper. Although digital illustration gives you a tremendous amount of versatility and options for your work, those endless possibilities can prove creatively daunting. With so many tools at hand, I sometimes find myself losing my way – whether that's because I'm on week 10 of my Drag Race season, and I've been drawing the same damn thing for too long, or because I'm struggling to find the right style for an entirely new project. There's a set of tools and techniques I reliably turn to when I need to relax, loosen up, and let the ink fly.
My favorite tool for doodling lately has been my trusty old Pentel Brush Pen. It has enormous brush bristles, so it provides an extreme variety of line widths. And the dry brushing! Oh, such TEXTURE! You can squeeze the handle to send more ink into the brush, but sometimes it pays to exploit the gorgeous textural stuff that the Pentel provides as it's going dry.
The Pentel is one of the most popular brush pens around, and it's also quite affordable. You'll probably see it at a fair number of art supply stores, and you can find them and their refills online. The one I use is probably about 10 years old, and it's still serving up its delicious, thick inks.
I should warn you of a few peculiarities about the Pentel. The extreme variation of line width it offers also makes it difficult to be too precise or delicate with your linework. That can prove frustrating until you learn to embrace the Pentel's extremes and utilize that unpredictability to loosen yourself up.
Also, the ink is weird. Like, you'll find yourself smudging it and making a mess unless you learn to leave it alone until you're absolutely sure it's dry and will behave. The ink is water soluble*, so don't plan on using any ink washes or watercolors with it, unless you want things to get very runny. (*In my previous tests, the ink was water soluble, but apparently some refills are not? So, you should check for yourself!) I use Copic markers extensively with my Pentel doodles and don't have any problems.
You might have a lot of fun just going to town with the Pentel and some paper, but I prefer to lay out rough sketches before inking up a page. My favorite tool for that sketching phase is the Prismacolor non-photo blue pencil.
If you've ever stepped into an art supply store, you know that Prismacolor pencils are expensive. But they're also extraordinary. Their leads are soft and buttery, which is great for big, loose sketching that suits the linework you'll ink later with the Pentel.
Alternatively, I also really love using non-photo blue leads in a mechanical pencil holder. You might not have realized it, but you can buy replacements leads for mechanical pencils at high quantities for low prices. And better yet, you can buy them in different colors or densities, just so long as you make sure the lead width matches the pencil holder you're putting them in! I use these Pentel non-photo blue leads, which offer a very delicate, precise line.
If you're wondering what “non-photo blue” pencils are, they're a holdover from old school design techniques. This particular shade of blue is designed so that it doesn't show up in black and white photography or old Xeroxes. Which sounds like a super cool magic trick, except that it will absolutely show up in your digital photos or scans. However! This color, because it's light and bright, is easy to Photoshop out of your work. There are a number of methods that will work, but I go to the “channels” section of Photoshop, select the Blue one, then copy and paste it into a new document! That should largely get rid of the blue sketch underneath your inked art, and then using some level adjustment will get rid of the rest!
In the spirit of loosening yourself up, sometimes keeping things tiny will help, too. I really enjoy sketching in my tiny Moleskine book, because the little pages will keep you from getting too precious or detailed with your work. I find myself using a simple Bic pen in my Moleskine, because I can get incredibly delicate lines that work perfectly at that small size.
When sketching in a larger sketchbook, I find myself using either the Pentel or an Ebony pencil. I find that the Ebony gives me a soft, chunky line that's perfect when I'm doing character designs for The Cardboard Kingdom, the giant new comics project I've been working on the past few months!
I really look forward to my monthly postcard sketches for my Patreon supporters, because they're fun little doodles where I can experiment and let the weirdness flow. Like I said, I use Copic markers for these, specifically different gray tones that work well for shading. They don't seem to mess up the Pentel ink, and they add a great sense of solidity to the final work. I should note that I avoid Prismacolor markers, because their fumes give me massive headaches. Copics smell a bit, but they don't seem to have the same effect on my poor brain.
I hope some of these pointers have proven useful! Let me know if you have any questions about the materials or techniques! My monthly tutorials and process peeks are made possible by my amazing supporters on PATREON!
I've started watching Steven Universe, and I love it! So many compelling characters, great designs, and adorable stories.
Amethyst should clearly be my shape-shifting best friend.
Garnet is the badass superhero of my dreams.
Pearl is the craziest to draw, and the pointiest.
And Steven is soooo adorable!
If you like my work, consider supporting me on Patreon or checking out my Etsy store!
All this month, I've been busy drawing the “doodle drafts” for my Cardboard Kingdom comics, so I don't have much new art to share with you that wouldn't spoil the fun! However, I recently started watching Steven Universe (thanks to a new Hulu+ subscription) and I'm totally loving it! I had heard the rave reviews, and I had caught a random episode here and there, but it's been great to start at the beginning. Additionally, I LOVE the clean, colorful art style. The fun character designs are totally in line with what I imagine for The Cardboard Kingdom, so I decided to draw Steven and share some peeks at my process!
This method is how I create pretty much all of my color art – from Drag Race stuff, to superheroes, to everything else. The vast majority of the work is done in Manga Studio EX 5, but we'll take a brief sojourn into Adobe Photoshop.
As with anything, I start with a big, thick pencil tool to work out the main shapes of the figure. On a few different layers, I'll add tighter lines as I develop the drawing.
Now here's where things get a little tricky. It's my system for drawing final linework and establishing the colors at the same time. First, you might notice that I used two different colors at this stage. The purple is on a separate layer, and it's meant only to delineate the shapes of flat color. In other words, all those lines will disappear in the final art. The orange lines, however, are specifically the ones intended to stay through the end!
You'll also notice that the line is fairly rough. I use my own variation on a Frenden brush to give that organic feel to my linework. My worry about doing art digitally is that the lines can get too crisp and lifeless, so it's my method of adding a little bit of texture to my work.
Once this stage is complete, I export the whole page as a PSD file and open it in Photoshop. I use a plug-in called BPELT to take that line drawing and turn it into flat shapes of random color! It looks crazy, but once we bring it back into Manga Studio, it will be easy to use the fill tool to incorporate all the actual colors of our dear Steven. (Just a note: the actual steps of using BPELT are a little complicated and technical. Be sure to follow its directions for the best results.)
Back in Manga Studio, I import the PSD and place it under that orange line layer. Fill in the colors however you like, and add different colors to the line layer, too!
At this stage, I was pretty happy with how Steven looked. In the actual cartoon, there's only minimal shading, but I wanted to add some highlights and deep shadows to give him a little more depth.
I made a separate “highlights” layer that uses the “Add (Glow)” combine mode, so that it lightens the layers beneath it. One of my favorite aspects of Manga Studio is that you can specify the color of specific layers. That means that whenever I draw on a layer, it will be in that particular hue. For highlights, I like to use a yellow ocher that gives a nice golden look to everything.
I add the shadows in a similar way, but I make the layer a darker brown and set it to a “linear burn” combination setting. I use a rough blending tool to soften some edges of the shadows, but I don't like to overdo it!
You might notice the clean, sharp edges of the colors and shading. How do I get that? Well, because the original flattened colors are still their own layer, I can use the wand tool to select whatever area I'm working on and restrict my shading and highlights to that specific area. Alternatively, I can clean up any shading that spills over an edge by selecting the area outside it and simply deleting that part of the shade layer!
It can be a real challenge to decide when a piece is “done,” to determine when there's enough detail and enough contrast. But since Steven's aesthetic is so bold and simple, I wanted to have a similar look with this piece. I made the final adjustments of his color palette using the color balance and saturation tools, and then it was done!
If you have any questions, ask them in the comments section, on Twitter, or Facebook!
Hello! You might not have heard much from me lately, because I've been hard at work in the early stages of developing The Cardboard Kingdom! I'm working with each collaborator on their script, and once we've gone through a few drafts, I move on to the comic version, which I call my "doodle draft!" Because I've gotten so involved in that part of the process this month, I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on this crucial aspect of creating a comic. It can be really rough transitioning from a written script to an illustrated page -- so much can be lost in the process, so many abstract concepts and verbal descriptions that just don't work when you try to actually draw them! But you can gain so much, you can figure out so many new aspects of your story once you start working out your plot on the page and moving your characters throughout their imagined spaces. That's why I try to start my doodle drafts fairly early in the process -- it's not worth sinking too much time into a written script since so much of it will change when translated into the confounding language of comics!
As I mentioned in my previous tutorial, I use Manga Studio 5 EX for all my comics work. Its ability to manage multiple pages in a single project allows me to work on the whole book right away, even if that just involves short written descriptions of what happens on each page. Seriously, my first step is usually just blocking out, page-by-page, the very general stuff of my story, like, "We first meet Ken" or "Dinner with Grandparents." (I'll mostly be using examples from my autobio comic VREELAND throughout this tutorial.)
That first stage of allocating plot points to specific pages helps you work out the pacing of your story, and it might make you realize, "whoops, I'm trying to squeeze waaaayyyy too much stuff in here!" You can also plan for which pages will be paired together (if they end up in a printed book) and where you'll incorporate double-page spreads!
Once I start sketching out the panel layouts of each page, I try to incorporate the dialogue right away so that I'm allowing enough space for it and fine-tuning the timing of each sequence. I try to avoid any large blocks of text or squeezing too many balloons into any single panel. During this part of the process, you can figure out where things can be left unsaid, where a silent panel or pained expression might convey so much more than any written word could.
And since it's all just rough sketches, you're not terribly invested in any particular panel, so you're free to move stuff around and try different solutions to your narrative conundrums.
In my early days of making comics, I would often take reference photos of every single character in each of their poses throughout the comic, and I'd spend countless hours fussing over minor details of anatomy, expression, and clothing. But that started to really sap the joy out of my process, and it often resulted in lifeless pages full of detail, but sadly lacking in style.
So that's when I started making my "doodle drafts," where I'd just jump right in and sketch out a quick, goofy version of my story. And surprisingly, I'm often able to work out a lot of the expression and basic poses of the characters in that stage -- sometimes, barely any more work is needed for the final inking of my art! Certainly, some more complicated scenarios will require more refining, but so much of the visual storytelling and "acting" of the characters is accomplished at this stage.
The above image is what I consider the final "doodle draft" version of this page. I can't even tell you how helpful it is to have a readable rough draft like this so early in the process! By working loosely like this, you're able to flesh out whole scenes without a ton of effort, but you're also able to convey your intent behind the story. You can show your early drafts to friends and family for feedback without caveats or explanations. You can work out so much of your story like this and revise it however necessary.
With my doodle drafts, I also try to work out the nuts and bolts of how the final art will look. With VREELAND, I worked with black line art and some graytone shading. It's incredibly useful for me to establish early on where the areas of total black will be, where I'll use graytones, and what background details are necessary. Before I started figuring all that out with my doodle drafts, I'd often leave those decisions until the final stages of inking my art, which would result in a lot of second-guessing, back-pedaling, and comic pages that fell short of my ambitions.
This is the final, inked version of the page. You can see that I worked out so much of the layout early on, allowing me to refine it during the last few steps of finishing it. I was able to pull out details, simplify expressions, and bring the page together as a whole. I was also able to ensure that the page worked with the preceding one in the sequence so that they served well side-by-side in the final printed book!
Like I said, I'm in the "doodle draft" stage right now with a lot of my new Cardboard Kingdom stories! It's such a cool part of the process, especially since I'm working with great collaborators! And that's why it's even more crucial to develop the doodle drafts, allowing everyone involved to discuss a readable draft of each comic that's representative of the final stories!
Obviously, I can't show much of that work without spoiling all the good stuff, but here's a little peek at an emotional sequence with one of the character's fathers. We were trying to squeeze in a lot of expressions and nuance in the that scene, and even with such simple illustrations, we've been able to develop it into something really special.
The most frequent question I get about my work is: “What do you use to do that?” With the wide array of tablets, computers, drawing apps, and expensive (cough, Adobe) programs out there, it might be daunting for an illustrator to start drawing digitally. So I'm going to share the set-up I've been using for the last several years!
First, I should tell you that I don't have a state-of-the-art set-up, and it's certainly not anything particularly fancy.
I work on a cluttered desk with dual monitors hooked up to a Windows desktop. I highly recommend getting a graphics card with dual output, since it gives you flexibility for all sorts of configurations!
One of the monitors is a Yiynova MSP19U, which is what I draw on for hours and hours every day. It's an obscure Chinese brand, and I think it's only available in the US through a small importing business that sells them on Amazon. (I don't know anything about the larger model, the MVP22U, except that it costs more.)
