Super Giraffe and the Girl Who Lives Inside.
By Tafi Mukunyadzi
A thin fur covered, orange headband shaped as horns is the only sign that you’ve met Super Giraffe.
She’s bare-faced and wearing a grey t-shirt, jeans, and a brunette short haircut that usually only models can pull off. For now she looks like a human being, but soon, more signs will appear.
Along with makeup, the ears will be joined by a bodysuit, a tail and a cape so that Super Giraffe, the alter ego of 19 year-old artist Christina Nealis, will be instantly recognizable and “more approachable” to the fan base she hopes to create.
The girl behind the mask, or rather under the ears, is a native of Ohio who majors in illustration at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and interns at the Museum of Fine Arts. Christina dabbles in a number of different illustration media like paint and pencils. When arranging to meet up, she casually mentions that she is “charcoaling a van Gogh at the moment.” Her favorite way to express herself is through comic books, which she often writes and illustrates while listening to music that veers from Metallica to Enya.
Christina didn’t know that she wanted to write and illustrate for a living until her junior year of high school, even though she had been reading them since middle school. Her list of favorite comic books include V for Vendetta, Two Guys and Guy, and Arkham Asylum.
Her love of reading comic books eventually turned into a love of creating them because of comic books marry visual and verbal elements in an unusual way. According to Christina, comic books “give more thought to paneling and coloring,” to enhance the storytelling unlike manga-Japanese style comics which are traditionally black-and-white and have roots going back to the 19th century.
She recently published and sold her first comic called Goldfish at the Massachusetts Independent Comic Expo(MICE) in Porter Square this year.
Christina began to craft her persona at the Independent Comic Expo and while walking around Fenway Park, she explained that “when you’re selling things, it’s important to have a persona,” because “the comic game is tricky,” and you need to be able to stand out in the market.
Christina decided to stand tall so that she doesn’t get lost among the many artists trying have their art seen, and it is considerably easier to remember a giraffe with heroic qualities then a quiet, mild-mannered 19 year-old girl. The costume for Super Giraffe is slowly coming together, and the final touch will be a super emblem, of course.
But why a giraffe?
Superheroes have long been rooted in the characteristics of an animal, but the animal chosen is usually more fearsome or “cooler” than the odd-looking African mammal. Christina decided to transform into Super Giraffe because a giraffe is unlikely to be picked as someone’s favorite animal.
“The animal is awkward like a lot of people are, and people can relate to them because of that.”
The artist finds dressing up to be helpful because it allows her to keep her personal life and artistic life separate even though “parts of Super Giraffe are [her], just amplified.” She cites musical artists such as DeadMau5 and Lady Gaga as others who have extreme personas that probably influenced by the people who created them.
“People are a little more trusting if you’re dressed in a costume. They are more comfortable asking me things, especially little kids.” People also laugh more. To Christina, it doesn’t matter if people think what she is doing is stupid as long as they’re laughing. The only downside to being a kid-friendly superhero is that she hasn’t created a kid-friendly comic yet.
Perhaps Christina can get some inspiration from the children that she engages with while she is outside the persona of Super Giraffe. Christina interacts with autistic kids by using art, and she volunteers to do small art projects with little ones whenever she can. The illustrator enjoys what is known as art therapy because children with autism can express themselves in an unconventional way.The more time Christina spends with children with autism, the more she thinks about turning that time into a career.
While she continues to brainstorm comic book ideas, the young artist makes her trade by doing a variety of work. According to her, “being an illustrator means you have to have 50 million tools of trade.”
For character designs, she charges $30–40. Sketches, $15–30. Painting-$20 per hour. Those are her average rates unless she really likes you — then she’ll give you art for free.
Christina will also gift you with some artwork if you unwittingly become one of her subjects like people on public transportation who she says often catch her drawing them. Sometimes she draws panhandlers on the street and gives them their portraits because its a great way to start a conversation.
If she happens to get caught in the act of capturing a random stranger, she’ll simply say, “It’s ok, I’m an artist.” So much trust is gained with that line that she compared it to declaring, “It’s ok, I’m a doctor.”
Super Giraffe is never going to save anyone in the tradition of the conventional superhero, but she might disarm with her quiet, graceful invasion of your space — and give you art.
Perhaps people are trusting of artists because they secretly want someone to notice them, to find them interesting enough to acknowledge their existence on paper.
Maybe people just trust super heroes.
