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- Ace
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- Camello
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- Dima
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- Gerard
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- Kata
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- Lucky
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- Rabbitchy
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- Sasha
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- Shlomo and Norm
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- Sodom
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- Ugly
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- Zoya
To get a complete character list, visit our wiki at Comixpedia. If you have questions about this comic, post them in the comments section below.
What’s up with Rasputin Catamite?
The title of this comic is an awkward translation of the phrase “Rasputin Barxotka,” which literally means “Rasputin’s Piece of Velvet” or “Rasputin’s Young Passive Homosexual” depending on whether you are translating from standard Russian or Mat Russian. The resulting title of “Rasputin Catamite” captures the meaning quite elegantly. It also mocks the name of a wildly popular film about equally pathetic teenagers from Idaho, who aren’t Russian or complete perverts, but are just as annoying. That’s the short version.
Here’s the long version…
“Rasputin” comes from Lord Dmitri Satan’s dubious claim that he is Grigori Rasputin’s great grandson.
Catamite has two definitions. One of them is pretty icky, and the other is just British slang that happens to almost rhyme with dynamite. We’ll get the ugly one out of the way
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language defines “catamite” as, “A boy who has a sexual relationship with a man.”
This word is derived from the name of Zeus’s rather scandalous child lover Ganymede. In this nauseating “relationship,” Zeus kidnapped the pretty boy for his adult amusement and forced him into glorified slavery, after paying off the kid’s dad. That bit of “fun” ended in a jealous rage from Zeus’s understandably psychopathic wife.
For the purposes of this comic, however, the word refers to a bit of obscure gay culture slang meaning, “any male bottom being buggered.” Sasha Saatchyan, the demented hippy with the wide eyes and golden/brassy hair, uses this word as his stage name whenever the band actually decides to play music. Before anyone even thinks about asking the obvious question, yes, Sasha is a legal adult. However, no one actually knows when he was born, so his actual age is rather nebulous. Because of a judicial technicality and bad record keeping, he is legally ageless. With that said, to call either him or his Master, Dmitri, mature, would definitely be a stretch. After all, to be a man, you actually have to ACT like a man, and these two idiots still act like monkeys.
Why, Vas? Why?
The Rasputin Catamite project started on April 2006 as a Polska, Sucka! spinoff. The badly drawn comic followed the lives of three ne’er-do-wells in post-Communist Russia back in the 1990’s. Caylie Dean encouraged me to make this comic public and helped me get the project off the ground.
The Rasputin Catamite concept gradually evolved into a cross between metaphorical autobiography, historical fiction and metaphorical political satire. Despite its superficial appearance as brainless entertainment, this webcomic has tackled controversial issues such as abortion, the concept of family, child abuse, incest, rape, the sexual identity continuum, gender, religion, BDSM, substance abuse, death, the exploitation of artists, the occult, religious corruption, government oppression, famine, politics, historical veracity, antisemitism and racism, among other delightful dinner table topics.
In May 2006, I realized that the idea behind the comic strip, as well as the characters, were wearing very thin. However, quitting was not an option because Rasputin Catamite has grown into one of the most popular offerings in my site, very quickly. Out of artistic desperation, I switched from drawings to sock puppets. The sock puppets were fun, but they lacked the range of mobility I desired and the ability to stand freely, so I started experimenting with hidden objects and string. By the end of June, I created a new kind of hybrid stringed puppets, specifically for the series.
The 2nd Generation Rasputin Catamite dolls were created based on suggestions by Ashbet and Mark Masters, and as well as my own practical puppeteering needs. Caylie helped me with the construction and their appearance in the comic.
The 3rd Generation puppets, (which will appear in future episodes and are currently used for live performances,) were inspired by Gypsy-Maria Lorimer’s visions of the Upir’s Mark characters. I made some practical enhancements to her designs and Brian Flavin took care of the rest. If you want to know more about the G3a, Trish Lewis’s descriptions of the creatures on her toy theater blog do an excellent job capturing their spirit.
The G1 and G2 puppets were made out of recycled materials both as an homage to Russia’s rich contributions to the art of puppetry, and a snide commentary against the chaos and corruption within the Russian animation/puppet industry of the period. The design of the puppets themselves is deeply influenced by Russian animation in general. The G3 puppets were a more professional endeavor, and something a labor of love for Mr. Flavin, which I very deeply respect. If you wish to follow the evolution of my cloth brainchildren as it happens, please check out my Upir’s Mark Puppet Blog.
I currently draw and write the comics on my own. With that stated, I must express my gratitude to all of the contributing artists who helped the series get to where it is today. This series has been a good way to harness my inner demons for the purpose of making psychological nightmares that haunted me for years into a creative dreams come true.
Thank you for reading,
Vas
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