We Interviewed Sasha Badger the Creator of Coming To The Lavender

We had the pleasure of chatting Sasha Badger all about their work as a comic creator!

ABOUT Coming To The Lavender

“Aaron had not planned on becoming a human sacrifice this summer, but that’s exactly what a group of cultists have in mind for him. Fortunately, he is saved by Myfawny, a beautiful, strong, confident woman. Who is also a giant bug. Myfawny and Aaron’s good times are just starting when an evil group known as The Philanthropists, (headed by their nigh immortal general) emerge to spoil everything.”

Now let’s get into the interview:

1. Tell us about your WEBTOON.

Coming To The Lavender is about a young man, Aaron, who falls for the beautiful 8 foot tall monster, Myfawny, who saves him from becoming a human sacrifice. They are being insistently cockblocked by an anti-magic army, The Philanthropists, who are lead by their nigh immortal general, Douchenugget. The general insists on being called The Dandy but everyone just calls him Douchenugget.

2. What are some of your inspirations for your work?

I love damseled men as a concept, and I also like the idea of having a monstrous companion who will beat up people who are mean to you. Coming To The Lavender was originally inspired by an old Happy Tree Friends fanfic series that has since been lost to time. This eventually was recycled into two different stories.This first was a light-hearted character study Coming To The Lavender about two gay men befriending their dragon neighbors. The second was a horror novel called Price Tag, about a man who’s kidnapped and tortured as a human sacrifice.

I worked on Price Tag for years, but the dark subject matter depressed me, and the main villain, The Dandy, actually scared me. As a fun exercise I wrote an AU where Aaron, the human sacrifice, gets saved by Myfawny, and 8 foot tall bug monster.

Eventually, I wrote a scene in Price Tag that depressed me so much I ended up scrapping the project. For years, I put it on the shelf. But I still felt sorry for Aaron and wanted him to have a happier life. I was so enamored with the idea of Myfawny saving him, that I eventually made Myfawny canon. I also loved shipping her with Aaron, which I also made canon. Douchenugget was not thrilled with this but he doesn’t get a vote because I hate him.

As for the setting, the human world is inspired by my years growing up in Ojai, CA. The fantasy world is basically Botony Bay for magical creatures.

3. Goals as a comic creator?

My goal as a comic creator is to get these story ideas that I’ve had in my head for years out on paper. Coming To The Lavender is a story that I’ve worked on for years with my mother. I want to finish this story so she can read it start to finish. I’d also like to eventually have my own website where I don’t have to worry about webtoon and other sites’ unfortunate censorship policies, as well as publish physical copies. I love drawing naked and so much of the internet makes that hard.

4. What has been your biggest accomplishment with your work?

I’d say my biggest accomplishment with Coming To The Lavender is completing and publishing 10 pages in 1 year. The current available version of Lavender is a reboot of the old version. It was my first long-term comic, and I didn’t make it a priority at first. I only worked on pages when I wanted to, and often put it off because it was too much work. I started to panic about how slow my progress was. I have other stories that I want to tell, and I was worried that at this rate I wouldn’t finish it before I died.

when I rebooted Lavender I decided I would make a buffer to have a consistent schedule, as well as forcing myself to make more than two pages a year. I’m very proud of the progress I’ve made.

Lavender’s current hiatus is taking longer than I’d meant to, because I had entered the webtoon call to action with my entry A Rosy Duel. But my plan is to start working on Lavender’s season 2 buffer in September of this year. Hopefully I’ll be able to launch it in February.