User:Marine 69-71/Vanesa Littlecrow

Vanesa "Vas" Littlecrow (born Vanesa Colon Ortiz on November 8, 1973) is a multifaceted Puerto Rican who is a cartoonist, dancer, writer and a model. She is also the founder of VAS Littlecrow, a multidisciplinary arts firm based in Minnesota.

Early years
Littlecrow was born in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. At a young age, Littlecrow was diagnosed with autism due to difficulty talking and expressing emotions. Despite this fact, she was already drawing at age one. Although it was recommended that Vanesa be interned in a special institution for mentally ill children, her mother was against the idea and did not. Believing that Littlecrow had the potential to achieve great things with her innate talent, she became instrumental in the development of her daughter's artistic skills.

Littlecrow designed a poster for the Barrio Obrero marathon while still in grade school, which led to a short appearance in WKAQ-TV. As a fan of TV star Iris Chacón, the experience of being on television would be very influential to her. She received an honorable mention in the Puerto Rican newspaper The San Juan Star for some of her Christmas drawings. While still attending school, she also found time take dance lessons in ballet, tap dance, jazz, Polynesian, flamenco, and traditional Puerto Rican folk dance. She also participated in juvenile modeling, including a school beauty peagant where she won first place in her age category. By age nine, Littlecrow began work on her first novel in what would later become the Soup Wars Project.

Horror Hares
In 1985, Littlecrow moved to West Valley City in Utah with her mother and younger brother. She became a member of the school's choir and was picked to do a solo from the play Les Misérables. Shortly thereafter her family moved again, this time to Minnesota. There, she auditioned for her high school's rendition of Grease as Frenchie. When she was given an understudy role that was later taken from her, Littlecrow vowed to write her own play. Meanwhile, she became notorious in her school for her madcap parody song writing efforts, her satirical underground comic book series, The Bombardeering Bunnies from Biloxi (a.k.a. Horror Hares,) and her award-winning science fiction-inspired fashion design.

Under the pseudonym "El V.C-O.", Littlecrow produced her first weekly comic strip, "Sammy." It originally appeared in Fuzzface Magazine in 1994, and ran as self-syndicated feature from 1992 though 1996 in seven different publications throughout Minnesota and North Dakota. "Sammy" was inked and co-written by Jake Wotsup. In 2006, "Sammy" resurfaced with redesigned characters and renamed "Sexual Rodentia", due to an ongoing copyright between the former collaborators.

Nine Lives of Catnose
Littlecrow's best-known comic strip is the semi-autobiographical "Nine Lives of Catnose." The main character, Catnose, made her first appearance in "Sammy" in April 1994. The character spawned her own spin-off comic strip, "Nine Lives of Catnose" which was first published by Minnesota State University Moorhead's student newspaper in 1998. A short-lived and X-rated spin-off, "Secret Lives of Catnose" webcomic, was online in 2001. "Nine Lives of Catnose" is still published on a monthly basis at the Lemmecheck model and adult star portal. Catnose is also the mascot of Catnose Comics, the comic book publishing division of VAS Littlecrow. Vanesa Littlecrow still writes "Nine Lives of Catnose", but her apprentice, Stef Davis, took over as lead cartoonist in January 2006.

Other comics strips by Vanesa include, "Mini-Misfits", "Twisted Images", "Shanty Rats", "Slippy Homely", and "Thrift Revolution." "A Jakie Cross Comix" was created by Littlecrow under the pseudonym of Jakie Cross.

Also a writer of poetry, the poems that she has written have opened the way for her participation in events such as: "Happenings", "In A Woman's Voice", "Fargo Poetry Grand Slam 1999" and others. Her verses have appeared in magazines such as: "Red Weather", "Sueños y Pensamientos", "The Multiracial Reader", "Contemporary Poets of Britain and America", and "The Guild &mdash; Moorhead State University Science Fiction and Fantasy Club's Newsletter". She became editor for the latter publication. Littlecrow, along with her first husband, published the monthly 'zine The Electric Walleye in Moorhead, Minnesota during her college years. During this time-period she also worked as a fine arts model and the head photo lab monitor at the Moorhead State University art department.

Personal life
Despite a rather turbulent marriage and chemical abuse problems, Littlecrow graduated "Magna Cum Laude" in the fall of 1996 with a Bachelor's degree in Spanish from Moorhead State University. She moved back to Minneapolis, Minnesota after her home was destroyed in the flood of 1997 in the hope of finding a better life without her husband. Instead, she found a series of dead-end jobs and the complete collapse of her marriage, which ended after divorce papers were granted in December 24, 1997. Disillusioned with her life, she worked as part of a crew of an ill-fated documentary project that ran out of funds shortly after it started. This temporary setback inspired her to travel around North America and the Caribbean. She moved back to Fargo, North Dakota at her ex-husband's urging. There she found her compass in a supportive creative community and her work as an artist's model. With the guidance of photographer Paul L. Meisel, she turned away from her original plan to become a Spanish teacher and instead become a professional model and performer.

In her new venture, she held several titles including "Latinamoves Model of the Year 2000", "Ms Internet World Ethnic Beauty Award 2001", and the "Ms Internet World Tribute Award", in 2002. She was also the founder of "Modamag", a magazine which originally focused on modeling, but now focuses on film reviews. Social phobias and burn-out from her rather grueling schedule took a huge toll on her health. She retired from the field in 2003 and redirected her energies back to more creative endeavors. In that same year, she published the short-lived "The Rice Reader." In 2004, she completed her first musical play, "The Purple Slipper Floating Organ Cabaret" and co-founded a burlesque troupe of the same name. She eventually returned to modeling in late 2005, while still maintaining her busy career as an artist.

Littlecrow is also known for her gourmet cooking skills which she gained during her stay in Fargo. Her recipes and thoughts on the culinary arts have been featured in the St. Cloud Times and in Cooking with Central Minnesota's Best on multiple occasions. She also contributes to Courtney Knettel's Naughty Curry spice blog and column.

Currently
Currently, Littlecrow is still working on the Soup Wars Project, a series of experimental science-fiction graphic novels along with her second husband, Loki W. Kaspari and other collaborators. Polska, Sucka!, the first series from the Soup Wars Project, was released in April 2005. Additionally, she runs the Rice Print Shop in Rice, Minnesota and is a prolific blogger, participating in several personal and group blogs.