Breaking Down The Success and Creation of "Aces & Aros"
The creative team behind "Aces & Aros" breaks down how they created the smash hit comic book anthology! Featuring Jeremy Whitley!
Hi Lifeline Comics Readers,
With our current LGBTQIA+ Comic Anthology now live and in full swing, we thought it would be a fun main topic for this newsletter to break down the creation of Aces & Aros and talk about why this anthology is important. We even have our Co-Editor for the anthology, Jeremy Whitley, with us to discuss his experience!
We’ll also share our first published short in The Loud House comics published by Papercutz, talk about the most recent Pride events we’ve attended (including Washington DC World Pride), share our thoughts on queer icon Fletcher’s newest song: “Boy”, and more!
Let’s dive in!
The Success Behind & Creation of “Aces & Aros”
Phil: Our latest LGBTQIA+ Comic Anthology is officially funded on Kickstarter with over 1000 backers and is even closing in on its third Stretch Goal!
So with that success in mind and in the spirit of Pride month, we thought it would be fun to dive into how “Aces & Aros: An Asexual & Aromantic Comic Anthology” came to be, what lead to its success, and why this particular representation is important.
Coming Up With the Concept + Getting Jeremy Onboard
Kat: Every year during Pride Month we create a LGBTQ related anthology. And following the success of both Bi Visibility and Transphoria, we were passionate about spotlighting another side of the LGBTQ flag, one that doesn’t get nearly enough representation, the asexual and aromantic community.
Phil and I are both allo creators, so we wanted to get an asexual creator on board, and who better than Jeremy Whitely?
Coming off the heels of Gwenpool’s asexual journey, we knew Jeremy would be a perfect fit for the project! So we sent an email and the rest was history.
Jeremy: It has been pretty amazing coming on board this project. I am used to being the one who is providing the form for everything on the writing side, so getting to start off as part of a company which has lots of experience and with a project that already had its basic concept was really nice for me. It really gave me room to come in, do what I love, and help shepherd a lot of other creators into making stories we were all excited about.
Finding Our Contributors
Phil: This isn’t our first rodeo when it comes to anthologies. By the time we started planning Aces & Aros, we had five anthologies under our belt. So we had already developed a well-worn process for gathering our team for the anthology.
As is the case with most Lifeline Comics anthologies, Aces & Aros was an open submissions anthology — meaning that anybody was welcome to apply for a place in the anthology.
We had a Google Form application available for just under two months for writers to submit a completed script and Artists to submit a portfolio of past sequential work. It’s so heartening to see the submission count increase with each anthology Lifeline puts out — and to see more and more talented creators take an interest in the work that we’re doing.
Once all of the applications were in, the three editors (Jeremy, Kat, and me) reviewed all applicants separately ahead of our meetings to curate the book. This is definitely the most fun part of creating an anthology for us (a part that maybe we’ll do a full Substack post on someday) since we get to review a ton of amazing work. We have to make some tough calls since there is limited space in the final product and tons of incredible submissions. But that’s where having three editors comes in handy — to provide unique perspectives and input as we shape the “identity” of the anthology.
Creating a Successful Kickstarter
Kat: Collaboration is the true beauty of comics, especially anthologies. A Kickstarter is only as successful as its team! It’s so motivating to see how much passion is coming from our contributors to make this book a reality. They want to see Aces & Aros made just as much as we do!
As long-time creators on Kickstarter, Phil and I are happy to provide what we know about the platform and instill it into a project like this. All while our contributors have their own way of reaching out to their audience. For example, we had more YouTube and Tumblr reference links than we’ve ever had on a previous project, and that’s because our contributors have different ways of reaching their audience than we do.
Outside of the creators’ own audiences, it’s really important to fully present the anthology on the Kickstarter page. We’re very proud of our anthology projects, and a big key to our success is leaning on the wonderful stories attached to the book. Show images, tell your future buyers what the stories are about - the concept will sell on its own if you show potential supporters what they are getting.
