The Butler Did It
"Kate is pulled out of her perfect 50s housewife fantasy when her husband abruptly comes clean about sleeping with multiple other women. Fortunately, the old butler is always there to help her — by any means necessary."
Set in 1953, the story focuses on the relationship between Kate Gready and her butler, Rutger. It explores age-gaps, self-esteem issues, master/servant dynamics, as well as the lingering trauma from WW2.
The Butler Did It is an erotic comic published by Strawberry Comics (Filthyfigments.com). It started in December 2022 and updates monthly.
Genre: erotica, romance
Format: E-pub
Finished: on-going
Pages: N/A
Language: English
Project Timeline
When I saw that Filthy Figments had opened their submissions in June 2022, I started immediately working on a pitch. I had previously submitted a pitch to them in 2020 (unsuccessfully) and I was determined to make it this time.
I had an idea that a woman gets cheated on by her husband and ends up having an affair with the stablehand. Even though the prompt was quite boring, I kept working on it because the idea of an M/F story was new and fresh to me who had previously only written and drawn queer stories.
From stablehand to a butler
I kept hitting a wall with the idea. I really liked the start where Kate (the lead) finds out her husband has had an affair and immediately sets out to find someone who she could have her revenge with. I had a scene in mind where she asks her butler if he would do the do with her and him answering: “Ma’am, I have eight grandkids, I think that’s enough.” Somehow this small scene had more chemistry than I had managed with the scenes with the stablehand.
Simultaneously, I had been seeing a lot of hate towards age-gap relationships. Being in one myself, I was fed up with it, which consequently turned out to be the final push I needed to switch the stablehand for an elegant, older butler.
Here you can see some of the early sketches that I also had in the pitch. Kate started out more angry and opinionated than she ended up as. Rutger (titled the butler) also started out younger which was mostly due to my inability to (yet) draw old men.
How do you draw old people?
My biggest struggle was making Rutger old. I found out fast that there aren’t that many books on how to draw old people. That made me start seriously drawing from life and any photographs I could find (I also want to shout out Morpho’s Fat and Skin Folds -book! I could not have drawn Rutger as well without that). Simultaneously, I was writing the summary which kept pulling me toward the 50s as the story’s era. I spent quite many hours on Pinterest staring at Alex Raymond’s art and pictures of Katy Keene; both having strong 50s connections and TBDI vibes.
I sent the (very bare-bone) pitch which consisted of a few sketches and a summary of the 30-page comic. However, I didn’t stop working on the story! I felt like it could still be pushed to have more depth. I also honed my Rutger drawing skills while waiting for acceptance or rejection!
Acceptance, layouts, and 3D modeling
Acceptance came in the email & I started immediately working on the thumbnails and prepping 3D models (for when I would eventually start sketching). It was the first time I had to make thumbnails of a summary so I wasn’t quite ready for the depth and new elements the story would develop.
Doing the thumbnails (or layouts, as I call them) I started to understand the themes of the comic. What had started as a lighthearted erotica had turned into a comic about self-esteem issues and WW2 trauma.
Thumbnails to finished pages
When the thumbnailed comic was accepted, I got to start working for real. I drew in patches, so I sketched, inked, and colored 6 pages per month before moving to the next patch :)! Here are some behind-the-scenes from the comic! Thank you for reading!