Kate Holden is a lesbian comic creator, former Tokyopop Rising Stars of Manga finalist and Manga Jiman competition winner. Her works have been published in Scream Magazine, and featured in ‘1000 Ideas by 100 Manga Artists’ published by Rockport. Kate has worked with a variety of clients including Nintendo and Otakunews, as well as having run workshops with UK local councils art projects. When she’s not drawing, she enjoys rock climbing, cosplay and playing RPGs. Her most recent work, Errant, is available to read for free on Tapas.

What was your first experience of comics?

I was in ASDA (a supermarket) and I was about five, we didn’t have a lot of money back then, but for whatever reason, as a treat or there was a sale, my mam said I could pick out an annual. I picked the Marvel Super Heroes annual. I remember poring over it for hours. It’s possible I’d come across comics before, but that’s my earliest memory.

Can you tell me about your own journey to starting to make comics of your own?

When I was in Sixth Form (aged about 16 or 17) I’d been dabbling in drawing manga and a friend told me I should check out a webcomic called Megatokyo because it’s manga style. I thought it was awesome and started reading and interacting with people on the forums there. I made friends with a guy and he said it reminded him of “Sweatdrop”, a UK doujinshi circle, so I went to check out their stuff and discovered this amazing little thriving community of UK-based manga-influenced comic creators. I met a LOT of friends on there, a lot of whom are now on Tapas, like Anna, who draws Alien Heart, Shazleen who draws Buuza, Emma V who draws Breaks, Sarah who draws Princess Beast and a bunch of others, they were all there on this one little forum and hanging out at cons! It’s also how I met my partner! A combination of encouragement and resources there and on deviantArt and a site that sadly no longer exists called Hyper-Comix gave me the confidence and motivation to give it a shot.

Your current comic, Errant, was recently a staff pick! Congratulations! Can you tell us a little bit more about it?

So Errant is my long-term fave or “baby project”. It’s a reboot of an idea I’ve been trying to make for years. On a basic level, the concept behind Errant, even when it was the old version called ‘Fan Dan Go’, was just: “shounen manga with a female lead who isn’t excessively sexualised and with a British cultural feel”. I love shounen manga, it kind of makes you feel like you can do anything, so I just kind of went “well, what if a girl got to have silly spiky hair and swing a ridiculous buster sword around, that’d be cool, right?” I rebooted the comic last year after seeing works with a similar vibe like the new She-Ra series or Lumberjanes seeing a level of acceptance I’d never seen for my kind of work in the past.

Do you feel that you express your identity in your work and the types of stories that you choose to tell?

So… funny thing. I didn’t really “come out” til I was about 27, and a lot of people worked out I was gay before I did because my work was just… subconsciously really, really gay? I really thought it was normal to have intense emotions about your female friends and I find kind of butch or androgynous women cool and attractive, so I liked drawing people who look like that. So to an outsider, I was drawing comics about a bunch of butches swinging around big swords and hugging and staring at each other intensely. Nowadays, I still do that, only on purpose instead of accidentally!

Have you faced any issues when posting or publishing your comics?

Fortunately not in a long time. Probably because I’m an unthreatening little cis white lady making quite family-friendly sort of work. I don’t like to hog too much attention on LGBTQIA+ platforms and events or support because I still have quite a lot of privilege and my work is a lot more mainstream-acceptable than other people’s, especially with the success of things like Lumberjanes or the Legend of Korra comics.

Do you have any frustrations with the way that LGBTQ content is currently handled?

LGBTQIA+ people are for life, not just for Pride. We shouldn’t be treated like a cheap and easy marketing opportunity where you get to put a rainbow version of your logo for a bit. If you’re allowing hate on your platform, or if say, you’re supporting Gay and Lesbian rights, but you’re ignoring Bisexuals and Asexuals and excluding Non-Binary or Trans people… or you’re only interested in LGBTQIA+ when it comes in a nice, sellable “two conventionally attractive and non-threatening pale cis people” ….well… that’s shallow and not very helpful. If I’m the acceptable kind of LGBTQIA+ person because I’m a white cis lesbian who wears dresses and has long hair, I’m not happy you’re supporting me, I’m ANGRY that you’re not supporting my partner or a lot of my friends and I feel used and dirty.

It can be sort of frustrating when you’re in a marginalised group and comics about that group have always contained such a huge amount of work that isn’t made by people like you or aimed at you, but made by and aimed at people who fetishize you or love using your pain as award-bait misery porn. Mainly I want more GL made by queer women with characters in a wider range of age, shape and colour. GL with characters who are non-binary or genderfluid is also cool, or even just characters who are more “butch” rather than “femme”; loving women doesn’t have to be as narrow as “I like cis women in pretty clothes with long hair”. Also purely for personal reasons: More tall women with short hair. Muscles optional bonus, glasses optional bonus.

Can you tell us about one overwhelmingly positive moment that you’ve had as a creator?

I was tweeting about my partner, and this teenage girl who’d been following my work and saw me as a role model was SO excited to find out that I was a lesbian like her. In a lot of communities there’s this general joke that I’m everyone’s “lesbian big sis/mum” so I’m always really happy when younger queer creatives feel inspired to make stuff, or just feel more comfortable because I’m doing my thing. Feels good.