On Sale 4 Years Ago: Zootanapuss #4

Zootanapuss #4 aka Glamourpuss #25

(May 2012)

Art by Dave Sim

Cosplay Lass

Hi Tim! Why don't I send you a letter from the correspondence files as part of you "Letter From Dave" thing? This one is from 2 years ago corresponding with Daria Medved re: what I didn't know at the time was going to be the last issue of glamourpuss. ~ Dave

Glamourpuss #26 (July 2012)
Art by Dave Sim

21 February 2012

Hi Daria!

It's taken me a while to get my thoughts organized on the COSPLAY LASS idea. Anyway, here's what I have so far:

1) I think I would have no problem with the LOLITA style as long as it could be called something else and not be obviously misnamed. Maybe LOLI or VISUAL KEI or AMA-LOLI or GOSU RORI depending on the outfit.

2) I'd like to use your cats in the strips. I don't even have to ASK if you have pictures of your kitties. I know. I'd like to emphasize how crazy ZP is, thinking that she and Bunny talk to each other by having your cats just be cats. I'm fine with.using different names for them if that's a problem for you. Julie Eng didn't want me using Bunny's real name of Poofie -- but that's because she does an all-ages magic act.

3) Can I keep the book for a while? It's helping to read Cosplayers in their own words but I'm not sure how quite yet. I'll get it at some point.

4) I'd like to do you as Xena, changing the name to Zeda warrior Duchess or Marquessa or something like that. When you say you "have this costume", did you D0 the costume or is it an "off the rack" commercial model? In either case as much information as possible will help me find the gag wherever it is.

5) I have "Cosplay is in the details" and "Cosplay is for fun not fashion" in my notebook. Let me know if you have any more "Cosplay sound bytes" I can use.

6) Is "Master Sewist" the actual term that Cosplayers would recognize? You don't use the term "seemestress" or "seamstress" in other words?

7) How identifiable is the term "Kosupure" in Cosplay? I'd almost prefer to use it because it's more exotic sounding -- Kosupure Lass -- but not at the expense of Cosplay recognition.

8) I'm just noticing in your cover letter that Lolita fashion ' started on the streets of Harajuku. This is another instance where the "exotic-ness" would supersede the Western name. But, obviously, not if it's too esoteric a reference. I HOPE to get Lolita Fans reading glamourpuss so it needs to be a name that has the same recognition factor without the western "baggage".

9) I'm leaning in the direction of haying Zootanpuss do bad costumes opposite your good ones and critiquing them. Like you did with the Jill Valentine costume and the Soundwave costume. Here's why your costume is good and her costume is bad. It's potentially a little tricky: I'd need examples of bad costumes and then have to hope that no one recognizes their own costume by changing the position, exaggerating the flaws. I don't think anyone would sue but I also don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I think I can do it. So: bad costume photos that would be top secret along with WHY it's a bad costume.

10) Personally, I think Mana and EGL and EGA would make the best drawings -- black satin, dark make-up and pretty much straight b&w so if you have that in some form that would be good both for you and ZP.

11) SILENT HILL nurses would be fun but I have to steer away from anything that might be seen as misogynistic and that definitely includes any gore. Zombie covers, I think, are okay because of advanced decomposition but painted on blood is a different thing. Do you have the gp zombie covers? If not let me know and I'll send them to you.

12) Yoko is out of the question. Cleavage is okay but the underside of the breast is a little too sleazy for gp.

13) As I said on the phone, if you can invent names for your as yet unnamed costumes and some kind of backstory that would be helpful. Variety with your own emphasis -- whatever you think are your best foot forward -- anime, video games, Lolita, steampunk, faire. Some photos look more like comic book pages than others. In the book you sent me (if you have your own copy to refer to) these are the ones that jump out at me: pg. 7, 25, 26, 32, 43, 47, 61, 63, 79, 83 84, 92 (Lianne), 109, 121, 127, 145, 144, 149, 155, 160, 163, 200, 201, 212, 213... these are the ones I'd describe as the "sweet spot" meeting place of model/costume/photograph. I don't know if that helps.

Glamourpuss #26 (July 2012)
Art by Dave Sim

I think you're right that RPG scoring isn't going to work. I think maybe the way to go is with actual competition judging if you have any costumes that you've had judged in that way. Likewise what judging of ZP's bad costumes would be like.

