Mundane Circus: Sketchbook: Mini-Rafi

Several years ago, after a tough day in middle school, Rafi attempted suicide by hanging herself, in a way so that she would feel the pain of strangulation before suffocating or severing her spinal cord, believing that a distraught woman with a broken heart shouldn't die easily. Seconds after she started hanging herself, Hélène rescued Rafi from certain death very immediately.

Years later, Sister Adèle insisted Rafi on taking on a fourth "sister". That sister happened to be a half-sized version of Rafi, in the same style as Rafi would draw herself (including the eyes; Rafi said, "Even though we can see, we are blind from the rest of the world."). Her name -- "Mini-Rafi". Sister Adèle created Mini-Rafi from a portion of Rafi's soul that went to heaven as she began the suicide process.

Drawing style aside, Mini-Rafi is exactly the same as Rafi, with one difference -- Mini-Rafi has male genitalia instead of the female genitalia that Rafi has. And it's such a thing that upsetted Mini-Rafi so much, she finds ways to get rid of it, even if it meant Mini-Rafi killing herself in the process -- again. It seems that the part of Rafi that did die and become sistered was transgendered. It's also such a fact that put Rafi into even more angst, wondering why part of her soul was male.

This is Mini-Rafi. Note the "bulge" in her crotch.

Here's a pencil sketch of the above.

This is the first drawing of Mini-Rafi. At the time, she would merely be a woman-born-woman "sidekick" to Rafi. Of course, when I started wondering what would Rafi be if she was male and an angel, things happened.

The genesis of Mini-Rafi came from the above drawing, which Rafi drew and displayed on an easel as part of another sketch. I liked it so much, it inspired me to create Mini-Rafi.

This is Mini-Rafi with her aunt / mother, Sister Adèle.

Here is a pencil sketch of that.

This is Rafi and Mini-Rafi, together. They are so cute.

And here's the pencils, before Mini-Rafi became an angel.

This is Mini-Rafi, putting the feminist angel on top of the Christmas tree. This was originally on the main page for a couple of weeks before Christmas. Here's what it originally said about it:

The holiday season is a special time. And it's especially special for us at the "Circus", for it was last Christmas (12/20/2004) when its first character, Anna, was created. Since then, several characters were created, and the focus changed from Anna to Rafi, but, as they say, "we've only just begun".

For a few of you regular readers out there, thanks for supporting us in our first year.

The picture above features our newest character (and the first one for this strip that Rafi "created" herself), Mini-Rafi, topping the tree, saying, "You can't have a Christmas tree without a feminist angel on top!" Mini-Rafi came to us by unfortunate circumstances -- such that her kind is still endangered. For details, read her sketchbook bio and her first strip (#34). Apart from sketches, you'll see more of her later in "A Gouine's Story".

And here is the original pencil sketch for the above.