IdeaMe is an online platform, which helps creators, be they inventors, artists, or designers, among others, to finance their projects through crowd funding. The Indy features and promotes one project every week with the aim of helping the creators achieve their dreams.
You know how it is, you meet a guy, start sleeping together, and suddenly you’ve got that sexually transmitted disease where you turn into a dog every time you have sex…no? It isn’t a common GUM clinic complaint, but it is the problem facing Abigail Villalobos, the protagonist in new teen comic ‘PERRA’.
In a bid to break the sparkly vampire vs. moody werewolf quandary dominating teen literature at the moment, cartoonist and illustrator Olga López has come up with a comic that puts the the ‘grr‘ in gonorrhea’. ‘PERRA’ is the story of a young woman who, after cheating on her boyfriend, is infected with an STI, or more accurely an SHI – Siberian husky infection.
“I used to have a siberian husky who I loved” says López “and I wanted to write a werewolf story but in a totally different way.”
“I wanted to talk about modern sexuality which is something that I’m very interested in – more and more couple separate today, there is more pain and more heartbreak than ever before and people are increasingly devaluing sex and their bodies.”
This comic follows Abigail’s unorthodox struggle to find her own identity – and a sustainable sex life – while being hounded by the issue of coital canine transformation. It takes the form of a graphic novel split into chapters, which López wants to publish in magazine form.
The artist is looking for $12,323 in order to fund a print run of 5 million copies of the first magazine which would subsequently be available as a PDF from her website.
Instead of a sugary world of romance, hand holding and long walks along the beach, PERRA presents a grittier version love and sex in the modern world. López has moved away from the increasingly stagnant pool of female orientated teen literature to create something altogether more interesting.
“PERRA is hungry for revolution,” she says. “we are showing the false seduction of mundane topics like fame and fortune, considered today to be ‘ultimate happiness’”
“It is an important critique of sexuality in the modern world of neglect, infidelity, unrequited love, promiscuity and all its consequences,”
It takes more than a flea collar to resolve most of the consequences of promiscuity, but the comic wants to tap into modern themes and issues using humour, as well as a strong graphic and narrative identity.
The style of the comic is heavily influenced by Fileteado Porteño Argentino, a popular style of decorative art native to Buenos Aires. It involves intricate, intense colours and curling letters and patterns which create an impression of volume and depth.
“I want to reflect a strong patriotic identity with this design” says López, “We have to generate a latin American identity based on our culture, on our indigenous legends, on our population.”
López, who also goes by the pen-name PorotAzuki, was born in Barracas and has studied art and cartoon design for many years. After a first degree at the Manuel Belgrano de Bellas Artes school she studied visual arts at the National Institute of Art (IUNA) in Buenos Aires as well as studying illustration under famous cartoonist Oswal.
‘PERRA’ is López’s first full length magazine. She has worked until now on freelance work and comic strips for papers and magazines and is hoping that with ‘PERRA’, she will make her dream a reality.
Facebook comments