As you can see from the #25 solicitation, I just rigged the front cover so that it's as much an ad for Stoo Metz as it is for Kyla (which is what I'm driving at -- to come up with an intellectual property all three of us can use without asking permission of the others. Kyla and Stoo can use my drawings, pages or covers for anything they want, I can use - Stoo's photos for anything I want and we try to do SOME things jointly (like the 60 prints of the cover I did for the three of us to sign. Since I don't do signings or conventions, that's a pure "Stoo and Kyla" thing -- the total cost was $148 and as I said to them, I'm happy to get the LAST $148 out and let them sell them at whatever pace they sell). I'd like to do the same thing with you and Eurobeatking.

From THERE? Well, definitely I want to emphasize Dragoncon with you -- shipping copies of the book to your hotel as well as the posters -- Zombie covers -- whatever you and EbK are interested in handing out in whatever quantity. Handing out or selling if you're actually going to have a table. It's a lot cheaper than paying you in cash!

From THERE? I'd like to keep doing Cosplay -- I'd leave it up to you (as I said on the phone) to use your Brand Manager expertise to decide which models, which costumes, which photographer(s). I'm picturing either The Legion of Substitute Kosupure Lasses (or whatever we end up calling you) or an issue devoted to one model. I think the way to do that is to specify sending me each model's "Best 10" photos/costumes and that leaves me the option of picking 1 or 2 "Legion" pictures or doing an entire issue.

Let me know what you think!

Missing Artwork Search!: Glamourpuss #23, Page 3

Glamourpuss #23, page 3
Art by Dave Sim

EDDIE KHANNA:
(via email, 10 November 2013)

Hey Tim,

Dave had asked me to scan and send the Zootanapuss pages I have at 600 dpi RBG and send them off to Ted Adams at IDW Publishing for the Zootanapuss Artists Edition (which I did), but he thought I had two Zootanapuss pages, when I only have one (the other one is a glamourpuss swimsuit page). So he asked me if I wouldn't mind asking you if you could send out a request for the missing Zootanapuss page so whoever has it could send a scan of it to Ted. (I'm attaching a pic of what it look likes. glamourpuss 23, page 3 I believe).

Dave was sure I had it, but said it might be a sign of age that he forgot who it was sold to (in that old Cerebus voice) ("gum gum gum. That Eddie Khanna. Yes sir. He has my Zootanapuss pages. gum gum gum." was the impression he did). I told him that even though I know it wasn't me, he now had me thinking that it WAS me he sold it to. In fact, even though I AM 99.999999% sure I don't have it (I only have 2 1/2 pieces of original art of his), there's that 0.000001% doubt where I'm thinking, 'Well, maybe I DO have it.' Even though I don't. I really don't. I'm pretty sure. Gum gum gum indeed.

--Eddie

Eight Days Of Dave - Day 7: Zootanapuss Artists Edition

DAVE SIM:

Hi Tim - I think what I'm going to do is just blather -- since this is our first time doing "after the issue" -- and leave it up to you if you want to run the whole thing all at once or dribble it out. Issue 2 of The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond took about two and a half months. I hope I get faster but I'm not counting on it.

Idyl (Dragon's Dream, 1975)
by Jeff Jones

ZOOTANAPUSS ARTISTS EDITION

The ZOOTANAPUSS ARTISTS EDITION is really me trying to come up with something I could do an Artists Edition OF. First of all, the linework. You really need something that you're going to see more in it if it's really big and the ZOOTANAPUSS pages [Glamourpuss #22-26] seemed to fit the bill. One of my all-time favourite things is my over-sized Jeff Jones IDYL collection. So, that's what I was picturing. It would be my own homage to IDYL and over-sized.

Not much more I can add to that.

Doing stuff with IDW is a lot like having your work in the Heritage Auction catalogue.  It's very intimidating. "The HELL you're doing a Frank Frazetta EC Artists Edition -- do MINE first!" And Scott Dunbier is finding more stuff all the time and is being offered more stuff because it's the Top of the Pyramid. So, it's the same as the CEREBUS COVERS books. Scott will get to you when he gets to you. There are dozens if not hundreds of projects that would take precedence. That's Dave the dispassionate comic-art fan. I get to be the guy that did the 6,000-page graphic novel. What of the 6,000 pages would have a place in the line-up?  I really don't know. How many pages is it? I mean, they're not doing BONE, they're doing "The Great Cow Race" which is...150 pages? What IS "The Great Cow Race" in CEREBUS? According to ME, or according to MOST people? The lineup has got to be getting longer every day, so ZOOTANAPUSS was really, What would I like to see of mine that size? And it's the IDYL analogy. I'll take a place 75 or 100 people back and say, "Well, okay, I'll get my ZOOTANAPUSS oversized collection when I'm in my 60s or 70s." I can't even look at what else they're doing. "Under my coffee table" books already take up as much of the space under my coffee table as I can afford. They'll send me whatever I want.  Well,  don't tell me what you're doing and I won't be tempted because I'm out of space. The Wally Wood book needs it's own room practically. Scott was proofing the MAD book when he was up here, so I inherited IDW's MAD proofs. I got Scott and Ted to sign it. Weighs about 20 pounds. Where am I going to PUT this?

