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Posts authored by Max Parker

Max (xey/xem) is the writer for Topaz Comics, Dead City, Alola Darumaka and many anthology stories.
The Curse Eater comic page done in black and white with halftones. We see a fairly well maintained dirt road with various types of trees and vegetation on either side. The sound effects "CLK CLK" can be seen while a roof of a caravan comes into view. As it gets closer, we can see two people in the distance. One is riding a bike that's pulling the caravan and the other is sitting atop a floating staff. The two are making their way down the road together.

Pilot – 1

Pilot – 1 published on No Comments on Pilot – 1

Hey everyone, Max and I have been working on a brand new original comic idea and would like you to join us for this soft launch of our PILOT CHAPTER for The Curse Eater!

I’ve been drawing a lot of concept art for it in my sketchbooks and I’m very excited to test out how we’d like the comic proper to look.

 

Want to see the first 8 pages (plus sketches and thumbnails)?! They’re up on Patreon for just a $1 a month!

Comic about Swell Sharks. Panel one, a sign that reads "Shark PCA" with two swell sharks next to it nuzzling each other. Narration reads "Looking for a new best friend? We have a great selection of Swell Sharks!" Panels three to five are all circular, in a row, and showing the Swell Shark glowing in the dark. Narration reads "They glow in the dark! Great for: Raves, Nightlights, The Abyssal Plane!" Panel six, narration reads "They inflate!" and we see the Swell shark sitting on top of the water all puffed up and smiling. Text reads "Have a pool party!" Panel seven, a Swell shark wearing a dog collar and barking. Text reads "Impress your friends with their ability to bark!" Panel eight, a Swell shark smiling against a retro styled background with 90s triangles around it. Narration reads "These sharks are swell!"

Swell Sharks are Swell!

Swell Sharks are Swell! published on No Comments on Swell Sharks are Swell!

The comic Max and I did for the last Swim On zine, which you can still support! It was such a tough decision to stop Swim On after this but it’s gotten so much bigger than I ever expected and I just don’t have enough time anymore to put into it. I may come back to it at some point, but for now 10 volumes was a good place to say goodbye!

Want to see sketches, thumbnails, and comic pages early? Join us on Patreon or the VIP Blog!

Comic page done in warm yellows, browns and purples with black line art. Panel one is a large panel that bleeds into the left of the page, it’s coloured in a rainbow gradient with a young Gabe seen from behind as he looks up at a waterfall of various queer folks including his father and his father’s husband, the narration reads “Seeing that in him, his recognition of who he was and who he wanted to love, helped me get to that space of recognition too.” Panel two is a small thin panel of a close up of Gabe smiling and saying “Not that everyone is lucky enough to be gay and then have a gay dad.” As he waves his hand. Panel three is a large panel showing all four friends at the table, the mood has gone down again as Gabe continues saying “But we’re going to Herman’s parent’s for the long weekend and he’s really frustrated with his dad. He talks about how he dealt with all this discrimination for being Jewish and then turns around and starts being really racist and homophobic.”

Compassion Dads – 4

Compassion Dads – 4 published on No Comments on Compassion Dads – 4

Page 4 of our Compassion anthology comic and that first panel is one of my favourites and managed to make it work for print as well!

You can grab the anthology this is from here

Want to see comics and other art early? Want to see the sketches and thumbnails? Check out the Patreon or VIP Blog for all that and more!

Comic page done in warm yellows, browns and purples with black line art. Panel one is a large panel with no borders and is done in greys and a little splash of light blue. We see Millie from behind in this flashback and the back of an armchair in the background, Millie’s father is sitting in the armchair watching a glowing tv screen. Narration reads “His big support was ‘don’t tell my sisters or they’ll make fun of you', when I said I was dating a woman. Like, that was aa good as it gets with him. Panel two, back in the present and the warm colour palette. Millie is smiling sweetly at Gabe who puts an arm on her back and says “That’s so hard.” Panel three, medium shot of Gabe as he holds his cafe cup and thinks about his own story. He says “My dad came out when I was ten so I had like this built in exposure to the community.”

Compassion: Dads – 3

Compassion: Dads – 3 published on No Comments on Compassion: Dads – 3

Page 3 of our Dads comic, inspired by interviews with real folks with all names and some story details altered of course. It’s a bit of a heavy little comic, but the compassion between a group of queer friends is important.

