"Man Time" is a comic about life as a trans man, by a trans man, and it's awesome.
After noodling on a few ideas for a web comic about coming out and living as a trans man, Sam, a 26-year-old designer and artist from New Jersey decided to bring a few to life. Sam himself came out as a transgender man about seven years ago.
"I had a few funny ideas one day and figured I should at least give it a try and see if anyone liked them," Sam writes in an e-mail interview.
Spoiler alert: They did.
[rebelmouse-image 19469731 dam="1" original_size="750x857" caption="All comics by Sam for "Man Time," used with permission." expand=1]All comics by Sam for "Man Time," used with permission.
The cartoons are comic relief and a welcome break from what can be a very stressful transition.
"Our families or friends might not be supportive, we might be having trouble with the medical side of transitioning, and we hear rude jokes about trans people when we least expect it," Sam writes. "All of that takes a toll on you, and it’s easy to get depressed."
That's why Sam created "Man Time" — to laugh, commiserate, and connect with other people going through the exact same thing.
"I think that one of the most important things in life is to be able to laugh," he writes. "Sharing stories and laughing together is the best way to make friends and build a community."
Sam's community has grown considerably as "Man Time" has more than 10,000 followers on Tumblr. Not bad for its first nine months.
Laugh along and get some insight into the lives of a few trans men through Sam's characters in five more of his favorite pieces.
1. Coming out can be nerve-wracking, especially to friends and family.
2. Though sometimes, it seems like they knew all along.
3. Transitioning isn't something that happens overnight. There's often a new name and pronouns.
4. And sometimes new hormones too.
5. But each change, medical or not, takes serious courage.
While "Man Time" may focus on the experiences of trans men, everyone can appreciate its sincerity, heart, and humor.
Supporting, reading, listening to, and watching content by transgender creators is a good way to get a greater understanding of what it's like to be trans. It's also one of the many ways you can stand with trans and non-binary people during what's been a really scary and challenging time.
So as Sam suggests, take a minute to laugh. What better way to connect, build community, and celebrate our diversity and our common ground?
Note: Sam requested not to use his last name in this piece, and we obliged. We respect his privacy and thank him for sharing his work with us.
Before you click 'send' on anything else, read this comic. It's important.
Everyone seems to be clicking "send" a bit too early nowadays.
We officially live in a world where internet trigger-happy world leaders can send massive populations into a devolved tail spin with erratic tweets, posts, and subsequent responses. These posts can have far-reaching consequences, and in the haste to respond in kind we've forgotten that we've normalized this kind of attitude.
Boulet is a French comic artist who has been writing about this for 15 years.
Originally he started writing an autobiographical series, but when he realized how accessible it was to his readers, he decided to make it fictional. "So it's mostly 'drawn stand up comedy,'" he explains. "I'm the main character, but in the same way comedians are there own character when they are on stage. The purpose is not really to talk about me but about situations of everyday's life everyone can relate to."
In his words, "The comic (below) was an anecdote about a Facebook mistake, I had basically two choices: Use it as a Facebook status to make my friends laugh or try to dramatize the whole process into an internal crisis to make it a story."
Comic by Bouletcorp, where it originally appeared. Used here with permission.
That "internal crisis" is something Boulet is very interested in.
Boulet enjoys using the accessible medium of cartoons as a way to explore complex issues. He loves learning about and studying consciousness and neuroscience. His fans enjoy this.
"There were fun discussions in the comments about how the brain works ... the very idea that we have a parallel process that can interfere, overlap or get in conflict is actually a thing. What I found most intriguing about this story was to literally feel my hand freeze BEFORE I could put an explanation on the WHY it froze."
He also had a great suggestion as to figuring out the motivations behind certain posts. "We should always go on social networks with EEGs on. We would learn a lot."
After what we've seen on social media over the last few years, it's hard to disagree.