…The subject heading is the premise of Marco Perugini’s and my web comic SEPARATE BUT EQUAL that originally debuted and released on the WEBTOON platform (even right now, if you wanted, you could go and read it on the site!) and is now live on Kickstarter for our first ever print run for our soap opera web comic series… This is only a 10 day Kickstarter so there’s a limited amount of time to get this funded and to grab the collected episodes of the Season One arc.
Crystal and Damascus are a divorced couple who are forced to live together because financially they just can’t afford to separate. Needless to say, this puts an added strain on their already difficult relationship, especially when Crystal really tries to move on with her life — in both career and dating… And that’s the disaster you’re seeing in the panel above, Damascus interrupting what is supposed to be a private moment.
SEPARATE BUT EQUAL is me living my soap opera writer fantasies out through comics! Look, that’s no joke… After undergrad, years ago, I had the thought of going to New York and trying to break into soap opera writing. I didn’t take the leap and life led me in other places, but like I said in the last newsletter, I have an affinity and deep love for soap operas that extends all the way back to watching them with my mom when I was a kid. And yeah, I watched them all through high school and even when I went to college — heck, after my freshman year, I built my course schedule around the time my favorite daytime soap came on (As the World Turns, I even got one of roommates hooked on it!). And now, here I am, well past those undergrad days, fortunate to still be writing, creating within this wonderful comic book medium and space, and now I am writing my own soap opera as a comic. This is what SEPARATE BUT EQUAL is for me and the love that I have for it is truly indescribable because of how connected it is to all my passions and the nostalgia of times past.
Become a Backer of SEPARATE BUT EQUAL
I would love for you all to dive in with me on this journey. Marco Perugini did such an amazing job bringing the story to life, truly giving the characters attitude and style. As a lot of you probably already know, I’mma huge horror fan, I would go so far as to say that it’s definitely my favorite genre, but soaps and drama, are also home for me, and I feel like it is such a great marriage when all three of those come together — like in Midnight Mass or Hill House, and even in my comic book series, The Vineyard.
But SEPARATE BUT EQUAL is different. There’s nothing horror about it unless the idea of living under Crystal’s and Damascus’ circumstances seems horrific! This series is about relationships and choices and the gray that exists in between the black and white, something that I believe everyone experiences in some facet. My new comic productions studio, BlaX Trauma, is meant for just such a title as SEPARATE BUT EQUAL, which is one of the main reasons why it is now that we are choosing to put the web comic in print: Black characters leading a soap opera/dramatic series, i.e. Tyler Perry but in comics. Haha in all seriousness though, I envision Blax Trauma Productions as a Jordan Peele/Tyler Perry mashup or hybrid when it comes to the kind of stories we want to tell and the IPs that we want to create.
Get your copy of SEPARATE BUT EQUAL #1 here!!!
Thank you all for being a part of this community and joining in for more Trauma Talk. The thing about indie comics is that nothing happens without the partnership of creator and readers. There’s no vacuum, and I am grateful for that and always want to show true appreciation. Please comment if you get a chance. I would love to hear from you.
Talk soon —
B