A-14 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE Pride Guide 1997

Cartoonist draws from families of her choosing

by Christine Hahn and Bob Boone

Winnipeg, Manitoba-Taking a little time out of her Victoria Day celebrations (Happy 178th birthday, Queen Victoria!), The Chosen Family creator Noreen Stevens took a moment to share some opinions on family, cartooning, and good penmanship.

"I think it's a good theme," she expressed about Cleveland Pride's Family Reunion focus.

"It [family] is a concept that I've enjoyed

The Chosen Family

Getting

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My family is fabulous... the best in the world

I certainly Count Hmm myself lucky I havel never personally Gee! experienced any Sort of abuse...

by Noreen Stevens,

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Noreen Stevens

I'm forging bold new lesbian-relationship territory here Weed... Emma has no discernable personal baggage.

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No, Weed... I mean it!

Ill ask

So... does she have a sister?

But seriously... what do you talk about then?

Last night we sang old camp songs

in bed

You dog

you...

Noreen Stevens

playing with in a lot of different ways, including the strip, but also in other artistic pursuits. Because I think that's often the rally cry of the Right. That this goes against 'the family' and so forth.

"I think we need to be continually reminding our opposition that there's different kinds of families and that we're all members of the kinds of families that they're championing. The division they imagine between their com-

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munity and the gay community really doesn't exist."

Stevens began drawing The Chosen Family in 1989 when she wanted to work on a strip with more lesbian-centered themes and characters. She had been working for the previous year.on a strip called Local Access, which ran in a paper at the University of Manitoba.

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rior design, which she has never practiced as such-although it has imparted on her at least one skill helpful for cartooning.

"I learned how to print neatly," she proclaimed.

"I come from cartooning more from a political interest than from a cartooning interest," she explained. “Although I enjoy a lot of different cartoons."

"Bill Watterson is god," she exudes

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The Chosen Family currently appears in some 15 publications. Stevens' humorous and frank portrayals of characters and issues have been warmly received and her work has proceeded without a hitch. Well, mostly.

"I had trouble with one series," she reported. "This story is rife with irony. I had a little trouble with a safe-sex series of five or six strips that was quite explicit. You know, but in the context of talking about safe lesbian sex.

"I had sent it to Gay Comics in Seattle. And they really liked it, but they were concerned that if they put it in their publication, the publication wouldn't reach their Canadian distribution points. That Canada customs wouldn't let it into Canada.

"Here was a series of strips that had originated in Canada, and was being sent to the States, and was causing concern because of having to get back across the border."

The Seattle comic book did end up running the strips with no apparent distribution problems. In subsequent strips, though, Stevens has learned to place thought bubbles and the like atop any possibly sensitive drawings to prevent any further troubles. Except, well, there is one other thing.

"There have been a few strips where editors have expressed concern about slander," Stevens remarked. "Well, I have a tendency to like to suggest that Anne Murray is a lesbian." ✓

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