Jeremy: Planning and preparation pay off! There are so many moving parts involved in Kickstarter that working with somebody who has a lot of experience and planning out as much of what's going to happen once the campaign hits are vital. I'm great at making comics, but the whole process of fulfillment and figuring out margins is a mystery to me.
Why Asexual Representation is Important
Jeremy: This book means the world to me. Even the stories I've told that involve ace characters are through my lens and they're just one story at a time. Here we have a ton of stories from a ton of different voices getting out into the world all at once. The best representation in diversity of experience and this anthology is the perfect way to show that in limited space. We can only hope someday there will be a lot more ace and aro stories out there and it won't seem like such a novelty, but for today, we have the opportunity to add so much more to the conversation and we can do it all at once thanks to this Kickstarter.
Livestream Q&A with Anthology Contributors TONIGHT!
Phil: To end off our Aces & Aros discussion, let us invite you to hear us talk even more about this awesome anthology!
We’ll be going live TONIGHT for a Livestream Q&A all about our newest anthology — and we’ll even be bringing on ten of the contributors to the book for short interviews about their stories and experiences!
The livestream will debut on Kat’s YouTube channel tonight (Thursday, 6/12) at 7pm EST. We’ll also take fan questions, so feel free to join and ask all your burning questions!
The Loud House: Loudest & Proudest is In Our Hands
Phil: We shared in a previous post that we’ve been doing some writing for Papercutz’s official The Loud House comics. We’re excited to announce that the first comic featuring our writing has hit the market!
This 64-page Pride Month-themed installment of The Loud House comics features a mix of brand new and reprinted stories with various LGBTQ+ characters from the series. Our "Double Date” short sees Lori and Luna struggle to plan a perfect double date with their respective partners.
You can grab your own copy of Loudest and Proudest on Papercutz website and on Amazon.
And definitely be on the lookout for more The Loud House writing from Kat and me! We’ve got another four stories in the works as we speak (the next one debuting in September)!
What have we been up to?
Let’s talk about how we’ve kept busy these last few weeks!
Philly Pride
Phil: The first day of Pride Month saw Lifeline Comics split up to tackle two different Pride events! I was joined by my fiancé, Julius, and sister, Marianne, for Philly Pride!
This is our second year tabling at Philadelphia’s Pride Festival, and we had an even better experience this time than we did in 2024! It was such a pleasure finally getting to debut Transphoria at a Pride Fest. And the reception for the book was so incredibly warm.
We got the chance to talk to tons of amazing people — including Robin Brooks (who contributed to Transphoria), a Slice of Life fan who met her girlfriend through their shared fandom of our webcomic (SO CUTE), and…GRITTY!
We’ll be back in Philadelphia at the end of the month for ALA Conference!
Asbury Pride
Kat: Asbury Park’s Pride is my favorite way to start June. Phil and I usually split up with Team A going to Asbury and Team B heading to Philly (which you can see above.)
Phil and I always have a good laugh that I’ve never been to Philly Pride and he’s never been to Asbury. But to keep the well-oiled machine running, it’s better that the teams that know the load in and out go each year to that pride. It makes things smoother, and along the way we’re always taking notes for each other to learn for future prides.
Fun Fact: Michele Abounader helped us vend at Asbury. It was so fun to collaborate with a fellow queer comic creator and friend for pride month!
World Pride
Kat: This is the third year that we’ve tabled at Washington DC Pride, and we were really excited that they’d be hosting World Pride this year.
As a fan of prides, it was really cool to see the plethora of big names who came to the event. So many gay icons performed, and we even got to listen to Cynthia Erivo and Doechii with their sets being close to our table.
As a vendor, we were actually more successful at their regular prides (which is one of our biggest events of the year.) Revenue wise we did make more than our previous year, but because the table was double the price and we had a whole extra day of vending I’d consider this to be a lower success rate compared to last year.
