Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight is an American feminist author, cartoonist and artist. Her works include comics, illustrations, graphic novels and fine art. She is best known for the character Hothead Paisan, Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist.

Today's Out Spotlight is Diane DiMassa

Born in New Haven CT in 1959, Diane DiMassa grew up in West Haven, Connecticut as a self taught artist claiming she got her artistic abilities from her mother. After high school she was accepted to Paier College of Art in Hamden, CT. Not completing her program she left after six months. Later wanting to go back to school for formal art training, she " submitted a drawing of herself with a wooden arm (which she does not have) for a self-portrait" along with some other drawings at Cooper Union in NYC. She was not accepted into the program. She did however take classes years in painting, life drawing, and sculpture all over the country, over the years and received a 2 year degree in visual communications. DiMassa also worked as a tattoo artist and for a few years was as an assistant at a theater scenery studio.

As part recovery from drug and alcohol addiction she began drawing in her journal 'as a form of therapy to vent and deal with her anger issues. "Hothead Paisan is a character who uses guns, grenades, guillotines and just about anything else that can be used as a weapon to avenge wrongs against women."

DiMassa never intended to publish her journal sketches of Hothead, but her then partner, Stacey Sheehan, suggested that DiMassa market HotHead in the form of a comic-zine.

Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist ' in 1991 was initially published by newly created Giant Ass Publishing that they formed together, four times a year. The first issue, was a mini-comic, twelve pages long and elicited a roaring response, giving rise to the ongoing series, and soon after, a line of merchandise called "Groovy Crapola". It was part of an underground 'zine explosion in the early 1990s, and quickly gained a loyal cult following. It was an instant best-seller and consistently sold out.

Hothead's brand of vigilante justice allows women to find strength, humor, and solace in the outrageous acts of a cartoon figure. In the comic-zine, Hothead begins as an ordinary, well-adjusted lesbian who explodes into rage one day while watching television. She decides to take the law into her own hands and act out her revenge fantasies against a heterosexist and patriarchal culture.

As an underground cartoon character, Hothead attracted an audience of lesbians, bisexuals, and straight women throughout North America, Australia, and England, as well as a full spectrum of gender, orientation, race and class of readers. Some call her the woman's answer to Robert Crumb.

"Hothead Paisan is rage therapy for the marginalized and disaffected, the fed up,and anyone sickened by society's ills." it features the eponymous title character wreaking violent vengeance on male oppressors. Recurring characters include Hothead's cat Chicken, best friend Roz, a talking lamp, and transgender love interest Daphne.

"Hothead has no filter and reacts viscerally and violently to the injustices of the world. Her acting out of the fantasies that "normal" people have but would never act on holds her appeal; she does it for us unapologetically and uproariously." Chicken brings the more spiritual, wise (and wise-cracking) element. BFF Hot Roz is an older psychic blind woman who is a pacifist and almost endlessly patient with Hothead. Lamp, is Hothead's own guiding light.

DiMassa's graphic depiction of violence (in one issue Hothead pulls a rapist's spine out of his ass) is often criticized as obscene. One issue was seized at the Canadian border and labeled "hate literature" by Canada Customs.

The series was published from 1991–1996; and has been collected into the anthology called The Complete Hothead Paisan, containing all 21 issues.

In response to the cult status of Hothead Paisan, candy manufacturer True Confections asked DiMassa to design a line of Hothead candy bars. Hothead's Homicical Lesbian Terrorist Booster Bar and The Femme Dyke Bitch Bar are bestsellers.

As an illustrator, DiMassa has worked on the Pussycat Fever chapbook by the late Kathy Acker, along with Freddie Baer; the My Gender Workbook by Kate Bornstein; and Sexing the Body by Anne-Fausto Sterling in addition to Jokes and the Unconscious, a graphic novel written by poet and writer Daphne Gottlieb.

She also contributed to Live Through This, which is a collection of prose and art by women describing the role that art has played in dealing with issues such as addiction.

In recent years DiMassa has focused mainly on oil painting and street art pieces often based on her characters Hothead Paisan and Chicken. Finding a connection to abstract art in 2007, her work has received great reception by critics and an almost immediate draw of collectors. While the emphasis on the abstract, she enjoys working in many styles and mediums, from collage to portraits

Her illustrations and artwork have been featured in group and solo shows across North America. Recent shows have included "Picturing the Modern Amazon" at the New Museum of Contemporary Art (SoHo, March 30-July 2, 2000); "Fashion Magazine" at the See Gallery (Springfield, Mass., February-March, 1998); "Hothead Rising" at the Rising Cafe (Brooklyn, May 1997); and "Hothead L. Terrorist and Friends" at the SAW Contemporary Arts Centre (Ottawa, Canada, January 10-February 22, 1997).

DiMassa is also regularly invited to give guest lectures at colleges and art institutes across North America. She currently lives and works in Connecticut.

And I will get to continue being sand in the cracks of the people who ruin everything. Without you there is no me. Without each other, there is depression. Let's get through this. Hothead Paisan; comics for the fed-up. From me to you, as always, straight from the aorta.

-Diane DiMassa