With a luminous illustration resume and three books under her belt, Ellen Forney is a graphic arts tour de force. Being a long-time fan of her work, I was tickled pink to sit down with Ms. Forney for an interview. As we sipped iced coffee, she gave me the low down on her history with Babeland, sex-positivity, her four-year run illustrating Lustlab, and her newest book, LUST.

Part I

You have a long, positive history with Babeland. How did this all begin?

I started out doing drawings for the catalog. I’d go into the store with a list from Rachel Venning and draw the toys. I distinctly remember holding a big dildo right up near my face to sketch it, one of those dildoes with the moveable testicles, maybe the Jeff Stryker, and it suddenly dawned on me, “Wow. This is my job.” I got this third person perspective, how strange I must look, and I thought, “This is cool.”

I interviewed Rachel for one of my how-to comics in I Love Led Zeppelin, “How to Fuck a Woman With your Hands.” One woman told me that it “completely changed her sex life with her boyfriend,” and a guy emailed me to thank me. He’d just hooked up with a woman who had never had an orgasm from sex with another person. She called him a “god.”

Sex toys have made an appearance in much of your work. Do you have a favorite toy or toys?

My most recent acquisition is an Annie O harness. It’s hot.

Could you talk a little about place of the queer/feminist/sex-positive woman and sex-positivity in your body of work?

Queer, fetish-y subjects, or things like sex toys are getting much more accepted, but are still often taboo. They’re often seen as something creepy or freaky. Dirty. Dark. My “thing” is to present these ideas as fun and healthy, in a straightforward and playful way. Ideally, that entertains and validates the “weird, kinky” people, and allows people outside of that world to be more accepting, and, importantly, to examine their own desires.

Sometimes I forget that my work is seen as being “edgy and alternative” by people who are outside of Capitol Hill, Seattle. Most people are pretty conservative. That became especially clear when my latest book collection came out and reached people who weren’t looking at the back of the Stranger. One review called it “deviant and twisted.” I had to translate all the personal ad acronyms for my brother.

I Love Led Zeppelin got a less fired-up but similar response: sex-positive and queer stuff, recreational drugs, burlesque – that stuff was “edgy” and “freaky.” A comic with a woman who happened to have hairy armpits made one reviewer uncomfortable.

My subject matter doesn’t seem “alternative” to me really, it’s just normal. It’s how we all live. It’s not that I’m naïve, I just forget. I think that’s what allows me to present it in a very open, matter-of-fact way. It’s open and matter-of-fact!

How did “Lustlab Ad of the Week,” your cartoon series in The Stranger, come into being?

Editor Dan Savage, Lustlab manager Caroline Dodge, and art director Corianton Hale came up with the idea. They wanted a one-panel cartoon relating to the kinky personals, and decided to feature an ad of the week. I took to it right away. It was a perfect exercise for me, and allowed me to practice different drawing and writing styles. Of course, it carried a totally sex positive message, too.

I put a lot of humor in my work. Humor is very disarming. It allows people to receive messages they might otherwise be resistant to.

Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 of our interview, and make sure to mark your calendar: Ellen Forney will be celebrating the opening of her show, Ta-ta Lustlab Ad of the Week, on Tuesday, September 9th as part of the Capitol Hill Art Walk. Join Babeland Seattle at 6pm for a close-up look at original illustrations from Lustlab.

This Labor Day weekend, like most weekends in the Seattle store, people flocked in looking for sex toys, books, videos, and advice. We have all types and fashions of people who come in, however, this weekend was decidedly transgender! Just blocks down the street at the convention center, Gender Odyssey was underway. “An international conference focused on the thoughtful exploration of gender,” Gender Odyssey is a yearly gathering for transgender folks and their allies to come together to learn, socialize, and grow together. This year, among other topics, there were dialogs and sessions on community, legal issues, health, race, trans youth, transition, and of course, sex!

On Friday and Saturday, I saw dozens of trans men coming in to buy some bulge—our mini soft packs went from stocked to sold out in a day! There were trans women checking out books, toys, and chatting up the staff. And there were allies—the boyfriends and girlfriends—who came in to buy trans porn for their nighttime parties and fun!

I didn’t think I was going to go, but with an insider’s tip, I was able to secure a free one day ticket through the generous Gay City. On Sunday I went down to see what all the fuss was about, and with a little ninja skill, I was able to sneak in for a second day on Monday! At the top of the convention center, up the escalators, past the art and gardens, trannies abounded, passing between the six large rooms that held the various sessions.

Many of the sessions I went to were discussion based; some of the dialog became rather passionate but always remained friendly. In “The Feminine Ideal” session, people pieced together and tore apart the ideas of femininity that the media and our culture feed us, a multifaceted dialog with an equal mixture of consensus and debate.

In the well attended “Trans Mental Health” session, Jay Williams skillfully moderated a discussion on the state of mental health care for trans folks. There was a large percentage of mental health professionals present, some of whom were transgender themselves, and although some of the discussion vilified the health care industry, they were a welcome, gracious, and understanding bunch! Many perspectives were given a voice.

In “The Rules of Attraction,” we brainstormed and discussed terms that don’t exist, such as “a non pejorative for people attracted to trans people specifically,” for “dykes attracted to men,” for “non-gendered sexuality,” etc. We did the same for sex rules that suck, such as “tops never bottom,” “sex in private, in a bed, in the dark, with two people, in a relationship,” and “if there is passion, communication (and toys!) aren’t needed for it to work.”

But there wasn’t only talk talk talk! On Monday, along the walls of a room, dozens of trans men took off their shirts and showed off their chests! There were shirtless cute guys and hunky guys, shirtless slim guys and big guys all lined up to watch and talk to! The scars of their surgeries ranged from large to minute—often making them all the more attractive. The point was to offer a time to ask questions about and share the various results of different surgeons for guys considering chest surgery (the info of each man’s surgeon was written up on posters behind them). I had no interest in female-to-male chest surgery for myself, yet it was anything but lost time!

The conference was finished off with “She’s a Boy I Knew,” an autobiographical documentary of Gwen Haworth’s transition from male to female. The pleasantly well-made DIY film was largely told through the reactions, feelings, and memories of her parents, sisters, wife, and best friend in candid, loving, sad, and funny interviews. Throughout, voice overs, animations, and skillful editing provided an intriguing and humorous look at one transgendered woman’s journey.

Gender Odyssey was an educational and uplifting experience. For many, there are few times and places when so many people can experience community and love over an issue that often isolates and confuses. Lives are sure to have been positively changed, and will continue to be improved until next year’s Gender Odyssey strikes again!