Leanne Franson is a superstar of the small press comics scene. For years she's been publishing her own mini-comics and collections, gaining quite a following for her protagonist and narrator Liliane, the irrepressible bi-dyke. An illustrator by trade, Franson lives in Canada, she's one smart lady and she has just released a new comics collection, entitled Don't be a Crotte.
Is Montreal the place to be for bi-dyke cartoon artists?
I don't know that Montreal is THE place to be for a bi-dyke cartoon artist to be close to her fan-base, but it may be THE place to be for inspiration and great cafés to draw in! I find it to be vibrant, open, gay-friendly and just generally tolerant. I think that I would be more involved with the cartooning community and have a larger home fan-base in a uni-lingual Anglophone city. Here in bilingual Montreal the Francophone comics community is hopping and I am necessarily on the outer fringes of that.
Do people get your work there, or are your fans overseas?
It is surprisingly spread out. I have straight men in France and Singapore, dykes in Minnesota, gay men in Seattle, trannies in New York. Really it is all over the place. I'm quite happy not to have a narrow readership. Though I definitely write for a presumed LGBT-issues-aware readership.
In Don't be a Crotte I loved the strips about bi-phobia, could you tell us about them?
Well, both stories are from real experiences, albeit ten years apart. As a young "straight" women discovering women in the early 80's, I was very tolerant towards the attitudes of lesbians (in particular) concerning bisexuals. I felt sheepish to be attracted to men as well as women, and somehow saw myself as "lesser" than the "real lesbians," who I saw as these fantastically radical feminists who were personally and politically more evolved.
Since embracing my bisexuality (around 1990), I have realised that discrimination and prejudice can be found in all communities, and what with my "lesbian credentials" I now have little patience for closed-mindedness based on labels. Hopefully reading these strips will cause people to laugh but also examine whether they are blocking out their real allies.
How closely does Liliane resemble you?
Well, I have a nose. And my arms bend more at specified joints only. Liliane is generally black and white, whereas I tend towards a yellowish Caucasian skin tone. And perhaps too similar to myself, Liliane often has un-closed boundary lines (which one can discover by trying to colour her in with Photoshop with the magic wand tool). Liliane is better in social situations since even when she is ranting, you can just close the book, and since she is pencilled before her words are concretely inked, she is more succinct. I'm sexier though. It is difficult to draw Liliane sexily though I am getting better at it.
What advice do you have for other women considering small press self-publishing?
Take little steps, they add up to a real oeuvre eventually. Be yourself, don't try to follow trends and imitate people, I always love an authentic voice. Realise that it is a friendlier place out there than you fear, don't be afraid to contact people whether publishers, readers, book store owners, other cartoonists you look up to. Don't be a perfectionist, join in. Don't get too big too fast. Investing too much to be sustainable is the biggest error I see. Make sure you are not counting on your publishing to eat. Carry your
books with you ALWAYS.
I personally am doing my first self-published real book now, versus my 32 mini-comics which were photocopied and thus did not need to be printed in the thousands at one go. I'm a big believer in doing it yourself, and in independent people Networking. We'll see in the next two years how it goes. Get back to me then!
Who is your favourite queer comic artist?
I would have to say Alison Bechdel, of Dykes to Watch Out For. I feel a real affinity towards her work, and have from the start when I saw some of her postcards with pencil life-drawings on them at Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. I can identify with Mo, and I love both her artwork and how she addresses a variety of personal and political issues in a very human manner. I also admire that she turned down syndication in mainstream papers in order to stay true to her voice.
What's next for you?
Finding a big American children's illustration contract that pays big bucks in US dollars so I can have more time to draw my comics. I am currently working on my keenspace.com online comic, which is new as of 9 April this year. Learning the HTML, drawing a page of comics a day, and feeling my way around this online world is keeping me very busy right now. I may collect some of the online stories into a book in a year or two, possibly with a "Dog Park" theme. Oh, the soap opera of dog owners and the dogs themselves!
Anything else you want to say?
I would like to say I am glad I have come back to cartooning after five years off. Sometimes the most obvious things are the least visible. I was searching around for a "voice" and something "important" to do in life now that my illustration career is fairly entrenched, and it wasn't until several incidents where complete strangers said: "Hey, aren't you the Leanne who did Liliane, bi-dyke comics? They made a difference in my life!" that I even looked at my comics as that "voice". So, thank you ever so much to everyone who reads my comics, and especially to the people who take the time to give me feedback. It is wonderful to know that I am touching someone somewhere.
Don't be a Crotte by Leanne Franson
Published by: Dansereau Editeur
ISBN: 2923162056
Email inkspots@videotron.ca for UK ordering information.
Treat yourself to the classic Liliane collectionAssume Nothing: Evolution of a Bi-dyke. Buy online and save!