There are much bigger, fancier, and expensive options out there. The Wacom Cintiq is the most widely-known tablet monitor, but the current desktop models run from $1,799 to.... $2,799? That's... that's a lot of money.
I bought my Yiynova MSP19U two years ago based on Ray Frenden's review. He's become an amazing resource for information about digital illustration tools, and he also sells gorgeous brush sets to use in a variety of graphics programs.
In any case, the Yiynova MSP19u costs $549 on Amazon, plus $30 shipping. It's not perfect, but despite its flaws, I've come to love the damn thing.
It's a decent size for me, especially since I'm squeezing an additional monitor onto my desk space. It's not especially high resolution (just 1440 x 900) but it feels fine to me. It has an extremely bright LED display with a glossy glass surface. There aren't any “hot buttons” along the side, but I've never been a big fan of those, so I don't particularly care.
I really like drawing on this thing. It just feels good! Drawing on the glassy surface will probably take you a while to get used to, but I'm a big fan. The pressure sensitivity is a good match for my drawing style, too. That's something to watch out for when looking at different devices for digital illustration – using a basic stylus on your iPad won't offer pressure sensitivity, which is crucial for any serious linework.
It has a very simple stand while will allow you to angle it as needed – I like to get right up on there, bathing my eyes in its intense radiance. It's a little too hefty for me to comfortably hold in my lap, but I wouldn't want to, anyway. When I'm working, I draw with my right hand and occasionally tap in keyboard shortcuts with my left.
If you couldn't tell, I like the Yiynova's hardware quite a lot! But it's the driver that will get you.
If you're interested in the monitor, I would recommend googling around regarding how it will work with your particular set-up. One particularly weird technical quirk is that it requires VGA input, which is fairly outdated. I use a VGA to DVI adapter without any problems. It also requires a USB connection.
If you look around online, you'll probably read about all sorts of weird problems people have with the device's drivers. Yup. I installed mine without any problem using the installation software that came with the product. I had read about problems with the newer versions of the software, so I've just stuck with the older stuff. But I do regularly come across problems, and yeah, they're annoying. If I'm working in one graphics program, then open a different one, the tablet's pressure sensitivity often stops working. If I “wake up” my computer after putting it to sleep, the tablet often won't work at all, until I restart the entire computer. Stupid problems like this come up all the time. So, be warned.
You draw on the Yiynova with a fairly bulky stylus that requires AAA batteries. I generally enjoy using the stylus, but it's fairly flimsy, and it's prone to breaking or warping if it so much as rolls off your desk and falls to the floor. The batteries last quite a while, though, so that won't be costly. A replacement stylus, however, costs $40. And no, I haven't gotten any other styli to work on the monitor.
If you're looking for a cheaper way to break into digital illustration, you can definitely look into drawing tablets, which come in a variety of sizes, and at much lower price points. (The Wacom Intuos is worth checking out!) I used them extensively in my early days as an artist, though there's a serious disconnect between drawing on something in your lap that only shows up on your desktop monitor.
Okay, if you're still reading this after getting through all that boring tech talk, let me tell you the good news about MANGA STUDIO 5 EX. I've become sort of an evangelist for this program, but it's because I have a deep, deep love for it, and I've spent countless hours producing nearly all my art with it.
You can make a lot of comparisons between Manga Studio and Photoshop. But here's the thing: Photoshop is made for editing photos. Manga Studio is for making comics, glorious COMICS! I had used Photoshop exclusively for years and years, but when I tried out Manga Studio, I realized what a huge improvement it was to be making comics in a program made for making comics. Plus, it's so much more affordable than Adobe products. The basic version of Manga Studio 5 is available on Amazon for $40! The professional version, 5 EX, is $123, and worth every penny. (I'll try to discuss some of the features in the pro version later, but you can find an exhaustive comparison chart here.)
My very favorite thing to do in Manga Studio is draw. Its tools for linework are glorious! The biggest problem with doing any digital illustration in any program is that drawing with a plastic nib on a monitor just isn't the same as using a nib or pencil or marker on paper. The texture isn't there, nor is the fabulous, steadying friction of the surface. That can lead to really wobbly lines, which can make you feel like a child again, struggling with basic issues of hand-eye coordination.
But Manga Studio offers a huge array of stabilization settings – you can leave them turned off for a really natural, organic line, or you can utilize moderate stabilization for smoother lines. When I'm drawing something that needs to look especially geometric or architectural, I turn the “correction” settings way up so that I can draw subtle curves and straight lines effortlessly!
Manga Studio comes with a wide array of pencil, brush, and pen tools, but you can supplement those with Ray Frenden's gorgeous custom brushes. You can also dig into the settings of any tool to customize them exactly as you like – even adjusting the pressure curves, which I love to get just right.
MS5's coloring and painting tools are quite lovely, too, but if you're making comics, the essential features are its panel tools and the Story Creator! MS5 has fairly intuitive tools to make panels and create nice, clean borders for your comics. (I used to give myself painful wrist problems holding my ruler steady when drawing them on paper!)
If you're more interested in doing digital illustration rather than actual comic books, the cheaper Manga Studio 5 package might work for you. And you can even experiment with a trial version if you're curious about it! But if you're working on multiple page comics, you'll need Manga Studio 5 EX. The Story Creator is exclusive to the pro version, and it's become an absolutely essential component of all my comics projects.
With MS5 EX, you can create multiple page projects, meaning that you can view all the pages in your comic, move them around as needed, and simply click one to start drawing in it. From my earliest rough drafts, I'm working page-by-page in Manga Studio, blocking out pages and working on the panel breakdowns. As I develop the story, I can switch out pages, try different configurations, and even establish double-page spreads wherever I like! You can even export the entire project (or whichever pages you want) as layered PSD files or flattened images for printing!
I'd be happy to discuss some of Manga Studio's features in more depth for future tutorials, so let me know what you'd like to hear about!
This tutorial was made possible by my supporters on Patreon! Find out how to help me keep doing what I do there!
I couldn't resist drawing some more stupid/silly/sexy superheroes, and who's more "super" than SUPERMAN?
Joining me for the Drag Race's final week is Ariel Italic, a friend of mine from NYC! She performs there and writes RPDR recaps for Queerty!
Chad: So, it's been a long season. Or, at least, that's what it feels like to me. After drawing and discussing the show week after week, I'm usually pretty burnt out by the end. How are you feeling about it?
Ariel: Similarly. I host AND recap, so I watch every episode at least twice. There were a lot of queens, but also this season didn't have the punch of some of the others, so it felt even longer than it was.
Chad: Yeah, and the pacing is always weird -- the way that the "RuCap Week" slows things down, the long wait to find out who actually won. The show has more padding than Pearl ever did on the runway!
Ariel: Having the clip show right before the reunion is a terrible choice, honestly. Like, we spend a whole hour recapping the past ten weeks, and then... bring the eliminated queens back to recap the past ten weeks again.
Chad: Yeah, that's totally true. SO MANY MONTAGES! I mean, some of them are fun, but still. How many times do we need to hear "WAKE UP, PEARL?"
Ariel: I think this season was trying to impose storylines where there were none. Like, there were so many attempts at manufacturing feuds, or giving Pearl that "growth" plotline even though she's clearly just as sleepy as ever, or making Violet a horrendous villain early on only to steer her toward quick, friendly redemption... it all felt much more forced than usual.
Chad: Yeah, everyone talks about how Pearl "came out of her shell," but she's still the same as ever, for better or worse. She DID get a little more energetic and earnest with the challenges, but she's the same quirky queen we love and ridicule.
Ariel: That really shows the divide between reality and reality TV. Pearl is extremely fashionable and has a weird sense of humor and is a fantastic drag queen overall, but she doesn't come across to the audience in the structure of the series. Jasmine Masters may not have the same eye for fashion, but she's so much more watchable.
Chad: Yes, absolutely. And it's just not clear whether America's Next Drag Superstar is supposed to be the queen who makes the best TV, the fan favorite, or the queen who is actually just... the best.
Ariel: Exactly. Like, the challenges this season were almost all performance-related, which made Ginger seem like the clear front-runner. Then the clip show made this "the season of fashion" and all of a sudden Violet was the one to beat, even though the sewing challenges were minimal, and the ones that they did have were often edited almost completely out.
Chad: Yeah, that's a really good point. I wonder why they went back and forth like that. Because Ginger seemed like the strongest contender from early on -- she was charismatic, funny, and a great performer! What went wrong for Ginger?
Ariel: For me, it seemed unfair to give Ginger the win when Katya exceeds her in pretty much every area except singing. Katya is funny, a great dancer, and has a phenomenal eye for fashion. You could tell by the audience reaction to her that she was the true winner this season. Violet, I think, took the win because she is different from Katya. Ginger is just LESS than Katya.
Chad: I see. A harsh comparison, but... I see it.
Ariel: I don't mean to be anti-Ginger, I'm still bitter about Katya's elimination.
Chad: The show has developed SUCH a strange, incestuous relationship with its fans. From the constant call-outs to reddit, to the social media whoring for the crown, to the jaw-dropping moment when Ru called out Katya to the stage. It was a clear acknowledgment that, ultimately, her winning would have been the most satisfying!
Ariel: I think this season must have been difficult for the producers in that sense, because the fan reactions seem to have been wildly different from what was predicted. Plus, the eliminated queens got so much hatred on social media that Ru even called it out during the finale. And I'll admit, it was stuff like that that kept me from making an audition tape for next season.
Chad: Here's something that I've been thinking about: the last few seasons, the generational divide between the older (pre-RPDR) queens and the younger ones has been a constant source of tension and drama. Do you think there might be a similar generational gap between the show's creators and its fans?
Ariel: Oh definitely. The fans get younger every year as a new group gets interested in drag and as acceptance for gay culture permeates further into the mainstream. It says a lot that the two oldest queens were eliminated quite early, and the remaining elders were positioned as bitter villains.
Chad: Well, with Katya caught in the middle! She stood apart -- although she seemed closest with the older queens, she never threw the younger ones any shade. I think the Drag Race is fostering a whole new fandom of drag culture, and the art form might go in new directions faster than the show can keep up with. Or has that already happened?
Ariel: Gosh, I don't even know. I do think it's interesting that the contestants are increasingly constrained by the format. Fame has make-up and runway skills that set her miles ahead of the other girls, Violet can do aerial acrobatics on silks... even Katya's Russian character had limited opportunity to come out and play. There's a diversity to drag that the show has never been 100% equipped to represent. But again, this is the divide between reality and reality TV, and that's always going to be a weird space they navigate.
Chad: The reunion shows are always interesting -- the live presentation gives it a different kind of spontaneity, but then there are scripted elements that often do a disservice to some of the queens who are relegated to a punchline. Which queens *didn't* want to be there?
Ariel: That's tough to say, since everyone besides the top 3 was given precious little screen time. I think people seemed relatively game. Why, did you sense some lingering ambivalence in someone?
Chad: I thought, for the most part, the queens were treated fairly well. Fame doesn't seem to mind the constant chicken jokes, and even Tempest doesn't seem that ticked about her early departure. But I do wonder about Max. What do you make of her?
Ariel: I thought it was interesting that she got almost no screen time. I've been a huge fan of hers since the beginning, and was honestly hoping she'd make Top 3. She has a clear aesthetic and point of view, and I find her specialized nature more compelling than the producers do, apparently.
Chad: I adore her approach to fashion, to her conceptualizing of the runway challenges. But I wonder about her strategy on the show. It seemed like her character only served to distance the other queens from her, as well as a lot of fans. There are times when she comes across as eloquent and lovely (like when she was recounting boosting Jaidynn's morale) and then others when she seems like an awkward teenager who's over-compensating for something. Which could probably be summed up as... being a young artist.
Ariel: Yeah, that's my take, too. She's kind-hearted but ultimately kind of weird. I have known so many Maxes in my day. Sometimes I'm a Max myself. I think in a parallel universe she could have been given a whole arc about learning to interact with the other queens even though they initially found her tough to deal with. Like, she could have been a less villainous Violet if the editors felt like it.
Chad: Right. If you had been on a reality TV show at 21, 22, whatever age Max is, what would YOU have done?
Ariel: Oof, I shudder to think. I already spend too much time anticipating the many ways I would spectacularly fuck up if I were on the show NOW.
Chad: So, you'd be a Katya?
Ariel: I'd never make it that far.
Chad: I do have to say that my very most favoritest moment of the whole night was Katya talking with Ru. That was RIDICULOUS!
Ariel: Katya brings me infinite amounts of joy. I wish I understood what was going on in her brain. It literally does not matter what question you ask her, she will just respond with hilarious nonsense. It's like if Miss Fame were possessed by Robin Williams.
