Gays And Comics
Last Sunday's New York Times featured an article on gays and comics titled "Out of the Closet and Up, Up, and Away" that touched on gay comics fans as well as LGBT characters in the genre. While there wasn't much new or in-depth info for the already well-informed gay comic geek it was a fun read---and well-timed. You see, also this week Archie Comics announced that later this year they are introducing their first openly gay character, another student at their fictional Riverdale High School. Plus, last week the comic book themed You Tube series Crazy Sexy Geeks brought back Project Runway star Tim Gunn to critique super-hero costumes and we thought it was just plain super-cool.
First, the NY Times article. The article appeared in the "Fashion & Style" section of the paper--not necessarily where we'd look for it, but we're not newspaper editors either. It starts out at NY's Stonewall Inn which periodically hosts the Skin Tight Party, a costume-fetish party similar to our local LA Hard Heroes party. The attire for these events is form-fitting garb and it allows gay comic geeks to dress up, often as their favorite super-heroes. The article goes on to spotlight gay comic book fans who are making their presence known more & more these days at parties like these, comic book conventions, blogs, websites, web comics, etc. The article goes on to give a brief history of gay comics fans & openly gay creators as well as a little mini-psychological analysis of why gays in particular are attracted to comics.
The article then segues into the emergence of gay & lesbian super-heroes & characters in the comic book universe. In doing so it touches on the challenges for gay & gay-friendly writers & artists face in creating and/or outing gay & lesbian characters. The article mentions several prominent characters along the way, probably the majority of whom many of you haven't heard of. There's also mentions of gay & lesbian artists & writers (one of our favorite artists Phil Jimenez is also quoted) as well as Prism Comics, the nonprofit organization that supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender comics, creators and readers. The biggest downside to the article is that it isn't longer.
If the Times article had come out this week it might very well have included the Archie Comics news we mentioned above. The new openly gay Archie character is teenager Kevin Keller (it appears that in the spirit of equality Archie Comics is saddling the guy with an alliterative name like his straight counterparts). Kevin debuts in Veronica #202 and right from the start he confides in Jughead, Archie's best bud whose longtime misogyny has put his sexuality in question several times. Apparently Kevin's good looks get him noticed by rich girl Veronica (one of Archie's girlfriends) and Kevin wants to tell her the why he's not interested. However, Jughead tells him not to because, unknown to Kevin, he wants to see Veronica's typical "antics" a Archie artist Dan Parent puts it.
We were very heartened by the article at Newsarama.com where Parent gives some background on the creation of the Kevin Keller character. ".. The fact that there's a gay character in the story isn't a big deal to the characters. We didn't do something with turmoil. The guy just happens to be gay, and the characters accept it, and that's it." Parent also mentions that the company wants to show that in many schools in America being gay isn't "a big deal anymore." (his daughter's school being his prime example). Kudos to Archie Comics!
Lastly we have the Crazy Sexy Geeks recent video featuring Tim Gunn. There are two other CSG videos that briefly feature the gay fashion icon (you can see them here & here ) but the newest video (it's the first of two parts) is all Tim Gunn offering his critical analysis to specific comic book character costumes. It's total fun and yet it's also done with great seriousness. And for you comic fans check out the rest of the CSG You Tube page for more comics fun.
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