Arantza Peña Popo

I'm an Afro-Latinx cartoonist and zinester based in Los Angeles. My work elaborates on complex issues of queerness, mental illness, repressed sexuality, and longing, by distilling them into something small, contemplative cartoons.

It’s through the language of panels and gutter that I can stretch apart these intangible moments of dissociation and yearning into dynamic compositions and abstract depictions. And this is further stretched out in part by my zines: tactile explorations of the continuum of time where readers can be submerged and interact with both the past and the present.

Tears become rainfall become tiny sperm from a man in a hotel bedroom; dissociation becomes a hazy tapestry of bodies floating in the dark air. Being horny on my mother’s patio or hiding in the bathroom of a gay club are no longer embarrassing moments– they’re opportunities to manipulate these experiences in fun, light-hearted and colorful ways.

I seek comfort in departing from the representational, from the obvious–if I'm not grounded in reality then why should my work?