DRAWING HUMOR FROM THE GAY LIFE.WENDEL AND ETHAN GREEN, GAY EVERYMEN FROM DIFFERENT ERAS, MEET FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AN EXCLUSIVE ADVOCATE CARTOON I was delighted when I discovered Howard's work [in the '80s]. Here at last was someone telling stories I was eager to read, in a medium I loved and wanted to work in. I view Howard as a founding father--kind of the Ben Franklin of gay storytelling in comics and of narrative cartooning in general. He and cartoonists like Lynda Barry Lynda Barry (born January 2, 1956) is an American cartoonist and author. One of the most successful non-mainstream American cartoonists, Barry is perhaps best known for her weekly comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek. and Alison Bechdel Alison Bechdel (born September 10 1960) is an American cartoonist. Originally best known for the comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For, she has recently become a best-selling author with her autobiographical graphic memoir Fun Home. helped make the world safe for cartoonists like me, who like a few paragraphs in our punch lines. --Eric Orner When I was a kid in the '50s I didn't know that comics could be about reality. Happily, a succession of role models opened my eyes. The creators of underground comic books proved that cartoons could reflect the meat of life without being coy. Joe Johnson Joe Johnson may refer to:
Ginsberg , while no cartoonist, proved that you could be an openly queer creator and still walk with your head high in the world. When Roberta Gregory and Mary Wings proved that gay cartoons could move beyond camp into substantive politics and truths of the soul, I saw the direction I wanted to take. I want to keep the options expanding and the barriers falling so that Eric Orner can forge ahead with his snappy gay comedy of manners comedy of manners Witty, ironic form of drama that satirizes the manners and fashions of a particular social class or set. Comedies of manners were usually written by sophisticated authors for members of their own social class, and they typically are concerned with social without sacrificing his right, should the mood strike at some point in his life, to take his art in very different directions--directions as distinct from Ethan's world as my graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby Stuck Rubber Baby is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Howard Cruse, first published in 1995. Set mostly in the 1960s in the Southern United States, in the midst of the Black Civil Rights movement, it deals with homosexuality and racism. is from the Wendel comics. All sides of life are waiting to be laid bare in the "funny pages." We can't let our art or our souls be boxed in by history. --Howard Cruse Find links to Web sites for Wendel and Ethan Green (as well as Howard Cruse and Eric Orner) at www.advocate.com |
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