Because the event was so large it divided their own audience, which means less people were walking the festival streets. IT ALSO RAINED!
BUT because it was World Pride there were a lot more out of towners, so we were hitting a very different crowd, which is always a plus.
Even if Washington DC wasn’t a perfect A+, this was still one of our biggest events of the year. And we were so happy to see many new and familiar faces, and we are really excited to see how Washington DC will host their pride next year with what they’ve learned from World Pride.
Phil’s Family Bahamas Trip
Phil: The Falco Family hasn’t had a proper “vacation” in years. So to celebrate my and my mom’s birthday, we decided to take a big trip to Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas!
Julius and I flew in a day early — on a nearly empty flight, which was a first for me.
It was nice getting away for a bit and enjoying some beaches and waterslides.
And it meant a lot getting to spend some quality time with my family. Don’t get me wrong, we’re together all the time. But we’ve roped them into so much of our Lifeline work that it was nice to get away from it all for some fun time.
Marianne and I clinked some imaginary wine glasses for all of you!
Media
Let’s discuss some non-comics media!
On Swift Horses
Kat: On Swift Horses came onto my radar when I saw the trailer before we watched The Wedding Banquet. Sadly, just like many other queer dramas, On Swift Horses didn’t have a long stay in theaters, and it was getting mixed reviews, so I didn’t rush to the AMC. But with all our Prides we’ve been going to, we haven’t had as much of a chance to go to the theater. So I decided one night to treat myself to this movie for at home viewing.
And this is a testament to the “don’t always trust the tomato” sentiment. I really loved it! On Swift Horses explores the complicated relationship between two brothers and a wife stuck between them. On the surface, it seems as though Muriel is attracted to her husband’s brother, Julius. But the movie uses the undertones of the 1950’s to instead explore Julius as Muriel’s view of queerness. She’s not physically attracted to her husband’s brother, but she loves the idea of him.
On Swift Horses does a beautiful job at fully showcasing Julius’ queer relationship with himself and his partner. His queer story is a bit more straight forward, while Muriel’s journey feels more suffocating. Her queerness is subtle, which makes for some real tension between any other woman she encounters, and the actors do such a wonderful job at truly building that urgency within Muriel.
I want to applaud Daisy Edgar-Jones for the way she displays those small moments on screen to showcase her wanting so desperately to explore her queerness. She never utters the words “I’M GAY”, but you feel her non verbally shouting it to the rooftops while she plays with her hair, hides money/property, or dances around the subject with her husband.
Do yourself a Pride Month favor and give this underrated movie a shot! If you like 1950’s commentary as much as I do, I think you’ll really enjoy this one.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Phil: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was a Musical Comedy series that ran on the CW from 2015-2019. It follows lawyer Rebecca Bunch (played by series creator, Rachel Bloom) — who was working hard at a New York job, making dough but it made her blue. One day she was crying a lot, and so she decided to move to West Covina, California. Brand new pals, a new career. It happened to be where her ex-boyfriend Josh lived…but that’s not why she’s here.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has always been a show I’ve been tangentially aware of. I knew it was a cult-favorite series on the CW that never really found its audience while it was airing, but that the CW kept it going despite low ratings due to positive critical reception. It’s been on my watch list for nearly a decade now, and after happening across some of the catchy music from the series, I finally sat down to watch it.
Let me start off by saying that I really enjoyed this series. It’s a fantastic mix of humor and heart that manages to crank our banger songs every episode. Seriously, there are dozens of fantastic songs throughout the series that have made their way into my regular playlists. I also love the continuity of the series, which really thrives on running jokes — both in dialogue AND in their musical cues/numbers. The four opening songs, in particular, are each a lot of fun in their own right and are weaved into the actual show in really fun ways as the series progresses.
