Queering Comic History
Themes of non-heteronormative sexuality and gender, while never “mainstream,” have almost always been present in art and literature. It should come as no surprise, then, that queer comics have existed on the fringe almost as long as comics have existed. Following the era of proto-comic art, including the caricatures and political cartoons of the 18th-19th centuries, the earliest sequential art representing comics in the modern sense appeared at the turn of the 20th century.
The first comics to depict same-sex relations or genderfluid characters appeared shortly thereafter, and did so ambiguously. George Herriman’s Krazy Kat first ran in the New York Evening Journal in 1913. The title character is a genderless, simple-minded cat with a stereotypically Southern accent who professes an intense love for mouse sidekick Ignatz.
Sanjak, a cross-dressing villain in the Terry and the Pirates strip during the 1930s-1940s, has been interpreted by many to be a lesbian who is infatuated with the title character’s girlfriend. Any homosexuality expressed in Golden Age comics (1930s-early 1950s) was done so entirely through innuendo. In 1954, the Comics Code Authority (CCA), founded by the Comics Magazine Association of America, would prevent such undertones from appearing in mainstream comics at all until 1989.
Before the 1960s, popular depictions of homosexual acts that were overt were also often demeaning. From the 1920s-1960s, “Tijuana bibles” enjoyed popularity as low-brow pornographic bootlegs of mainstream cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Blondie, and Popeye. These publications were illegally distributed and depicted all kinds of sexual acts, including homosexual ones. Misogyny and ethnic stereotypes are hallmarks of these publications, which were enormously influential on the underground comix movement.
While the CCA maintained its chokehold on the content of mainstream comics, queer comics resided in independent and underground publications. Artistic treatments of homosexuality began to appear in the 1940s.
The erotic fetish art of Touko Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, circulated by mail-order in Europe before being picked up by the “beefcake” magazine Physique Pictorial in 1957. In the mid-1960s, the highly influential Laaksonen developed a comic about a leatherman named “Kake,” which he published for nearly 20 years.
The emergence of the gay liberation movement, driven in large part by the 1969 Stonewall Riots, spawned numerous gay-interest magazines and newspapers. The longest running of these publications, The Advocate, began in 1967 and featured numerous comic characters and strips over the years, including Joe Johnson’s Miss Thing and Big Dick, Sean’s “Gayer Than Strange,” and Howard Cruse’s "Wendel." Drum Magazine ran Al Shapiro’s “Harry Chess: That Man From Auntie,” as early as 1964.
As the gay liberation movement developed, comic artists started rebelling against the Code in general. The underground comix craze, started in San Francisco, would forever change the comic landscape, expanding readership and breaking boundaries through depictions of counter-culture, sex and drugs. Yet, the underground comix scene was thoroughly misogynistic and homophobic. By the 1970s, however, gender troublemakers like Trina Robbins, Larry Fuller, Mary Wings, and Roberta Gregory began to retaliate. Robbins, a legend in the feminist comics world, organized It Ain’t Me Babe Comix, the very first all-female anthology. Robbins and numerous other women also established the Wimmen's Comix collective, whose comics were published by Last Gasp.
Other queer underground comics to appear in the 1970s included the Larry Fuller-produced Gay Heartthrobs, Mary Wings’ Dyke Shorts and Howard Cruse’s Barefootz.
Mary Wings started Come Out Comix as a response, constituting the first lesbian comic. Roberta Gregory published the second all-lesbian comic, Dynamite Damsels, in 1976.
The first issue of Wimmen’s Comix (1972) featured Trina Robbins’ story “Sandy Comes Out,” about underground artist Robert Crumb’s sister. Although it prompted a reaction from the gay community for being a straight person’s depiction of a lesbian, her story nonetheless represents the first comic to positively (and non-erotically) do so. Mary Wings started Come Out Comix as a response, constituting the first lesbian comic.
Roberta Gregory published the second all-lesbian comic, Dynamite Damsels, in 1976.
One of the longest running queer comic anthologies was Gay Comix (which eventually lost the -x to become Gay Comics), launched in 1980. Editors over its eighteen-year run included Howard Cruse, Robert Triptow and Andy Mangels and numerous contributors provided subject matter as diverse as gay culture and experience. The series offered a springboard for many emerging artists who would go on to publish their own work. Meanwhile, in Europe, a smaller queer comics subculture emerged with the help of Ralf König, Nazario, Tom Bouden and Fabrice Neaud. The subculture there was at a linguistic disadvantage to North America, however, and artists struggled to generate larger readerships.
