Becky Hawkins

Book 1, Page 199

Here's the original script for this page:

A full page splash panel shows the car driving along and everyone in the car. I’m imagining that we’re looking at it from the front, and slightly elevated, so we can see the people in the back seat too. Lillian’s captions are placed near the person.

I tried a fe...

Book 1, Page 198

Just as we started the beach episode of SuperButch, the podcast 99% Invisible did an episode about an unofficial gay beach in New York: Jacob Riis beach! That beach was overshadowed—or sheltered from the neighboring area, depending on your point...

An Abbott Elementary AU and end-of-summer postcards

This post comprises of watercolors that I started weeks or months ago, but I always had something more pressing to work on. I finally made the time to finish them during a cafe-session at Refuge with Barry. Yay!

The page above is a scene from ...

Book 1, page 196-197

The beach-trip issue commences!

Please enjoy this view without the inset panels:

This is the sixth double-page spread in SuperButch. It takes up two 11x14 sheets of paper with some overlap in the middle. I was really careful about maki...

Buildings and goofballs

Hi patrons!

Here are some things I've been up to in between jury duty, drawing political cartoons for Barry, and being on hold with Unemployment. The watercolor is from a photo I took of Walnut St in Pittsburgh. I hate that natural light makes everything SO BEAUTIFUL several hours before I want to be up and about. (I'm being dramatic. It w...

Travel toons (Seattle/Pittsburgh/DC)

Dough Zone was delicious. So was Momosan, which we hit on the way back.

There are zero nonstop flights from Portland to Pittsburgh, so my new hack is taking the trai...

Page 196-197 Preview

Hi patrons,

I'm about to fly east for a family visit. (First time in Pittsburgh since 2019!) I was trying to finish this spread first, but unemployment knocked me off-schedule. This post was all ready to go, so I'm giving you a preview and a peek behind the scenes!

This is the sketchbook page I drew in while Barry and I talked about ...

Sounds like we're all in the right place

I started this cartoon towards the beginning of summer camp and finished it just in time for the beginning of fall classes. Have I mentioned that drawing multiple panels and picking contemporary hair/outfits adds exponential drawing time to a Becky-comic?

I have some big news: It turns out that this was my last newsletter comic for the chi...

Postcards: Strong Songs and Girls5Eva

Strong Songs is the musical deep dive I didn't know I needed! It feels so good listening to someone get super enthusiastic about chord changes, instrumentation, vocal choices, rec...

Summer postcards (overheard at the theater)

The box office is right at the top of these stairs, so I overhear complaints/comments about the stairs every day. This one cracked me up, though. I hope the diaper bag, lunch box, and dry cleaning bags communicate that Mommy has, in fact, been running around all day.

2024-08-18 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Issue 7 Cover Reveal!

My progress chart said to finish the cover "by 6/10?" and I made it!

This left us four days for Barry to finish lettering the issue, lay out the book, and make a PDF, and for me to buy printer paper, use the fancy printer at the theater, and stap...

Book 1, Page 195

You read that right: issue eight is going to be a beach episode! A Pacific Northwest beach, so It’s going to have more trees than I have ever drawn.

Barry listed a few ideas for panel 2 in the script:

Panel 2

1988 colors, about two-thirds of the page.

They’re back at the same park we saw on page 163, and ...

2024-08-05 03:47:24 +0000 UTC View Post

Book 1, Page 194

Suspense!!

It was my idea for Lillian to accidentally make her beer explode onto Kansas' lap. As always, I dig deep into life experiences to inform my art.

Mona's face in panel 4 makes me laugh. She's disappointed but sooo unsurprised. I worked on pages 191-195 at the same time, rather than completing each page one at a time. St...

Book 1, Page 193

Hi patrons!

Let’s give Barry a round of applause for the swoopy radio lettering. Even if it covered up some laboriously drawn hands wiping a beer glass in panel 2, per his script 😛

I took this jacket out of retirement to pose for Ruth and Lillian in this scene. I think I got it when I was a working musician and might be require...

Book 1, Page 192

I thought of the "second beer" gag while I was drawing page 183, in which Lillian face-plants in the alley. Here's my conversation with Barry:

As you can see, Barry developed the idea a bit. When I saw the script I had a knee-jerk reaction of "He...

