Duna Haller
Bethania Arts is a writer, comic artist and reviewer from Barbados that is now residing in Canada after leaving an abusive family transphobic situation. She has an original story being self-published: T.E.R.F. Wars, and a Slice-Of-Life type comic strip called A Day For Beth, asides from writing reviews and organizing a LGBTQ+ Indie & Small Business Index. You can see her work at her webpage, support her art at her Patreon/Ko-Fi and follow her at @bethaniaarts on Instagram. We had the pleasure of sitting with her for a fun talk in all things nerdy!
Comic Watch: Hi Beth! First of all, thank you so much for chatting with us at Comic Watch. What are you working on lately? What’s in your desk?
Bethania Arts: You’re welcome! I’m super excited about this!
Right now the thing I’m most creatively invested in right now is a story I’ve been writing on Wattpad: The Manga Club’s President Is A Succubus. It’s a femreader story where the reader’ss perspective is a girl who has to form a pact with a succubus that falls for her.
I’ve been really fun to write and I love how it’s going. It’s doing pretty well too as I’ve seen in hold the #1 spot in the femreader tag for a little while. I think the reason I enjoy writing it so much is because I am a hopeless romantic who just loves writing romantic scenes.
Before Wattpad, I was working on Part II of T.E.R.F War. The first draft is actually finished for Part II and I even have up to Chapter 31 written (that’s the starting chapter for Part III!).
As for articles, I have a review for God Eater 3 that is practically done and I have a journal entry that I haven’t finished where I talk about escaping Barbados and seeking asylum here in Canada. It starts with how the person that first housed me after the end of the second journal was abusive to me, and then I went to be housed by someone who was so kind to me that I call him my adoptive dad, and then it talks about how my friends and an organization, Rainbow Railroad, helped raised money for me to get a flight to Canada in March, where I’m now safe and happy.
CW: In your diary/confessional type comic A Day For Beth, you showcase your everyday situations, mental health stuff, trans stuff, all that with a really cutesy art style surroundings. Do you have any main inspiration for your strip and drawing style?
BA: I’m not even sure haha. I remember wanting to draw something like mini-comics, but I didn’t want to use a style that required a lot of detail as I take long to do digital art. So what I did was start sketching little chibi figures that look like me until I got the desired look I wanted. Once I had the style I wanted, you’ll notice that I started making changes to it as I made each comic. It went from black and white to base colouring, and then it went to three panels to four.
But you know what I just remembered? I have an article/image I made of my favourite role models two years ago, four who are comic artists. Julia Kaye, Sarah Anderson and Jessica Nightmare were the webcomic artists who’re work I read a lot, however, I don’t get time to read webcomics as often now. But if we’re talking my favorite artist, it has to be Holly Grimes! She’s nowhere as well-known as the others, but she has the most adorable style of them all and I love it so much! She has a comic called ‘Sakura Yume‘ about a girl who becomes best friends with a trans girl and it’s so freaking cute! I even made a fan comic shipping the two characters!
CW: Your story T.E.R.F. War, that you’re putting out on your website chapter by chapter, touches on issues that are too relevant to the rise of TERFs ideology in various social spheres, and it does so with a main trans girl character joining the group Girls Against Terfs. How did you come up with that idea?
BW: Ah, I’ve always wanted to talk about the backstory behind TERF War hehe!
BW: Ah, I’ve always wanted to talk about the backstory behind TERF War hehe!
So one day, I came across this Facebook page that my friend got in a fight with. It was a TERF page dedicated to spreading whatever agenda they had against trans people. I decided to call out the page for its disgusting behavior, but in turn, I got bullied by the page. Now that’s pretty important to note because I have trauma from being bullied in secondary school, so if I feel like I’m being bullied, I go into a state of depression and isolation for days. That’s what happened, but once I got out of it, I had the idea to create a story about fighting TERFs. Plus, it was a good idea for content I can make for my website since I draw and write. But it couldn’t just be any story, it had to be something dealing with superpowers and such because I’m a total nerd for superheroes!! You’ll actually see I make reference to Marvel comics quite a bit in T.E.R.F War’s chapters.
As for how I want to write the book, I wanted to showcase how cruel TERFs can be against people just trying to live their lives. In fact, I made the antagonist detestable in such a way that one of the characters calls her ‘the modern-day Hitler’.
CW: I also love how the story shifted through genres, going from more adventurous style to letter form, TV news report, memories/diary-style, depending on the chapter, while maintaining the main tension and story central. And, as you said, there’s a lot of Marvel comics references, like the Wolverine one on Chante’s swords, the She-Hulk one, or that line where it literally narrates “All of this sounds like something out of a comic book fantasy”. With all this mixed-media-narrative, do you feel like T.E.R.F. War could jump to other genres?