I'm saving all my space for SECRET AGENT X-9 by Williamson and RIP KIRBY by Prentice for as long as IDW keep doing them.

Cosplaylass

Glamourpuss #25 (May 2012)
Art by Dave Sim

HEIDI MacDONALD:
(from 'And Then They Came For The Cosplayers' at The Beat, 13 November 2012)

...Horrible non-fan women tempting innocent comics-reading virgins with their Pixie costumes. Now, there is a germ of truth to this based on the fact that hot women have been used to sell every product known to mankind since mankind ever existed. And there have been many complaints over the years from female professionals over "booth babes" who were obviously paid models who came to the shows to attract lonely nerds. Call it the G4 effect... and I personally don't like the Slave Leia legion because anyone who would rather dress as a slave than a rebel commander definitely is doing it for attention... but to brand all the women who like dressing as comic characters in this way really shows more issues with women than anything to do with cons or costuming...

The Challenges Of Photo-Realism

Glamourpuss #25 (May 2012)
Art by Dave Sim

DAVE SIM:
(From Cerebus TV Episode #103, 30 March 2012)

The pretty girl is the archetypal challenge in photo-realism. She's made up of tiny, precise, parabolic curves. Whether you're tracing her or creating her, if every line isn't exactly where it needs to be, she isn't a pretty girl. I have plenty of time to write the gags in Glamourpuss. A single figure and face, depending on the complexity and detail, can take several hours to tight-pencil and ink. Add-in trying to try to achieve an actual physical likeness in the case of Kyla, yeah, there's plenty of time for writing and re-writing that page’s dialogue.

I always start with the clothes. Women's fashions are, not surprisingly, like a pretty girl's face - intricate, precise and finely detailed. Everything has to be in the right spot, but it has to appear casual, as if the folds and billows just, y’know, landed that way, instead of being the result of a designer’s life-time of expertise of how a given fabric will behave, where the seams have to go to create a specific visual effect. Translating that effect involves the same sensibility - black blobs, slashes, darts and brush-strokes that look causal but have to be very specific black blobs, slashes, darts and brush-strokes. Same thing with the density. I have to look at the fabric in the photo - in this case, remember what it looked like in person – and then match that relative density with a specific density of pen-line, in this case a slightly broken-in (as opposed to brand new) Gillott #303, and then retain that density over hundreds of hand-drawn parallel lines.

Same deal with the hair. It's meant to appear casual, but it's a lot of work. This photo was shot outside, so odds are it isn't going to be a 100% of what Kyla intended. A stray breeze can knock a woman's 'do 10% out of whack. My job is to use a Winsor Newton Series 7 brush and a Hunt #102 pen-nib to get it back to a 100% of what I think Kyla started with.

And then there's the really finicky-detail. "Er, how would Al Williamson have rendered these?" "One at a time, Dave. Exactly the way you're gonna do it. One at a time."

By the time I'm inking in the little folds of the dress between the tiny perfect parabolic curves of Kyla's left-hand, I'm going, "Okay, that's Kyla done, now for Zootanapuss", I starting to wonder "Maybe there's something else I could be doing for a living that's a little easier in my mid-fifties."

Zootanapuss #4

Zootanapuss #4 (variant cover to Glamourpuss #25, May 2012)
Art by Dave Sim

ALEXA TOMASZEWSKI:
(from Alexa & Dave: A Conversation, 23 May 2012)

Glamourpuss is the most fun thing I've ever seen. It's a social commentary, a contribution to society. It's so important. I have an anthropology background and I ultimately believe that works of art and culture like comic books, art, novels, newspaper clippings - all these things, they are a statement of where we are at and of who we are today as a society.

Glamourpuss is a statement. Maybe it's specifically a statement about women, or fashion or women in fashion, and how ridiculous that culture is, but it's something. And it's funny. Sometimes it's shocking, but like I said, that's what sells.

There's also an educational element to your work that I particularly enjoy. I have a passion for history (which is my traditional educational background, anthropology came later) and you spin a history. You tell a tale. Some people may find this boring. Ok, Dave, I'm sorry, some reviews have called this boring. But I think it adds depth to an otherwise satirical comic-book. You don't want this to be MAD magazine do you?

