Queer on the funny pages: how do you work gay (and gayish) characters into the comics without making a fuss? Don't make a big deal about it.

When Brooke McEldowney, author of the elegant, erudite comic strip "9 Chickweed Lane," moved his lead character, Edda, out of her mother's titular address and into the city with a ballet company late last year, he simply decided that her new roommate and dance partner--barrel-chested, dirty-blond Seth--should be gay. Unlike the gay couple in "Doonesbury," Mark Slackmeyer and Chase Talbott III, McEldowney's Seth has no political motives; unlike the controversial 1993 strip in "For Better or For Worse" about teenager Lawrence, there was no need for overt hand-wringing about coming out.

"I never think of bringing it up, to have [Edda's mom] say 'Oh, is he gay?' or anything like that," McEldowney explains, as if it were perfectly evident. "I just think it would be one of those things that wouldn't be an issue because he is just the way he is. I think it is kind of obvious."

Perhaps it's because the 52-year-old cartoonist, married with two daughters in Maine, knew many gay men while attending Juilliard in his youth, but Seth has proved to be a highly successful character for the strip, which appears in 60 newspapers worldwide. It's due, he believes, to the organic way his readers have discovered Seth's sexuality, slyly hinted at through subtle asides and gestures for months until a sequence of strips featuring Seth's boyfriend, Mark, appeared the first week of May.

Rick Stromoski's gag-happy family strip "Soup to Nutz" also features a popular character--wide-eyed, freckled-faced Andrew, whose effeminate tendencies have not gone unnoticed by his readers (in about 600 newspapers worldwide) in the five years since the strip's been in print. One example: After Andrew fantasizes that his superhero suit would feature "tights to show my muscles ... a wide belt ... and a side bag to hold all my utilities," his older brother suggests he call himself "the Swish." Stromoski won't comment on Andrew's sexuality, however, and for good reason: The character is supposed to be only 6 years old.

"I always just Leave that up to the reader," Stromoski says. "I don't even know for sure myself. I think when you're 6 years old you're not really sure what sex is at that point. He just has this affinity for things that are not your typical boy role-playing. He plays with dolls. He also does sports, but he finds the Brawny paper towel guy really attractive. Very ambiguous things like that. I think that's pretty common in some 6-year-old boys."

Indeed, Stromoski, who lives with his wife and daughter in Connecticut, believes Andrew has proven to be his most popular character (and his favorite to draw) because "everyone can say they grew up with a kid like this that they knew. I think of all my characters, Andrew is the most authentic."

While both McEldowney and Stromoski say they have received the occasional negative letter about Seth and Andrew, respectively, the feedback they've received has been mostly positive. "To be honest, I get a lot of positive mail from these smaller papers in Kentucky and Tennessee, Missouri and Texas, especially about Andrew," reports Stromoski, who was recently elected president of the National Cartoonists Society. In any event, neither artist has any plans to alter their strips to appease any perceived negative backlash about their characters.

"I've had the strip going [since 1993]," McEldowney jovially harrumphs, "and I want to do it the way I want to do it. If somebody wants to make an issue out of Seth being gay, then I'm just going to bring him out more and more. I got a letter from some reader saying, 'Does Etta realize that [Seth]'s gay? I hope she's careful.' I felt like writing back, 'He's a cartoon! What is it you think could happen to her?'"

He chuckles, adding, "This person who is going to be her best friend, who fusses over her, worries about her when she's on dates, they just see this as some innate evil. I was thinking, My God, their minds are so terrible. They have their own terrible thoughts and then blame them all on me. I don't understand these people who dub themselves the religious right. They're worried about going to hell--they're already there. It's in their heads."

RELATED ARTICLE: Out in black and white.

The current crop of queer characters on the funny pages is hardly unprecedented. Here's a look at some of their most important ancestors

Doonesbury: Garry Trudeau created newspaper comics' first gay character, Andy Lippincott, back in 1976; he died of AIDS complications in 1990. The strip currently features lefty NPR correspondent Mark Slackmeyer (below) and his Log Cabin Republican boyfriend Chase Talbott III.

For Better or For Worse: Lynn Johnston's family-friendly strip stirred up controversy in 1992 when Lawrence, a good friend of her protagonist family's then-teenage son, came out to his parents. He occasionally pops up in the strip to this day.

Life in Hell: Matt Groening has referred to his fez-wearing Akbar and Jeff characters as "brothers, or lovers, or both," but their contentious and dysfunctional relationship suggests intimacy more than fraternity.

Ernie Pook's Comeek: Among the cast of Lynda Barry's brilliant weekly strip is Freddie, whose "queerness" has not gone unnoticed by the bullies in his class.

Peanuts: Charles Schulz would no doubt deny any lesbian subtext between butch baseballer Peppermint Patty and her best pat Marcie, who calls her "Sir." Are we instead meant to question Patty's gender identity or Marcie's submissiveness (or her myopia)?

--Alonso Duralde