Jw*t o«« T fe b m a ry 1 0 0 2 T 10
Cathartic chums
Brown Bomber, Diva and Rupert Kinnard receive their
widest exposure yet with the publication of a
collection of Cathartic Comics
%
by Albert Cunningham
upert Kinnard (a.k.a. Prof. I.B.
Gittendowne) had a passion for su­
perheroes. He became frustrated
with the fact that he never'saw his skin color
reflected within the otherwise colorful pages of
the comic books of the day. In 1973, he and a
friend created a character called "Super bad."
Super bad was just the, opposite o f Captain
America; sporting a red, black and green cos­
tume, as opposed to the good captain s red, white
and blue. After a couple o f years having Super-
bad trash everyone white in sight, the "mili­
tant period" ended. Super bad was replaced by a
truly "kinder and gentler,” non-violent super­
hero in the form of Eric D. Gambrell-the Brown
Bomber. Starting in 1978 BB. graced the pages
of the Cornell College student newspaper for a
number of y ears before coming out ofthe closet as
the world's first black, gay, superhero fairy car­
toon. After graduating from Cornell and moving
to Portland, BJ3. was eventually joined by Diva
Touché Flambé, for the first time, in the pages of
Just Out. That was September o f 1984, and
Cathartic Comics was born.
In a shrewd career move, Kinnard, BB. and
the Diva left Portland for the Bay Area in Dec. o f
1985. During the next five years Cathartic Com­
ics ran in publications from San Francisco, Chi­
cago, Minneapolis, and Memphis, Tennesee. With
the publication o f B.B. and the Diva: A Collec­
tion of Cathartic Comics by Alyson Publications,
this winter, the "darling duo” achieves their
widest exposure yet.
included as part of the Cartoon Museum’s newest
show, “Black Ink: An exhibit of African-American
Cartoonists.” This may also become a traveling
show.
I feel very connected to what could be seen as
an explosion of African-American gay male vis­
ibility happening recently in the media. In my
mind, the current wave of BGMania began a
couple of years ago, with the publication of Jo­
seph Beam’s anthology, In the Life. This was
followed by Marlon Riggs’ film Tongues Untied,
Issac Julian’s Looking for Langston, the anthol­
ogy Other Countries, the theatrical piece Fierce
Love by Porno Afro Homos, the publication of
Brother to Brother and the recent films, Paris is
Burning and Young Soul Rebels. It’s too early to
predict the possible impact of BB. and the Diva,
which, as a collection of cartoons, probably won’t
be taken nearly as seriously as these other media
events. I feel that I have benefited from all that
has been happening lately.
I think the recent crop of writings and art are
coming from fairly fresh perspectives. African-
American gay men are becoming a bit more
assertive about who we are without any apolo­
gies. It seems to be the exploration of pain and joy
in a new voice. Maybe other people are also
slowly being able to listen to these new voices and
perspectives without feeling as defensive as they
have in the past. To some extent BGMs are
creating art for one another and hopefully the
general population will continue to experience all
there is, within that art for them to embrace.
BAM! ZOWIE! It's Rupert Kinnard with some of his creative work. Cowabunga Dude!
world of comics and he was the most powerful of sadden and anger me. I find Cathartic Comics to
them all. After that, I realized I wanted to create be a place where I can shed these feelings of
a hero who was a bit gentler, totally nonviolent hopelessness and frustration. It comes out in the
and more whimsical. I eventually came up with comic strip. The minute I hear something, like
the Brown Bomber. I decided that I would have Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas, what I want to
this little character editorialize. I think it is do is purge myself of the anger. I try to find
unusual that something that started out as a hobby something that’s whimsical or ironic about the
is going to be published into a book. I am a situation.
I really like the cartoon to be challenging. In
graphic designer, and an art director, and B.B. has
so many communitites, the African-American
been an outlet for my creative desires.
I stuck with the character of the Brown Bomber community and the lesbian and gay community,
and several years af ter creating him, Div a Touché it’s easy to fool ourselves into thinking that we
Flambé came along. They work as a really good have all the answers. Through things like Cathar­
team. So many social issues that I read about tic Comics, we are challenged to question some of
usually come from a white, straight perspective. our perceptions about our communities.
Even growing up, I remember just how unusual it
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we knew that it was going to represent a part of our
really starting t* believe in self-
reality. You had to be excited about those things,
evaluation. You get to a point where [Europe an-
because you knew they were a rare occurrence.
