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CREATORS SPEAK OUT How important is it for you to include gay characters in your work? Howard Cruse: I think what's important is that I not choose NOT to include gays because of outside commercial pressure or interior fears. Sometimes it would be artificial to include gays -- for example, if I feel like doing a two-person story about a mother and son in which the introduction of gayness would be a distraction from the other issues that are on the table. I am not free as an artist is I don't permit myself to create heterosexual characters when that's what's called for. But the greater the range of characters in a story, the more false a picture of life it will convey if no gay people are present (or people of color, disabled people, transgendered people, or Republicans). Jose Villarrubia: It is important, but I am not a writer or an editor, so I can’t make those kinds of decisions. I have been very fortunate to work with writers like Alan Moore that are very conscious of including characters of different sexual orientations in their stories, and editors like Karen Berger and Scott Dunbier that don’t have a problem with these topics. But ultimately it is not up to me. Eric Shanower: This question perhaps betrays a lack of understanding about the creative process. This isn't a meatloaf recipe--put in the right ingredients in the correct proportions and you know what you'll get. We're talking about a living process of give and take, a search along a path for a place no one's yet discovered. Tokenism is a pretty sure way to create an odd, laughable, or curious cultural artifact, but a cultural artifact is not necessarily a story. It's not so much that's it's important for me to include gay characters as it is not to exclude gay characters if the work requires them. And it's not so much whether the work requires them, it's more whether the work IS them. In structures like stories, you can't separate the parts to any great extent before you're left with nothing but a bunch of parts that don't have any meaning. Robert Rodi: I like writing gay characters, but it depends on the story. My first Vertigo miniseries, FOUR HORSEMEN, had no gay characters, because it didn't need any, and therefore I didn't miss writing them. However, my upcoming Vertigo monthly, CODENAME: KNOCKOUT, has a teenage gay supporting character who's a delight to write -- he's what I wish I'd been like when I was eighteen: witty, sexually aggressive, and utterly unafraid of death. Marc Andreyko: It is important for me to include, forgive the pretense, honest characters in my work. Usually a gay character will insinuate his or herself into my work because being gay is part of my frame of reference. Greg Fox: It made, (and continues to make), a huge difference in my writing and drawing. To be able to write gay characters and show gay characters and gay romance in my work....it is electrifying, wonderful, and hugely fulfilling....and I am very, very grateful to be able to do so. Devin Grayson: Well, I'm trying to talk about the world in my work, and as we all know, this is very much a part of the world. Amid the many Batman stickers on my computer monitor frame is a quote by Audre Lorde: "Your silence will not protect you." I think those are very wise words, and I try to live by them. Roberta Gregory: Oh, very important, not even in work with primarily gay content, like Bitchy Butch. In the Bitchy Bitch comics, I put in lesbian characters, have a girl with a lesbian mother that Marcie is trying to separate her from, etc. Even in the animated Bitchy Bits cartoons (On X-Chromosome on the Oxygen cable network and also on their Oxygen.com website) we have gay characters, a lesbian co-worker, a lesbian family, etc. We are everywhere! Brad Rader: Not as important as it used to be. I find, as I feel less oppressed as a gay person, I am less interested in things gay in general. But, sure, my intention is to put gay characters in my work at every opportunity. Ariel L Schrag: It's a given. Tommy Kovac: I don't think about it. It's only important in not HOLDING BACK from having a character be gay. When I came up with the original synopsis for my first comic, STITCH I realized it would be interesting for Stitch to have a crush on his cousin, Simon. To tell you the truth, I didn't even think about what that meant as far as it being publishable, or how it would be received by readers. I'm GLAD I didn't think about it too much! Stitch is a manifestation of certain parts of me, so of course it would be a dark handsome male he had a crush on, rather than some girl. But now I'm working on the first SKELEBUNNIES comic book, and aside from a very brief appearance by Stitch, sexual identity is just NOT a part of the SKELEBUNNIES world. The SKELEBUNNIES are more about careening demonic nonsense. Sharon Cho: It's very important to me, personally, to include gay characters. I personally feel that the more people see of gay characters, the more acceptable it will be. Y'know, osmosis. Chris Cooper: Very important, if it's appropriate to the material. And it nearly always is appropriate, because we're part of every aspect of life. Terrance Griep Jr.: This is a slippery slope. I worry that if I include gay characters in each and every story, I resemble a fanatic and, at best, a sort of Cry Wolf syndrome sets in. At worst, I seem to be promoting the mythological "gay agenda". So I try to pace myself, although I'll be the first to admit I haven't worked out the right balance yet. That said, I've been told that [my] work scans gay, even without gay characters, which eases my neurotic agonizings somewhat. Adam Dekraker: If it's relevant to the story, it'll be there. If not, it'll be in the next one. Bevis Musson: It is quite important, but largely because as a creator, I want to put a lot of myself in what I want to do. I'm a gay man and so I'm more likely to include gay characters, characters I can relate to. But what really matters to me is writing good characters, whatever their sexuality may be. Yes I do want to see gay characters, and I will include them in my work, but I'd like to get away from the assumption that unless proved that otherwise every new character is straight. This article couldn’t have been done without the wonderful resource that is Andy Mangels OUT IN COMICS guide. Every year Andy hosts the OUT IN COMICS panel at the San Diego Comic Convention, and the hand out from that panel was invaluable in helping me track down the comic professionals that participated in this interview. Thank you, Andy.
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We
asked 16 of the top gay creators in the comic industry their thoughts,
and here’s what they had to say.
