Ren from The Curse of Cute, Mixed Media, 6″ x 4.5″, 2020
Evanora from The Curse of Cute, Mixed Media, 6″ x 4.5″, 2020
Isadora from The Curse of Cute, Mixed Media, 6″ x 4.5″, 2020
Atheris from The Curse of Cute, Mixed Media, 6″ x 4.5″, 2020
Sprig from The Curse of Cute, Mixed Media, 6″ x 4.5″, 2020
Thimble from The Curse of Cute, Mixed Media, 6″ x 4.5″, 2020
[BA] Film Studies and Studio Art with minors in English and Psychology
In The Curse of Cute, a comic-in-progress, shapeshifting fox-boy Ren steals and sells off magical artifacts from the novice mage, Evanora. As a punishment, she curses him to permanently take the form of a cute anthropomorphic fox. To lift the curse, they agree to journey together and retrieve these magical artifacts before they fall into the wrong hands. Along the way, they meet a diverse cast of characters that join them in their quest.
In my stories, I strive to give my audience a world where they can escape and belong. Drawing from my own experience as a bisexual woman, my casts are inclusive, representing LGBTQ+ and people of color as well as many androgynous characters that challenge societal notions of gender and gender expectations. My work is influenced by Judith Butler’s theory of gender as performance that I bring to the fantasy/adventure genre.
Rachel Roberts is an illustrator from Hastings, Nebraska. She studied at Central Community College-Hastings before transferring to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she received the H & L Ostdiek Endowment Fund scholarship in 2018. With an expected graduation in December 2020, Roberts has majors in both Film Studies and Studio Art and Minors in English and Psychology. Through mixed media drawings, she explores the nuanced ways one can tell a story through character design. Roberts combines the knowledge from all of her disciplines to create compelling stories and characters. Her current project is a fantasy adventure comic inspired by the tabletop role playing game Dungeons and Dragons.