Chad: Hearing Katya so crudely and creatively and candidly describe her feelings about Ru? Sheer gold.
Ariel: And Ru is equipped to roll with the joke, which is why she is the supreme leader.
Chad: Granted, Katya wants everyone and everything to pee on her. Still.
Ariel: Hey, everyone has a wheelhouse. Dumpster comedy works for Katya.
Chad: Yeah, she's doing alright. If Katya couldn't win, would Violet have been your next pick?
Ariel: Absolutely. I think she grew throughout the competition, she served incredible fashions (that she often sewed herself), she has legitimate performance talent, and against all odds I ended up kind of liking her. As a queen who started on the internet, I understand her personality.I have been mistaken for a jerk simply because I am socially awkward in front of other queens. It happens.
Chad: Yeah, I think she's a flawless queen with impeccable taste. Her performances don't always leave me gagging, but she deserved the crown. Part of me wants her to find a good financial planner and put away that prize money. But I'd also love to see her spend $100,000 on one REALLY amazing gown.
Ariel: HAHAHA she would pick a good one for sure. I think she's the right choice after Bianca. Ginger would never have lived up to Bianca's standard in terms of comedic performance, so they had to go with someone who wasn't aiming to be funny. Plus, Bianca always gets called out on wearing the same dress in different fabrics, and Violet won't have that problem.
Chad: I feel like the Drag Race takes over so much of queer pop culture each season. For good and bad. Now that it's over, what are you going to be talking about with all your squirrelfriends?
Ariel: Well, Season 3 of Reddit's LSFYL competition is about to get started, so that'll hold me over for a few months. After that, my life will be empty again.
Chad: As the winner of its first season, what will your role be? Fangirl?
Ariel: I'm hoping to be the Michelle Visage. Each week I'll throw on my judging wig and give some feedback on the performances. What about you? What happens to you when you stop drawing drag queens?
Chad: ...I haven't figured that out, yet.
Thanks so much to Ariel Italic for joining me this week, and thanks to all of you for sharing in Season 7 with me!
You can follow Ariel on Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to check out the reddit LSFYL competition-- there's still time to join!
Now is the perfect time to buy my Drag Race art on Etsy and pre-order my Season 7 collection, 70 QUEENS! (Yes, I decided on the Katya cover.)
You can also get a sneak peek at all my other projects on my Patreon page!
Oh! And I'll be at CAKEin Chicago THIS WEEKEND! It's an amazing, free comics show catering to the quirky, queer side of the spectrum.
Thanks again, everyone! You're the best!
So, the "RuCap" week of each season always offers a break from the frantic pace of the show. It's a chance to reflect on the highs and lows of the past few months, and most importantly, to get a whole lot of catty commentary from all our favorite queens of past seasons. Has Season 7 felt a little weird? Yes. Do most viewers really care who wins? I don't, not really. But over the course of the season, we have gotten to meet some really stellar characters on this show, and I wanted to take some time this week to reflect on my own experience drawing them.
In past years, I've used the RuCap episode as a chance to go back and illustrate any of the important runway looks that I might have missed. But this season, I illustrated a lot of them, and there's only one outfit left that I was dying to draw:
I actually had a ton of fun illustrating Kennedy's look. Crazy feather/fur stuff! That mug! The blood! It may have been a totally crazy choice, and her story for the runway might not have made any sense, but it sure burned an image into our minds that will stay crystallized forever. (do you see what I did there?)
There have been plenty of complaints about this season's emphasis on scripted acting challenges, and rightfully so. But looking back, there were some legendary runway themes, too. Both the "Death Becomes Her" and "Bearded Beauty" ones just gave me life, so many stunning concepts and costumes that inspired some of my favorite Drag Race illustrations ever!
The "Conjoined Queens" and "Dancing Queens" challenges were trickier for me to draw, but I loved them. Such crazy creativity and just, well, craziness on that runway.
With a season of so many stunning creations, I wish their actual construction would have been more of a priority. I wanted to see these queens come up with them, or discuss their collaborators at home. It seems to me like the emphasis in editing was on interpersonal conflict rather than costume construction, and that we rarely saw the best looks being put together in the workroom so that they'd be more of a surprise on the runway. Which is fair, but it seems like a disservice to queens like Max and Violet who display such extraordinary vision and skill in their craft.
I felt like the season's focus on scripted comedy was a challenge for Trixie, too. Her strength is writing her own comedy, or improvising the bullshit and banter that's so special about live drag performances. It seemed like the show never knew what to do with Trixie, but I'm so glad that she won over so many new fans in her time on it.
I adore the queen, and I love depicting her shrink-wrapped aesthetic. When she was kicked off (the first time), I wanted to really boil down the essence of Trixie, to commemorate the quirky, ridiculousness of it all. And I'm thrilled that she uses that image on her official tank tops, which you've gotta break out for Pride season!
Someone remarked that my best work this season has been of Pearl's looks, and I can't really disagree. Going into this season, I wasn't quite sure what to expect of Pearl -- I knew her from her time in Chicago, and although I live for her look, I didn't know whether she'd bring much diversity to the runway or character to the workroom.
But she delivered. I mean, not always. She wasn't the most polished queen, and she didn't have the most gorgeous gowns. But there's something about her deranged approach to beauty that I find irresistible. She might not always pad, she might not always perform, but I always love what she's going for.
As I've mentioned a few times, Katya was my BenDeLaCreme this year -- my personal favorite, the one whose comedy and approach to drag just meshed with my own preferences the most. But in both cases, I struggled throughout the season trying to capture their likenesses! Katya's usual look is so striking, but so hard to pin down -- what makes her look like her? Obviously, it's SO much easier to depict the crazy characters she embodies so well.
Whenever I tried to depict Katya seriously, I struggled. Especially when trying to draw her incredible "Jet Set Eleganza" lip sync performance.
In my first few hours working on that illustration, I was trying to capture both her emotional intensity and her legendary legs as they did those slow-motion splits. But it just looked more and more awkward, and I was sure the piece would be an embarrassment.
I only turned it around at the very end when I realized I needed to crop her illustration differently, focusing solely on the arch of her back and her emotional intensity. But still, I was worried it was too simple, or the colors were too crazy, or.... I don't know. It was one of those pieces that put me through the wringer, questioning whether I should even share it online. Aside from its own merits as a piece of art, Katya's actual performance was so magnificent and memorable that it seems to have charged this fairly simple portrait with some of that same intensity. Or maybe it still sucks, I don't know.
In any case, I wanted to make one last, iconic portrait of my dear Katya. Something befitting her stupid talents and talented stupidity. And this happened:
I collect my favorite art from each season in little art books, (you can see all the previous season collections here) so I've been working through some ideas for who and what should be on the cover for Season 7. One of the final 3? I love Ginger, but I've been having a hell of a time capturing her likeness this season. Maybe Pearl or Violet? But which one? And then my personal favorites are Trixie and Katya, so.... well, here, take a look at my different sketches and let me know which one you'd like to see on 70 QUEENS!
Right now, in all honesty, I'm leaning toward the Katya one.
Regardless, I'll be putting together the book collection over the next two weeks, and I'll make it available for pre-order soon! While you wait, you can check out all my other Drag Race art on Etsy!
Or, if you'd rather not cover your walls with drag queens, you can support me viaPatreon!If you're not familiar with how that works, it's a way to support your favorite artists by sending a few bucks their way every month. I've just set it all up, so I'm going to keep it pretty simple right now, but I'm hoping to offer exclusive sneak peeks and sales to my supporters soon!
Patreon will be an ideal way to help me out once the Drag Race season wraps up, because I'll be turning my attention to The Cardboard Kingdom, a new collaborative comics project! I'm currently taking story submissions until June 15, then I'll pick a bunch of them to illustrate as fun, imaginative, socially-conscious kids' comics!
And FINALLY! If you're not sick of me after reading all this, you should come meet me at two shows coming up in June! CAKEin Chicago is a totally free and amazing indie comics show, full of talent, incredible art, and cool workshops! It will be June 6-7 at The Center on Halsted!
And FLAME CON is a new queer comics convention in Brooklyn! It's Saturday, June 13, and it will have SO MANY cool creators and special guests and stuff. Get tickets here!
Darienne Lake joins me this week to discuss the Drag Race! Darienne and I caught up at DragCon this past weekend, which was completely crazy and fabulous.
Darienne: People always wonder why this or that person got on the show when they know someone who is so much better. I try to explain that, for example, if you were going to cast a remake of Steel Magnolias, you wouldn't have 8 Ouisers.
Chad: Right, and the question is: what does "better" mean? More polished? A better performer?
Darienne: There are so many facets of what makes one performer "better" in a fan's eye. Some people live for fashion queens, some love camp. Some love the dancing divas. I think this year has a great variety of that.
Chad: It seems like a good season is all about finding the right cast of queens who will have the right amount of chemistry and drama. How do you think Season 7 fared in that regard?
Darienne: This year, I think the contestants take the competition very seriously, so it may come across as cutthroat.
Chad: Did you see this week's Untucked? I thought that came through so much -- the older queens, Ginger and Kennedy, made it clear that they would do whatever it took to win. Pearl and Violet were like, "why does this have to be a competition?" Do you think it's naive of Violet and Pearl to think they can get away with that approach?
Darienne: No. I think it helps us see their point of view.
Chad: Who do you sympathize with? Because you've done pageants in the past, right?
Darienne: I have. I never liked the feelings pageants brought out in me.
Chad: Did the Drag Race bring out your competitive edge, or was that different?
Darienne: Drag Race brought out the competitive side in me, but part of my competition style is alliances. I've always been a lover of reality competitions, and I've always known that nobody gets to the end without forming an alliance.
Chad: What alliance do you think helped you make it to the final challenge?
Darienne: In my case, I knew I had to listen and watch what was working with the judges.
Chad: In terms of your fashion? Or your personality?
Darienne: My fashion is shit and always has been.
Chad: I wouldn't agree with that, but I can see that you probably prioritize performance and comedy, right?
Darienne: As an overweight child, I never read fashion magazines because those looks were unattainable to me. I felt more importance should be in my entertainment value.
Chad: Sure, I can understand that.
Darienne: When I was picked on, it lessened when I could make the bullies laugh.
Chad: Do you see some of that same approach in Ginger Minj? Her focus on self-deprecating humor and entertainment?
Darienne: I do see that with Ginger, but I see she has such a strong desire to win.
Chad: Do you get the feeling that she's trying TOO hard? It seemed like she was really pleading her case to the judges this week. Do you think it's a fair point that it's time for a bigger queen to be crowned?
Darienne: I don't think there is ever a time for a big girl to be crowned. If you're well rounded, motivated, entertaining, and professional, you should represent the brand of America's next drag superstar.
Chad: Well, so there's the question: Who do you think WILL win this season, and who SHOULD?
Darienne: The final 3 all have reasons to be there. Ginger could win, because she has the chops to make it in this business. She's funny, engaging, talented, and direct.
Darienne: Violet could win, because she has something new and exciting for the audience. She also takes her craft very seriously and is very polished for someone who was 16 when RuPaul's Drag Race first came on TV.
Chad: ....and Pearl?
Darienne: Pearl could win, because she is that diamond in the rough that has been polished by the machine of RuPaul's Drag Race. She has grown emotionally on the show. She has had her spirit tested, broken, and rebuilt.
Chad: Yeah, I really have no idea who will or should win. I seriously think at the Reunion that Ru should announce "The winner of Season 7 is...... KATYA!" That would be the most surprising and rewarding ending.
Darienne: I met Katya at DragCon, and she is exactly what you want and hope for.
Chad: (Yes, I know.)
Chad: Last year, there was a TON of discussion about your "edit," about whether you were depicted as much shadier than you really are. Do you feel like any of the top four queens got a particularly positive or negative edit this season?
Darienne: Violet may have gotten a little of the Courtney edit. Which was: fierce, but arrogant. Which, Courtney is anything but. She was and is so dear to me.
Chad: Yeah, all of my interactions with Courtney have been absolutely delightful. The same is true for you, too, which is why I'm so suspicious of those damn editors!
Darienne: I performed at Tracks in Denver on NYE, and Violet was a delight.
Chad: I feel like Pearl really got the "Adore" edit, where she's rough and inconsistent, and she's given second and third chances, but she fights her way to the finish line.
Darienne: Exactly my thoughts.
Chad: I don't know WHAT to make of Ginger's depiction on the show. I've had the feeling all along that she'll win, but not necessarily from her edit. I actually prefer her in interviews and on YouTube videos to her performances on the show.
Darienne: I think Kennedy came across as too stuck in her beliefs.