American] lesbians and gays within the commu­
That is what still happens today. In a lot of the
nity are out there fighting for their rights. They
comic strips I do, I’m very intent on revealing to
begin to realize how important it is to build
society at large some of the perspectives I have as
coalitions. Then they start wanting to attract more
a black man. For example; I remember doing a
of a diverse group of people to supjpxnt the cause.
comic strip about the Brown Bomber being upiset
In
doing
that
they are put into a position where
that Lionel Ritchie was referred to as ‘a black
they
have
to
confront their racism. Gay men
Barry Manilow,’ Billy Dee Williams was referred
to as ‘a black Clark Gable,’ Spike Lee was referred certainly have to confront their sexism, and how
we discriminate against people who are older and
grew up in Chicago, and ilhink a major
s long as I’ve been doing the comic
p>eople
who are handicap>p>ed. In a city like San
part
of
how
I
developed
as
an
artist
has
strip I’ve wanted to bring it together
Francisco, that’s really apparent when you’re
something to do with growing up in a
into one collection. I thought that
involved in different groups. I feel that if I can
family of four sisters, my mother and my father.
that would give people a sense of the personalities
find a way to show how absurd it is for the black
I
did
a
lot
of
creative
things
as
a
child.
I
never
of the characters involved.
.
community
to be homophobic, or how absurd it is
really wanted to go out and participate in sports or
“Early last year, at the OutWrite ‘91, lesbian
for the [European-American] lesbian and gay
do anything with other people. I tended to stay
and gay writers conference, I was invited to lead
community to not really encourage African-
home and do more solitary kinds of creative
a cartoonist’s panel. I was really excited about
Americans or p>eople of other backgrounds to join
things. I liked to punch out these little hobby kits
that. I decided to put together a number of ‘books ’
the fight, then I’m doing my job.
and present them to publishers. It’s a lot of work and construct buildings and little towns. Then I
There’s a great wealth of things that are absurd.
to put together the prototypes of a book, trying to got into plastic models. From there I graduated to
You
have gay men who are anti-women, and they
select cartoons and arranging them. I ended up comic books. I used to draw a lot of the characters
.
don’t
realize the connection between homopho­
putting together ten prototypes. I met Sasha that were featured in comic books auhe time. I
Alyson through a good friend of mine, and gave found that after a while I would look at the to as ‘a black Woody Allen.’ I just thought, ‘I’m bia and sexism.
him the first copy. Shortly afterward we met characters I was drawing froffl the books I was really sick of this,’ so I did a comic strip making
again, and he said they would be very interested in reading and I realized that none of them reflected fun of that. I ended up having white people saying,
publishing what I had shown them. Sasha said he the people around me, the people I grew up with. ‘Wow, I never thought that that could be looked
think right now is an exciting time. There’s
wanted to incorporate jhe Brown Bomber and The comic books and the people I was drawing upon as a negative thing.’ It made them think
a giant scope of things that have happened
about
it,
and
they
thought,
‘Yeah,
that
must
be
were
white.
I
thought
it
would
be
an
unusual
thing
Diva into one of their books that was going into a
in the past couple of years. I feel very
really irritating, to hear a black person referred to
second printing. The book is Young, Gay and to create my own comic characters.
fortunate
to have a collection of the work that I do
as
‘a
black
white
something.’
This
is
one
of
the
One
of
the
first
ones
was
a
superhero
called
Proud, edited by Sasha Alyson. I’m really proud
going
out
there to become a part of it. I’m very,
reasons
why
I
feel
that
there’s
a
unique
place
for
“Superbad,”
who
was
the
African-American
about that, because it’s an educational book for
very excited. The work that other black gay men
young people, answering questions they might equivalent of “Captain America.” Instead of red, Cathartic Comics in the comic world. It’s specifi­
cally
lesbian,
gay,
AfricanAmerican
perspective
are doing encourages me and influences me, a lot.
white
and
blue,
he
wore
red,
green
and
black,
and
have alxmt being lesbian and gay.
on
a
lot
of
the
events
that
happen
in
the
world.
As much as I really enjoy it, I’m still concerned
was
a
very
violent
superhero,
reflecting
how
I
was
I was recently invited to become a part of the
about my form of expression being taken seriously.
feeling
at
the
time.
That
was
the
start.
I
created
Growing up in places like Chicago, there’s a
artist-in-residence program at the San Francisco
Cartoon Art museum. Cathartic Comics join "Superbad” with a good friend of mine. That was real frustration with what goes on in the world, Film is always taken seriously. Theatre is taken
Doonesbury, Peanuts, Life in Hell and Lynda pretty cathartic for us, because we felt there was and it’s really by no fluke of chance that the name seriously, certainly literary works are taken seri­
Barry as part of the museum’s permanent col­ a lot of injustice going on against African-Ameri­ of the comic strip is Cathartic Comics. There are ously. There’s a lot I want to say within the form
lection. This month the strip is scheduled to be cans. We visualized our hero being set in the a lot of injustices going on; I see a lot of things that that I have chose, which is comics.
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I think the recent crop of
writings and art are coming
from fairly fresh perspectives
African-American gay men
are becoming a bit more
assertive about who we are
without any apologies
1