Welcome to the GLA Timeline! In these pages we have attempted to catalog the representation of the LGBT community in comic books and comic strips. We start with the earliest days of the format, when gay content could only be hinted at; through to the time of the gay liberation movement when LGBT themes began to appear overtly in the underground comics and comic strips running in the niche magazines serving the burgeoning gay community; to today when LGBT characters and themes appear in the most mainstream of comic books and strips.

Every attempt has been made to thoroughly and accurately document each item on this timeline. We were helped in this work by the earlier efforts of Andy Mangels to chronicle the representation of the LGBT community within comics and the work of openly LBGT creators. We have confined ourselves to the story of the LGBT community in the comics themselves in these pages, but suggest that you go to our LGBT Creators section for information about LGBT creators and their achievements.

This is an ongoing project, and we invite help from anyone with information about LGBT representation in comic books and strips. You can fill out a form to suggest an addition to the timeline here.

- James R. Van Dore

Based in part on the work of Andy Mangels. His faithful efforts and dedication to LGBT comics history are appreciated.

Many of the images included in the timeline were scanned by Jon Sauer from Mr. Mangels's extensive collection. Additional images were provided by Joe Palmer.

For more information about LGBT representation in comics, see:

• "Coming Out in the Comic Strips": an interesting short article on gays in mainstream comic strips.
• "Comic Strips and Cartoons": a brief overview of gays in comic strips and comic books.
• The Gay Comics List : a good resource for LGBT comics of all kinds

PRE-STONEWALL • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s

The ambiguously gendered “KRAZY KAT” by George Herriman appears in his own newspaper strip starting July 26, 1916 and runs until 1944. TIJUANA BIBLES, small-sized comics featuring big-name cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse and Archie in all kinds of sexual situations, including homosexual ones, illegally circulated from the 1930s through the 1950s, and have been collected and reprinted more recently. “MADAME FATAL,” a man who fights crime dressed as an elderly woman, first appears in CRACK COMICS #1 (Quality, May 1940), and in the next 21 issues. SCHOOL DAY ROMANCES #4 (Star, May-June 1950) features a story in the ongoing “TONI GAY” series featuring Butch Dykeman. In response to public demonstrations, Senate hearings, and Frederic Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent, most of the major comic companies form the COMICS CODE AUTHORITY in 1954 to regulate their content. According to the CCA Standards, “sex perversion of any inference to same is forbidden.” TOM OF FINLAND (Touko Laaksonen)’s homo-erotic drawings begin to appear in physique magazines beginning with the cover of Physique Pictorial (Spring 1957). In the intriguing short story “THE MAN WHO STEPPED OUT FROM A CLOUD” in OUT OF THIS WORLD #5 (Charlton, September 1957) an alien takes a shy, introverted boy to his home planet, which seemingly only consists of men, until he has grown to maturity and can decide for himself the kind of life he wants to lead, there or on Earth. Jimmy Olsen dons drag for the first time in “MISS JIMMY OLSEN,” SUPERMAN's PAL JIMMY OLSEN #44 (DC, April 1960), and again several times over the next few years. A. Jay (Al Shapiro) begins his “HARRY CHESS: THAT MAN FROM A.U.N.T.I.E.” strip in Drum magazine (1964), and it is later collected and featured in MEATMEN and other publications. Joe Johnson’s strips “MISS THING” and “BIG DICK” briefly run in The Advocate magazine (ca. 1965).

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