We’re Back!

Hey y’all!

We hope you’ve all been doing well out there. Life got busy for us, so we got behind on the newsletter, but we’re getting back to it. This edition of our newsletter probably looks a bit different. That’s because the platform we were using before, TinyLetter, no longer exists, so we’ve switched over to this new platform. Hopefully it makes its way to your inboxes safely and doesn’t get caught up in your spam filters.

Between our last newsletter and now, lots has happened. Moonray Book 2 went up on Kickstarter and exceeded its goal. - It’s in comic stores now and Brandon is now finishing up book 3.

Brandon got hired to do a cover for the revived Penthouse Comix, pictured above. He finished that up and sent it off to the publisher.

Penthouse also agreed to publish some of his diary comics that he made while on the set of various porn productions over the years, which is pretty neat. The issue with his cover just went off to the printer, so that should be in stores in the near future. The issue with his comics is in stores right now. If you haven’t been picking up Penthouse Comix, this is a great reason to give it a shot. There are tons of incredibly beautiful comics in each issue. Penthouse ended up liking his work so much that they hired him to do a second cover too, so work will begin on that soon.

The other big news is that Brandon’s 116 page collection of diary comics is available for people to pre-order from their local comic stores now.

Available through Preview’s Magazine, the main catalogue comic shops order their books from.

On Saturday we’ll be in San Fransisco for Brandon to do a signing at Mission comics.

Here’s the address for Mission Comics: 2250 Mission St, San Francisco, CA. The signing will be on Saturday July 20th starting at 6PM.

Kacy’s Corner

It’s interesting how visiting a place and living in a place are sometimes totally different experiences. Brandon and I really enjoyed our visits to LA, which is a big part of why we wanted to try it out for a year. There are tons of cool, unique, and strange things to see, do, and experience here in LA, for sure.

Unfortunately though, it’s the little things that started to pile up and make life here not so great. Death of our love for LA by a thousand cuts. The horrible parking, the traffic, and the high prices suck, but for me it’s the safety factor that really did this place in for me. I just can’t go most places without Brandon and feel safe. I can protect myself, but I don’t want to need to protect myself. It’s one thing to carry protective measures and a completely other thing to have to actually pull them out semi regularly. It’s the same chief reason why I left Portland. I have to fight off my own demons enough, I don’t want to have to fight off other people’s demons too.

The unfortunate reality is that there just aren’t that many places that are safe for trans women. Thankfully though, I know a place where I basically always feel safe and that’s Las Vegas. We just got back from a trip to Vegas and it was glorious.

We got to see a bunch of wonderful friends and recharge our joy batteries. The main reason we went was to support our friend Joel Stokes’ signing at our Third Place, Alternate Reality.

Third Places are so special and I’m thankful that Alternate Reality is that for us. For those not familiar with the concept, a Third Place is a sociological concept that describes an important place to individuals aside from their home (first place) and work location (second place). Kinda like the bar in Cheers, a place where you feel comfortable hanging out, a place where the people there know you and care about you. It’s such a special thing to have in your life and I’m thankful that Alternate Reality is that for us.

Even though we’re not as keen on LA anymore, there is still more to be seen here before we make our exit stage right back to LV in the Fall. Despite LA not being our ultimate home, there is still a lot value in being in a place that might not be your ideal spot. The things we like are tools we can use to help define us, but we are also defined as much by the things we don’t vibe with. The experiences that feel unenjoyable can serve as a lessons in getting to know ourselves better. What we don’t like can help form the shape of us, while what we do like fills in that shape.

After having lived in the three biggest cities in America, I’ve learned that I’m not a megacity kind of girl. I like a more medium sized city. In gigantic metropolises, I feel like such a little drop in the bucket, I feel like I get lost in the larger milieu. In a medium size city, I feel like you can actually have an impact and get to know the entire city really well. It’s obviously possible to have an impact in megacities, but you have to be so cutthroat or you have to always be hustling and that’s just not me. Medium size cities are perfect in my eyes because you get the amenities of a city without it being too much. I think the vastness of megacities also disposes people toward unkindness or at least unfriendliness because of the low likelihood of ever seeing the same people again. I find that people in medium sized cities tend to be friendlier, which I greatly appreciate. LA is more spread out than the claustrophobic landmass that is NYC, but I’ve learned that I need more open space than even LA has to offer. These are just a few of the edges of myself that LA has helped bring into focus or clarify for me and I appreciate it for that role it has played in my life.

Kacy’s Media

Listening to

I’ve been coming back to a perennial favorite band of mine called Red City Radio recently. Their sound is what I would call Midwestern Punk, reminding me of other favorites of mine that I grew up with like Lawrence Arms, Alkaline Trio, and Dillinger Four. It makes me feel energized, stoked, and hopeful. Their SkyTigers EP is particularly good.

Reading

On Brandon and I’s most recent drive to Las Vegas, we started listening to an audiobook version of a book called Blindsight by Peter Watts and I was really enjoying that. Blindsight is a sci-fi book where vampires are real, but they’re a separate species from humans. Humans existed at the same time as vampires early on in our history, but they had gone extinct by the present day, thanks in part to vampires biological aversion to right angles. The book is set primarily in the year 2082 when humans have first contact with extraterritorial life. Because humans haven’t been able to find a means to travel faster than light, they resurrect vampires, Jurassic Park style, to pilot space ships on the incredibly long journey to interact with the newly discovered aliens. It’s a totally novel idea as far as I’m aware, which is rare and much appreciated. We haven’t finished it yet, but so far so good.

Watching

Brandon and I have been watching the heck out of True Blood recently. We both thought it seemed pretty silly when it was on the air, but now that we’re actually giving it a chance, it’s shockingly good. Like, some of the best tv writing I’ve seen, certainly some of the best in recent memory. I feel like the show was promoted all wrong. Looking at the promotional material now, it makes sense why I stayed away from it at the time. It’s fun, sexy tv that’s trashy in all the right ways and packed with character development and world building. - I wrote the above for a newsletter we never ended up sending out and I still agree with what I wrote with regard to the first 3 and half seasons, but we’re now in the 6th season and I’m not sure we’re going to finish the show. I can’t think of another show that was that good for that long and then so incredibly bad. Even though it seems pretty awful now, I still look back on those early seasons very fondly.

Brandon’s Media

The older I get the more interested I get in history, and especially American history, with the unique place in the world we’re in. I started reading Douglass’s first memoir in The Iliad book store - one of the best spots we’ve found in LA- and was hooked. It’s such an intense and fascinating accounting of a young man’s life, showing what the best of us are capable of in the worst situations.

Watching:

A friend recommended I check this French animated movie out and was really impressed by it just being a well crafted story of the future made for adult viewers. I haven’t clicked with an adult animated movie like this since 2008’s Waltz with Bashir.

Thanks for reading!

Kacy's YouTube

Brandon's Patreon

royalsaloncomics@gmail.com