Totem (2015 - )
Totem is an ongoing comic series set in a world where spirit animals roam a post-apocalyptic landscape and glimpse their human counterparts in dreams.
After bonding over some hallucinogenic fruit, a baboon and a polar bear decide to wander together through the canyons, forests, and burnt-out junkyards of this unfriendly world, with no expressed destination other than to always keep moving. For while they may find occasional moments to relax (and indulge in more fruit), they are never truly safe from the malicious creatures who watch them from the shadows.
Issue #1: Story by XC Atkins; illustrated by Keith Ansel; colored and edited by Eden Chubb; cover illustration by Dani Martire.
Issue #2: Story by XC Atkins; illustrated, colored, and edited by Eden Chubb; cover illustration by Ian Smith.
Issue #3: Story by XC Atkins; illustrated, colored, and edited by Eden Chubb; dream sequences illustrated by Dani Martire, Salvador Covarrubias, and Keith Ansel; cover illustration and cover coloring by Mauricio Pattaroyo.
Issue #4: Story by XC Atkins; colored and edited by Eden Chubb; pages 1-5 illustrated by Eden Chubb; pages 6-13 illustrated by Stu Guidry; cover illustration by Salvador Covarrubias.
To purchase any issue, email the author at xcatkins1@gmail.com. And please visit www.xcatkins.com to see his other projects.
Rapunzel (2019)
Through a series of vignettes, the Rapunzel fairytale is retold as a dreamlike metaphor for the patriarchy. You never actually see a princess or a tower -- what you see are visual flashes coupled with a poem that weaves throughout the pages, linking otherwise disparate moments and feelings as experienced by a vast array of the patriarchy’s targets. The patriarchy is messy, impossible to contain or definitively boil down as every person experiences it uniquely -- instead, the book depicts just a few patches of a greater quilt. Even the panels of the comic are laid out in a symmetrical grid like squares on a blanket (or bars in a cage).
In the poem, Rapunzel describes her life spent locked inside her prison, the sacrifices she makes to survive, and the extreme actions she must take to escape. Visually, things are a bit less satisfying than a fairytale: there is abuse, there is triumph, there is backlash and setbacks and victories and incompletion. We have not reached our fairytale ending, and so we continue to resist, to learn, and to occasionally let our hair down.
Available to order online in printed form on Etsy, at the Glitter Box (1109 Royal St. New Orleans, LA).
Monsters of Louisiana (2019)
The eerie landscape of Louisiana has given rise to many splendid and terrifying folk legends. In this 14-page guidebook, you will learn about some of the monsters, spirits, and demons that have haunted the imaginations of Louisiana residents for hundreds of years.
Each monster is beautifully illustrated using a mixture of layered cardboard, ink, light, and shadow; and each full-page illustration is accompanied by a researched description of the legend behind the monster. The subjects chosen for this book range from Choctaw legends to suburban boogeymen. With this guide to Louisiana’s spookiest monsters, you will learn to spot the difference between a harmless cow and a shapeshifter who wants to eat your soul; why you should never stop the car for a goat; and why you really, really shouldn’t gossip.
Available to order online in printed form on Etsy, at the Glitter Box (1109 Royal St. New Orleans, LA 70116), and at Sisters in Christ record store (5206 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70115).
There Are Wolves in the Forest (2017)
There Are Wolves in the Forest is a brutally feminist retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Written as a response to the paternalism and sexual metaphors of the traditional tale, this depiction tailors the original elements to an empowering narrative that weaves together contemporary horrors and visceral fantasy.
Available to order online in printed form. Also available at Crescent City Comics (3135 Calhoun St, New Orleans, LA 70125), at the Glitter Box (1109 Royal St. New Orleans, LA 70116), and at Sisters in Christ record store (5206 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70115).
Available to order online in printed form. Also available at Crescent City Comics (3135 Calhoun St, New Orleans, LA 70125), at the Glitter Box (1109 Royal St. New Orleans, LA 70116), and at Sisters in Christ record store (5206 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70115).
The Little Mermaid (2016)
Mermaids are dark and dangerous and you should never, ever capture one and keep it as a pet –– for they are children of the unmerciful sea and will conquer all who would seek to tame them.
The Little Mermaid: A Feminist Retelling is not the classic story of a mermaid princess who gives up her voice, her family, and her immortality for a man (and also sort of for a chance to get into Heaven and to scare little Victorian children into behaving? The original story is very weird). Instead, this is the story of a feral fish monster who suddenly finds herself in 19th century European society.
A fifteen-page zine, available at Crescent City Comics (3135 Calhoun St, New Orleans, LA 70125), at the Glitter Box (1109 Royal St. New Orleans, LA 70116), and at Sisters in Christ record store (5206 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70115).
A fifteen-page zine, available at Crescent City Comics (3135 Calhoun St, New Orleans, LA 70125), at the Glitter Box (1109 Royal St. New Orleans, LA 70116), and at Sisters in Christ record store (5206 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70115).
Interdimensional Explorer Girl (2015)
Interdimensional Explorer Girl is a comic based entirely on a dream. In its surprisingly linear narrative, an adventurous dimension-hopper struggles with the beautiful and terrible consequences of attachment. Interdimensional Explorer Girl is woman outside of time, who can have no permanent residence, a time traveler who realizes the gravity and tyranny of the clock. Because of her restless nature she can never set down roots –– but in the course of the tale she is tempted to do so. She wades through an ocean of time as she travels, which renders her visitations a brief blip in the lives of others. The realization of this certainty weighs heavily on the heroine, and the only way to make peace with that reality is to travel, and that she does.
Currently available to order online in printed form and as a digital download. Also available at Crescent City Comics (3135 Calhoun St, New Orleans, LA 70125), at the Glitter Box (1109 Royal St. New Orleans, LA 70116), and at Sisters in Christ record store (5206 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70115).
Currently available to order online in printed form and as a digital download. Also available at Crescent City Comics (3135 Calhoun St, New Orleans, LA 70125), at the Glitter Box (1109 Royal St. New Orleans, LA 70116), and at Sisters in Christ record store (5206 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70115).