Throughout my time at MCAD’s MFA program, I have worked on refining my ability to tell stories that convey the intersectionality of my experience as a trans and queer second-generation Russian Jewish Immigrant. Back in the first year of the MFA program, I worked on a queer Jewish period piece romance comic called Transatlantique. My main goal in making that comic was to create a solid portfolio piece that I could use to show off my draftsmanship and storytelling skills. This year, with Nice Jewish Boy, my goal was to make something weird. Something that expressed the complicated emotions that come with being your family’s golden child while also being a closeted transexual pervert. Transatlantique was a 32-page comic that took over a year to complete. The Nice Jewish Boy is a 40-page comic that I had 16 weeks to finish. To say that this was a challenge is an understatement, let alone the fact that NJB is a story that deals with themes of horror and psychological deterioration that I have never properly tried to communicate through comics before. So, I had to change the way I worked. About two-thirds of this comic was sketched traditionally with a mechanical pencil on 5.5” x 8.5” paper and then scanned into a computer to be edited, inked, and colored digitally. The rest was sketched digitally. This is not a comic made for a gallery space. While I look forward to hearing what people think of it at MCAD’s MFA Thesis Exhibition, this comic will really take on its life when I sell it at conventions and zine fairs as well as distributing it online in PDF format. I hope it can get into the hands of fellow queer Jews who can commiserate over the respectability politics that come with generations of cultural assimilation. Website: www.drifterdraws.comInstagram: @drifterdraws Categories MFA Thesis 2024 Tags MCAD MFA MFA Thesis 2024 MFA MCAD MFA 2024