More on vegan comics

Things I learned from creating Stupid Vegan Comic #1:

1. “Paintbrush,” the Mac version of Microsoft Paint, is crappy.  And this will be the only time that you ever hear me complain about my Mac.  In fact, I hope I haven't hurt Mac's feelings by speaking disparagingly about its software.

2.  And slightly related to 1 above, using a paint program on a laptop that doesn’t have an external mouse is impossible.  Hence the terrible drawings.  And I can actually draw.  Sort of. 

3.  From now on, my Stupid Vegan Comics will be hand drawn, as using the Paintbrush program to create my first comic took me somewhere in the neighborhood of eight hours, and I just don’t have that kind of time.  And no comments about how it took me that long because I’m technologically illiterate; I already know that.

But seriously, I got the idea to do my wee comic after reading Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh’s blog, in which she incorporates lots of drawings made in Paint. Allie’s blog and comics aren’t about veganism, but she’s hilarious, and reading her work has given me a sense of appreciation for the art of creating, well, art . . . and it's given me a profound sense of respect for anyone who can create art using the Paint program.

There are, of course, tons vegan comics out there, all of them much better than mine; a google search for “vegan comics” pulls up a veritable smorgasbord of comic art pertaining to veganism, from pieces that promote veganism, to those that poke fun at it, to those that are outright hostile.  There are famous comic artists who are vegan, like Scott Adams (Dilbert) and Cathy Guisewaite (Cathy), whose work may or may not feature vegan themes, and then there are other folks, like MC Miller and Jen Hernandez, whose work is centered around veganism. 

Here are a few random comics that tickled my fancy:

Frederic Patenaude has a series of Raw Food Comics.

Wiley takes on Hansel and Gretel.

And, perhaps most notably, Dan Piraro, whose page I’ve linked to on the right, uses his comic art to promote both animal rights and veganism.

Then there’s the more bitingly satirical and/or caustically critical.  Marvel offers this rendition of a vegan life form:

Natalie Dee calls out vegan hypocrisy:

 And then there's the strictly silly (and this one is my favorite):

*

* My brief foray into the world of vegan comics reveals that there is a whole weirdo vegan zombie subculture, complete with all manner of products.  And maybe "subculture" is the wrong term to define this phenomenon, but there is something very compelling about the parody of rendering a cannibal as vegan; we already see this, to some degree or other -- although without the self-aware irony -- with those sparkly Cullen vampires who are vegetarian (that is, they eat animals, which is the very antithesis of vegetarianism).  And I'm really sorry to have brought up Twilight, but I can tell you that it won't be the last time I do it.  I promise, however, to be scathingly critical of that whole franchise whenever I address it.

And on an unrelated note, I love daiya.