Chad: Sure. I do like her, and I think she's a complicated character. Brilliant performer, definitely knows what she's doing. Hearing about her family and her caregiving role really struck a chord for me.
Darienne: Yes, and Kennedy entertained me out of my seat when I saw her at the premier party.
Chad: Same with us! My boyfriend doesn't watch the show, but he came with me, and afterward, Kennedy was his favorite.
Darienne: I would probably put my money on Ginger to win. I think that she could handle the pressure, adoration, and critiques it takes.
Chad: Aside from the cash prize, do you think the crown matters a whole lot to the queens' careers?
Darienne: Not at all. Look at Milk and BenDela. Adore and Courtey. Katya and Trixie.
Chad: Yeah, I do think Ginger is the most grounded and professional queen to serve as the face of the show.
Darienne: Whoever it is, they have some big footsteps to follow. Bianca has been a trailblazer.
Chad: The one other thing I wanted to ask you was about internet fandom and backlash. It seems like Kennedy has gotten the brunt of it this season, without really deserving the negative attention she's gotten. How do you shrug off the haters?
Darienne: Mind over matter. Pay them no mind, because they don't matter. There is no way their comments will affect my life. I dealt with real bullies. With fists. I can deal with someone with an Internet connection.
Chad: Ha! Did you have any other thoughts on the Drag Race, drag in general, or on being Darienne Lake?
Darienne: RuPaul's Drag Race continues to keep me as a fan. Bringing more people to the shows in every bar around the world. It's children, parents, and grandparents who are coming to Battle of the Seasons tours and DragCon.
Chad: Yeah, you're right! That's so great to see! I had a lot of all-ages groups coming by my table at DragCon. It's so incredible to see whole families opening up and becoming more accepting.
Darienne: I'm blessed to be part of a groundbreaking television series.
Darienne will be performing in Cleveland May 30th, Ann Arbor, MI on June 5th, and Detroit on the 6th!
Find her at Dariennelake.com, Twitter, andFacebook!
And be sure to find all your favorite Drag Race prints, posters, and postcards at my Etsy Store!
This week, photographer Adam Ouahmane joins me to discuss this week's episode of the Drag Race! Adam is a Chicago fashion photographer who has worked with a number of notable queens. He brings a strong, conceptual edge to his portraits, and I've already shared a number of them throughout the season!
Chad: So, Adam, I wanted to talk to you about the Drag Race because you've collaborated with a ton of amazing queens in your work. You've done an entire series of photographs of Kim Chi and Shea Coulee, two of my favorite Chicago queens, and I believe you've worked with Trixie and Pearl, right?
Adam: Correct.
Chad: You create some really stunning conceptual pieces with the queens -- how does that collaboration work? And what do you find interesting about working with drag queens?
Adam: I originally started out as a fashion photographer. While in college I enjoyed shooting crazy avant grade looks, and once I moved to Chicago, I realized that the market here for fashion is more toned down, clean, and commercial. All the new young models start here, so they like to keep them fresh. At the time, I was working at Beatnix on Halsted and noticed Kim Chi. I stumbled upon her Facebook, and she had that fashion look I like. So I approached her, and it all began from that. I am picky about who I approach to work with because I want the queens to have that high fashion edge. Sissy Spastik, Ruby Dee, Pearl, all the girls I've worked with have that fashion I like, and I have the freedom to work with them instead of agency models. As far as collaboration, we just text ideas, and I usually like for them to do make up in my studio so I can be hands-on and make sure it's perfect. And sometimes I sketch out the vision.
Chad: What did you think of the "Hello Kitty" theme of this week's challenge? Not exactly avant garde, is it?
Adam: To me it was. FINALLY! A non-acting challenge. It was avant garde in the sense that it is a fantasy. Something you won't wear everyday. I loved it.
Chad: Ha! Okay, that's good to hear. I agree that it was nice to see an unconventional fashion challenge -- FINALLY! The tie-in with Hello Kitty was a little random, but some of the queens really handled it well. And I must admit that I really liked the cartoony creations the queens came up with! Now, having worked with Pearl in the past, are you at all surprised to see her make it so far in the season?
Adam: Not at all. She is very creative, and I always like to refer to drag queens as artists, and that she is. She is amazing at painting her face and coming up with super high fashion concepts.
Chad: I LOVED hearing how she's drawn the character of Pearl since she was ten! And you're right, she has a really cool, artful approach to her drag.
Adam: Her look last night was very Jeremy Scott for Moschino.
Chad: Your fashion references will go COMPLETELY over my head. But I admire you for knowing anything about that.
Adam: He did that Mcdonalds line, if that helps haha
Chad: I thought the minimal dress shape worked, given the crazy print she was working with. And the giant kitty head on top served as a playful, strange shape to make an unexpected silhouette.
Adam: Exactly. And I love a queen with no hair as part of the look.
Chad: What do you think of Violet? She certainly knows her fashion history, doesn't she?
Adam: Yes. I never heard of her prior to the show, but her looks are beyond amazing. I loved her Hello Kitty look, of course, and also her bearded DIOR look. Again, it is very fashion.
Chad: And she's never had to lip sync! I think she's stunning, and it seems like she's the most deserving of the crown -- if not for my beloved Katya! But my fear is that winning the season would further inflate Violet's ego. Can you imagine?
Adam: If it inflates her ego, so be it, as long as she doesn't become a bitch lol
Chad: Ha! I thought she was pretty bitchy early in the season, but I think it's more youthful bravado at this point.
Adam: Yeah, she's only, what, 22?
Chad: She's very, very young.
Adam: Now, what was your thoughts on Santino being back?
Chad: Ha! I've never had any problems with Santino, really. Seeing him flirt with Violet was hilaaaaarious! I think I did a spit take! As someone who's more involved in fashion, what do you think of him?
Adam: I was glad to have them change up the judges, but kinda regret it now, because they don't really have anything to do with the challenges, except for giving acting advice. I don't get Violet and Ginger's lust over him, but good for them.
Chad: Well, the queens have been holed up in those hotel rooms a lonnng time by this point in the season.
Adam: I used to get annoyed with him judging their fashion badly since (no disrespect towards him), he never had a great career in it. But now, I kind of wish he was back, since he has more of a say in it than say, Ross. They need to being Christian Siriano or Heatherette.
Chad: Now, are you the kind of fan who's outraged by this week's elimination? Or no?
Adam: Kind of. It's coming off very staged. Like someone does bad in a challenge, does a great lip-sync, and stays. Whereas someone does great in a challenge, great at a lip-sync, and is sent home, cough (Trixie) cough. And I'm talking about the second time around – Pearl and Trixie should have both stayed that first time.
Chad: Yeah, this season has had really frustrating eliminations. It definitely makes me feel less emotionally attached to the outcome of the show when the decisions feel so arbitrary. I'll say that Kennedy IS a magnificent performer, but I really hate it when queens jump off the stage and dance right in front of the judges. It just seems unfair, like LOOK AT ME DON'T LOOK AT HER NOW YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE HER
Adam: Yeah, they should have a rule about that.
Chad: I think that they should set up the lighting so that the area in front of the judges is just completely dark. So if a queen jumps down there, she'll just be a spastic silhouette.
Adam: Or have a shark tank in front of the stage.
Adam: The winner is never the most successful with any reality competition. Trixie is traveling the most out of all the girls.
Chad: Trixie and Katya are the shit. I think the show will really, really suffer without them in the top 3. I do think Katya totally deserved to be in the top, and she's been my favorite this season. However, I think she made the most of her time on the show, she left with grace, and I was SO glad she was able to bring in her Russian character for the challenge!
Adam: Aren't you mad at no photo challenge this season?
Chad: I'm frankly SHOCKED that there hasn't been a photo challenge. My guess is that the producers think acting challenges make for more lively TV? I don't know.
Adam: That's what bothers me, is the challenges. None of the queens act post the show, yet they all do photoshoots, sell their own products. I mean, have Betheny from NY Housewives on and judge them selling their brand. Have a photographer judge a beauty shoot where it's just about their face and giving expression. That's more interesting, to me, at least. They are losing the inspiration from Top Model and Project Runway, which was their original goal.
Chad: Well, I think Jinkx demonstrated that a "theater queen" can do really well and take drag into unexpected places. We've seen a number of queens do one woman shows, like Bianca, BenDeLaCreme, and others.
Adam: True.
Chad: But I do agree that they should have mixed it up more this season.
Adam: But Pearl, Fame, and Violet can do magazines, fashion, something new, you know?
Chad: Right, and the challenges this season have almost NOTHING to do with their approach to drag, except for the runway themes.
Adam: Exactly!
Adam: Can you believe it's almost over with?
Chad: Thank GOD! I'm sick of drawing these bitches. (I'm... mostly kidding.)
You can find prints of this week's art on my Etsy store, or you can meet me at DragCon this weekend in LA!
This week, they unveiled the show's programming, and it is incredible. Be there.
Oliver Sava joins me this week to talk Drag Race! He's been covering the show for years at The AV Club, where he's a contributor on everything from comics to reality TV.
Chad: So, you've written about the Drag Race for a number of years for The AV Club, and you've covered So You Think You Can Dance, so I thought you would be great to chat with about this week's challenge and what's been going on in general this season. Even if you're not a drag or dancing EXPERT, you know what makes good TV.
Oliver: It's perfect, because my dance knowledge is about as extensive as most of the queens on this episode. I got to see a lot of professional dance working front of house at Harris Theater, and that combined with SYTYCD and some college dance classes has given me a pretty solid foundation.
Chad: So what did you make of this week's performances?
Oliver: The actual dance performances were all entertaining. Nothing was a trainwreck. I absolutely agree with the judges and think Violet and Katya were the strongest, but I also think the Vogue Tango is probably the easiest of the three styles. Just because these queens probably have some basic knowledge of voguing, and tango gives them a very specific attitude to play.
Chad: Right, Katya and Violet were sleek and sexy as shit. But who the hell can pull off "country robot?"
Oliver: Country Robot and CHARLESTON TWERK
Chad: How do you think the choreography handled the double-gender aspect of their costuming?
Oliver: I don't think it took advantage of that very well. I didn't see the correlation between the look and the dance beyond that they both combined different things. But I would have liked to see a stronger connection drawn between the two.
Chad: I thought there were moments of wit -- during Katya and Violet's routine, when one pushes the other down as "the man," and then they switch roles. But yeah, I felt like the divided drag looks were more distracting than anything. Wouldn't that concept have worked better in a photo shoot, where it could be more precisely arranged?
Oliver: Maybe something even bigger than a photoshoot. Something that really forces the viewer to look at the relationship between the male and female halves. It's a visual that speaks so directly to the dynamic at the center of the show that I wanted it to get more attention
Chad: Maybe a segment like Stephen Colbert used to do: "Formidable Opponent!" Where he literally argues with himself over some topic, with just the camera orientation (and tie color) switching with each "side."
Chad: But it sounds like, overall, you enjoyed this week's challenge, right?
Oliver: I thought it was solid, but far from my favorite this season. It tries to do too much. And I don't necessarily mean in terms of the work the queens have to do.
Chad: I feel like that's a recurring theme this season. The producers get so caught up in their own clever concepts and shove the queens along to get it all shot for the episode. My general feeling about this season is that the challenges are just too heavily scripted, where the comedy is baked into the challenge, rather than forcing the queens to bring their own inventiveness to it.
Oliver: I totally agree with that.
Chad: Just let Ginger, Katya, or Trixie riff in front of a crowd, and you'll get comedy gold! Or even give them a talk show challenge, like Season 1 and Season 6! We're not getting enough improvisation challenges, and we're not getting fashion challenges. So we're not able to see the queens' wit (a la Trixie, Ginger, and Katya) or their visual creativity (Pearl, Violet, and Max.) That's the end of my rant, sorry. I was annoyed by this week's challenge.
Oliver: I think you're totally right, though. Lots of the queens reading lines. Or singing lyrics. Or dancing choreography. That is given to them by someone else.
Chad: I would have loved a more thoughtful "split gender" runway theme that wasn't catering to the challenges of dancing in the outfit.
Oliver: I agree. How would they interpret the male half if they didn't have to wear a tux?
Chad: Well, if you noticed, pretty much all the tuxes were actually just spandex bodysuits. I'm guessing that was for convenience and versatility. And what if they didn't have to divide the drag looks right down the middle? What kind of edgier, androgynous looks would we have gotten?
Oliver: The costuming confused me. I wrote about it in my review, but I just didn't know what the queens had to sew, and if they had to sew, what they were using.
Chad: I heard on reddit that Trixie said at a viewing party that they did, in fact, have to construct the garments in the workroom. Which sounds correct, given that each queen had a look catering to their dance style. In your review, you also had some interesting thoughts on Ginger and Trixie's issues on the show. You think Ginger is playing a pretty nuanced game, don't you?
