Beaker

Late last Friday I received a set of emails that went a long way toward alleviating my personal post-election doldrums: BeakerFA, the talented weight gain cartoonist, had sent me a trio of WG pinup sequences that he'd been commissioned to produce for an FA with disposable income. (Why don't I ever run into one of those benefactors?) The three sequences were devoted to female figures that the customer had requested – tough-looking lady cop, gaunt goth grrl and trim librarian – and featured two- to four-panel sequences of each one magically ballooning to super-size. I dug 'em all, but especially favored the librarian sequence (I've even written my own quasi-realistic librarian weight gain tale, "The Fattening of Marian Meredith," so it's clear that I like the idea of playing around with that particular icon), so I naturally wanted to add all nine images to the BeakerFA Gallery on Dimensions. Beak wrote that he wanted to get permission from his patron to do so, a not-unreasonable stance to take, but happily I heard back from him the next day giving me the go-ahead. Rearranging my schedule, I put together a page of his pinups and posted it on the Dim site that same morning.

In a very short time (and displaying an artistic growth you can measure just examining his work in the Gallery), BeakerFA has become one of my favorite fanta-sizer artists. His cartoon figures have heft and personality, sexy playfulness and their own distinct look. Check out any one of his pinups, and you immediately tell that this is an artist who enjoys looking at fat women. You can see it in the way he pays attention to every curve and bulge (note the legs on our librarian, the way our startled goth grrl develops an extra fold along the sides of her exposed torso and the way it follows the demands of gravity); you can see it in the occasional looks of self-satisfaction that he gives his super-sized subjects (our full-sized lady cop provides a good instance of that). These are women who are clearly meant to be the size they are.

I've collaborated with Beaker twice in the past two years, and, both times, he's produced graphics for "Fat Magic" stories that surpassed my meager powers of description. He's the best kind of artistic collaborator in that he's able to take what you've given, add his own personal elements and hand you back something that you recognize as both yours and his. Most writers who've had their works illustrated know how truly rare that experience can be. I hope that the anonymous FA who commissioned these works recognizes what he got.

And, Beak, please feel free to disrupt my schedule any time you want. . .