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YES I AM.
ARE GAY COMIC FANS STILL IN THE CLOSET? If you ask a friend, a coworker or if you're brave enough, a stranger on the street or mall what their perceptions of a comic book reader are, most likely they'll have some stereotypical notions. It might be the teen-ager who's either gawky or has an active imagination, or it might be an image of a geeky adult male that has trouble getting dates that pops into their minds. They most likely won't visualize a comic book reader as a gay/lesbian/bi-sexual/transgendered adult because we (to quote Melissa Etheridge, "Yes, I am") live in somewhat of a closet. Like many comic readers, my fascination with comics began at an early age. It was years later and living in Chicago that I found another gay man that read comics or at least admitted to enjoying them. Comics are associated with childhood or adolescence. As we get older, it's implied that it's time to give up comics as a frivolous hobby. Add to that the implicit attitude of the GLBT (gay/lesbian/bi-sexual/transgendered) community at large that comics are either considered silly, low brow, childish or at best guilty pleasures, and it's easier to understand being uncomfortable with identifying as gay comics fans. Aside from works by Howard Cruse, Tim Barela, and similar creators, chances are very high that you won't find "regular" comics or trade paperbacks in gay bookstores. Gay comic readers aren't perceived as existing for the most part. Articles in print magazines and on web sites like PLANET OUT may be changing some of those attitudes. However, while as GLBT people we may feel comfortable to various degrees with being out in our gay communities, many of us don't want to be singled out as the gay reader in our comic shops. It's as if we believe we have no voice to speak. That is only as true as we are willing to let it be true. For decades, the comic publishers worked under the self-imposed rules of the Comics Code Authority. The CCA was a means of self-preservation when comic books came under Senate investigation in the 1950s. [Editors note: We are aware of the several theories regarding the formation of the Comics Code Authority, however, no one truly knows why the code was established; we simply know the results. Thus Joe is using the commonly accepted version, that the code was put in place to avoid further public outcry. So no e-mails about how the code was just a way to drive EC out of business please] Any homoerotic content in CCA approved comics was purely sub-textual. Whether the subtext was accidental, planned or just our contemporary interpretation is another story. The landscape of comic books changed in the late 1980’s with the birth of the direct market and comic specialty shops. Comics began to acknowledge issues and ideas that had been repressed before, including homosexuality. Since the first throwaway characters began to appear, the range of GLBT representation has grown. The question is has it grown enough? And if it hasn't, why aren't we speaking up and letting our voices be heard by The Powers That Be? If you asked gay fans about the quality and quantity of GLBT characters in comics, the consensus would probably be that we'd like to see a larger, more diverse range of supporting cast members and prominent heroes. That isn't to say that there aren't any good GLBT characters in comics. There are. We just want more. How do we get that message across if we feel we have no voice, if we feel that we simply do not matter to comics’ publishers? First of all, we need to realize that each of us is not the only gay comic reader. Secondly, it's only with determination that any positive change takes place. Unrealistic expectations of overnight change make us feel more disenfranchised and the homophobic readers more empowered. Remember that feeling of relief and the sense of belonging the first time you came out, and met someone you could identify with? It was years after my first meeting another gay reader that I came across another one. It was later still that I chanced upon a few campy posts on DC's former AOL message boards. I was curious and excited to find just a few more gay fans in the world. However, there was a sense of frustration with posting on the public boards. There was the usual barrage of Bible quotes, personal rhetoric, and hate-filled posts about homosexuality, and off topic threads were regularly taken down. In August of 1997, one of those posters attended Andy Mangels' "Gays In Comics" panel at the San Diego convention, and came away with the idea to start a gay comic fans email list. From that small band came a small website, then a larger email list, a second email list, and finally a permanent and larger website to call home. It would've been easy at any point back then to throw up hands and ask to what good would any of it come. Maybe that's the state of mind the majority of gay readers have. Maybe we feel in the closet in our comic shops, perhaps made fun of or misunderstood by people in our own community, and disenfranchised in the eyes of the comics publishers, and voiceless in the face of it all. If there's only one thing I've learned with being part of a gay fans email list, it's that we aren't voiceless. We can be articulate and passionate about comics with each other. Now we need to express ourselves to the creators, editors, presidents, marketing departments and publishers. We need to say, "We're here, we're queer, we love comics, and we're not going away!" But we can't delude ourselves by thinking that any ground will be made through confrontation. In my opinion, that tactic probably will not work here. What approach may work is to prove that gay comic fans exist in large enough numbers that warrant attention. While these are inexact analogies, look at the number of gay and lesbian magazines and the recent history of gays and television. Ellen begot Will and Grace. Will and Grace begot Willow's lesbian attraction on Buffy, an untitled new show with John Goodman playing a gay father, and Kiss Me Guido, a sitcom based on the movie. There are many GLBT and friendly people working at different levels in the comics’ field. I'm not advocating that we all purchase every single book their work appears in. What you decide to buy should be your choice alone. I do think there should be a dialog between gay fans and comic publishers. If you find a comic or a storyline that you like with GLBT characters, by all means, buy it as long as you enjoy it. But we can support the idea of more and better GLBT representation with letters, letters, and more letters. In the past few years, GLAAD has given awards annually to different media for positive representations. For the last two years, I've had the opportunity to be involved in the awards process for comics. Even so, I can't help but believe that having the grass roots people at large share their well thought-out hopes and ideas with conviction and determination can't have the same or a larger and longer lasting positive effect on something we all love and in some ways consider as friends. These are of course only my opinions. My hope is that we can share our opinions not just among ourselves but also with comic professionals, editors and publishers.
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By
Joe Palmer.