Oliver: I get the impression that her struggles aren't as real as she makes them out to be. I went to the Season 7 premiere party and got to talk to Ginger, and she explicitly mentioned being a musical theater performer, and doing a little digging online revealed that she's also a costume designer. You've gotta dance and sew to do those things. You don't have to be an expert at them, but you need to have a basic knowledge to excel.
Chad: Yeah, she's been in the game a LONG time! She had this fabulous interview on Feast of Fun where she describes acting in a Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast for more than a year when she was 19!So right, when she says, "I'm not a dancer," that's not exactly true. She may feel insecure about dancing, it might not be her strength, but she makes a living as a musical theater performer and drag queen. You think she's playing up her vulnerability to be more likable to the judges and the viewership?
Oliver: I definitely think she's exaggerating her weaknesses. But I also just get a performative vibe from her in general.
Chad: I'm still pretty sure she's being set up to win the season, but I'm not rooting for her, yet.
Oliver: I'm all about Katya.
Chad: The issue is that Ginger comes across incredibly well in interviews and in her performances on Youtube. But something about her depiction on the show just isn't sticking with me.
Oliver: I don't really have a great idea of who the Ginger Minj character is. But a lot of the queens this season don't necessarily project a strong personality in drag.
Chad: The feeling I get is that the show has been depicting her as folksier and shadier than she really is. In interviews, she comes across as very well-grounded, smart, sweet, and hilarious.
Oliver: Is it the show, or is it her, though? They can't edit it if you don't do it. If you've been watching a show for six seasons, you know what works and what doesn't.
Chad: Well, right, I really have no idea. I do know that Trixie and Katya both LOVE Ginger, which is good enough for me. Because, yes, I love Katya, too, and I was very sorry and frustrated to see Trixie go. It felt like a very arbitrary decision. Like they just didn't know what to do with Trixie after they brought her back!
Oliver: Ginj beat Trixie in that lip sync, though.
Chad: Yeah, I dunno. I hate the way they edit those lip syncs. I just want a split screen that shows both queens in a medium shot. Because I am a boring old man who wants to see his queens.
Oliver: They should do that as an online exclusive thing.
Chad: Yup!
Oliver: Lip Sync Split-Screen, sponsored by SquareSpace.
Chad: Ha! So, speaking of SquareSpace.... What do you think of Untucked this year?
Oliver: I'm a few episodes behind, which should tell you how high of a priority Untucked is now that it's online
Chad: What, really??
Oliver: Yeah, I don't love it. I get what they're going for, but it doesn't have the same energy as before.
Chad: Okay, I think that's fair. I'm sure the response to its stylistic change has been divided. But I LOVE it. So much. Here's my take on it: I think they had barely any budget for it this year. So they tried a ballsy approach, tried something different.
Oliver: I miss the tight space. It was like putting animals in a cage, sticking tired drag queens in the Interior Illusions lounge with alcohol and watching them claw at each other.
Chad: But I think it's so intimate, crazy, and unstructured. There are moments of hilarity, of poignance, and of Katya just twerking in the parking lot.
Oliver: It does feel more real, which is fun.
Chad: I just think it's shot in such a fresh way, where you really get the feel for what it's like to spend twelve hours with a bunch of tired queens, and honestly, I wish they'd approach the whole show the same way. I don't think they WILL, but I can wish for it.
Oliver: There have been some solid moments. I really liked Violet's "I get it, I'm a bitch" moment. But I don't think I want a raw, grounded RuPaul's Drag Race. I like it silly and overblown. I just think this episode lacked focus.
Chad: Yeah, and you're probably in the majority with the rest of this show's fans. I just feel like most of the episodes this season have felt too rushed, too arbitrary, without any room for the queens to breathe and to shine.
Oliver: Is Violet the only queen that hasn't lip synced?
Chad: Hm. Seems so! What do you think of Violet?
Oliver: There's also not much interpersonal drama this season. I appreciate Violet because she was stirring shit up! That makes for interesting TV.
Chad: Although we've seen her deal with the "bitch" characterization, we know next to nothing about her personal life or her history. Where are her childhood tales of adversity? Parental acceptance?
Oliver: Maybe she didn't have to struggle.
Chad: Right, maybe there's no drama to mine. Do you have any other thoughts on this season, this episode, or any particular queens?
Oliver: 1) Two thumbs up for boy-Pearl with facial hair. 2) Flassez-da. 3) Rachael Harris' face when RuPaul pulled off her skirt. That is how I would look the entire time if I was a guest judge on this show.
Chad: Agreed, I love a scruffy Pearl. Too bad it was painted on!
Oliver: It was a good week for Pearl, who I'm shocked is still in the competition.
Chad: Why are you shocked Pearl is still in the game? Because she lives her life in slow motion?
Oliver: It definitely feels like she's coasting her way through, but it's not bad. That's just her personality
Chad: That it is.
Oliver: She's managed to keep that aloofness, but there's more energy behind her performance now. She's starting to have fun, and it's making a big improvement.
You can find Oliver's weekly write-ups of the Drag Race right here! You can also check out all his other writing for The AV Cluband for The LA Times Hero Complex! Oliver is also on Twitter.
If you like this week's art, check out the posters, prints, and postcards available on my Etsy store!
Joining me this week is Joan Waters, a young queen who's relatively new to the Chicago drag scene, but she's awesome and funny and she's John Waters' biggest stalker or something.
Chad: I'm excited to talk with you this week! If I'm not mistaken, you're quite a fan of John Waters, right Or, wait, is he your dad?
Joan: My dad actually does look like John Waters. Now I'm having a serious Oedipal or Electrical problem.
Chad: Is he half of your namesake?
Joan: Yes!My mom used to let me watch anything -- which was bad judgment on her part, because I had inherently bad taste and went straight for Pink Flamingos. I love trashy queens, and I love campy queens, and you don't get trashier or campier than John. Or Divine!
Chad: So what did you think of his involvement with this episode? What does it mean for John Waters to be on RuPaul's Drag Race?
Joan: It's a validation in part of his significance in drag history. He helped craft the original drag superstar in Divine, so it's only appropriate that he should visit to help find the Next Drag Superstar! Divine and John really moved drag in a new direction. It was always counterculture, but it was never as shocking or funny until they rubbed their filthy hands all over it.
Chad: Do you see any parallels between John Waters and Ru? Both are known for being quite transgressive in their early work, but they've both grown their respective empires in more mainstream directions.
Joan: Yes! John and Ru started as far underground as you can (six feet under or closer to the Kelly Mantle of the Earth). But both were such bright, hot commodities that it was only natural that mainstream straight culture would want a fucking piece of that action. Their points of view are unique and even their mainstream work has been badass.
Chad: Yeah, that's a fair point of view. I think they've both maintained their visibility and ensured their longevity by commercializing their creative empires like that. For better or worse, perhaps, it's a necessary evil.
Joan: John Waters exemplifies a "make it work" temperament with all of his films. He and his team would break laws and film with barely any funds, get arrested, and it was all in good fun.
Chad: So what did you think of this week's challenge? Did it capture that same spirit?
Joan: This week's challenge was exciting and frustrating for me because it was definitely a "watered" down version of his most subversive films through the lens of his more palatable and commercial films and musicals like Hairspray and Cry Baby. It was a little sweet and not as shitty as I had hoped. I just pray that the children look at his work for themselves. And honestly, the only one that was offensively bad in a John Waters way was Pearl, Violet and Fame... and they lost!
Chad: Yeah, I felt the same way. I LOVED seeing the queens adopt crazier makeup, and even the "pretty" queens like Fame and Violet embraced a really ugly, fun expressivity.
Joan: Yes! I thought Fame got the shit end of the dog.
Chad: But it felt like they were largely IMITATING a subversive queen from 30 years ago rather than being transgressive in their own right.
Joan: Totally. Lightning doesn't strike twice, and neither did Divine (unless provoked).
Chad: I would have preferred to see the queens' own take on the material -- how would they have interpreted their own script based on an iconic John Waters scene?
Joan: I think Katya is doing well in spite of the writing.
Chad: She brought a zany physicality to it that was just magnificent. Katya is everything.
Joan: She has been fighting through the generic and giving me spastic hooker burned by John Waters and morphasized into a comedy legend Glamazon. I love how the girls in Untucked this week were happy with the idea of Katya winning the whole competition. (She should.)
Chad: Yeah, like I've said before, I think she's this season's Alaska -- not necessarily the most vulnerable, not really an underdog, not the showstopper. But the one who's consistently hilarious, bizarre, and surprising.
Joan: Chad, all will be lost if you don't draw Edith Massey this week. I didn't even know she was still alive. Oh that was Ginger? Edith was as much of a John Waters staple as Divine, and it was honestly so refreshing to see Ginger nail it. That was the best casting since me in that group scene I did last week.
Chad: Ha! Ginger was great. She's a consistently solid performer, and I still think she's getting the "winner's edit" this season.
Joan: Oh, definitely. I wouldn't mind it so much if only her runway was a little better.
Chad: Yeah, she feels like the "safe" pick as the winner -- she's funny as hell, she's reliable, and she's lovable. But she's not as much "out of the box" as Katya and Trixie are with their humor, or as Violet and Pearl are with their deranged fashion.
Joan: And I think that her "ugly" runway looked suspiciously like something she could've worn almost any other week.
Chad: Yeah, I would have liked to see something crazier from her on the runway. This week was a really mixed bag for that.
Joan: I can't tell if the runway was successful because I hated it, or if I was supposed to hate it. I'm just confused.
Chad: I wanted to see more diabolically ugly shit walk down that runway.
Joan: When I think of ugly, I don't think of a church lady or a teenage schoolgirl from Japan.
Chad: Violet was going in the right direction, definitely. I liked Katya's ragged hair and ridiculous color scheme. Kennedy at least had a character that worked in that context. Pearl's choice was especially odd.
Joan: Theyre drag queens! They should hear “ugly” and run to Jiggly Caliente's closet.
Chad: I thought Fame looked pretty magnificent, especially from the neck up. That makeup That wig!
Joan: I love Fame. Her head is fine, and her fashion is fabulous.
Chad: I thought her performance was *fine* this week. Like, she's not one of those pretty queens who gets stuck in her head, unable to let loose. She gave an expressive and fun performance, if not a nuanced or varied one.
Joan: It was a tough outfit to do a lip sync in. She looked like a fashionable Humpty Dumpty.
Chad: I wanted to see her do some better spin moves, like Detox in her amazing "jellyfish" outfit from Season 5.
Joan: Yes! That's one of my all time favorites lip syncs. I think it's confusing that they didn't use a Divine song, but whatever. Someone on reddit brilliantly pointed out that they should've used “I'm So Beautiful,” which would've been a better song to contrast with the ugly fashion.
Chad: Ha! Agreed. The last two weeks have presented some really offbeat, unexpected challenges in an otherwise slightly underwhelming season. What are you hoping for next?
Joan: I would love for them to have an actual sewing challenge. An individual fashion challenge. Or something challenging like the Presidential Debate was in Season Four. Right now, I'm lacking chances for the girls to shine individually. I don't need any more acting challenges.
Chad: If you could present a truly transgressive challenge to the show to really push boundaries and mess shit up, what would you want to see?
Joan: Good question. I'd love to get them out of the studio like they did a while back. Get those queens on the street during the day or in a Walmart. Make them create something for real on a dime, or actually make them walk children in nature like Shelly Long in Troop Beverly Hills. That I'd live for.
Chad: Yeah, I love seeing them get by on only their own wit and resilience. That's what the stand-up comedy challenge is good for, or Season 5's Roast. I'd also LOVE to see them do something like reddit's Lip Sync For Your Life competition. Like, here's a video camera, now make something crazy tonight in your hotel room.
Joan: They should do that when I get on for Season 13.
Chad: What, you think just because you WON reddit's LSFYL challenge last year, you're something special??
Joan: Don't call me special when you know I'm just handicapped, Chad.
Chad: What do you have going on that you'd like to plug, Joan?
Joan: As far as plugs, I'm working on my website now... which will be hosted at fat-twink.com. OUT OF SYNC, my original sitcom about drag queens starring Lucy Stoole and Trannika Rex, has wrapped principal photography and will premiere in Chicago this summer. I'm hosting the 3rd season of Reddit's Lip Sync for Your Life competition at reddit.com/r/LSFYL. And you can find me every other Wednesday performing and checking my Grindr onstage at Fabitat in the basement bar of Double Door.
You can also find Joan Waters on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The lovely photos of Joan are by Marisa KM.
