Sophie Labelle (left) and I
On Sunday, 9 September, I met with French Canadian webcomic artist Sophie Labelle. You probably know her from her popular Assigned Male comics, about the life of a young transgender girl.
I was meeting Sophie for coffee before the first night of her United States tour.
My evening with Sophie
Sophie arrived at the coffee shop covered in rain but with a smile on her face. She had just seen the School Of Rock musical on Broadway and loved it.
It’s always a strange experience to meet people you’ve only spoken to online in person. But I felt completely at ease with Sophie — she just has a very open and warm way about her.
We discussed politics, Canadian history and geography, musical theater, and our shared experiences of being harassed online.
For someone who was doxxed, had her website hacked, and received numerous death threats, Sophie was in good spirits. She smiled and joked about it, even referring to her harassers as her ‘biggest fans’ due to the amount of time they spend analyzing her comics.
We walked over to the LGBT Center in Greenwich Village. It was here that Sophie invited me interview her during her talk. I sat next to the accomplished artist and asked her questions about her life and her work. We developed a bit of a rapport, and made the audience laugh.
If comics don’t work out, Sophie could definitely have a career in stand-up comedy.
Sophie started Assigned Male to make her friends at school laugh. Before her webcomics took off, she was going to be an elementary school teacher. At first, the comics were just in French. But when her friends wanted to show her work to their English-speaking friends, she started to translate them. The English version of her webcomics became immensely more popular online, leading to the strong following 30-year-old Sophie has today.
I learned a great deal about Sophie’s life from these few hours. She’s a huge geography buff and musical theater geek, her mom is a champion Scrabble player, and she can make light of any situation (even spilling wine on her pretty pink skirt).
Sophie’s tour
Don’t miss your chance to meet this amazing individual. Below is the schedule for the rest of Sophie’s US tour.
September
Sept 24th : U. of Central Michigan
Sept 26th : Flint, MI
Sept 28th : Indianapolis / PFLAG
Sept 29th : Indianapolis / ACLU
October
Oct 1st : Chicago, IL
Oct 2nd : Rockford, IL
Oct 3rd : Bloomington, IL
Oct 5th : Green Bay, WI
Oct 9th : Lincoln, NE
Oct 11th : Kansas City, MO
Oct 15th : Topeka, KS
Oct 16th : Baldwin City, KS
Oct 17th : Boulder, CO
Oct 19th : Portland, OR
Oct 22nd : Seattle, WA
Oct 23rd : Spokane, WA
Oct 29th : Charlotte, NC
Oct 30th : NC State U
Oct 31st : Raleigh, NC
November
Nov 1st : Charleston, SC
Nov 2nd : Panama City, FL
Nov 4th : Montgomery, AL
Nov 5th : Atlanta, GA
Nov 7th : Houston, TX
Nov 8th : San Antonio, TX
Nov 13th : Brazosport U., TX
Nov 14th : U. of Dallas, TX
Nov 26th : San Francisco, CA
Nov 27th : San Francisco, CA
Nov 29th : Sacramento, CA
Nov 30th : Duarte, CA
December
Dec 3rd : Claremont, CA
Dec 4th : Bakersfield, CA
Dec 5th : Los Angeles, CA
Dec 6th : San Jose, CA
Dec 7th : Phoenix, AZ
Dec 9th : Phoenix, AZ
Dec 10th : Tucson, AZ
Dec 11th : Albuquerque, NM