In the 1980s, the LGBTQ+ community was devastated by HIV/AIDS, and this was reflected in comics just as it was in all other forms of media and popular culture. Carl Vaughn Frick’s Watch Out! Comix, David Wojnarowicz’s 7 Miles a Second and Jaime Cortez’s Sexile all directly confront the horrors of the epidemic. When Robert Triptow began to experience the profound number of deaths of friends occurring around him in San Francisco, he teamed up with Trina Robbins to create Strip AIDS USA in 1988. Inspired by the British anthology of the same name published the previous year, the comic would serve as both a fundraiser and an educational resource. Various other important queer strips first appeared in the 1980s as well. Howard Cruse’s "Wendel" was a regular feature in The Advocate throughout the decade and Alison Bechdel launched “Dykes to Watch Out For” in 1983. Rupert Kinnard’s “Cathartic Comics,” featuring the first queer African-American characters, ran in several Portland, OR and San Francisco papers. Also noteworthy are Donna Barr’s Desert Peach, which started in 1988 and continued for two decades, Eric Orner’s “The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green” and David Kelly’s “Steven’s Comics.”
The 1990s were fueled by a DIY (do-it-yourself) revival encompassing both the “queercore” (punk) movement that had emerged in the previous decade and the short-lived but highly influential “riot grrrl” movement. Zines were the printed medium of choice and both scenes embraced third-wave feminism through a rejection of mainstream society and the gender binary.
As editor Angela Bocage explained in the first issue of Real Girl, comics were an ideal medium for creative explorations of gender identity. Women cartoonists especially began to draw inspiration from third-wave feminism.
The Lesbian Cartoonists Network was born in 1990, Diane DiMassa created the unforgettably cathartic Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist as a minicomic starting in 1991
Roberta Gregory’s series Naughty Bits regularly featured the “world’s angriest dyke,” Bitchy Butch.
Anthologies including Girl Frenzy, Dyke’s Delight, and Dyke Strippers showcased the work of veterans and new artists alike.
The new millennium brought a new wave of greater inclusivity, particularly that of transgender cartoonists, characters and issues. The trans community, having long been marginalized even within the LGBTQ+ community, was now finding outlets for being out and open about their identities and struggles. Christine Smith’s The Princess normalizes the life of a young trans girl, and Dylan Edwards’ Transposes chronicles the true stories of six queer trans men. The all-girl teen summer camp series Lumberjanes, published by Boom! Studios, features the strong leading character Jo, a sharp and level-headed trans girl.
Much in the way that zines and minicomics offered an accessible medium for DIY publishing in the 1990s, the Internet enabled a new medium through webcomics and blogging. This would have an enormous impact on cartoonists’ fan bases, allowing for increased publicity, interaction, and feedback. Many cartoonists shifted from publishing in print to doing so online. Prism Comics represents a sort of epicenter for these activities, and publishes an annual Guide to LGBT Comics that spotlights each year’s new material. Other popular LGBTQ+ sites for comics and popular culture in general include The Gay League and Fanboys of the Universe. Another Internet phenomenon that helps cartoonists publish their work today is crowdfunding. For example, Christianne Benedict and Rachel K. Zall successfully funded the trans comic Exiles through Kickstarter.
The LGBTQ+ landscape rapidly proved itself to be as diverse as the human condition in general, and queer comics have continually evolved to illustrate this diversity. The coming-out stories of the 1970s were indeed ground-breaking in their time. However, because the community represents a broad spectrum of sexual orientation and gender identity, there is an ongoing need for broader source material. Cartoonists have proven to be up to the task: Paige Braddock’s Jane’s World, Tim Fish’s Cavalcade of Boys and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (on display with autobiographical comics), and the Juicy Mother anthologies edited by Jennifer Camper have introduced humor and mainstream appeal through characters familiar to all of us. Regardless of our sexual orientation or gender identity, queer comics, just like all other comics, teach us about ourselves and the people around us. Their voices are essential; their voices are many.
Curated by Anna Culbertson