ju s t out V n o v t m b t r 15. 1092 V 2 3
Queer comic books
Gay, lesbian and bisexual cartoonists come to Portland
T
by Irene K. Hislop
ocky Road Comics was host to one
of the largest book signings by gay,
lesbian and bisexual comic-book
creators in the United States on Oct.
25. Andy Mangels, editor of Gay
Comics, Vaugn Frick, creator of an anti-OCA
comic, Donna Barr, author of the Desert Peach
comics and play, Roberta Gregory, creator of the
first lesbian comic book, Dave Young, creator of
the local Bernie
strip, and Michael
Goldberg, longtime
contributor to Gay
Comics, turned out
to give autographs
and chat with fans.
While gay and
lesbian theme com­
ics are a small por­
tion of the industry, mainstream comics are start­
ing to depict a few characters who “come out.”
Alpha Right’s character Northstar is one of three
or four comic heroes to reveal that he or she is gay.
“[Gay comics] don’t sell as well,” said Jeff
Morehead, manager of Excalibur Books and Com­
ics, “but those who try it usually like it. It’s a
fresh, different voice.”
Rocky Road, the only gay-owned comic-book
store in Portland, has a hard time keeping the
various gay comics, which make up about ten
percent of the inventory, in stock, according to
owner Nik Baldwin. He noted that mainstream
characters who come out generate debate in the
letters section of comic books, with more people
writing in support of having gay comic-book
heroes.
Creating gay comics doesn’t create a big pay-
check. According to Andy Mangels, many stores
are afraid to carry the comics, especially in light
of the current economic situation. But Gay Com­
ics is available in Australia, Canada, Great Britain
and parts of South America. That doesn’t make it
any easier for gay-comic creators to cross over
into the more profitable world of mainstream
comicbooks. Mangels came out at the beginning
of his comics career.
“It’s only been a lot of perseverance on my
part to keep it from being the end,” he said.
Mangles recently did an episode of Quantum
Leap dealing with the Stonewall riots. His story
will be in the Quantum Leap comic book, not the
television show. He’s also working on issues of
¡heStarTrek and Batman Adventure comic books,
as well as on more issues of Nightmare on Elm
Street. Mangels says that he always puts gay
characters in his stories, even if they just appear in
the background. He’s also working on putting
more ethnic diversity into his comics.
Vaughn Frick, whose work has appeared in
Gay Comics, Meatmen, PDXS, Strip AIDS USA
and Annie Sprinkle Is Miss Timed, is the creative
force behind Righteous X Goes to Hell, a comic
book produced by the Special Righteousness
Committee. Over 16,000 copies of the book have
been sold. Frick said he’s enjoyed doing the book
because so many people are depressed about the
OCA, but he added that it wasn’t all fun.
“In drawing Lon Mabon,” he said, “you feel
more like a coroner than a cartoonist.”
Frick also has out a collection of his work,
Watch Out Comics, and does fliers for several
local progressive groups. Being political, he says,
has made it harder to get his work published.
Roberta Gregory created the first lesbian comic
hook. Dynamite Damsels, in the early 1970s.
Although some of her books are turning a profit,
she says it’s still hard for a lesbian comic creator
to be taken seriously in the industry.
“1 wish," she said, “I would find more respect
than I do.”
Women comic artists, she explained, are caught
m a double bind because few comic publishers are
interested in women’s work, and few women’s
R
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MT.fTABOR FLORIST
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bookstores are interested in comics. But slowly,
more women are becoming interested in comics.
Although the market tends to be dominated by
adolescent boys, Gregory says comics offer
women “a powerful means of expression” to
discuss the issues affecting their lives. Gregory’s
work examines sexism, lesbian issues, body im­
age, abortion and more.
“A lot of women’s comics,” she said, “are
political because women lives are, by necessity,
political.”
Dave Young is planning to bring back his
Bernie comic strip, which ran from 1980 to 1987
in the Cascade Voice, as well as being syndicated
nationally to several other gay papers. Commu­
nity News, a gay paper in Salem, has been running
the old strips. Young describes the strip as a
celebration of gay domestic life, with plenty of
“homespun humor.”
Donna Barr feels the Oregon Citizens Alli­
ance has made her work more timely than ever.
She is the creator of the controversial Desert
Peach comic books, which tell the story of a gay
officer in the Nazi forces in Africa during World
War II. Barr describes the comic as “pro-human,
anti-war and guaranteed to offend everybody.”
One point she tries to make with the books is that
everyone has the potential to be a Nazi, and that
we should all be vigilant about bigotry.
Barr does a great deal of research for her work,
and readers familiar with World War II often
write to tell her how realistic the comic is. She
also received a letter from a former gay-basher
who told her how the strip helped him overcome
the homophobia from which he suffered ever
since an older boy raped him when he was a child.
The Desert Peach is also a musical to be
performed Nov. 6-29 in Seattle. The book and
lyrics are by Barr and T. Brian Wagner; the music
is by Portlander Michael Seyfrit. Barr says she
started the comic book and play at the same time,
but the two projects have gone in different direc­
tions.
Michael Goldberg is a longtime contributor to
Gay Comics; his work has also appeared in
Meatmen and Strip AIDS USA. Goldberg worked
on Choices, a comic book about the abortion
debate.
Fans of Gay Comics can look forward to work
by Clive Barker within the next two years and
strips from Alison Bechdel, without the Dykes to
Watch Out For characters, in issue 18, due out this
spring.
Baldwin described the turnout for the signing
as “pleasant." A steady stream of customers
arrived at his store to visit the cartoonists, and
Baldwin is pleased with sales.
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