Why Webcomic Artist Maelyn Dean Is Cool
Happy birthday to a wonderful creator!
Thursday, June 22, is Mae Dean’s birthday. She is 42, and the creator of the webcomic Real Life. It’s a comic about her life, and her friends. Because the characters know that they are in a comic, they have a lot of fun messing with the fourth wall. Book one chronicled the first year of the comic, when it was structured with black-and-white dailies and colored Sunday strips, and it was printed in nice editions. While book two never came to fruition, book one remains formative to my webcomic ambitions.
The current cast includes Mae, her wife Liz, their children Harper and Parker, and nerd friends Dave and Tony. Dave mainly shows up to talk with Mae about nerd stuff, while Tony has helped plan evil domination plans. Alan Extra is an occasional bit character that fills in some roles.
I previously talked about how Mae chronicled her trans awakening a few years ago for Pride month. Since it’s her birthday, and Real Life is on hiatus for the moment, I was thinking about the reasons why she is cool. Real Life is also very cool and well worth the archive binge. I totally recommend that you all go and read it. But why this comic in particular?