Check out all the fabulous posters, prints, and postcards available at my Etsy store!
Joining me this week to talk Drag Race is Kim Chi! She's a phenomenal Chicago queen who performs all over. She's amazing.
Chad: So, I'm kind of sick of all the constant discussion about this season, whether it's any good, and "When is Trixie coming back?". At least this week, we finally have an answer.
Kim: In a season filled with group acting challenges, this episode finally gave me everything I needed! We got to see more of the eliminated queens' personalities and the remaining queens' creativity and crafting skills!
Chad: I know! FINALLY! Some CRAFTING! Design! And it was really fabulous to see all those girls together again. UNTUCKED was particularly special and filled me with goodness. Now, when I heard that there would be this conjoined twin challenge, I was kind of hoping that the eliminated queen would get to make over her partner! Wouldn't you have killed to see Trixie paint Pearl?
Kim: That would've been great, but that could've gone wrong in so many ways! This season's queens aren't as big of saboteurs as the previous seasons, but I can just imagine some eliminated queen painting a busted mug on a polished queen out of spite. Who wants to see Miss Fame with a beard, anyway?
Chad: Ha! Yeah, that's very true. And I think the top 7 did a superb job. How weird is it for a queen to have someone else do their makeup? Is it uncomfortable? Fun?
Kim: I think it depends on the queen. In the pageant system, a lot of the girls get their mug painted by a make up artist or another queen whose mug they admire in order to bring up their level of polish. Some queens will never have another queen paint their mug in order to continuously improve their skills and hone their signature make up style. When I first started, Pearl and Kahmora Hall painted my face just to show me how they do their mug, and it was a great learning experience for me! I think it's refreshing to see different products and different skills being done to yourself to expose you to a variety of techniques.
Chad: Do you think any of the queens gave their twin a particularly notable transformation? Taught them a few new tricks?
Kim: Trixie's transformation was definitely notable! We're so used to seeing her with cartoony, deranged make up, it was a refreshing change of pace to see her with no bottom eyeliner and white waterline. I'm sure they were on a time crunch to get everything done, so I don't necessarily know if anyone learned new tricks, but I thought everyone looked amazing!
Chad: Agreed! I love Trixie's usual look, but she and Pearl did such a great job of giving themselves enough of a family resemblance that it really worked!
Kim: Also, their look had a strong concept and a visual narrative that fit both of their drag personas really well.
Chad: Katya and Kasha really stole the show, too! I feel like they were a very, very close second. But Trixie's elimination always felt very weird to me, and it seemed like a setup to her inevitable return.
Kim: Trixie hardly got a storyline before her elimination, which was very weird to me, as well. I know her very well, and she's an extremely funny person with a sick, twisted sense of humor, and that hardly got portrayed on the show prior to her elimination. Katya/Kasha's look had a strong visual narrative as well, but Pearl and Trixie managed to serve both glamour, camp and comedy, which is why I think they ultimately won.
Chad: Yeah, that's a good point. Although twins, they managed to serve two very different, but related, looks. What do you think Trixie will make of her second chance?
Kim: I think Trixie will definitely make the most out of her second chance! I can't think of another person who's more deserving of this opportunity. For the first three years of her doing drag, lots of people in her hometown didn't understand her look or her sense of humor, and she really had to fight for her existence. Once she started performing in Chicago, everything changed. People were responding extremely well to her numbers, and she built quite a fanbase. Even though it would cost her a lot of money to travel into the city every weekend, she would take all of her drag on a train or a bus, come down here for a booking only to head right back home with no money in her pocket. She has such a strong work ethic, it's mind blowing to me, because I've never seen anyone who worked as hard as she did. One time, her bus broke down on the highway, so she got off and walked down the ramp to catch a cab so she could make it to the gig. Another time, Amtrak lost her luggage, so she whipped up a quick outfit out of things she had laying around and did her make up with cotton swabs. Which is why it broke my heart to see her go on episode four. She hustles so much and is so humble, I really want her to take this crown and showcase her talent to the world. Even though she's so well known now, she manages to stay the exact same person she was before. Self sufficient, easy going, and always punctual.
Chad: I'm hoping that Trixie really has a chance to shine in next week's John Waters challenge! Man, I can only imagine what Ginger, Katya, and Trixie will cook up for that! It seems like it will be perfect for their respective styles and sensibilities.
Kim: Trixie will ace the John Waters challenge! Her deranged sense of humor will be perfect for it!
Chad: Yeah, Trixie is amazing. I'm so glad I got to see her perform in Chicago before she got too famous for us! But seriously, for the record: Was that your green dress she was sent home in?
Kim: Everyone assumes that dress is mine, but it's Trixie's dress that I borrowed! She told me to hold onto it as long as I want, and after episode four, it all made sense. I'm assuming she doesn't want to travel in the dress she got eliminated in! Come on, cultural sensitivity!
Chad: Well, you ARE the secret asian queen of Season 7! Has it been weird to see your name keep popping up in Drag Race forums this season? Flattering? Funny?
Kim: I was there, you never saw me because I managed to evade the camera with my secret ninja skills! It is really flattering, and I'm grateful, but it is a bit overwhelming! I can't fly, teleport or raise anyone from the dead. I'm just an Asian man in a wig doing k-pop numbers and wearing big, crazy outfits.
Chad: Wait, you're a MAN?
Kim: Shhh it's a secret. Secret Asian queen full of manly secrets
Chad: So, aside from your frenemy Trixie, is there anyone else you're rooting for this season?
Kim: With every episode, I am extremely impressed and inspired by Violet's looks! For someone so young, her taste level and execution are impeccable! I will go as far as to say some of her looks are legendary! Miss Fame is incredibly sweet and quirky. I enjoy every moment she's talking on the screen. Pearl's been coming out of her shell (pun intended) and the audience is finally able to see the fun, quirky side of her.
Chad: I agree that Violet is pretty much amazing, and I love that she's making an effort to open up and show some warmth to the other queens. She'll clearly always have an attitude, but maybe she deserves it! I agree that Miss Fame is phenomenal. Do you think Ru is giving her a hard time with that goddamn "head" joke?
Kim: She gave me good head with the knife look last week.
Chad: I think if Ru kept asking me "How is your head?" I would just try to keep coming up with more deranged answers. Like, "Toothy." "A little drooly." "There may be blood."
Kim: LOL! let's get you on this show so you can draw yourself every week
Chad: Ugh, self portraits are so indulgent!
Kim: Aren't all drag queens a little self-indulgent to a degree, though? Being creatures of vanity and all?
Chad: I think it's fair to say that, yes, when one spends hours a day on their makeup, they might be a little preoccupied with their looks!
Kim: Some of us, not enough time on our make up.
Kim: Oh, and how could I forget Katya, who is basically a one-liner factory?
Chad: I'm SO glad to see that she seems to have loosened up over the last few episodes. She seems to have more fun with the judges on the runway, and she got major props from the other queens this week in Untucked! Her own neuroses are clearly her worst enemy, since everyone else loves the hell out of her.
Kim: Her humor never seems forced, and it feels authentic to her. I can't wait to see all the other jokes she's got in her head!
Chad: Yeah, she seems endlessly authentic. And she almost never turns her humor on the other queens – it's pretty much always endearingly self-deprecating. She has a very weird, witty, meta sense of humor as a drag queen, almost like Alaska. And here's hoping she ascends to super stardom like her, too!
Kim: If you can't make fun of yourself, how in the hell are you gonna make fun of someone else, right?
Chad: AMEN!
If you don't already, you must follow Kim Chi on Instagram,Facebook, and Twitter. Her photographic collaborations with Adam Ouahmane are stunning works of art. And she's funny as hell.
Kim will be at Hysteria by the Bad Kids collective at the Metro Bar in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 4th! She'll be hosting GayGlow at Hydrate on June 5th, Milwaukee Pride on June 6th, and then Iowa City Pride (with Trixie, Katya, and Sasha Belle) on June 18th! She'll be hosting Neverland's Bougie Ball on June 27th and the Chicago Pride closing party June 28th.
She's also a regular performer at Trannika's Most Wanted everything third Monday at Scarlet in Chicago, and at Berlin's Drag Matinee on Sundays!
As always, you can find my art on my Etsy store! And you can find ME at C2E2 in Chicago this weekend!! I'll be in Artist Alley, Table A-4! I'll have my queen art and comics, and I'm dying to meet all of you.
Last week, I launched an exciting new collaborative comic project called The Cardboard Kingdom! I'm seeking your story ideas for some imaginative, fun children's comics! Click here to find out more and submit your stories!
Hello! Due to scheduling conflicts, I wasn't able to do an interview discussion for this week's episode. The Snatch Game is always a hot mess, but usually there's at least one shining star who emerges above the fray. In Season 5, it was Jinkx, and in Season 6, BenDeLaCreme stole the show, but Adore and Bianca were both magnificent, too. This season, I thought a lot of the performances were solid, but not stellar. I would have picked Katya for the win, but that's true pretty much every week.
I was very surprised and sorry to see Max go. Some queens seem to get second and third chances on this show, but Max didn't. Although I think she has the most intriguing aesthetic this season, she was perhaps too reserved a character to make for good reality television.
As always, you can find all my latest art on Etsy!You'll also be able to find me at C2E2 in Chicago next week! I'll be in Artist Alley, Table A4.
I'll also be announcing a super-exciting new comics project tomorrow. So stay tuned!!
Joining me to talk Drag Race this week is Shea Couleé, one of my absolute favorite queens in Chicago!
Chad: I've been hearing a lot of complaints about this season. And while I do think there have been issues with the pacing, with Ru's decisions, and with the constant group challenges, this episode was a real turning point for me. What are your thoughts on the season so far?
Shea: The jury is still out on this season. I want to like it, really I do. I feel like having known Trixie and Pearl beforehand really made me wanna be invested in the show. But as of right now, I feel like I am having a hard time staying invested on the journey of Season 7.
Chad: Fair enough. Did this episode stand out to you, or not? I got really engaged in Jaidynn's storyline and performance. The runway slayed me. And for once, Ru made a decision I agreed with.
Shea: I really liked hearing more about Jaidynn. I struggle with the same lack of support from my family due to a strict Christian upbringing, and it allowed me to identify with her more. I really do like Jaidynn. I find her quite lovable, and her humility and passion are very endearing.
Shea: The group challenges thus far, I feel, have made it difficult for the queens to stand out on their own. I feel like they're not getting the chance to shine and do what they really feel represents themselves because they are confined to group challenges.
Chad: Yeah, agreed. It can make for good drama when the queens butt heads and are forced to work together, but I think it's been a bit overdone. Even Violet said so!
Shea: Oh yeah! But all of the conflicts the producers are highlighting seem snatched from thin air. They open up a storyline of conflict between queens each episode, and they never see it through. There's not conclusion, they never really address it the next episode, and then start something new. It's all just so trivial and transparent.
Chad: Yeah, I guess that's why this episode felt like a breath of fresh air. Kind of. Jaidynn has her very real struggles. Miss Fame is her own worst enemy. Max had his issues with the other queen's raunchiness.
Shea: Yeah? Like why was max's disinterest in talking about sex with the other queens even a storyline?
Chad: Well, I think it's kind of interesting, because Max's relationship to the other queens has been an ongoing issue. Whether they get her or not, whether they think she's uptight.
Shea: What are the producers trying to show us with Max? I don't get the direction Max's storyline is going. Frankly, I'm bored.
Chad: Well, here's my take on Max: He's an artist. Of a different kind than we usually see on this show. I really live for most of his runway looks. Just really different, lovely stuff. A very refined and unusual aesthetic.
Shea: I have really liked them. I have.
Chad: The issue of Max's relationship to the other queens and to their raunchy conversations is intriguing to me because that sort of thing has been on my mind: Queens tend to favor raunchy humor, they can get up to sexual hijinks onstage, and even with the audience. By hijinks, I just mean flirtation, touching, etc. Mostly.
Shea: SOME.
Chad: And where do you draw the line as a performer? What if that's not your bag?
Shea: Like for me, though my character is very sexy, I'm careful about how raunchy my interactions are with people because they can easily take it overboard. I think for Drag, no comedy should really be off limits. It's all about the approach and having a good understanding of your audience. A good performer knows when to draw the line. I may touch a patron, but it's nothing more than a face caress, a hand on the shoulder, or a kiss on the cheek. It's all very innocent – I don't have to try to be raunchy, because when you see me, you just get it.
Chad: Ha! I do.
Shea: And people also get that I am not the type of girl who will tolerate someone getting fresh with her. I'll put you in your place really quick if I feel you're being disrespectful.
