Tapas Media has been beefing up over the past year since the launch of its original comics division, Studio Tapas, last December, with high-profile hires including former DC co-Editor-in-Chief Michele Wells as Chief Content Officer and another former DC employee, editor Jamie S. Rich, as Editor-in-Chief. Today the webcomics platform is announcing the latest addition to its Tapas Originals lineup, Brush Stroke, a semi-autobio series from cartoonist Emma Kubert. The series will launch early next year.
Here’s how Tapas describes Brush Stroke:
A semi-autobiographical story about a 21-year-old college art student Mei Parker, who finds her life change when her father falls into debt and her dream of becoming a renowned painter falls with it. Her last resort for a bright future is to move across the country, live with her estranged mother, and work as a part-time employee at BRUSH STROKE, her small boutique art store. Mei, a passive introvert, attempts to confront her ambition, her mental health, her romantic entanglements and strained family ties while navigating her budding career as a prestigious fine artist.
The granddaughter of Joe Kubert and daughter of Andy Kubert, Emma Kubert‘s previous artistic credits include DC Superhero Girls and Teen Titans Go for DC Comics, as well as co-creating and writing, pencilling, and coloring the Image Comics series Inkblot with inker & letterer Rusty Gladd. Brush Stroke is Kubert’s first series for Tapas, and utilizes the platform’s vertical scrolling format, which you can see in a pair of preview ‘pages’ below.
Kubert told The Beat a little bit about Brush Stroke, and why Tapas was the right place to tell this particular story:
“Brush Stroke is a culmination of my love for romance, a childhood spent in an art store, and the wonderful warmth I feel within the artistic community. I’m excited to share this through the incredible Tapas platform, who allowed me the creative freedom to produce such a special and intimate story. I hope you all enjoy Brush Stroke, just as much as I enjoy creating it.”
Brush Stroke joins a number of other new titles that have launched on Tapas in recent months, including A Thousand Year Engagement and House of Slay. Look for the first installment of the new series to arrive on Tapas in mid-January.