You can grab the anthology this is from here

Comic page done in warm yellows, browns and purples with black line art. Panel one is a waist up shot of Millie as she pushes her hair behind her ear and says “I feel bad because I miss my parents, but my holidays were so much less stressful last year when I couldn’t see them.” Panel two, same shot but Millie is looking down and to the right sadly and says “But like, my mom was surprisingly supportive when I broke up with Stacey.” Panel three, a long wide panel showing everyone at the table making booing noises and faces upon hearing Stacey’s name, while Millie smiles a bit. Panel three, back to Millie from the waist up, she says “Yeah. She let me vent to her and even came to hang out with me a few times. She helped me figure out that what Stacey was doing was abusive.” Panel four, a close up shot of Millie looking down and to the left and saying “But it’s still not always easy to be around her.” Panel five, closer shot of Millie just showing the bottom of her face, her mouth, and her hands delicately holding her café cup, she’s saying “And my dad.”

Compassion: Dads – 2

Compassion: Dads – 2 published on No Comments on Compassion: Dads – 2

Page 2 of our Dads comic for the Compassion Anthology, where Max took interviews given to us by the editors and wrote a comic inspired by those. The interviews were done by Mount Saint Vincent University and Dalhousie University in Vancouver specifically for this anthology – it was really great to be invited to do a comic like this!

The anthology is up for sale here, but now that it’s out we’re allowed to share out pages.

Comic page done in warm yellows, browns and purples with black line art. Panel one, a close up shot of two café coffee cups with one showing the title “Dads” handwritten on the cup and “by Michelle Parker and Jey Pawlik” written on the other. Panel two, a large establishing panel showing the inside of a café. Four people are standing around a table and taking their coats off to sit down. They’re wearing masks. Panel three, a wide panel of a medium shot of the four friends sitting down together. They’re taking their masks off. From right to left; Gabe is a black cis man with short curly hair, he has a medium sized build and is wearing a red long sleeve top. Quinn is a nonbinary Jewish person with short grey curly hair and large glasses, they are wearing a light blue button up shirt. Chloe is a black cis woman with very short cropped hair and a thicker build, she is wearing a green jean jacket. Millie is a chubby white cis woman with long wavey brown hair and is wearing a cute white blouse with a dainty gold necklace. Quinn looks at everyone happily and says “Okay, let’s start out ‘it’s been two years and I’m nervous about visiting my family again' unofficial therapy/gripe session!” The story takes place in 2021 and covid regulations are just starting to ease up.

Compassion: Dads – 1

Compassion: Dads – 1 published on No Comments on Compassion: Dads – 1

Something a bit different today, Max and I were invited to this anthology back in 2021 Queer Compassion in 15 Comics and now that the book is out, we’re finally able to share what we did for it! We’re both very proud of it..

Our comic was 8 pages so I’ll be scheduling one per week on Tuesdays to give us a bit of a buffer so we can get some new Darumaka comics ready for y’all! Usually we take May off from posting but somehow we powered through and now we’re pretty spent!

About the comic:

This anthology was a bit different from most others we’ve been in, as we needed to pick a theme provided by the editors and use interviews to form that into a story. The theme we chose was “Dads”.

All characters in this comic are fictional and their stories are only inspired by interviews that were given to us by the editors. We were not given any information about the interviewees.

“These comics are created by queer artists for queer audiences and with the intent for queer self-expression and representation. Social science researchers spoke to diverse members of LGBTQ+ communities to explore their beliefs about and experiences of compassion.” – Phillip Joy

“Working from interviews was a very different starting point than how we typically create comics, and we really wanted to make sure that we stayed true to the stories that were passed on to us. Having a theme of compassion and seeing the interview responses connected with something that both of us experienced as queer people. Though it is certainly and thankfully not the case for everyone, but a common theme in the interviews was the way queer people try and connect with their homophobic parents. When we consider parent/child relationships a lot of time is spent on the parent’s unconditional love for their child, but a recurring theme in the stories of queer people is the continued desire to reconnect and love parents who are dismissive or antagonistic to their child’s sexuality. We hope that this comic expresses to the reader how much queer people love their parents, and the compassion they have where they try and connect however they can, even when those relationships hurt.” – Max Parker

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