GAY & COMICS - THE PERFECT CIVIL PARTNERSHIP ?

Yesterday I was reading a new magazine from my country call “Turma da Monica Jovem” that is a spin-off of the most famous animated characters for children over there (they are the Brazilian Disney) I grew up reading that, and for my surprise after 50 years they decided create a teen version of my favourite childhood heroes, so now all those characters that once were a group a children are now teenagers and like teenagers they will have romantic affairs, drugs and sexuality are on the publish cards for them.

One of my personal friends is the guy behind of one of the first polemic editions of this new spin-off ,EMERSON ABREU is a comics writer and the name of the story is “The boys are all the same” in this one he caused commotion because he took one of the characters called Denise ( a secondary character barely know in the regular edition ) and made her a outspoken teenager who speaks all the gay slangs on the Brazilian queer dictionary (some kind of typical fag hag) causing arguments e debate about if the next step it will be the first gay Brazilian comic character ,uhhh ,honestly I don’t think so, unfortunately when is about people rights and equality ,Brazil still has a long way to go ,but what about in other countries ,do we have a good comic representation ? That’s why I decide to investigate:

THE VERY BIGINNING

You can’t talk about gay comics without talk about Touko Laaksonen, this renowned sexual deviant would later change his name to Tom of Finland to escape the wrath of the heterosexual society at large. With very muscular characters, auto of proportion cocks and some of the most never visualized sexual action between men ever saw in paper (only in our heads perhaps) he actually starts during the 50´s and 60´s and was already drawing homoerotic characters disguised as physic and health illustrations for the also disguised "fitness" magazines of the time, only in the 70´s his most well know drawing came to light making him a gay icon of gay sexual freedom and opening a great deal of possibilities for future gay characters in the future.

THE FUNNY SIDE

In our days now we have so many examples of gays on comics but after some research I came out with only 2 comic stripes that not only did catch me on the eye but also shows a great sense of humor and a storyline that everyone can enjoy (wouldn’t say a family reading but a very humanize satire of our lives) The first one is Chelsea Boys, created by the Canadian designer Glen Hanson and the New Yorker tv writer Allan Neuwirth about 3 completely different gay flat mates called Nathan, Soiree and Sky and their adventures ,they are not only different from each other on personality but also in race background giving the no gay readers a great understand how diverse and complex the gay community can be .

Another great example of gay comics for our days is TROY from the American Michael Derry, with a great range of characters this eye catchy comic got at all, from lesbians with kids, gay whores and even a camp character in a mix of Sex and the city, Queers as Folk and Will & Grace on steroids.

THE SUPER GAY IS COMING ?

I honestly think that even before Tom of Finland, when the first glance on superman came to the light was a gay guy having naughty thoughts about that fictional man and his underwear in the wrong place (im not even going to go to the batman and Robin thing) but the only officially gay super hero still the Northstar, he was created to be the first gay super hero but the 80´s was still not prepared and his creator John Byrne only did imply his sexuality and lack of interest in the opposite sex, only in 1992 Northstar got out of the comic closet in the Alpha Flight issue 106 the only comic book to have been inducted into the gaylactic Hall of fame.

If is not enough a gay super hero, what about a book gay super hero? The unusual concept was created from the author Perry Moore and his book HERO telling the story of Thom, a young boy how can heal things and want to be part of the League of members (something like the league of superheroes) but he hides a secret that could shut down his plans of fame and glory, he will be able to get out of the super closet? Or he will hide himself behind his mask and lycra uniform? The book was almost transported to the small screen in an adaptation from the hands of no one than Stan Lee in 2009, but the project was dropped without a convincing explanation.

We never been so protected by the law and our rights are just getting equally stronger, but when is about of our representation on the cinema, tv, comics and books still not yet the time for us to stop the fight, those people above set the high standard, depends on us continuing pushing the envelope for one day the fiction start to look more like reality.

Steve Cavalcanti

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