Interview with Dulceskull, Creator of Pink Sugar

Our Creator Interview series returns today with another creator of queer comics, Alex, also known here as Dulceskull. Their comic Pink Sugar has been hosted here on the platform since 2022 and boasts nearly 400 pages following a “speed run of the afterlife”. I recently took my dive into the series while looking for more queer creators to read, and I've absolutely fallen in love with this comic, and its stellar artwork. I'm so pleased to have Alex here for you all today. With that, let's get into it!

GlobalComix: Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into making comics.

Alex Bar: Howdy! I’m Alex, and I am a butch lesbian. I am my wife’s biggest fan. I got into making comics because I kept imagining making a comic, and I kept saying “Man, someday I’d love to make a comic-” and my wife said “Hey, I’ve got a wild idea. What if you make the comic instead of just talking about it?” and I was like, “Woah. I didn’t think of that.”

And I started making it.

GlobalComix: Pink Sugar has over 40 releases, and you’ve been uploading since 2022. How long
have you been working on this overall?

Alex: Once September 2024 rolls around, I will have been working on Pink Sugar for 4 years! I have about 350 pages under my belt right now. My work pace is a bit slower than some, because I do all of this on my own. The writing, thumbnails, sketching, line art, coloring, shading, lettering, it’s all me! I am a bit of a one-man show, I think.

I also didn’t have much of a work schedule at the start, and was working at a much slower rate before I got serious. I’ve also moved several times, and had to occasionally put my comic on pause for contract work deadlines.

I’m not stopping any time soon, either! I’m almost done with book 2, and Pink Sugar is going to be 6 books long. These pages are from 2020!

GlobalComix: What inspired Pink Sugar? We’d love to hear its origin story!

Alex: It was a lot of things! At first, it was one drawing of Blake. And then she was a mob boss (?) and was a lot taller. And then I drew Satya. And she was originally going to be a pole dancer (...?) and Blake was going to beat up men who harassed her, or something. And then Blake was the owner of a nightclub and Satya was a dancer at the nightclub. But then I decided that that made them too cool, and I wanted to tell a story about girls who are gay and weird and a little off-putting.

So then it became a road trip. And I added in Artemis and Rocko because Blake would need friends! And then I got attached to them, and decided that they would all go on the road trip together. And then I decided that it’d be fun if they all eventually fell in love. My writing process is a disaster, and I mostly make things up as I go. Please don’t follow my example.

GlobalComix: What sort of anime, manga, comics, or cartoons have inspired your artistic journey?

Alex: I love Rumiko Takahashi. Ranma ½, Inuyasha, One Pound Gospel, and Mermaid Saga are my favorite works of hers. I have a huge soft spot for 80’s and 90’s shoujo manga as well. I’m also very into Maxfield Parrish, and Alphonse Mucha. Alison Bechdel is another huge role model for me, as well as Yugo Limbo’s Be Kind, My Neighbor.

GlobalComix: Why do you choose to make queer comics? What does it mean to you?

Alex: As a huge enjoyer of shoujo manga and GL/yuri comics in general, I notice there’s not a lot of representation in the mainstream for people who look like me and my friends. Everyday queer people. However, that also means that the times I do feel seen in someone else’s work, it really stands out to me and makes an impact.

The first example that comes to mind is Karolina Dean from The Runaways. She was the first lesbian comic character I’d ever read as a kid, and I remember feeling this incredible rush of excitement because I thought, “The artist sees me! They see me!” I’d love to be that impact for someone else.

So, I love to make my silly little queer comic for weird little lesbians. Pink Sugar is my love letter to hairy butches, to fat girls, to black girls, to trans girls, to mexican girls, to lesbians and sapphics and genderqueer people who maybe don’t feel seen very often in their comics, etc, etc. And it’s ever-expanding! I want to make a little something for everyone. I think this world is so big and beautiful and so full of such interesting and amazing people. I want to draw them all. I want all of them to feel seen in what I make.

GlobalComix: What have you done or been able to do to learn more about making comics? Did you study at college at all?