Chad: Good to hear! But to sum up: you're not into Max and whatever story is being told about her this season?
Shea: I'm not. I wish I was. I wish that we were given more insight to the artist Max is. But her edit is just not doing her any favors. I feel like I'm not going to get anything more out of Max, and I'm bored...
Chad: Do you think it's fair to criticize her for the consistency of her runway looks and gray hair?
Shea: No. Pearl is always blonde? So is RUPAUL. Michele just likes to critique queens who don't fit her aesthetic for drag
Chad: I guess that the gray hair is more distinctive than a typical blond wig, so it sticks out more.
Shea: True.
Chad: So, you mentioned that a lot of the conflicts and storylines so far have lacked teeth. However, it does seem like a recurring issue is Pearl's attitude and efforts to open up more. What do you make of her time on the show?
Shea: That's just Pearl. I think the same thing happened to her in Chicago – Girls are rattled by her confidence. And when that happens, people put a target on your back, so that they can highlight any weaknesses there are. Pearl's attitude is obviously a defense mechanism. She puts up a wall and looks down her nose so as to not appear weak or vulnerable. But we saw that wall break after her lip sync against Trixie.
Chad: Yeah, good point. She's SUCH a divisive queen. She has a ton of vocal fans, a lot of people who are over her, and a whole lot more people who like to Photoshop her face anywhere and everywhere
Shea:She is definitely the meme queen for season 7.
Chad: I think it's her irreverence, the fact that she doesn't seem to take things seriously. Some people love it that she talks back to Mama Ru, whereas others see that as a cardinal sin.
Shea: But being polarizing keeps people talking, and that's what you want, so that you can continue getting booked after your season is over...
Chad: Yeah, and I don't think she has anything to worry about in that regard.
Shea: Nah. She'll be fine.
Chad: Another figure I've been fascinated by this season has been Miss Fame.
Shea: OMG YEAH!
Chad: I had assumed we wouldn't see much personality from her, but man! She's such a character!
Shea: Not what I expected her to be like. She's a whackadoodle, and I find it endearing.
Chad: I can totally understand the other queens' frustration with her, but I find her really endearing, too.
Shea: I don't know what planet she's from, but I'm glad she picked Earth to visit.
Chad: Ross's reply to her emotional explosion was priceless: "I feel like I'm dating you."
Shea: I KNOW! I died! I love that we get more Ross this season. I love him...
Chad: The other main queens that I drew this week and want to talk about are Violet and Katya. And Kennedy's RIDICULOUS runway look.
Shea: Kennedy was a hot mess.
Chad: She kept explaining the story behind her runway outfit, and I JUST DIDN'T GET IT. She was a dead rooster? She was a dead rooster. She died of cock.
Shea: She was a mess. She died of bad taste.
Shea: These challenges have been very acting heavy this season. I know one of the challenge producers, and literally ALL of them are writers, actors, and comedians with theatre and film backgrounds. So naturally, they think about writing scripts and creating stories before they think about making looks out of garbage and hand-me-downs.
Chad: You know what we HAVEN'T seen at all this season? A photo challenge.
Shea: Nope.
Chad: Or even a good design challenge.
Shea: I don't know if we really will.
Chad: Is that why the runway looks usually seem like an afterthought?
Shea: Yeah, but I was into the runway this week, though some girls clearly missed the point. I get that the theme is death. But some of them forgot completely about GLAMOUR!
Chad: I thought the runway looks were REALLY strong!
Shea: Same, same.
Chad: Yeah, Kennedy's was some crazy roadkill catastrophe. Kandy's was sleek, but too simple.
Shea: It looked so cheap. My mom used the fabric from Kandy's dress to make throw pillows in the guest bedroom at our house. NO JOKE.
Chad: Ginger's was a little weird. Was she eaten by a bear? Because it looks more like she had killed a bear and was wearing its hide.
Shea: Agreed! That coat is from fucking URBAN OUTFITTER.
Chad: But Katya, Max, Violet, Pearl, and Fame. They all got it! Katya wasn't necessarily GLAMOROUS, but come on.
Shea: Agreed. I LAUGHED out loud when I saw her.
Chad: I really liked Jaidynn's, though it didn't deliver on the glamour as much.
Shea: I guess it's not ALL about the glamour. But you have to SELL IT.
Chad: Right. Pearl's outfit was apparently thrown together at the last minute (as discussed in Untucked) but her crazy runway walk sold it.
Shea: Totally. You HAVE to, or no one will care.
Shea Couleé hosts #FACE every Wednesday at Hydrate in Chicago! She's in The Naughty Little Cabaret this Saturday at Mother's Bar. You can catch her on Tony Soto Show, out every Wednesday. And you can find her on Facebook and Twitter!
Thanks to Adam Ouahmane, the photographer of Shea's stunning portrait featured here. Check out his fashion photography at his website and his drag photography on Facebook!
My Drag Race art is available on posters, prints, and postcards! Find them at my Etsy Store!
Joining me this week is Terry Blas! He's a cartoonist and a friend -- we talk about this week's episode, missing Trixie, and drawing drag queens.
Chad: So, Terry, how much did you miss Trixie this episode?
Terry: So much I can't even describe. She was definitely missed and I think she would have really soared in the challenge this episode. I still don't understand her elimination.
Chad: Yeah, you and I both saw her perform in Seattle last week, and she read the other queens to filth!
Terry: It was incredible to see her perform. Especially the week after her elimination. Her material was so on point and funny. I'm glad you and I got a glimpse of what else she could have brought to the show.
Chad: So, wasn't it nice that the mini-challenge featured an homage to a dedicated fan artist of the Drag Race? Did your heart skip a beat when Ru was announcing it?
Terry: Yes! I love that so many people do Drag Race fan art now and it's always nice to see that showcased on the actual show. The paper outfits really are fun and amazing! I especially love the Klaus Nomi Malone Courtney look, and of course the ones the queens made were really fun. I thought they were all really funny.
Chad: Yeah, I was really impressed when I first saw those paper pieces last season! Obviously, none of the queens displayed the same artistry, but I loved Katya and Kasha's schtick-- it convinced me that they were going to dominate the main challenge! What did you think of Pearl this episode?
Terry: You know, I like the looks Pearl has shown so far (especially that bearded Mugatu look), but in this episode, it became really obvious that she has a lot of growing to do. She is still relying on RuPaul and other queens to bolster her up and give her confidence. It reminds me of Ru's Season 1 rant during the reunion where she yelled at Tammy Brown: "It's not my job to make you feel good all the time!" During her confessional she had this Laganja moment of: "Back home everybody loves me! I don't understand!" But really, that doesn't mean anything when you're on this show.
Chad: Huh, I can definitely see that. It seems like both Violet and Pearl are these really young, talented queens with a lot of shit to figure out. We saw Violet express that in Untucked, and Pearl dealt with it in the main episode. Honestly, I was pretty stunned at her showdown with Ru in the workroom. She seems pretty much totally oblivious or uninterested in following the rules of reality television or following the prompts of the producers. You saw it in her "Meet the Queens" videos, passing on questions, essentially not giving one shit.
Terry: Right. In one way she is not playing by the rules of the show, but in another way that's not helping her progress.
Chad: What do you think made her come back to the workroom after her abrupt departure?
Terry: I think Pearl needed a cry and a cigarette, and then she was fine. She mentioned in Untucked that she didn't want to look back and feel like she had wasted the opportunity she had been given, and I think that was what did it. And probably the glaring looks from Mrs. Kasha Davis.
Chad: Yeah, Mrs. Davis wasn't happy with Pearl. Did you know that she's auditioned seven times? Did she mention that?
Terry: She might have slipped it in there a few times. She's definitely worked hard to get on the show, so I can see why she'd be frustrated at some of the other queens who feel like giving up or going home.
Chad: Well, speaking of Kasha, what do you make of her time on the show?
Terry: I think she could have lasted a bit longer. Again, I don't understand this week's elimination. Looking down the road, I don't see us getting much out of Kandy Ho. I had a strange feeling that Kasha would be leaving, though, when before the intro music she had beef with another contestant... because Tempest did in episode one, and Sasha did in episode two.
Chad: Yeah, I agree that Kasha could probably offer more to the show than Kandy at this point. But I felt like their lip sync performances were both really good, so it could have gone either way. Now, I really liked the Despy challenge. What about you?
Terry: I'm still not sure. It's all very vague. What IS a Despy anyway? Essentially, it was a comedy/joke writing challenge disguised as an award show. It was presented in an entertaining way, but I did miss the standard runway and runway music. What did you like about it?
Chad: Well, frankly, when Ru explained the main challenge, I didn't know what the hell he was talking about. However, once it was underway, I thought it was a cleverly constructed challenge that essentially revolved around reading all the other queens. It was fun to see the queens struggle with jokes in the workroom. However, I felt like Kathy Griffin was instructed to just yell nonsense at the queens rather than be remotely helpful.
Terry: One thing I did like was how it showed us what a good attitude Jaidynn had. Essentially, she said, “I don't know how to write jokes but I'm gonna sit down and do this!” She's really growing on me 'cause of her positive attitude.
Chad: Frankly, I love Jaidynn. Ever since her "Meet the Queens" video, I've been digging her expressivity and enthusiasm. I'm surprised she's not a bigger presence on the show!
Terry: It's always hard for some of them to shine, especially early on when there are so many of them there.
Chad: Yeah, she's not a "funny queen" in that she struggles to write a joke, but she's just good TV!
Terry: As I was watching this episode, I was struggling to pick out visually interesting looks that I would want to draw, so I was curious to hear what you thought of the runway looks.
Chad: Well, I mean, there weren't really runway looks. The episode was like Season 5's roast of Ru. They just wore the same outfits they had for the main challenge. But I'm doing a similar thing as I did back then -- rather than focus on style, I'm featuring my favorite jokes alongside the queens.
Terry: Nice!
Chad: You know who else I really enjoyed this week? Miss Fame.
Terry: Miss Fame and the cuts of all her chicken love?
Chad: Of the three "Glamour Girls," she actually seems the most extroverted and quirky.
Terry: I think Miss Fame is a bit more goofy than she realizes. I like that aspect of her. She could really be dynamite if she embraces that a bit more.
Chad: You know who her personality reminds me of? Joslyn Fox! In the way that she's unabashedly goofy and enthusiastic, even if she's not always in on the joke.
Terry: Totally. Very much like Joslyn.
Chad: Terry, you were raised in Idaho, right? Did you ever raise chickens?
Terry: HAHAH! Yes, I was raised in Idaho. No chickens. There are a lot of sheep and horses and llamas in Boise where I grew up, though. Picture Napoleon Dynamite.
Chad: Excellent. I grew up in central Wisconsin, so it was mostly just cows there.
Terry: Were you surprised to see a video from home for one of the contestants in this Untucked?
Chad: I was, yes.
Terry: I wasn't sure if they were going to do it. We hadn't seen one, yet, despite Ginger mentioning that Kasha got one last week, which we obviously didn't see.
Chad: Especially because it was so abrupt! One minute, we're having this amazing moment with Violet, and all of a sudden, it was Ginger's time to cry.
Terry: Totally! This was supposed to be Violet's moment! From what we are being shown, I'm predicting Ginger in the top 3 at least.
Chad: Yeah, I have this gut feeling that she'll win this season. And Untucked helped solidify that. I think she's led a hard life, dealt with a lot of challenges, and she's emerged as a talented performer with a huge heart! She's just the kind of queen who can excel at challenges and get the audience to really root for her.
Terry: I really love her. Apparently, she does all these Disney songs which I'd love to see, but I'll have to watch them on YouTube. Clearly, I don't think anyone at Logo is getting the rights to songs from Frozen. Which is sort of an interesting point about the show I guess. Sometimes, we never really get to see what makes some of these queens so amazing in their own shows. Ginger can't do Disney on Drag Race. A lot of these queens who do one woman comedy shows that are brilliant aren't going to be showcased in that way for television. It makes me feel like it's really important to still go out and support the queens at their clubs when they perform.
Chad: Yeah, absolutely. And I always hope that the queens use their notoriety from the show to go on and perform in whatever crazy plays, films, or quirky YouTube videos that they want!
Chad: You know who I thought was going to win this challenge? Katya.
Terry: I thought she would win the challenge too! But I also thought Jaidynn would win last week. I don't understand some of the decisions being made.
Chad: Well, I mean... clearly, the winners and losers, week to week, are specifically chosen to highlight certain storylines and don't actually result from the merits of the performances.
Terry: I would definitely agree with that.
Chad: It's been true of past seasons, but it seems to come up every week in Season 7. Queens who surpass expectations are chosen over other queens who may have objectively done much better. I thought Katya's jokes slayed, especially her Bob Ross "acceptance speech" It was a great dose of her absurdist humor that she highlights in her YouTube videos and her Tumblr.
