Hi everyone, Robert Finch here. I’m a comic scripter who’s worked with artists from around the world, and now that I’m a contributor to Her Campus I decided to do a comic for all of you.
I initially intended the comic to speak for itself but, impressed with the write-up I did for the comic Gynostar Sammi (our editor here at Rowan) decided that these comics could do with a bit of explanation as well. So this is Coquin!
Coquin is a French word that not only has a complex meaning, has a very personal meaning among the two of us. You see, Gregory Floch (the artist) and I have been making comics for approximately two to three years now. We’ve done spy comics, superhero comics, and a barbarian comic once, and one thing I’ve noticed about him is that he LOVES drawing beautiful women. Although I can’t show a sample due to some of our younger readers, Floch (and much of the comic world) has a love of the female form to the point of even getting erotic at times. I was obviously uncomfortable with this at first, and whenever I called Floch out on this he’s respond “Coquin!” which in French is a polite way to say “pervert” or specifically a polite way to say a person likes “sexy” things (how polite it is I don’t know but a French Canadian friend corroborated this). So of course when I joined HerCampus and wanted to do a comic for them I brought Floch would be perfect…if he could reel it in a bit. Below is the first comic we did.
As you can see, here is Serena…a French woman fresh off the boat to America who has an interest in fashion…but not so much the attention it brings. As you can tell the comic has a feminist perspective, with the focus being the feeling one has, as a woman, in a world where often there are unrealistic expectations on how you should act, feel, and of course look. Although I am (obviously) not a woman myself, I have a deep interest in woman’s lib and have had many female friends who would educate me on the subject. This doesn’t explain why I, as a person who respects women, would pick an artist for the project who has a bit too much a fascination with female form. In fact the original version of this strip had Serena with impossibly large chests and posterior! To put it simply, I wanted an artist with French sensibilities, since the archetype of a fashionista seems to always look French when caricatured. And since many of you readers ARE fashionistas, I thought that such a character would fit a paper where many of you, while reading this strip, would feel deja-vu. Fun fact, Serena didn’t always wear glasses. When frustrated at my attempts to tone down the sexy Floch simply put glasses on her and said “Women like glasses!” I’m not sure how true it is but I’m not going to complain since the character is now presentable.
Another reason I chose to work with Floch for this project is that he’s actually a fine art graduate. Everything he draws is rooted in fine art, especially the work of Pablo Picasso. This makes his art very hard to “sell” to publishers, but in turn makes his work very unique and very fun to watch. I am always in awe in the very fluid movements and and unique characters he pencils…but I think the heart of it is that he has a very interesting sense of humor that relies on almost cartoonish characters and exaggerated movments and expressions. Before I move on to the last of our three strip arc I would like to point out…this comic strip is based on experience. If there is one store I would NEVER go into in a mall it would be Victoria’s Secret. The heavy perfume and hot pink decor definitely are man-proof!
Introducing Hossafat! Hossafat is a bottle genie who, due to his inclinations, inhabits a perfume bottle by choice. Hossafat is a little different from how genies are presented in that rather than being trapped in the bottle, the bottle is his home and he grants wishes when he feels like it rather than on demand. He was created as a counterpoint to the feminist Serena since he, being VERY old-fashioned, is more comfortable with traditional gender roles. That said, Serena will have to bribe him with a certain item if she wants any wishes out of him.
So the comics are set. I hope to have more for you in the future as I write them and Gregory Floch draws them. I likely will be asked to either provide commentary, or better yet write a comic to accompany my articles. There is more still to tell and I hope you enjoyed our silly doodles