Grey Liliy's Journal

As I was reading through the classic Wiglaf and Mordred comic to edit and adjust for the reboot, I noticed that some jokes just...didn't hit like they did back in the early 2000's -- specifically all of the early Driver jokes.

I've already decided to heavily rework most of those jokes, but it has had me thinking about Driver and her gender as it appears in WaM.

As a character, Driver was inspired by three major factors in her creation:

1. A female friend I knew in high school that was continuially mistaken for a man.
2. A female friend in college that hated skirts/dresses and preferred to wear more masculine clothing.
3. I thought it would be funny to have a genderswapped version of a popular crossdressing joke: "Wow, she's hot!" "That's a man, dude." "WHAT?"

As such, Driver is a character that exclusively identifies as a woman, but is 100% male passing and often mistaken as a man.

She has a low, rough voice and a very flat chest with no hips. She wears male clothing 80% of the time, which adds to how easily she is mistaken for a man in the comic (and by readers, too, lol--but that's only fair considering how many people think Wiglaf is a girl at first sight).

If Driver were to be cast with a live actor, I'd want it to either be a man or someone male passing to drive that point home.*



That all isn't to say she's exclusively masc presenting, however--Driver also enjoys wearing dresses and being feminine on special occassions.

She is a character who gets the best of both worlds on that front.



During the run of WaM, many readers often asked if Driver was a transwoman (and now, I can see people asking if she's Non-Binary).

The answer has almost always been "If you see her that way, I don't mind the headcanons, but Driver is a cis woman canonically."

She was created as representation for the ladies who aren't gender conforming or never developed as feminine as their peers.

That said, with this modern climate, I can see how people would crave a gender non conforming transwoman in their media, but if I were to write that sort of character, it would be an entirely new person. Driver's specific brand of representation has always been important to me and a select few readers.

All that said and done, I now get to figure out how to get all that across without resorting to Wiglaf freaking out that Driver is actually a woman when he meets her. Lol.

Thankfully I've got a little time yet. I forgot how long it actaully took to introduce the final member of the WaM main character trio during the initital story and I'm itching to get Driver back in there!

Thanks for listening to my musing and if you don't want to wait for Driver in the reboot, the classic comic is still there and waiting. ;D

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*It's fun having more language to describe Driver, btw. When she was created, "Girl that looks and sounds like a man" was the best that I had--now I can use language like "Gender non-conforming cis woman who is male passing." More of a mouthful, but more accurate and specific at least. Lol.

Too tired to make specific posts, so here's a few updates:

Indyx

Love the app. Haven't had a chance to use it properly because I have way too many clothes and I am nowhere NEAR done cataloging everything. I've been adding things as I wear them, but that's mostly making me realize I could probably wear a different outfit every day of the year and still have clothes leftover (exaggeration, but that's what it feels like).

Maybe one day I'll have all my clothes into the app and I can actually use it to create outfits and experiment with fashion like it's intended to do. XD

(or pay for a lookbook).

Fandom

Fairly OddParents still lingers (I love you, still, Peri) but Sonic the Hedgehog has me by the throat. Mostly Sonic & Shadow, but only because I can't find the very specific relationship dynamnics I want for Sonic and Tom or Sonic and Tails.

Also randomly reading a Resident Evil 8 fic that's Bela/Ethan and 500k. Lol.

Social Media

I am slowly figuring out Mastodon/The Fediverse. Joined Bookwyrm (Goodreads/Story Graph alt on the Fediverse).

I'm liking it, but the learning curve is steep and it makes me appreciate Bluesky more and more every day, even if it's still essentialy centralized.

Writing

What is writing.

Comics

This, I have done a lot of work on! The first chapter of Wigalf and Mordred is done (and 90% posted), and I've made thumbnails for the second chapter.

I'm still ahead of the game and riding that high. :D

Crafts

Working on a crochet sweater, started a knitted shawl (doing eyelets for the first time!) and I'm making a basket.

Conclusion

Things are busy and productive, so good overall. :D

Guess who finally finished updating the last of her Comic pages to Fables.pro? Me. Lol.

I have had a very bad habit of never talking about my webcomic over the past few years. Around 2014 (a very big ish for that year), I was depressed (not that I knew that's what was going on at the time) and it left a big mark on the quality of my comic.

It lingered for a long time (as in, this year), which made me keep working on the comic, but I was ashamed to share it, despite having a handful of very loyal readers still.

Yesterday, I finally made the decision to reboot my comic (something I'd been thinking about since that depressive episode), which required making big changes.

One of which was to get my comic off my personal website and onto something more modern. A lot of webtoons sites weren't appealing, and then Fables.pro arrived!

The site is still in the early stages, but I love what I see and I'm glad to make it my new home for comics.

The Adventures of Wiglaf and Mordred (Classic) is now fully hosted alongside a ton of amazing indie comics of all skill levels.

I'm looking forward to being in love with my characters again.