Probably the biggest success of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is its portrayal of mental health. The titular “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” Rebecca Bunch is, as the Season Four intro says, “too hard to summarize”. The series does an absolutely fantastic job tracking Rebecca’s journey, her mental state, and her history across its four seasons. The amount of thought, foreshadowing, and care that goes into the depiction of Rebecca is incredibly impressive. The show thrives on the shoulders of its flawed-but-loveable lead.
On the negative side, outside of Rebecca herself, there isn’t really another character that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is able to find consistent success with. Don’t get me wrong, there are other characters that I like (roommate Heather, boss Nathaniel). But even with characters I like, there are either character arcs I find myself not enjoying and/or the show has no idea what to do with the character half of the time (Josh’s girlfriend, Valencia, being maybe the best example of “I like this character, but the show has no idea what to do with her for full seasons at a time” that I’ve ever seen).
I don’t really know where to fit this into the “positives” or “negatives” department, but one of the core characters in the series and a key love interest for Rebecca, Greg, is written out of the show midway through its second season and is reintroduced midway through its fourth season, now played by a different actor. Despite all of the unavoidable clunkiness caused by the character’s absence and recasting, I have to throw major props to the show’s writing and to Skylar Astin’s performance for making this incredibly bizarre character arc feel complete. It’s one of the best examples I’ve seen of a character disappearing-and-reappearing seamlessly AND of a major character being recast while still feeling like the same character.
If you’re a fan of musical comedies and/or long-form character pieces, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is definitely worth the watch. It may not be perfect, but there’s almost a poetry in its imperfection — the way that it mirrors Rebecca’s own imperfections. The show is constantly framed as being from “Rebecca’s point of view” (including the musical numbers), so even the elements of the show that I don’t love feel less jarring than they otherwise might in a show that wasn’t so written around this particular character.
Fletcher “Boy”
Kat: In the wake of Jo Jo Siwa’s new relationship (which is a hell of a lot more controversially complicated), Fletcher releases a new song “Boy” during the height of Pride Month.
As a bisexual creator, who has been a fan of Fletcher since the beginning of her career, I have A LOT of feelings about this song. The reason I created Bi Visibility in the first place is because as a bisexual person you can sometimes feel invisible. You always feel like you have to prove your bisexuality, and there’s nothing you can do to feel like it’s enough. And through making that anthology I found out a lot of other bisexual people felt the same. So I truly feel for Fletcher! The amount of biphobia I’ve seen this year is astounding, and I’m saddened by some of the things I’ve seen because of this song.
First, let’s talk about the elephant in the room - was it right that Fletcher released this song during Pride Month? If you listen to the song, and not the headline, I say an astounding yes. This song isn’t about the boy. It’s about her relationship with her queerness? Her questions about her sexuality, and what that means for her career and her relationship with her queer fans. It’s truly a song where she’s talking directly to her audience. Not the boy.
“And I know it's not what you wanted to hear
And it wasn't on your bingo card this year
Well, it wasn't on mine”
And I understand the criticisms. “Well, she profited on being sapphic”. “Now she’s only going to talk about boys. I can’t relate to that.” But guess what, in the same breath she was talking about the girl who broke her heart, she has mentioned relationships with men.
Here’s an excerpt from “Girl of My Dreams” from her last album.
“Number one was a boy, and he had the greenest eyes
Like a forest, but I knew that I was lost
Round two in the city, she was crazy, but she made it so pretty
Left me emptier than lonely in New York
And three, she was an angel, yeah she could've been the one
But forever only made a couple trips around the sun
Now singing the sad girl songs is overdone”
Fletcher hasn’t changed. She’s not betraying you. She has always been bi and/or pan. She’s still queer. Those past songs and relationships are still valid. She just so happens to be dating a man now.
Her whole last album was about how broken a past relationship had left her, that she was looking for self love. As a fan and fellow queer person, I’m just happy that it seems like she’s finding her peace.
