Tiny Totz Comix - The Teen-Rage

It's time for another edition of Tiny Totz Comix, which is great, because I only have two editions to choose from, and that makes for easy-street posting. This comic was never published so it's in the public eye for the first time, 17 years after I drew it. Their other adventure, "Puberty Shmewberty!" made it into Action Girl Comics, but editor Sarah Dyer rejected this one due to its Satanic theme. Action Girl was after all, for girls, not for smartass adults, like me. I like these Tiny Totz and perhaps I will continue their adventures. They've got moxie!

One thing I realize, all these years later, is that I drew these on standard 8 1/2"x11" paper—all 12 panels of it. That's a little insane. We're talking wee little tiny drawings here—not a lot of space for detail. But surely that was purposeful since I'm not very detail-oriented when it comes to my comics. And the tiny squares helped me develop the story best. I mean, these girls had adventures.  And I wanted them to fit on one page so I would have a better chance to be published (in plenty of non-paying publications, of course).

I drew comics throughout the '90s, but these were some of my last. I had the burn-out. It has to be your main passion, comics, because as simple as they are, they're a lot of work. Still—what joy—like a tiny movie, but more old-fashioned. People have been drawing comics since the dawn of time, that's for sure.

Break it down: based on real teenagers I had known while growing up in the suburbs. They all had big purses, tight jeans, and really great hair. They were not known for their diplomatic ways with the younger crowd. My best friend's oldest sister had a book of etchings based on Dante's Inferno, full of horrifying visions of writhing, naked sinners, burning in lakes of fire, beheaded and/or stuck through with pitchforks. We assumed she was studying to be a witch, but perhaps she just liked extreme art history. I don't know—she lived by herself in the family pool-house, so you never can tell about that...