Rasputin Catamite is a Velvet Rasputin Production. A Gutterotica Manifesto Project.

Rasputin Catamite Comic Trailer

Read all of Rasputin Catamite in its enterity before the webcomic updates! $25 for all the ebooks or $25 each print book.

 

Testimonials

"I first found your comics when I heard the word catamite in on HBO’s Rome. A site called Rasputin Catamite came up. I hesitated to open it thinking it was some sort of weird porn. But against my better judgement I did so. I saw a comic. It was intriguing" ― W.A.

"I like Rasputin Catamite." ― G.B.M

"There is an boundary-pushing, experimental quality to (these) comics that I like…" - E.R.

"Just want to let you all know that this is one of the most realistic fucked up Siberia comics lately. Quite intriguing." ― Nichdubo

"Reading Rasputin Catamite right now and, as a mixed-ancestry Siberia-born Cryptojewish Russian: nice work! I sincerely appreciate that everyone in RC is kind of ugly and shabby and has weird noses, because that’s pretty damn accurate. Also A+ on all the Russian minorities! My Tatar and Jewish heart sings to see more than the default Slav." ― I.G.

"Rasputin Catamite is a VERY queer webcomic, but it’s not aligned with the sensibilities of the ‘tumblr crowd’. It’s very raw. It’s a difficult, very artful comic, and I would argue it’s an important one for the queer webcomics community! 1) the art style is different from the “usual” which grows on you after a bit!"― G.P.

History

The Rasputin Catamite concept presents a series of modernized Slavic folk tales, mixed with stories inspired by scandalous headlines from the Soviet Union. Rasputin Catamite weaves metaphorical autobiography, historical fiction and political satire into a single narrative. Despite its superficial appearance as brainless entertainment, this comic has tackled controversial issues such the concept of family, child abuse, the sexual identity continuum, gender, religion, BDSM, substance abuse, death, human exploitation, the occult, religious corruption, government oppression, famine, politics, historical veracity, and bigotry.

Rasputin Catamite began as a reimagining of Vampyres, a 1990 underground photocopier comic book by Vas Littlecrow Wojtanowicz and published by ZNLArts. Although there are no known copies of Vampyres left in existence, both comics share an insecure and morally conflicted Russian vampire by the name of Igor Dmitri "Dima" Shapinov as their protagonist. Rasputin Catamite was created by Vas Littlecrow Wojtanowicz and Caylie Dean on April 13, 2006.

Rasputin Catamite was originally meant to exist only as a week-long limited run webcomic consisting of four repeating panels about three lazy musicians. With Dean's encouragement and assistance it grew to become a weekly serial, with a full multidisciplinary creative team, several spin-off comic titles and the Upir's Mark musical puppet show. Caylie Dean left the project on June 11, 2007 and eventually pursued a career as a chef. The project continued under the direction of Vas Littlecrow Wojtanowicz.

On December 21, 2011, Ram Lama beat out ten talented artists and replaced Vas as the lead artist in a very tight competition for the position. Vas told the story of Ram's recruitment on the website as follows:

"Admittedly, I almost missed out on Ram. His submission came in within just a few hours of me closing the casting call. I am so grateful Catnose Comics did not miss out on this guy. Ram, is one of the fastest, most personable and intuitive artists I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. He seemed to anticipate my every need for the webcomic, sometimes without my giving him so much as a single instruction. Yet, he didn’t come across as spooky or annoying in any way; just very efficient. He and I clicked right away, and could not wait to work as a team. He educated himself quite thoroughly on the Velvet Rasputin universe and he genuinely seemed to care about my characters and the story. That is incredibly important to me as a storyteller who is very emotionally invested in zir work. Additionally, the guy is one hell of a storyteller and has a fabulous track record for delivering high quality webcomics on a consistent schedule. He is an incredible asset."

The final Rasputin Catamite book was published on 2/4/2021. The webcomic will continue publishing the story at no cost, until it's shared in its entirety for the next several years. You are welcomed to buy the books if you would like to read the story sooner.  If you are too impatient and don't have money, you can read Mike Podgor's extremely abridged version of the entire RaspCat series.