A song about bisexuality and/or pansexuality is just as valid as any other queer song released during Pride Month.
Comics
Let's discuss some comics we've enjoyed recently!
As always, we’ll spotlight an Indie Book, a DC/Marvel book, a Webcomic, and a Live Kickstarter book!
Indie Comic: The Girl From the Sea (Scholastic)
Kat: Phil’s brother, Dan, gave me a copy of this graphic novel a few months ago, and I finally had the chance to read it. The best YA novels are the ones that even adults can find something new to learn, and that’s exactly what The Girl From the Sea does.
Molly Knox Ostertag delivers a cute queer romance about a girl and seal that explores the complicated topics of divorce and coming out. The story does a beautiful job at portraying first love, even if it doesn’t work out. Just because a relationship ends doesn’t mean that the time you put into it was wasted. A great lesson for all ages!
DC Comics: Birds of Prey
Kat: Birds of Prey is both Eisner Award nominated and underrated all at the same time. I’m a huge fan of the ladies of the DC universe, so Birds of Prey is a never drop type of book for me, and I’m happy to see a run with the same writer truly blossom 20 issues in. Kelly Thompson and co. have found their voice as Dinah and Barbara lead a interchanging Birds of Prey roster. It’s a fun glimpse at this side of the DC universe. It’s both reminiscent of old runs, all while standing apart from the pack.
Kickstarter: RIDE OR DIE: Chapters 1 and 2
“Demons. Cars. Gay people. Like if Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse met John Carpenter’s Christine, but everyone drove really fast and had a lot of emotional problems.”
Phil: Say less. Beautiful pitch 👏
I love a good queer supernatural story, and this one looks like it hits all the right spots. Spearheaded by writer/illustrator Mars Heyward, Ride or Die oozes style in both the unique art and in the clever self-deprecating prose presented on the Kickstarter page.
We follow Lucky Maxwell, a “born-loser” (hahahah) who tries to avoid confrontation only to find himself thrown into the world of street racing by his possessed car.
I’m always saying that I want to see more Boy Love in the Kickstarter space, so supporting this well-put-together campaign is an absolute no-brainer for me.
Webcomic: HOOLIGANS - Our first adventure.
“A mother in search of her stolen child goes on a journey to find him against all odds.”
Phil: I normally don’t share webcomics only two episodes into their run, but this new project comes from a frequent collaborator of ours and a very talented artist: Yonson Carbonell (who was the artist on Slice of Life: Anime Adventure and who has contributed art to several of our anthologies).
His debut webcomic, Hooligans, begins with an introduction mostly focused on establishing the setting/world of the comic. Yonson takes care to introduce the reader visuals with the Rural Fantasy setting of Eiklis’ Shores and the surrounding village.
The framing device of the comic — stories told to local “hooligan” kids — is introduced in a fun and personable way. And the intrigue is already beginning to set in for the mystery surrounding our protagonist’s mother.
Very excited to see how this story develops over time! In the meantime, I’m loving Yonson’s art, as I always do!
In Closing…
Thanks so much for reading this newest post! We hope you learned some interesting stuff about how we put together Aces & Aros!
Be sure to check out the campaign which will run through the last Thursday of June. And join our Livestream Q&A tonight at 7pm EST to hear us talk even more about the anthology with many of the folks who contributed to it.
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Buy Lifeline Comics on our Website!
Current Kickstarter: Aces & Aros - An Asexual & Aromantic Comic Anthology
Next Cons/Events:
Boston Pride (Saturday, 6/14)
Rhode Island Pride (Saturday, 6/21)
ALA Library Conference (Friday, 6/27 - Monday, 6/30)
New York City Pride (Sunday, 6/29)
Congratulations on The Loud House! I’ve been showing an update about it to my eldest every time you have one.
Also, I appreciate your thoughts on Fletcher’s new song. My wife is bi and she’s felt similar. We had a conversation about it on Friday because of all the discussions happening about it