Nola Frame-Gray
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Nola Frame-Gray, Nola Frame |
| Alias(es): | often misspelled as "Nola Frame-Grey" |
| Type: | |
| Fandoms: | many |
| Communities: | |
| Other: | |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Nola Frame-Gray is mainly a cartoonist whose works appeared in print fanzines.
Frame-Gray also wrote occasional essays, fiction, and poetry.
Frame-Gray was a contributor to the apazines, The Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows.
Frame-Gray's Comments
In 1989 in a round robin letter discussion called Esoterica and Sime/Gen Fandom, Frame-Gray explained her reasons for stepping away from the Sime~Gen fandom due to what Frame-Gray perceived to be homophobic, racist, and abelist elements and statements:
I am one of those people who have dissociated themselves from S/G fandom. I have not parted ways with sf fandom. While I cannot speak for others who have left S/G, here are my reasons for leaving. It is for these reasons that I had nothing to do with S/G for a solid year...
[...]
Let's say that I was a mulatto (half-black, half-white). Let's also say that a certain SF author were to announce that there are no such thing as Negroid adult rubber band aliens in her universe. The reason for this, according to this author, is that any rubber band aliens who also happen to be black, croak within three months of becoming adults.
Second case in point: Let's say that in this author's same series of books there was a second class of aliens known as paper, it was paper's lot in life to help the rubber band aliens by stretching their potential. Next, this same author states that there can be no creased paper because being creased interferes with the work of stretching the rubber band aliens' potential. As a reader, I might come away from these books, by a certain author, that this writer likes neither Blacks nor imperfection (the disabled?). Particularly if she does not portray these two minorities in a positive way in any other of her series.
The point is that this author has made such similar statements, not by her characters (hence such sentiments could be blamed on them) but by the author, in the author's own name, in her own words, in a semi-public forum known as "fanzines."
The message that I get from JL loud and dear is: All fans welcome! However, if you are not a heterosexual and you are disabled, please take your business elsewhere.
Yes, I can appreciate that not all of an author's "future histories" have biases, points of view which match my own. However, I do not wish to be in the position of seeming to support this author's racist views by continuing to buy and rave about this author's S/G books. The author has the right to dream up any stories she so wishes, I, as consumer, have the right to "vote with my wallet" and not buy her works.
Fan Comments
Nola Frame-Gray is well armed with satire's three-edged sword—a wicked sense of humor, an eye for caricature, and absolutely no respect. [1]
There are several interesting and amusing cartoons by Ms. Nola Frame-Grey [sic]. While the artwork is anything but polished, the crudity of line is in itself part of the comic appeal of her stories. I hope Ms. Frame-Grey will continue to produce longer, more coherent pieces like "Get Naked Now," a satire of The Naked Now, instead of one-shot gag cartoons - I'm looking forward to the time when her 'toons can be collected and published in one book. [2]
Nola Frame-Gray certainly has a warped imagination, not to mention a terminally odd sense of humor![3]
...what can one say about Nola Frame-Gray's creative cartoons except that this lady must have a fun/kinky way of looking at life.[4]
I got a sneak-preview of her unique interpretation of "The Leap Back," and just about bust a gut laughing. She and I discovered that during the premiere of "TLB" we simultaneously joined the Donna Beckett Assassination Squad.[5]
Now, about Nola's cartoons...I've got to admit I used to think they looked pretty sketchy, but this latest batch is not only hysterically funny, but the expressions on the little figures are a howl! I don't know what I laughed harder at—Al pointing out that he can't be expected to keep up with Sam's wife as well as all his past ones or Saint Donna decreeing permission for Sam to save Al. (I hated that with a passion, too.) Very funny parodies! [6]
I, too, thought Donna could have been a better character. She did too much whining when Sam was going back to save Al. I wondered how the writers could have Sam be married to such a selfish woman—as Sam is quite the opposite. But I thought it was just my own perception until I saw Nola's cartoons. Nola captured my thoughts exactly and made them funny. I'll never be able to watch that scene without laughing again. [7]
[There are] extremely cute cartoons by Nola Frame-Gray. (I really like her cartoons, for some reason, even though a) I occasionally can't figure them out, b) they're crudely drawn, and c) she put "your" for "you're" on page 31.) [8]
Sample Fanworks
1990
from Double Play #5, commentary on geography and fannish silos
1991
from Oh Boy #1, cheeky commentary about Blake's 7, the widely-panned novel by Paul Darrow called Avon: A Terrible Aspect, and Viewers for Quality Television
from Oh Boy #2 (Quantum Leap)
from Oh Boy #2 (Quantum Leap, meta)
from Oh Boy #2 (Quantum Leap/Dark Shadows)
from Miami Spice #2
1992
from Other Times and Places #2
from Green Eggs and Ham #2
1993
from Delta Blues
the bestiality topic in Beauty and the Beast (TV)
2000
from The Full Mountie
List of Zines
852 Prospect | The Angel and the Dreamer | Beyond Antares | Black Jag | The Chronicles | Chronicles Annual | Clipper Trade Ship | Data Entries | Delta Blues | Destiny | Deuce Double | Double Play | Empire Review | EXposure | Fresh Beaver Tails | The Full Mountie | Genzine | Grip | Green Eggs and Ham | KiScon | Laff Trek | Look Before You Leap | Lovers' Leap | Make It So | A Matter of Honor | Miami Spice | Minara Nova | Moon Phases | Oh Boy | On the Edge | Other Times and Places| Power Star: The Imagination Anthology | Prophet Margin | Psychic Investigations | Quantum Mechanics | Rose Tint My World | Sensory Overload | Tenctonese Tales | Tightbeam | Twogether | When I'm Calling You | Wild Cards | The World of Dark Shadows | Zen and the Art of Rebellion
References
- ^ from a letter of comment in Oh Boy #3
- ^ from a review of Make It So #4 in The Trekzine Times v.1 n.2
- ^ from a letter of comment in Green Eggs and Ham #3
- ^ from a letter of comment in Green Eggs and Ham #3
- ^ from a letter of comment in Green Eggs and Ham #3
- ^ from a letter of comment in Green Eggs and Ham #3
- ^ from a letter of comment in Green Eggs and Ham #3
- ^ comments about Quantum Mechanics #3, from The Hologram #14 (June `997)