Another contribution to Warren Ellis’s Remake/Remodel challenges – The Spider Queen.
Sarah Byam Toon
The last of the Labor of Love cartoon portraits from 1999 at least until I run across the original drawings somewhere. (I did do portraits of other members but those weren’t on the zip disks I was archiving when I found these pieces.) It’s the founder of Labor of Love, Ms. Sarah Byam.
Happy Birthday to Me!
It’s my birthday today. I’m either older or younger than you. Nizzibet and I are off in Portland hanging with old old friends.
Jeff Swenson Toon
Another Labor of Love member toon portrait – Jeff Swenson. Jeff has been one of the busiest of all the former LOL folks, at least artistically. Lots of cartoons and comics on the other side of that link.
Derek Fetters Toon
Another Labor of Love Studio staffer cartoon from 1999. This is Derek Fetters, writer, editor and currently, internet radio drama producer. I highly recommend checking out his horror comedy serial The Unspeakable and the Inhuman.
Jenn Manley Lee Toon
This cartoon portrait is of Jenn Manley Lee circa 1999. I can’t tell you why she’s holding a sword. It just seemed like the right thing to draw.
Kip Manley Toon
Another cartoon version of a former Labor of Love Cooperative member. This is Kip Manley. At the time (1999) he was also one of the principal staff members of the Portland monthly arts magazine Anodyne.
Tim Lowery Toon
In 1999, as Labor of Love was putting together the free newspaper version of Glyph I did a series of cartoon portraits of some of the more active folks contributing to the studio. This is Tim Lowery.
Farewell to the Armadillo Kidd!
I saved this image for last. It’s my favorite Backyard Enterprises illustration. I did the base drawing and Jeff Swenson painted it. The original (and all the other large BE paintings) is in storage now. The darned thing is huge.
The Penultimate Backyard Enterprises Post
And, now, at last, the second to last Backyard Enterprises post. The man behind the company packed it in after a little over a year. Would there have been a lucrative market for the materials he was proposing to produce? He’d started out thinking there was. The marketing he’d had us do indicated that there was some kind of market but that reaching it would probably require more capital than he had to invest. And there would be no guarantee of success. At that point he’d already spent a few thousand and really wasn’t interested in spending any more without an immediate turnaround. So Backyard Enterprises was put out to pasture.