Alex: I actually didn’t go to college! I made it through high school by the skin of my teeth and thought, “damn, that was HARD!”. I just read a LOT of comics. I read a lot of comics, and I think about the art. I study the panel layouts, the color and shading styles people use, the line art techniques. The pacing. I keep a list of artists and media I’m inspired by, and for what reasons, and I go to those pieces of media when I need the inspiration.

I always loved drawing. I don’t have much experience writing. Pink Sugar is my first comic! I just kind of had to throw myself in there and get the ball rolling. The first 10 pages or so, I didn’t even have a script or anything, I was just making it up as I went.

GlobalComix: What is your favorite moment in Pink Sugar so far?

Alex: That’s a really tough and a really good question. Pink Sugar is almost entirely composed of “omg it’d be so cool if-” moments, because it is my incredibly self-indulgent little project. And my entire Modus Operandi is that I will write and draw whatever it takes for me to keep enjoying this giant project.

I think the most I’ve looked forward to drawing a sequence so far, has been the Nine of Swords dream sequence breakout in pages 310-318. I love dream sequences, I love that they’re all wearing 1960’s wedding garb to reflect Blake’s time period, there’s little violet flowers all over their hair and outfits. I got the idea for that entire sequence when I was listening to “Mary On A Cross” by Ghost.

One of my favorite hobbies is laying on my bed and imagining super epic AMVs of my characters, and those pages were basically that.

GlobalComix: Your coloring on the pages in Pink Sugar is incredible. What advice would you give to creators wanting to improve their coloring?

Alex: Thank you so much! Coloring is MY FAVORITE PART! I get a lot of inspiration from the beautiful saturation and bright colors of Mexican art from when I grew up in the southwest. I change up my coloring process/style every few chapters or so because I really love experimenting.

Dulceskull’s advice speedrun:
Do whatever looks cool. Lighting and shading don’t have to be painfully accurate. You don’t have to shade your art if you don’t want to. Overlays set to 30% are your best friend. It’s fun to add textures like paper and noise filters on top of your art. Sparkles are always a good decision. It’s okay to use a random color palette generator if you need ideas. You’re allowed to just google “vibrant color palette” or “vintage color palette” and go from there (the police can’t stop you). Good colors are awesome, but will look even better if you also take time on your line art. (I have to remind myself of this often as to not rush through my line art process)

GlobalComix: What is your favorite part of the comic-making process and why?

Alex: COLORING!

Nothing brings me more joy than pulling up a png of a color palette and just slapping it onto a digital canvas. I love blending colors until they look like they’d taste like sour candy.

GlobalComix: Do you have any other projects that you’d like to do after Pink Sugar?

Alex: I’ve been thinking about a one-volume graphic novel about a track coach for a small girls’ college track team with a bad budget, so she has to train all of the girls in all of their events. And the girls on the track team find out their coach is gay, and each track meet, they try to pair her up with a different track coach. I think it’d be super cute and fun to write something about a shy middle-aged gay woman, and something slice of life-y.

GlobalComix: Do you have any advice for creators wanting to share queer stories, but are unsure or not confident about doing so?

Alex: Just do it. Just do it. Literally, just do it. There are so many bad, mid, and amazing stories out there. Has that stopped anyone? NO! Why should it stop you? You can do this. It is so fun to make up fictional little guys and move them around in your head like toys!!! Create out of love, or out of spite. Create because there is a void in your heart. Or just because you want to. You, and at least one other person, will actively benefit from your funky little story being made. There is nothing barring you from the joy of creating!!! DO IT !!!

What a great interview, thank you so much for taking time to talk with me and share your thoughts with us. If you've not read Pink Sugar yet, I strongly recommend it to all! To not miss out on anything new from Alex aka Dulceskull, please check out the links below:

• Read Dulceskull's Pink Sugar here
• Follow Dulceskull on GlobalComix here
• Follow Dulceskull on Twitter
• Find Dulceskull's Instagram feed here
• Join Dulceskull on Facebook here
• Check out the website here