A ‘kagema-onna’ was a type of prostitute in feudal Japan. It was a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman. (Very specialized!)
She was inspired by yaoi manga, but wanted to move beyond the genre’s artistic and story limitations by doing a more American spin on the subject matter that readers of any gender could enjoy.
Black Muse is the writer of Captive Spirits!
The original idea was to do just a Web comic, but publishing through Class seemed like a much better way to reach fans of gay romance.
You can reach Black Muse online through http://yaoi.y-gallery.net/user/blackmuse/, where you can also read some short stories and the original draft of Captive Spirits. (The Class version is a lot better, though!)
Black Muse lives in the US and can be mainly found on the Internet, having opinions about things.
I come from South Africa, deepest darkest Africa. I am 36 and have been drawing since before I was 2.
I matriculated at an art school and went on to study Fine Art (since you cannot study any kind of illustration in South Africa), completed my degree and then ended up working in graphic design, which I have been doing ever since.
I have always loved superheroes and heroes in general and have been drawing them all my life. Since there is no place to learn about comics or comic art here I have taught myself what I know, and love the opportunity to explore this avenue.
For as far back as I can remember I have been equally interested in the hot bods beneath the spandex and the lycra and so the opportunity to combine my love of heroes with my love of men was just too good to pass up.
It was in the quest for hot comic men that I came across Class Comics and wow! The art of Patrick and all the other great artists blew my mind! Hot, sexy, and good art! What a combination. Not since Tom of Finland have I seen anything to compare.
It has also been a fantastic opportunity to fulfill my dream of working in comics, and thanks to the guys at Class and the miracle of the web I am able to do this from the depths of Africa.
I was born when the Village People’s YMCA was on the top of the charts, in march 1979 on the West coast in small French town. I used to draw a lot when I was a child, and I really enjoyed it. When I was 9 I asked my sister to draw for me a character of the anime Saint Seiya with the videotape recorder on pause, but she refused! Because, or thanks to this, I decided to draw it myself… I found out could draw! Since that day I have never stopped.
For 4 years I studied painting in out-of-school activities, and started to draw comics when I was 11. As I always wanted to do animation and cartoon, I chose a cinema high-school in Angoulême. This was a good way to complement to drawing, as I learned how to compose a frame, tell and write a story or analysing images.
I went to Bordeaux in 1998 to study art in the Art Faculty and stayed 5 years. Good place to learn how to analyse your own work and Art History. Then I had to work! So I began doing leaflets or posters for bars, clubs, saunas or theatres.
I was most influenced by manga and japanese anime, but it has often had a bad reputation and I was not that supported that much by teachers, so I finally tried to slowly turn to more realistic style. I love switching from digital colors to watercolor or colored ink, as well as oil on canvas but I really enjoy black and white too. Usually people say that my style is very cinematographic. I guess it’s true because when I’m composing a frame or a page I’m acting like I’m having a camera and try to choose the best angle. Making sure the each frame is responding to the one before.
I don’t know how many comics I’ve created over the last 15 years but more than 1500 pages that’s for sure. Most of the time, I never write any script, I have just a part of the story and a couple of elements in my head. Usually I start to draw and see where it takes me. Everytime I wrote a script I never completed the comic. I think script and scenario are like a map, just to guide the artist, but a map is useful for a group of people to help them following the same way! As I’m working alone I like to choose my own path and change it whenever I like, exactly when you go for a journey on your own, taking the time to explore what’s around to finally reach my goal which is the end of the story and maybe the start of another one.
My first porn drawings were 8 years ago. When I decide to do my own porn comic it was at first just to try some new technics and just have some fun! That’s how “Straight to…” was born! And maybe it’s ironic, but it’s the first that have been published!
I realized that porn could be interesting to do if you see it like musical! In musical, songs make the story and characters go ahead, the principle is the same with porn: Porn action scenes have to make the story goes! So yes: porn is musical… And it ROCKS!!!!
Johnny Murdoc is the writer and co-creator (with TJ Wood) of Crash Course, his first comic book.
He’s 28 years old and lives in St. Louis, MO with his partner of 8 years. His interests include porn, comics, and copyright law. He likes long walks and sci-fi movies.
When not writing comics, Johnny writes erotic fiction as well as non-fiction. His short story “Kick, Push” will be published August 2010 in the anthology Skater Boys, edited by Neil Plakcy, from Cleis Press.
His essays for SexIs http://www.edenfantasys.com/sexis/ span a range of topics from porn to politics. He also self-publishes a zine of his erotic short stories called Blowjob.
Growing up I would almost never be seen without a pencil and paper in my hand. I remember spending much of my time watching anime like Ninja Scroll and reading Spiderman’s adventures in the pages of comic books. Just seeing these characters being brought to life lead me to believe that nothing is impossible! — Imagination was the key to true liberation!
I am a person who is heavily influenced by Music – Hip Hop culture in particular. I have taken much influence from “Urban Art.” By mixing up styles from Western and Eastern cultures has allowed me to develop an eclectic style.
Discovering Class Comics and the world or Erotic Art only made my love for illustrations grow stronger! Seeing all the beautiful men created by the hands of Mr. Fillion made it clear that this is what I wanted to do… As you can see in my art, his work has made a huge impact on me, along with other comic greats like the late Michael Turner, and Tom of Finland.
cheers my awesome friends!!
*Big Hugs*
Leon
Leon de Leon draws Spot, one of Class Comics' sexy new heroes!A Tom of Finland remake, by Leon de Leon.
I hail from the UK, and live in a little seaside town in Cornwall, England. I’m 42 years old, and really should know better! I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember…I used to draw dinosaurs and battles and such like. Until I discovered superheroes! I was drawn to the colourful costumes, the exciting names and just fell in love with them.
Anyway, time went by, and I found myself thinking more and more about the guys *under* the colourful costumes, and their alluring physiques…and from there it was a natural progression to figure studies and erotic drawings.
I went to college, studied art in a wider sense, but kept my love of drawing comics. Once I’d graduated, I used as much of my spare time as I could to follow my dream of producing real comics, but I remained drawn to the male figure.
I eventually came into contact with Jonny Murdoc through a third party, and creatively we just sparked. This led to a few short projects, and then “Blam!”, up popped Crash! We had a total blast creating the major concepts and characters and we hope you love that sexy rogue as much as we do!
Kagema-Onna is the artist for Captive Spirits!
Black Muse is the writer of 
AKA UrbanMusiq