Finally, what drew me to your work? Well, it was the clothes, the beautiful way that you take the clothes from the glossy pages from the magazine and transfer them to comic book form. The women's hair, their accessories, they all look magnificent transferred onto the comic book panel. My favorite game to play when reading is spot that designer. I read so many magazines I can often pick out your original inspiration.

This is a big, big deal as a female comic book reader.

Glamourpuss #25 is on sale right now at your local comics shop.

The Problem With Zootanapuss

Zootanapuss #3
(variant cover to Glamourpuss #24, March 2012)
Art by Dave Sim

DAVE SIM:
(from Cerebus TV Season 3 Episode 21, 23 March 2012)

You know, they say if something seems too good to be true it usually is, and that was the case in this case. I was working like a fiend to get Glamourpuss #24 done and hoping, fingers-crossed, that the Zootanapuss #2s weren’t going to show up too soon so that I would have to stop work and start signing and numbering, and bagging and boarding. And then I got Glamourpuss #24 done and I thought ‘Okay, oh well, this is getting ridiculous now’... so that was on Monday. Tuesday I called my rep at Lebonfon, "Mais, s'il vous plait, ou est le Zootanapuss numero deux pour moi?" "Oh, they’ve already been shipped out!" - unsigned, unnumbered, unbagged and unboarded.

So I phoned Daria Medved [my Diamond distributor rep] real quick. "Daria, call Plattsburgh and tell them that the Zootanapuss #2s are supposed to be signed and numbered. Have them send them back to Lebonfon." And she got back to me not too many minutes later and said they're all gone. They went out in this week's shipment. "Is there any way to get them back?" I already knew the answer to that one. Like the trains at the beginning of World War I, they only go one way - forward.

About six days and $870 later it was time for Zootanapuss #2 take 2.... "No such thing as a rare number two, anybody knows that!" said the C-minus Kid. Maybe he knew something I didn't. I tried a few different ways with Daria to try and get around it. "Can I charge the retailers for a regular issue of Glamourpuss if they keep the unsigned #2?" I mean, the deal was that they were getting a signed and numbered #2 not an unsigned #2, betting that most of them couldn’t strip the cover off an unsigned copy, "What if turns out to be a rare one?" No go. It would be a logistical nightmare for Diamond. One of those times as a self-publisher when you really know the meaning of Harry S. Truman's 'The buck stops here', or in this case 870 of them. As Gerhard used to say, "What are you going to do, cry?" It wouldn't do any good, even if I knew how.

Zootanapuss #2

Zootanapuss #2 (variant cover for Glamourpuss #23, January 2012)

Art by Dave Sim

DAVE SIM:
(from Cerebus TV, Season 3 Episode 11, 13 January 2012)

I'm really hoping that Zootanapus vs High Fashion Models will help keep [Glamourpuss] alive... and so far so good. Actually, the sales on the signed and numbered [Glamourpuss variant cover] Zootanapus #2 are up from Zootanapus #1. There have been many, many days over the last three years when I never thought I would get Stan Drake and Alex Raymond to Chateau Drake on West Parish Road in West Point. Or get a chance to draw my own version of Elizabeth 'Betty Lou' Drake (nee Smith). Or put her in a few different outfits, including "Oh! Hey! What if she was in her bath-robe and curlers when they got there?" A lot of big and small emergencies that I was just batting away like flies, 'cos I’m going, "I can't believe it. I got them in the garage. Stan Drake is getting into the Corvette."

Glamourpuss #23 is available from the end of January 2011 at your local comics shop.
Back issues of Glamourpuss are always available from ComiXpress.

Zootanapuss

Glamourpuss #22, variant cover (November 2011)
Art by Dave Sim, digital production Sandeep S. Atwal

Extract from an interview at Comic Book Daily (12 July 2011): 

CBD:

What can we expect from upcoming issues of Glamourpuss?

DAVE SIM:

Thank you for asking, you’re the first comics reporter who has ever asked me about Glamourpuss and I was convinced it must be a scam - Toronto and a girl?

We have Glamourpuss 22 coming out and you’ll notice that instead of it being the fourth annual swimsuit issue, it’s not the fourth annual swimsuit issue and that’s because I’ve decided to go off in a completely different direction. I’m doing a Zatanna parody, Zootanapuss.

There’s also a Glamourpuss 22 incentive cover and this is probably very destructive of the comic book field, but we’re all just trying to keep ourselves alive. So, for the Zootanapuss number one cover you gotta buy four of the regular ones to even get the number one cover. Now is that absolutely evil or is that absolutely evil?

More details available at the Zootanapuss website.