iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Step right up! All it takes is one dose...

Photo of comic panel of a person in a cowboy hat and spikes gear enticing u to peruse their assortment of shiny little bottles of black goo

A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Maru works for illustrations, like the X-Men zines, but is far too small for comics. It enables too fiddly of details, at least for main lines.

Drawn with the Maru nib mostly. Shockingly reproduces well with the risograph!

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Page 2! Local radio DJ/surfer babe, Shane 🏵️

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

First page/cover inks done! Gonna hand letter all at the end, I think. Issue 0 of a new personal project

Photo of comic on too small of a drawing board in my new office. Slowly figuring out how to make this space work

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Drawing ice plant takes me back to Santa Cruz 🏵️🌴🌊

Inking a lot of ice plant for a comic splash page titled "terroir"

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Atsushi Kaneko is one helluva cartoonist. Just look at this little guy From Search and Destroy

Photo of a comic panel featuring beautiful cartooning of a lil guy with a sad face

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Art spotted in the wild! Finally went into Charlie's Books in Fremont and they've got a lovely copy of Bytchcraft 🖤✨🦇

Photo of my hand holding the tbp of the comic Bytchcraft by Aaron Reese and Lema Carill, for which I drew the covers

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Baseball! Doppelgangers! Black eyeliner! Printing more one-sheet F-ST teasers for Short Run

Black and white comic page featuring a boy in a baseball uniform washing black goop out of his eyes, followed by surreal imagery

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

More sorbus. Studies for a 3 color print

Photo of my sketchbook and pens used to draw a bunch of fall sorbus leaves and berries

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Tumblr Ask drawing from a user with exquisite taste 💅

Photo of my hand drawing in Clip Studio on a tablet screen. Black and white line art in progress of missss Alison Blaire aka the Disco Dazzler, and Jules Jourdaon aka my son Circuit Breaker

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Got the lime to print, but you'll have to take my word for it because I only have video evidence of this

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Lime ink was cursed, so this batch is minty fresh

Photo of a zine flat lay riso printed in mahogany and mini inks, featuring decorative typography

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Originally designed this for Mahogany, Kelly Green, and Bubblegum inks. Then realized I can do it all in two: Bright Red overprinting Kelly Green ink to get some browns, Bright Red tones for the daisy blush 🪿🌼 Excited to mess around in the studio more now, hope y'all like pastoral shit

Photo of a painting of canada geese on a green field with daisies

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Lookin for bugs in all the wrong places

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Makin real posters for fake bands from fake Reno

A stack of risograph printed posters featuring illustrative band logos, one of which is a centipede shaped like large intestine curling around the name "gastroentomologist" drawn like small intestines

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Printing folding stapling printing folding stapling printing

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

My screenprint brain defaults to printing dark colors on top of light colors. But the fluo Riso inks have white in them and will resist ink on top. That's why the first print run got so muddy (below). Turns out you've gotta print fluo colors on TOP OF YOUR DARKS to get them to mix properly 🤯

Photo of the previously printed zine in the same colors, but the overlaps are much muddier

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Reprinting both X-Rated zines and wowow the color layering turned out much better this time!

Photo of a two color risograph print in Blue and Fluo Orange that I made, fresh outta the printer babeyyy, featuring drawings of X-Men characters Madelyn Pryor (as The Goblin Queen) and Jean Grey (as Jean Grey) drawn by The Gorgonist and myself, respectively.

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

I know no one here follows me for bike stuff, but maybe y'all can at least appreciate this very goth wt-g grease. Very Titane over here 🩸

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

They were (and are still) so rarely seen that I used the shock of this exact observation -- a goblin shark in the deeper waters around the mid-Pacific trenches -- in a comic in 2014!

page from my sci-fi webcomic, Water, featuring a crew being surprised by being told their footage captured a goblin shark below 1300m. In the story, this is fake footage spliced in by their parent company to cover up something else

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

These are rarely observed, beautiful and strange deep sea critters (deeper than we thought!!) mostly known by their grotesque preserved specimens. We love a spectacle, we love a weird monster. But real live animals give people a reason to care about preserving their environment and existence.

Preserved goblin shark from Australian Museum. Their jaw extends! Like some angler fish! But they're huge sharks!

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Got the pink and blue for y'all weirdos who wear color ✌️

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Oh! Hmm I used to pile on more lines and tones hoping to happen upon nice shapes as I worked through a piece. Now I'm better at designing interesting shapes from the ground up, so I can do more with less in a way I personally find more compelling. (old ones are first) More blabbin' in alt text 🖤

2017ish inks. So much going on in the hair and clothing that doesn't really communicate much about the forms.

2017ish piece in colors. "maybe it needs a highlight here to feel right" was the general thought process. Trial and discovery and ending up at an okay place, but not the one I aspired to.

2022ish inks. The figure uses very few lines, but most of those lines are communicating things.