Terry: Yes, I loved that Katya won a Despy and got to throw out a few more jokes. She is emerging as another contestant I think will go far, and likely be top 3.
Chad: Here's hoping!
Terry: And frankly, I liked her wig and how "flat" it was. It was a different look from all the big drag hair we often see.
Chad: Yeah, she looked good, girl. It was literally the only complaint the judges had for her.
Terry: She might have been my favorite look from last night.
Chad: I thought Pearl looked especially stunning last night, as did Max.Violet was divine. That gown was ridiculous. As an artist, which queen's likeness most appeals to you?
Terry: Well, Trixie, obviously. I wish we'd gotten more episodes so we could have had more looks, but for me, she had the most fully realized drag character and used it well in the challenges. At first, I wasn't sure if I'd like Max, but I really do, and I'll be drawing her, too. I'm surprised Michelle didn't read her for wearing a gray wig again. I actually think Max would looks great as a redhead, at least just once. I also have to admit I like Pearl's looks. They're striking.
Chad: Yeah, you know something funny? When Pearl first started performing in Chicago, she only ever wore white outfits. It was really striking, but it was clear that, if you want to have some versatility and perform frequently, you need more variety! I wonder whether Max's preference for gray wigs will remain when he's performing every night in the wake of the Drag Race. Because my impression is that he didn't perform in drag very regularly prior to the show.
Terry: Yeah, after so many performances, you're probably just tired of doing something similar over and over.
Chad: And eventually the audience (or Michelle Visage) will want to see something else!
Terry: I think Max is probably smart for having this branded gray, black, and white look... but I see her changing it up after a while.
Chad: That being said, aside from the consistent hair color, I think Max has demonstrated a wide range of looks and can pretty much rule the runway. Who do you think would be the hardest to draw of Season 7?
Terry: I want to draw Ginger, but I think she might difficult to draw. She and Kennedy Davenport seem to have striking features I'm not sure I'd capture well.
Chad: Yeah, I find both pretty difficult to draw. Usually, the really distinctive queens are the easiest, but there's something about both those queens that's still a challenge! Katya, despite being one of my favorites, is still really hard for me to capture. Because how do you make her look different than the other "Pretty blonde" queens?
Terry: But you still do it well. (Chad's note: Not this week!)
Chad: Well, I favor her crazy looks, which tend to be easier.
Terry: Yeah, it's a little easier, I suppose, when she comes out in a Russian military-inspired outfit for people to recognize: That's Katya. Do you feel less pressure in creating a likeness when there is a crazy outfit, or do you always feel like it's gotta be perfect?
Chad: That's a good question! I started drawing the Drag Race in Season 3, where Raja and Manila both wore such distinctive outfits that you didn't need a good facial likeness to make them recognizable. Which was ideal, since my drawing skills were pretty rudimentary back then!
I do definitely feel more pressure to capture a likeness when the image is all about glamour. Like, with someone like Pearl, who paints her own face so damn well, how do you match that?
Terry: I know. I feel that pressure, but sometimes I just have to tell myself, "done is beautiful too," and move on.
Chad: Ha! Good words to live by.
Check out Terry's comics, illustrations, and depictions of Drag Race queens at his website! (Pictured to the right is his illustration of Trixie's "Jet Set" look!)
You can follow Terry Blas on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. Listen to his Gnerd Podcasthere! (Gay + Nerd, get it?) And you'll find both of us at RuPaul's DragCon in LA, May 16-17!
As always, you can get posters, prints, and postcards of my Drag Race work at my Etsy store!
Joining me this week is Dixie Lynn Cartwright! She's a real sweetheart when she's not being a total a#%hole. But seriously, she's great. Generally.
Chad: So, Dixie, we OBVIOUSLY have a lot to discuss/critique/bitch about in this episode.
Dixie: Lord, yes.
Chad: But I wanted to speak with you in the first place because of your own work writing and performing song parodies. So, before we gnash teeth and rend our clothes, let's talk about this week's challenge.
Dixie: Well, first off, I love that the producers are catching on to this ridiculous, fun, stupid side of drag that I adore. Obviously, DWV brought drag musical parodies to a whole 'notha level, but it's really grown. I think it's incredibly exciting to be able to use comedy and music to creatively tell a story or a dumb joke. It's my drag dream come true.
Chad: I liked the general concepts of the different parodies. I thought "Tan With You" wasn't brilliant, but it had funny visuals and slapstick goofiness. The "Sissy That Walk" parody was really smart, since impersonations are an endless source of material. And I LOVED the idea of Ginger's team riffing on Ru's various merchandising and licensing hijinks.
Dixie: Which one was your favorite?
Chad: Overall, my favorite was actually "Get Ready to Clock." Even though those three queens were stuck with each other and seemed an odd match, I found all three impersonations really funny and spot-on. What about you?
Dixie: I agree, totally. I think "Get Ready To Clock" was fully developed and the girls werecompletely focused on their characters. I didn't agree with the critiques of Max at all. Courtney is not a large character. Doing an Australian accent with a blonde wig and some lip gloss is the epitome of Courtney (ooo... is that a read?). I thought everyone did well. Violet, although not my favorite, did her best Adore, and I didn't mind it. I agree with Michelle that she could've done more. The parody that I was MOST excited about was "Tan With You."
Chad: Oh yeah?
Dixie: It's a concept that is right up my alley. It's ridiculous, it ridicules trainwreck Z-list celebrities with felony convictions, and it has the potential for great sight gags.
Chad: Did they deliver?
Dixie: Outside of Katya, no... no, they didn't deliver.
Chad: Katya's quirky characters are a gift to us all. Bless that bitch.
Dixie: Trixie was adorable and should be given a lot more credit for developing the concept. And if Pearl is on your team, play up her drugged-up persona. Have her fall asleep in the tanning bed and she stays silent the entire video. Have her emerge at the end dazed and confused (as always) and crispy. Miss Fame was okay. I feel like my personal feelings for her cloud my judgment.
Chad: What are your personal feelings about her? Deep-seated jealousy of any queen whose beauty rivals your own? I basically imagine you as alternating between Disney princess and villain.
Dixie: My dream is to be Disney's first true villain princess.
Chad: I actually have been kind of charmed by Miss Fame over the past few episodes. I feel like she's actually fairly goofy and doesn't take things too seriously.
Dixie: Miss Fame is beautiful. Absolutely. She knows her look. I admire her for that. My look changes weekly, depending on the lighting and how much I've had to drink that day. However, she seems intensely insecure in her strong opinions and non-stop mouth. I don't read it as bitchy, I read it as trying too hard. That is tough for me to stomach... possibly because I do the same thing...
Chad: Ha!
Dixie: ...that's your cue, Chad. "Oh no. Dixie. That's not you at all."
Chad: Do you struggle with that?I was wondering, because you have a very sharp tongue and a sweet charm, too. I feel like you handle that balance well. I think it's interesting how certain queens can pull off bitchiness, and others can't.
Dixie: The balance comes with practice from being in front of people. She doesn't have a lot of performance experience, so she hasn't had a chance to hone those skills. When I first started hosting, I was just mean. I thought it was funny in the moment, then I'd go home and feel terrible about what I said. Not because it wasn't funny, but because I didn't know how to say something bitchy and then recover. Trannika Valtrex does a great job at ribbing people, but then immediately thanking them or brushing it off so that they are now in on the joke. It takes practice. When I'm in front of an audience that knows me (my family, the night-shift staff at the free clinic, etc.), I'm much more bitchy, because they get that I'm not coming from a dark place. If it's a new audience, I try to stay positive.
Dixie: What did you think of the green looks? I'm interested to see which ones you drew.
Chad: So! I didn't really love this runway.
Dixie: Me neither. I don't like color themes. It's too vague, yet they judge so specifically.
Chad: I'm a HUGE sucker for powdered wig looks, so I had to draw Max. But I didn't actually like her pasties, so I awkwardly came up with a pose that hid them.
Dixie: I LOVED the pasties. I didn't get the negative reaction to them
Chad: I liked the idea of them. But they were so dark and glittery compared to the light, matte effect of the rest of his look!
Dixie: Max is so, so good. She's going far. She has to.
Chad: I LOVE how Max approaches drag as a visual artist.
Dixie: It's something I don't truly understand, honestly. I'm kind of with Kandy in that I just want to be sparkly and pretty, but the more I venture into drag as art, I love it. It's something I truly admire in her.
Chad: Well, you're not just trying to be pretty and sparkly. You're also trying, and at times even succeeding, to be funny and charming and entertaining.
Dixie: Chad Sell. Drawing famous drag queens and reading lesser known, yet more beautiful drag queens since 2012.
Chad: I loved Pearl's runway look, because I adore anyone who comes down the runway looking like a forgotten GI JOE villainess.
Dixie: Agreed. However... NO PADS.
Chad: Yeah. I was forgiving in that respect.
Dixie: I like the long, lean thing...but NO PADS. I used to think that I didn't need pads... let's just say, those images are buried deep somewhere. Had she had just a little bump, I would have loved it.
Chad: Pearl's a weirdo. It doesn't always work, but I love her for it. When I first heard that Pearl had been cast on the show, I was definitely excited and happy for her. I've always loved her looks and her style, but I was kind of baffled about how she'd come across on the show, since she's exactly like that in real life.
Dixie: I like Pearl. I really do, but she said it herself: Trixie probably deserves to be there more than her. Who is to say who deserves something more than the other really, but I do think Trixie is so versatile and has much more to give. My main beef with Trixie's elimination is that Pearl was warned multiple times that she needed to wake up and show more. Trixie wasn't. She was barely critiqued in this episode. Where is her second chance? Where are her warnings?
Chad: Right, I think she was safe every week, so she really never got any feedback! She performedreally consistently and was a fabulous personality on the show.
Dixie: I think WE think she was a fabulous personality on the show because we are more familiar with her than most, but I don't think we truly saw her personality. She was safe. She stayed in the middle, but she didn't shine yet. Her time was coming.
Chad: Yes, I'm certainly biased in regards to Trixie.
Dixie: We all are. Sidetrack exploded when she sashayed away. Truly. One giant audible gasp from a combination of many large groups of people. It was like nothing I've ever witnessed before.
Chad: I don't think it made any sense to send her home so early. At all. But she's gotten a ton of exposure, she's doing gigs all over the world. She didn't have long on this show, but she made it count.
Dixie: She had the potential to do so much. There are so many challenges left, and she is one person that you could count on to make you chuckle. Even if she wasn't going to knock it out of the park, she definitely would make every challenge fun.
Chad: And she's one of the season 7 queens who's extremely active online – so if fans need more Mattel, they should follow her on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Grindr, etc. [And buy her T shirt. And buy my own Trixie prints! Do it.]
Dixie: Oh, for sure. She's all over the place. I love when queens pimp themselves out. It shows gumption. (dixielynncartwright.com)
Chad: Both Trixie and Katya's online antics are utterly priceless.
Dixie: I LOVE watching Katya's weekly videos following the new episodes. She's quickly becoming a favorite of mine.
Chad: She's my BenDeLaCreme of the season – my personal favorite, even though I don't expect her to win.
Dixie: Oh god. Does that mean we'll have to take your belt and shoelaces from you when she's gone, too? I didn't think you were going to make it.
Chad: I think losing Bendela so early aged me about 20 years. I've lost that shiny veneer of innocence and naivete. Nothing gets through to me now. Nothing at all.
Dixie: Your forehead is still shiny though, so that's something.
Chad: ...
Dixie: Bitchy/Sweet. Balance.
Chad: If I had ever seen your forehead when it wasn't buried under foundation, maybe I could make cracks about your complexion, too!
Dixie: The paint stick is doing its job.
Okay, just for that, I'm going to plug my stuff before I plug Dixie's various shows. Buy this week's art on Etsy! If you're in Seattle and happen to have tickets to Emerald City Comic Con, find me at Table F-01 in Artist's Alley this weekend!
If you're in Chicago, you have plenty of opportunities to go see Dixie Lynn Cartwright! She'll be starring in her own show at Berlin Nightclub on April 1st at 9pm. It's called “Dixie Wins A Talent Show,” in which she (obviously) wins a talent show as other contestants vie for second and third place.
Dixie hosts weekly RPDR viewing parties at Sidetrack in Boystown. She'll also be performing in The Bitchfest Club, which is an 80's parody musical running every weekend from April 10 to May 17 at Hydrate.
Dixie posts a ton of good stuff on her YouTube channel, and you can also find her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and at dixielynncartwright.com!