CW: I also love how the story shifted through genres, going from more adventurous style to letter form, TV news report, memories/diary-style, depending on the chapter, while maintaining the main tension and story central. And, as you said, there’s a lot of Marvel comics references, like the Wolverine one on Chante’s swords, the She-Hulk one, or that line where it literally narrates “All of this sounds like something out of a comic book fantasy”. With all this mixed-media-narrative, do you feel like T.E.R.F. War could jump to other genres?
BA: Hehe thanks! When I was writing it, I knew I couldn’t keep writing from Emilia’s perspective (the protagonist) for everything, as I had to also inform the reader of important information about other characters. Like one of the chapters where one of the villains is about to die and has a memory about the reason behind their actions and she came to where she was. It wouldn’t feel the same coming from the mouths of other characters, so it was important to tell it from their perspective. Then there are things like the TV news report that gives the reader perspective on what’s going on in the outside world besides the war between the two groups of the book.
Yep, there are also references to my favorite video games as well. It’s basically me just speaking through Emilia (the protagonist) what a big nerd I am for comics and video games, haha.
I actually daydream about expanding the T.E.R.F War world into something much bigger. The whole concept of these super-powered humans existing in a world that takes inspiration from ours is an idea ripe for world-building. Like if I could, I would write an animated movie about how G.A.T’s leader, April, had a relationship with someone that in turn gave her the weapon she uses in the book, because chances are I won’t be able to fit that story into the main book. Even the idea of there being a video game of T.E.R.F War has crossed my mind, obviously because I’m an avid gamer.
Oh, if I could, I would have actually made T.E.R.F War into a comic. I even had a page drawn where the protagonist and antagonist meet, but I made the decision to go with a book since I love writing and I know I’ll be able to reliably release chapters often.
CW: In your Journal, you share personal difficult experiences as a trans woman surviving an abusive family in Barbados and the colonialist and Christian historical reasons behind that extra difficulty of LGBT+ people there, which connects with a lot of the harsh narratives you put in some places of T.E.R.F. War. How do you think your experience shaped this story?
BA: I think the most significant part of T.E.R.F War that was shaped by my experience is that of Emilia and her father. You see, I had abusive parents, so I never got that feeling of love and support that others are lucky to have. It’s caused me to get attached to older persons who I see as parental figures I can look up to, and that’s where Emilia and her father come in to reflect that part of me. Emilia’s father, Eric, loves her immensely and supports her transition 200%. That’s why it’s an important part of the story’s plot and gives Emilia a purpose to fight against T.U.R.F who take the one person she loves the most hostage.
Then there’s, of course, things like being discriminated against by others. The antagonist and her group show how ruthless it can be for trans people in the hardest of circumstances. Even being targeted, like how T.U.R.F tries to eliminate trans people, is something other LGBT people in Barbados can relate to.
But of course, I’m sure you’ll have plenty of cishet Barbadians telling you a load of lies that LGBT people are safe there. No, we are not. We wouldn’t be running from our home country in search of a better life if it was.
CW: You also put together an LGBT+ Indie and Small Business Index on your page of other LGBT+ artists. How did this initiative start? Are there any of them you would like to highlight?BA: You can read more about it in the index, but t all started with easternfolly’s tweet who said we need to support small queer businesses, not the corporations who already have more money than they need. And then someone reposted it on Facebook and it gave me an idea:
“Everyone was suggesting that there should be a list that had small queer businesses so persons can easily find them, so I asked myself “Why don’t I make it myself?”.” That’s how the final idea came to me to make it into a helpful resource for others to use. I believe it’s very important for our community to support each other instead of feeling like we need to compete with one another.
CW: Last, thank you so much for talking with us! And since you also do reviews, mostly of games, movies and books. Are there any of the reviews you did that is your favorite?
BA: Thank you! I love these kinds of interviews. It helps me know myself better. And oh, I can’t pick just one! There’s a lot of my reviews I like so I’ll try to narrow it down.
If we’re talking about my favourite detailed one, it would have to be my Far Cry 5 review because I loved that game and wanted to highlight all of my favourite things I liked about it.
If we’re talking about something more emotional, one would be my rant about how I was upset that Respawn wasn’t working on Titanfall 3. Then there would be my review on Seduce Me Otome because I was upset that they spent so little resources on the g/g (girl x girl) route of the game. I had a total weeb crush on Naomi and her voice actor, but I got upset when they didn’t include her character as an option in the sequel.
Then we have articles where I criticize the writing of other media, like The Mist (2017), Far Cry
Then lastly, I would say my next favorite one of all is my OpenCanvas 7 review. At the time, I was the only one who wrote a review for it, thus a lot of people came to my site through my detailed review on it!
Thriving From Abuse Through Art: An Interview With Bethania Arts
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