[June 22, 2009] Emily Ragozzino's "Tom Boy Tara" (http://www.tomboytara.com) is a web comic involving gender stereotypes and college humor as key ingredients in making the comic so readable and enjoyable by both male and female audiences. The comic just began in September 2008 after Ragozzino had published a series of comic books all involving female outcasts entitled Dork Girl (A trilogy of books) and Why I Hate Cheerleaders featured on lulu.com and Amazon.com. These books were sold, along with paraphernalia plastered with art and logos from the books, at The Toronto Paradise Comic Convention two years in a row beginning in 2007 and again in 2008.
This year she hopes to attend the Toronto Fan Expo on the weekend of August 28th 2009 along with three male comic creator friends of hers (Terrence Gordon, Aaron Powers and Dan Wettlaufer) who she believes are extremely talented in their own way. Emily enjoys involving other artistic friends in her comic endeavors, even though she struggles as a cartoonist herself. Along with creating a website as well as numerous products on the site she is also gathering a select group of friends of hers to do a photo shoot involving three people dressed as her cartoon characters. The shoot is supposed to take place in front of a graffiti wall in downtown Toronto on July 5th 2009 and she's hoping the shoot will run smoothly.
"You have to think outside the box as an artist, you'll never get noticed copying what other people do, what worked for them may not work for you, and you have to be able to experiment and not be afraid to fall down in the pursuit of getting what you want." Ragozzino definitely likes to involve others in her ideas even though she is not financially equipped to pay the models and photographer, they all think the idea is a great one and she's provided them with hardcopies of her comics and t-shirts she's made at past conventions as a thank you for helping out.
In addition to her "think outside the box" method (that's been taught to her from the teachers of Georgian College Barrie in her Fine Arts advanced course she graduated from) she is coming up with new and old creative ideas. If she is a part of the Fan Expo (which she is anxiously awaiting to see if the waiting list representatives will wave her and her colleagues in) she hopes to make the usual pins, and stickers for the convention. Plans she has that are a little different than the traditional at the convention tables include: creating temporary tattoos and fortune cookies involving her logo and guidance she's created involving situations that happen in the comic and that can be used as advice for those reading. She also has many products like t-shirts, mugs, and even skateboards featured on her website for those who care to check them out.
She hopes Artist Alley will increase this year at the convention so that she has an opportunity to exhibit her work and unique products and send people to links of her artist friends to expand their horizons as well. It is the largest convention in Canada, involving Comic books, sci-fi, video games and select celebrities related to these genres and quite possibly the second largest convention in the world next to the San Diego Con. It may be an expensive place to be, however she is hoping to have only a few little things at the table that are inexpensive so those watching their wallets during the recession won't lose too much. If you like A-sexual comics that involve witty, social humor I suggest you check the comic out, and if you catch her at the Fan Expo, go over, say hi, and maybe indulge in a fortune cookie or two.
This year she hopes to attend the Toronto Fan Expo on the weekend of August 28th 2009 along with three male comic creator friends of hers (Terrence Gordon, Aaron Powers and Dan Wettlaufer) who she believes are extremely talented in their own way. Emily enjoys involving other artistic friends in her comic endeavors, even though she struggles as a cartoonist herself. Along with creating a website as well as numerous products on the site she is also gathering a select group of friends of hers to do a photo shoot involving three people dressed as her cartoon characters. The shoot is supposed to take place in front of a graffiti wall in downtown Toronto on July 5th 2009 and she's hoping the shoot will run smoothly.
"You have to think outside the box as an artist, you'll never get noticed copying what other people do, what worked for them may not work for you, and you have to be able to experiment and not be afraid to fall down in the pursuit of getting what you want." Ragozzino definitely likes to involve others in her ideas even though she is not financially equipped to pay the models and photographer, they all think the idea is a great one and she's provided them with hardcopies of her comics and t-shirts she's made at past conventions as a thank you for helping out.
In addition to her "think outside the box" method (that's been taught to her from the teachers of Georgian College Barrie in her Fine Arts advanced course she graduated from) she is coming up with new and old creative ideas. If she is a part of the Fan Expo (which she is anxiously awaiting to see if the waiting list representatives will wave her and her colleagues in) she hopes to make the usual pins, and stickers for the convention. Plans she has that are a little different than the traditional at the convention tables include: creating temporary tattoos and fortune cookies involving her logo and guidance she's created involving situations that happen in the comic and that can be used as advice for those reading. She also has many products like t-shirts, mugs, and even skateboards featured on her website for those who care to check them out.
She hopes Artist Alley will increase this year at the convention so that she has an opportunity to exhibit her work and unique products and send people to links of her artist friends to expand their horizons as well. It is the largest convention in Canada, involving Comic books, sci-fi, video games and select celebrities related to these genres and quite possibly the second largest convention in the world next to the San Diego Con. It may be an expensive place to be, however she is hoping to have only a few little things at the table that are inexpensive so those watching their wallets during the recession won't lose too much. If you like A-sexual comics that involve witty, social humor I suggest you check the comic out, and if you catch her at the Fan Expo, go over, say hi, and maybe indulge in a fortune cookie or two.
by: Emily Ragozzino