2022ish colors. Mostly just vibes at this point, since all the shapes and forms were designed in from the ground up.

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

computer successfully cleaned & archived! here's another old drawing I found

image of a boy surrounded by dark, shiny goop

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Idk this was also an extremely important moment for the homosexual readers as well

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

just some wholesome kiddos from 2017

colored drawing of three wholesome kids hanging out. they are characters from my 2015-2019 queer sci-fi webcomic, Full-Spectrum Therapy. on the left is Tayler who has bleached hair, a shirt that says "meatpacker" in a metal font, and is blowing a smoke ring from a joint. on the right is Kylee smiling in a studded vest. In the center is Quin in a sheer mesh shirt. He has his arms around both of them. It's pretty wholesome.

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

My book is out on submission right now!

Ink drawing of the main character in my graphic novel currently out on submission. She has a dull expression and a shiny bob

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Happy Pride to the Chick tract found in the thimbleberries

Me holding a Chick tract with the word 'hone' redacted so the dialogue, in a panel with a man clutching his heart in front of the grim reaper, reads "take my hand lord jesus I'm coming"

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

"and what changes the darkness into light?"

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Congratulations to the DC Pride 2025 crew! Andrea swung big with this one and it's lovely to see that effort rewarded. I had fun creating this look for Coagula and designing a new blorbo for @losthiskeysman.bsky.social and @judedoyle.bsky.social's story. Ty for knocking on my door for this book 🌈🖤

character sheet for Ethan Rivera, written by Josh Trujillo and Jude Ellison S Doyle

Page I drew featuring Coagula and Supes, written by Josh Trujillo and Jude Ellison S Doyle

Page of Ethan Rivera jumping through bubble-panels, written by Josh Trujillo and Jude Ellison S Doyle

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

The final piece for DUNE issue 100! I love the flex on Speedball 102 nibs but this paper sure doesn't

Comic page being held up in front of a room of people and balloon numbers celebrating 100 issues of DUNE comics zine!

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Ahh had some time to pop in for the DUNE issue 100 session between the protest march and Fat Slut haha

Wip photo of inks breaking in new nibs on some real flimsy Chinese manga paper

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

How things get made 'round these parts

Selfie with my ailing tuxedo cat, Casper, resting his head on the arm on my keyboard, body draped over my lap, sleeping.

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

I can just noodle gross body stuff in ink forever...and now I'm feeling empowered to make it gross and shiny

Cropped photo of a traditionally inked comic page featuring a big weird bodyhorror monster blob with a sort of mouth. Screentones and white ink add dimension

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Alright... c'est fini! BENNET DU PARIS - EXODUS Rating the X-Men on Drag Race criteria Whom better to end book 1 with than this ol’ guy? Sad, gay, and with CLAMP-honoringly large pauldrons. I loved his Krakoa arc. 💋 Charisma - 4 ✨ Uniqueness - 4 💅 Nerve - 2 ❌ Talent - 4

Photo of a page from a zine printed on a risograph machine in fluorescent pink and blue, featuring exodus from the X-Men looking sad and gay

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Day two of signing books & serving looks (sweaty, black t-shirt) #eccc2026

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Gen Z recognizing my X print? The kids are alright

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

I did it, I set up my booth! Here at #ECCC2026 all weekend, say hi ✌️

My booth at ECCC, with stuff on it and maybe even prices? Jury's out on that one

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

AMARA JULIANA OLIVIANS AQUILLA - MAGMA Rating the X-Men on Drag Race criteria I have so many thoughts on how to use her in a fun way for the narrative…and someday they’ll make it into a fancomic. 💋 Charisma - 1 ✨ Uniqueness - 2 💅 Nerve - 2 ❌ Ta lent - 2

Photo of a riso printed zine in fluo pink and blue featuring the X-Men character Magma

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

TABITHA SMITH - BOOM BOOM Rating the X-Men on Drag Race criteria Okay, Boomer! She's young, dumb, and fun, and I've loved her since her X-Terminators days with Rictor. I have a soft spot for the X-Force Liefeld bodysuit, though 💋 Charisma - 3 ✨ Uniqueness - 2 💅 Nerve - 4 ❌ Talent - 3

Risograph zine printed in fluo pink and blue featuring boom boom of the X-Men. I couldve done the overlays better on this one. Maybe I'll recolor it for a future edition

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A.L. Kaplan @alkcomics.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

SPIRAL Rating the X-Men on Drag Race criteria Uhh she rules. Also what an exemplary 90s nonsense character design. 💋 Charisma - 3 ✨ Uniqueness - 4 💅 Nerve - 5 ❌ Talent - 4

Photo of a riso printed zine page in blue and fluo pink featuring the X-Men character spiral, looking like a maniac. Also the photo is kinda bluish and I guess I didn't edit it correctly, oh well

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