The Gutter Review offers up a retrospecetive on the sightful, mp, and credibly valuable history of Gay Comix
Contents:
- GAY COMIX HISTORY WH ANDY MANGELS
- 10 IMPORTANT GAY MOMENTS COMIC BOOK HISTORY
- A HISTORY OF GAY ICS HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH’S GRAPHIC NOVELS AND ART-ICS
GAY COMIX HISTORY WH ANDY MANGELS
Des before Iceman me out as gay or Rob first kissed his boyiend, LGBTQ artists were creatg queer ics the 1970s and ‘80s. * gay comic history *
She has drawn strips for numero LGBTQ newspapers and was a ntributor to “Gay Comix, ” a semal anthology seri that lnched Cse, another rtoonist featured the film, was the founr edor of “Gay Comix. It followed a young gay man and his iends the Reagan-Bh era, touchg on same-sex relatnships, gay bashg, HIV/AIDS and other hot-button Cse. Compadre Media GroupHis 1995 graphic novel, “Stuck Rubber Baby, ” was about a young gay man g of age the South amid the civil rights movement.
And jt this month, Edmund Whe’s gay classic “A Boy’s Own Story” was released as a graphic even as gas have been ma, some thgs have been lost sce the heady days chronicled “No Straight L. At a time when publishers are pattg themselv on the back for the st queer reprentatn on the ics page orr to ally pots and praise durg Pri month, ’s time to remember one of the most important (and, sadly, most overlooked) parts of queer ics history: a seri that clud work om a number of inic creators, and featured the most betifully bold tle of all: the 1980s and ‘90s pennt anthology Gay Comix. Ironilly, that name change meant that beme the send seri to bear the tle Gay Comics, wh the first beg a 1940s humor ic published by the pany that would eventually bee Marvel.
(Marvel’s Gay Comics, which featured characters like “Tsie the Typist” and “Salman Sid the High Prsure Kid, ” was, of urse, prsgly straight. Origally, Gay Comix was published by Kchen Sk Prs, the acclaimed die that was also rponsible for Omaha the Cat Dancer and Stt McCloud’s Unrstandg Comics, as well as a long-nng seri of ic book reprts of Will Eisner’s beloved The Spir.
10 IMPORTANT GAY MOMENTS COMIC BOOK HISTORY
* gay comic history *
Ined, was Kchen Sk’s founr, Denis Kchen, who ially had the ia for a queer-themed anthology, spired by the 1970s unrground ic Wimmen’s Comix; not beg gay himself, he reached out to Howard Cse to take on the posn of edor… which brought wh an unexpected problem. Although Cse was “out” amongst iends and acquatanc — cludg Kchen, who was the publisher for his 1970s strip Barefootz — he wasn’t publicly gay, and was ncerned about g out this way.
A HISTORY OF GAY ICS HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH’S GRAPHIC NOVELS AND ART-ICS
Andy Mangels was the third and fal edor for Gay Comix, and he ma some amazg chang as well as documentg s history. * gay comic history *
Ultimately, he cid would be “wardly” to refe, and accepted the posn and announced himself to the world an edorial the first issue, wrg, “In drawg this book, we gay rtoonists would like to affirm that we are here, and that we live liv as strewn wh India ked pratfalls, flawed heroics, and surrept tths as the rt of the human race. Almost all of those creators stuck around as the tle changed hands, both an edorial sense — Bay Area rtoonist Robert Triptow took over om Cse wh the fifth issue 1984 — and the publishg sense, wh Gay Comix movg om Kchen Sk to Bay Area Reporter founr and AIDS activist Bob Ross 1985.
Amongst the voic durg this time was Fun Home’s Alison Bechl, who creds her entire reer to Gay Comix; a 2007 terview, she said, “It hadn’t occurred to me at that pot to put together my penchant for silly drawgs wh my personal life and my polil tert gay and lbian issu, but there were the people who were dog : Howard Cse and Roberta Gregory and all those early Gay Comix artists. Not only was the tle officially changed to Gay Comics wh 1992’s issue #15, but the creative le-up got a makeover as well, wh a new generatn of creators — many of whom were eher workg at the big superhero publishers, or would go on to — troduced, cludg Ivan Velez, Jr., Joan Hilty, P.
Mangels was clearly set on brgg Gay Comics — and gay ics — to the mastream, to the pot of brgg Sam Kieth on board to create a ver featurg his h character The Maxx, or nvcg Todd MacFarlane to advertise the ic for ee an issue of Spawn. The ver scribed the issue as a “super spectacular, ” and wasn’t hyperbole; the entire history of the seri — and, arguably, of openly gay ics the U.
CBR ntributor Alan Kistler brgs a tailed history of LGBT characters and ncepts superhero ics om Tijuana Bibl to the creatn of Northstar and Alan Stt's reimagg as a gay man. * gay comic history *
) Gay Comix (Comics) had helped make that happen, by keepg creators and characters visible an dtry that otherwise tried to ignore them. But Gay Comix ma sure that there was a space on the shelv the ic sectn — and publishers’ llective rporate mds — for a whole host of -your-face queer joy and normalcy the ics mastream. When discsg the history of queer ics, perhaps one of the most important thg to note is that beg openly gay 1980 was a potentially reer-endg move, particularly the cis male-domated world of ics.
Gay Comix was strongly nnected to that rebell legacy of Wimmen's Comix, but tablishg self as s own dividual anthology wh a wholly different purpose. On a recent panel about Gay Comix, Triptow noted that he was of ill health and more than ready to leave by the time he eded his fal issue.
Bee of this, mastream ic stori were rtricted for s, and wasn’t until 1989 that a gay, bi, queer or transgenr superhero was allowed to openly appear mastream Amerin ic books produced by pani such as Marvel and Amerin ic book dtry began the 1930s and the superhero genre tly took off after Superman’s but “Actn Comics #1” 1938.
Comics ed to be dismissed for their perceived d gay msag. Now, openly queer ics are the fastt-growg area the dtry. * gay comic history *
”READ MORE: Fear of a Gay Batman Brought Batwoman to LifeTen years after Superman’s but as the “champn of the opprsed, ” psychiatrist Dr.