QUILTBAG, Take Two

Getting back on a once-dead horse.

My most frustrating comics series was QUILTBAG. That was true for me as a writer and mostly for its readers, too.

(I really do like the four installments that I’m sharing with you below, but they’re more the exception than the rule.)

The series would have run for eight chapters, each corresponding to one of its letters, with each page beginning with that letter or its sound. For instance, the strip below revolves around the sort of quickie breakfast that’s common among college students, so the dialogue could have started, “Quickie breakfast’s all I got time for.” Instead…

I’ll repeat some of what I wrote about it here, which still seems right to me now:

QUILTBAG was a spinoff from Penny and Aggie, following its popular supporting characters Sara and Lisa into college. The premise was that they, having come out as lesbian and bisexual but still seeking identity, would discover how wide the world of human sexuality really was and how complicated things could get.

The title refers to a variation on LGBTQIA which adds U for “unsure” or sometimes “undeclared” and gives some other letters double duty. The full list, as I heard it goes “queer and questioning, unsure/undeclared, intersex, lesbian, trans and two-spirit, bisexual, asexual and aromantic [maybe also agender], and gay and genderqueer.” (There are variations.)

You’ve probably seen LGBT, LGBTQ, and LGBTQ+, for instance. I’ve also seen LGBTQQIP2SAA, which includes the “quiltbag” terms given above except “genderqueer” and plus “pansexual.”

Of course, declaring you’ve got all the sexualities figured out, labeled, and filed away is asking for trouble…what about pansexuality? Demisexuality? Should straightness be in here too, since otherwise it becomes the “default” to everything else’s “alternate,” or should we just agree that it’s had plenty of attention and doesn’t need to steal any thunder from the rest of the list?

I could go on. But I still found something intriguing in the attempt, and thought I’d do an eight-part series themed around each letter and what it signified, eventually exploring the limitations as much as the categories. The audience and I had been largely happy with Penny and Aggie‘s queer portrayals, so it wasn’t the worst idea, on paper.

Unfortunately, I was very much in the wrong headspace to be starting a new series. Overall, it’s my worst work, and it got worse until I mercy-killed it at the conclusion of Chapter Two. The dialogue was hit or miss. The arcs were barely sketched…

Nowadays, things are better for me on every front—new source of income coming up, great marriage, solid self-esteem. I wouldn’t want to try remaking the comic, but I have been thinking of parlaying its basic idea into a more successful form. And I think the plutogram could be that form.

Tomorrow it’ll be time to publish another micross, but after that, I’ll share a couple of examples of how that’s working out.