Edward Ficklin

Edward Ficklin (he/him), the maverick artist not afraid to say gay, is a self-taught painter, writer, publisher and sometimes technologist. He creates sensuous and erotically-tinged queer surrealist art, publishes queer-centered sci-fi comix, and pontificates regularly on a range of topics in his Queer Quantum Dispatch newsletter.

A web, not an assembly line

Darlings, how are you? I always feel particularly charged by the seasonal changes around the equinoxes. They’re filled with vibrancy, color, and very noticeable transitions. So, today, we’re getting romantic. I recently came across an article on the Creative Bloq site by Bob Eggleton about his...

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1 day ago • 2 min read

painting of somber moonlit forest and two men contemplating the soft glow of the rising moon off in the distance

cover of illustrator's quarterly showing comic strip heroine modesty blaise

A little Modesty, please!

Blaise. Modesty Blaise. Bond, Bourne, and Hunt, listen up. Yeah, you’re easy on the eyes, but move the heck over. Let Modesty show you how it’s really done. She’s not a mindless weapons of state power. She’s not an emblem of toxic masculinity. She’s not a cop in a tux. She’s her own person, makes...

8 days ago • 2 min read

book cover; a field of white with little dots of different colors peeking though

Crazy for color

Hello darlings, how are you? A fabulous recent read that I have to share with you. The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair. It’s not an art book, definitely not science, and not exactly social history. But there are elements of all of those. It’s a collection of short essays, each focused...

15 days ago • 1 min read

golden hued muscular beauty smelling a rose, against a background of vibrant pink roses

What is it about gays and flowers?

Pansies. Hyacinths. Green carnations. Lavender. There’s quite a history of gays and flowers, a trail of various associations over time. Just associate flowers with men and it screams “gay” in western culture. So, having steeped in this my whole life, is it any surprise that I’m making a bunch of...

22 days ago • 1 min read

At the intersection of queer and erotic

Previously on… Darlings, how are you? A warm welcome to those just joining us and a fabulous, sparkly hello to those returning. Today we’re picking up where we left off last time: how to make social media that works for us, darlings, not the stockholders and advertisers. We thrive at the...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read

We are not free labor, we are not the product!

Darlings, how are you? So glad you’re here and a big welcome to those just joining us. Today’s Dispatch is veering into techno-territory and going to get a bit complicated. (And no pictures. I'll make it up to you.) I hope you’ll trust me enough to dive in and see that it’s worth it. A glorious...

about 2 months ago • 3 min read

book cover of the Passion of Gengoroh Tagame; shows beefy man bound and gagged

Erotic antagonism

Happy New Year, darlings! And a hearty welcome to those just joining us. 💕 For me, denizen of the northern hemisphere, the slow return of light is a delicious form of anticipation. The dwindling of summer into fall is also lovely, so for those experiencing that moment—live it up! It’s been a...

3 months ago • 2 min read

thumbnail sketches of in-progress pages of a graphic novel

Six months of intensive care(ing)

Darlings, how are you? So glad you’re back. The end of November marked the end of a significant undertaking for me. A quest for both improvement and collegiality led me to check out the offerings of the fabulous Sequential Artists Workshop, an in-person and online school for making comics. At...

4 months ago • 3 min read

book cover; large, black block lettering of the title against stark yellow background

The FAANGs piercing our throats

Hello, darlings? How are you faring is this moment of social media implosion? I for one am further affirmed in my resolve to keep this little Dispatch humming along as best I can. I hope it proves a reliable bit of respite for you, as well. With these corporate shenanigans as background, I’ve...

4 months ago • 2 min read

Fantasy Beefcake

Welcome, darlings, to a special cheesecake edition of the Queer Quantum Dispatch. “What kind of cheesecake?” you might be asking—warily. We’ll get to that, but first a round of welcomes to folks newly joining us via Aubrey Sitterson’s newsletter shout-out, Eli Trier’s Uncommon Email course, or...

5 months ago • 3 min read

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