SAM SZABO
THE ENLIGHTENED TRANSSEXUAL, A RECURRING CHARACTER IN SAM SZABO’S REPERTOIRE IS AN OMNIPOTENTLY POWERFUL, ANCIENT COSMOLOGICAL ENTITY WHOSE KNOWLEDGE OF “ARCANE GENDER SECRETS'' AND DEFIANCE OF NORMATIVE BINARIES RENDERS HER BOTH TERRIFYING AND DIVINE TO
CIS-HETERONORMATIVE SOCIETY.
Featured in Queer Futurities is a comic strip from Szabo’s forthcoming compilation, Enlightened Transsexual Comix. The comic strip recalls countless film and media tropes of the sexually perverse cyborg or android to satirize anti-porn censorship policies and algorithmic biases which prejudicially target queer, especially trans, users and the rampant anti-trans rhetoric present in public discourse both on and offline.
“Platform Heels” portrays the efforts of the Enlightened Transsexual to recover her suspended Instagram account to outcompete her rogue sex-bot avatar. These tactics include breaking into the home of Mark Zuckerberg, whose content moderation practices came under scrutiny in 2020 for discriminately over-censoring queer content. In pages 14-18, Szabo depicts Dave Chappelle alongside other notorious public personalities including Joe Rogan and Elon Musk who have voiced similar anti-trans sentiments and inflamed online transphobia.
Sam Szabo, "Platform Heels", 2021, p. 1/18, image courtesy of the artist.
Sam Szabo, "Platform Heels", 2021, p. 2/18, image courtesy of the artist
Sam Szabo, "Platform Heels", 2021, p. 3/18, image courtesy of the artist
Sam Szabo, "Platform Heels", 2021, p. 4/18, image courtesy of the artist
Sam Szabo, "Platform Heels", 2021, p. 5/18, image courtesy of the artist
Sam Szabo, illustration for "Enlightened Transsexual Comix", image courtesy of the artist
Sam Szabo is a Chicago-based independent cartoonist whose autobiographical series humorously recount her personal relationships, contemporary culture, and her experiences as a transgender woman. Szabo received her BA in Creative Writing from Oberlin College.
More of her work can be found on Instagram, @brainboogerindustries, and her Patreon, @brainbooger.