Member Spotlight: Levi J. Richards

Levi J. Richards is one of those artists you just can't help but get excited about.

Shortlisted for the Creative Edinburgh Student Award last year, Levi co-produces Door Ajar Comics, a trans-owned small press, is an accomplished illustrator, and also disrupts the drag scene as "Duke of Destruction" Guy Liner. Read on to find out more about his work and what they have planned next!

Congratulations on your nomination for our Student Award last year. What have you been up to since?

Thank you! It was so exciting to be shortlisted - after a year of juggling studying with art, it really meant a lot. This year, I started working for Shaper/Caper, a dance charity based up in Dundee,  which has been very exciting and a real learning curve - I benefited so much from their queer artist development programmes BRAW and Queer to Stay, so it’s wonderful to be a part of making those happen. I also started a residency at Out of the Blueprint risograph studio, which has been another brilliant chance to get stuck into learning about riso and gocco printing, which I’ve always wanted to try, and just explore working at my own pace (and in my own studio!). I’m still doing the odd drag show too, including competing in a heat of Mystika Glamoor’s Best Friend Pageant Race (etc. etc.) back in April, with some exciting bits coming up for Pride Month.

Tell us about Door Ajar Comics. How did you get started? (And how can we order a copy!)

Door Ajar Comics started with my partner august and I meeting back in February 2020 through drag. I’d always wanted to make comics but struggled with working solo, while august had been writing comic scripts with no artist to realise them. She pitched one of this scripts, When I Dream It Feel Like Drowning, to me, a short surreal haunted house horror comic about derealisation and gender dysphoria, and I (not just because I wanted to ingratiate myself with her after our first date, although that did help) started working on the sketches. We debuted the comic at Thought Bubble Comics Festival in 2021, along with a range of other zines and prints we’d put together along the way. Publishing our first full graphic novel, “Crossing the Threshold: Stories of the Weird, the Queer and the Uncanny” was a big scale up from our last project - getting the funding from Creative Scotland was a huge surprise, and really let us expand it out from getting a book printed to hiring guest artists, running a launch event, taking it to conventions and more. Our online shop is currently closed as we’ve reached the last ten copies of our print run (!), but we’ve got plans for a second revamped print run — keep an eye on our social media @doorajarcomics to see as and when that’s happening! 

You’re also a star of Edinburgh’s drag king circuit. When did you decide to start experimenting in drag?

Thank you! I started going to drag shows when I moved to Edinburgh for university in 2018 — a group of friends and would go to the Rabbit Hole at CC Blooms every Tuesday, and I remember their all-kings night, the King’s Court, was like an absolute revelation. I got familiar with some of the performers and hosts by posting illustrations of my favourite looks by the drag acts online, as well as starting to rock up to regular shows in makeup, and eventually got offered a gig by Mystika Glamoor, at her regular show Glamoor at the Street. My first number was Gethsemane from Jesus Christ Superstar, which if you’re not familiar, is a six minute long Andrew Lloyd Webber song in which Jesus laments being abandoned by God and his imminent death, to which I threw myself to the floor a lot on a rickety little stage wearing a shirt from a charity shop and some expired face paint. In hindsight, kind of a bizarre choice by me - but it seemed to go down well, as I’m still performing four years later! With hopefully slightly better makeup, but honestly not by much. As someone who had barely even been in a school play before and got shaky hands speaking in front of a class, it’s been wild to see how much it’s improved my confidence and challenged my ideas of what I’m capable of, as well as introducing me to a whole world of wonderful talented queer people.

What excites you about the queer creative community in Edinburgh?

Honestly, I don’t know where to start describing this one, because it is all just so fantastically exciting. There are so many multi-talented people making such unique work in all different disciplines - even within my own friend group, we’ve got poets, photographers, life models, comic artists, drag performers and producers, dancers, experimental musicians, and more. It feels really special to be so inspired by your friends who live down the road from you, as well as those wildly famous, distant, larger-than-life artists who you dream of one day meeting. Another thing I’ve been really struck by is how willing a lot of people within that community are to throw themselves into supporting others — whether it’s putting my name forward for opportunities, taking a chance on me for gigs, talking about collaborating, or saying kind things about and promoting our book, there have been so many times that people who I’ve met maybe once have shown enthusiasm and excitement for what I do, and that support has been instrumental. And I hope to pass on that energy as and when I can! 

What is your favourite art piece you’ve made so far?

One piece of art I come back to a lot is an illustration I did of Tim Curry in Rocky Horror Picture Show, from my favourite song in the musical, I’m Going Home. I did it casually in the gaps between tabling at a market, which I think might’ve been why it came out so well (less overthinking!) but it’s a song and scene that really means a lot to me. It’s always lovely when people are drawn to it at conventions, usually leading to me talking their ear off about the movie. I’ll always have a soft spot for Drowning too - I think we put a lot of time, effort and detail into it in a way that really shows, and it’s a story that epitomises the kind of horror I like to read, as well as make. In terms of drag favourites, I recently debuted a new number as part of the Trans Rights themed week at Mystika Glamoor’s Best Friend Race (etc. etc.), a semi-parodic competition at the Street aiming to showcase some of the best of Edinburgh drag. The number, a satirical advert for a Trans Ally Membership scheme, followed by “Hey, Cisgender!” (a parody of “Hey, Big Spender!”) really pushed me out of my comfort zone, writing and recording all the audio myself (with the help of my glamorous assistant and fellow performer Emily/Emmeline Spankhurst). It was also pretty lovely to be back at the first show I ever performed at, alongside a lineup of some of the people who inspired me to start doing drag in the first place, who I’m now lucky to have as friends.

What’s next for you? 

I swore I would take some time to rest after the book, so I’m definitely trying to chill out at least a little bit, but I am like a magpie when it comes to new projects, so there are still some bits coming up! I’m currently working on a project with gocco printing (similar to screen printing) at Out of the Blueprint as part of my residency, making digital collages of text and photos related to queer identity and nightlife to print on fabric, to then use for a sewing project. It’s been a while since I was last able to do any dress-making, so I’m looking forward to having the space for that again (and hoping I remember how to do invisible zips). I’ll be involved with Shaper/Caper’s artist sharing at the V&A Dundee during Dundee Pride as a part of their Queer to Stay artist development programme, getting a chance to chat about how I want to use my printing projects as a way to commit the mundane details of queer life to memory. August and I have also had an exciting comics opportunity come up, creating a new comic to be included in an anthology next year! I’m not sure how much we’re allowed to share just now, but it’s going to be a much lighter tone than a lot of what we’ve made in the past – it’s kind of a celebration of the lovely haphazard support networks that are so vital when someone is transitioning, and will be sexy and romantic and silly and uplifting, with no terrifying giant heads looming out of ceilings.