Book 1, Page 191

Please, someone zoom in to appreciate the era-appropriate buffalo head nickel and mercury dimes that are hinted at in panel 1! Barry thoughtfully looked up the cost of beer in 1941 (about 28 cents) and wrote "one of Lillian’s hands, putting two quarters and a dime on the bar" in the script. Then I got excited about drawing the two discontinued...

Spring turns to summer at the children's theater

There was a memorable snail in A Year With Frog and Toad, so I saw a bunch of snail-walking from the box office.

This next incident was relayed to me by the house manager, pictured on the left. Once again I got to play with contrasting lighting situations (lobby vs theater)! I also enjoyed drawing the various ages of people who co...

Book 1, Page 190

This page has seven new faces that we haven't seen before and won't see again in this issue.

For some of the women, I started by drawing one aspect of Lillian's appearance (face shape, hair, etc) that might catch Captain Turtle's eye, then drew their other features to be definitely not Lillian. I also scrolled a bit on Instag...

Book 1, Page 189

Hi patrons,

My parents were in town last week, so I took a nice break from the computer.

Now SuperButch updates continue!

Crowd scenes can be...

Some Photos from BwPCon

This is my "yay I made it and only had to pull over and re-bungee the bike once" face. Luckily the bungees held when I kicked the grid wall which jostled the box which tipped the whole shebang over to one side. That was a wobbly ride!

BwPCon is a one-day outdoor comics fest organized by our friendly local comic shop, Books With Pictures. I...

Book 1, Page 188

Once again, Barry crushes it with the digital lettering and pain-stars.

Speaking of lettering: old hand-lettered signs are so flipping stylish! Take a moment to admire this exquisite rendition of banal signage.

(Also take a moment to admir...

Issue 7 sneak peek

Annnd with this, I’m done inking SuperButch Issue 7! We haven’t been finishing the pages in order, but I wanted to share some progress!

My original idea for the cover was to show the store window and “Vote this way” s...

Book 1, Page 187

OMIGOSH, so happy to finally get to draw this gag! And can we give Barry a hand for doing the AAAAAAA lettering while I was at the box office, working through 4 shows and a Taylor Swift birthday party? The lettering makes it.

I'd like to thank this figure that I got at a yard sale a kajillion years ago for posing.

2024-06-02 02:42:48 +0000 UTC View Post

Book 1, Page 186

Greetings from the middle of the fray!

Is this an overambitious plan to finish SuperButch pages approximately three times faster than I've ever done before? MAYBE. Am I on schedule? ALMOST. Will I keep this pace up after BwPCon? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Bu...

Theater Postcard and news

The play was The Wardrobe, if you're curious. It's the first play we've done in awhile that was aimed at tweens and up instead of ages 3+. I'm so happy with how the lighting came out in this one! It's fun to use color to differentiate the actors from the aud...

Hijinks at the children's theater

Hi patrons!

This cartoon was inspired by an actual meeting. In real life, I was using Zoom on my phone, so my coworkers got a Blair Witch viewing experience while we were trying to discuss collaborative email accounts! I tried to draw it as a postcard and quickly realized there wasn't space. Naomi helped me find the right rhythm for a gag ...

Book 1, Page 185

Reference for panel 5:

Hi patrons,

It's been a hectic month! Lots of good things (extended-family destination wedding, seeing a cool play, hanging out with Barry), but also taxes, LOSING ACCESS TO MY DROPBOX ACCOUNT FOR SIX DAYS, and o...

Political cartoon with Barry: "Celestial Politics of Trans Bans"

Hi patrons,

I've finally re-started on the next SuperButch page! I just needed to step away for awhile, reopen the file, realize that I ignored Barry's script, and then ignore it a different way. Then I spilled a full cup of coffee on my desk, splattering the wall, floor, and a bunch of cords. (Coffee cup and electronics are safe, thank go...

Postcards from the children's theater

This was very close to a verbatim voicemail. I checked work-email during a staff meeting and everyone wanted to know why I burst out laughing!

On the other extreme, I also like bending reality for the newsletter:

Stuffies are alive in the Ne...

This might be the pinnacle of self-indulgent Abbott art

Tell me this scene isn't lit like a pulp novel cover! I love the blues and pinks on their faces...

My parents have an old paperback bookshelf, and I remember being mesmerized by the expressively painted covers. It was really fun to try and recreat...