Archive for September, 2009

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Damazons

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Art by Paul Gulacy

Art by Paul Gulacy

The Damazons are a band (numbering less than 15) of fiercely independent women first appearing in issue #2 of Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy’s nihilistic Slash Maraud mini series [See Brass Taki entry .] Angela is their savvy and tough leader. Two other Damazons are named: a woman named Sapphy (short for Sapphire or Sappho?) and Deb O’nair who dresses in cowgirl drag.

They use motorcycles and vehicles modified for desert terrain where the Damazons live and operate as transportation. It’s reminiscent of the look in Mad Max movies. The Damazons encounter Slash Maraud and Wild Blue (a leader in the Xenos underground) as they travel a narrow path through the alien-created crystalline structures on their way to rescue the repentant alien scientist Dr. X, the one being who can stop the shapers from recreating the Earth into an extra-terrestrial wonderland. In order to find Dr. X, Slash and Blue must venture into “Family Territory,” an area controlled as such by a small and grim gang who style themselves after both real and fictional serial killers. Though somewhat cautious about the idea of crossing into Family Territory, the Damazons prove to be invaluable in rescuing Dr. X from the crazed bunch who were intent on killing him. Afterwards, Angela and Dr. X have a brief and seemingly pointless conversation in which she explains the meaning of a slang word to the scientist.

underground members and to build a small army. It’s in Candlestick Park, where bizarre gladiatorial fights a la Mad Max are staged, that Maraud, Blue, and the Damazons arrive Maraud now plans to journey to San Francisco to enlist the help of more with Dr. X under their protection.  A three-way match between Brass Taki’s Zen Hogs, the Sheik Screamers, and Tommy Gunn’s Congo Corsairs has just started. In the confusion of the battle, two alien shapers sneak up behind Dr. X. One abducts him while the other mimics his shape.

In the aftermath of the melee, Slash challenges Rex Rumbull, one of the vermin pack leaders, and wins their loyalty by defeating him. To strengthen this shaky alliance, Angela orders Deb O’nair to offer herself to Rex. Later that night after the group has retreated to the ruins of Oakland, Deb confesses to Rex that her advance was bogus, but a self-assured Rex tells her that she’ll come around.

When Angela has a second conversation with Dr. X it becomes evident that something is wrong when he displays ignorance of the slang word she used and explained earlier. It becomes abundantly clear his fellow aliens are tracking him when a surprise attack happens. The ragtag crew successfully eludes the shapers, which later gives Wild Blue the opportunity to use her knowledge of alien biology to extract info about Dr. X’s whereabouts. It seems Dr. X is held prisoner aboard the Nulloid Express train that transports humans to a DNA processing plant to provide genetic material for the world’s transformation.

With the imposter securely tied up, the camp begins to quiet down for the night. Perhaps out of the same motivation used with Deb O’nair, Angela approaches a lone Brass Taki who is sitting next to a campfire and polishing his sword. She awkwardly tries to strike up a conversation, but Taki says, “Forget it. I don’t go for fems.” Angela’s offended by his rebuttal, and more offended when Rex hits on her. Unnoticed by all is Deb O’nair who wistfully gazes at a sleeping Slash.

The next day it’s an all-out, shoot ‘em up effort to liberate Dr. X from the train as it barrels through the desert landscape. Wild Blue and Slash board the train while Angela, Rex, Deb O’nair, and the rest drive alongside it at reckless speeds and shoot at the train crew. Deb O’nair throws caution to the wind and boards the train and takes out the crew’s fuel supply, allowing Slash and Blue the chance to rescue the scientist. Deb ends up with Slash as a way to mark the victory, a development, which does not escape Wild Blue, or the Damazons.

On their way to New York, the small army stops in Kansas City to rest. In a private moment together, Slash asks Deb why she became a Damazon. She replies, “It’s simple enough, Slash. After the shapers landed, I didn’t see any human men who were worth as much as following Angela…until now.” She goes on to say that none of the Damazons really “hate” men except for possibly Sapphy.

Days later the adventure continues in New York when another band of armed and deranged humans stand against the Xenos army.  Both groups want access to one of the few remaining aircraft.  It’s the essential part of the rebel plan to prevent the final phase of the alien terraforming plan from starting in Paris. Deb and Angela play their parts in securing the plane.

The rebel craft approaches Paris to find it’s become a total war zone. All of the rebels except for Wingo who is piloting the plane parachute into the streets. They form a three-pronged attack. While Angela and Deb once again prove their guerilla fighting skills are no fluke, it’s another Damazon nicknamed Beret (for her hat) who had previously remained in the background that proves invaluable by getting Dr. X to the facility in time to prevent the process from starting. Sapphy also plays a small but crucial role in the rebel success.

In the dawn’s light the rebels gather to mourn the deaths of their comrades. Rex comes to console Angela, and judging by the conversation, the pair decides to try a relationship. Likewise Wild Blue and Slash have a heart to heart plan to meet in the future after Deb has presumably had more than she take of Slash.

Note: Based on attitude, body language and character dialogue the Damazons seem to be lesbians. Based on interactions between Angela and Rex and Deb and Slash, plus later comments, a case could be argued that the Damazons’ sexual behavior was situational, like convicts in prison. Since both Angela and Deb begins relationships with men I am considering them to be bisexual, in contrast to Brass Taki and Wingo who appear to remain interested solely in men.

© and ® DC Comics. Used without permission.

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Cobweb

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Art by Melinda Gebbie

Art by Melinda Gebbie

Submitted by Ronald Byrd

Operating out of the disused Lakeland Ornamental Gardens and dressed in a sheer purple negligee with matching stockings and stilettos, Cobweb (the wealthy heiress Laurel Lakeland), assisted by her devoted chauffeuse Clarice, experiences a variety of adventures, many of them pastiches of pulp/romance material. Many in Indigo City (which is also protected by the Shadow-like Greyshirt, whose adventures are somewhat more traditional that Cobweb’s) believe that her career is “a cover for sex-kicks, or else a publicity stunt,” but her efforts seem sincere enough. Although one story claims that Cobweb first met Clarice when rescuing her from criminal circumstances, another depicts the two as having been children together, and in fact the rather flippant nature of “Tomorrow Stories” prevents any serious continuity from being established for most of the book’s characters. The general tone and nature of some of Cobweb’s stories, plus the intimate terms with which she and Clarice address each other (Clarice calls her by such names as “Gossamer One” and “Diaphanous One,” while Cobweb refers to Clarice as “my sweet” and remarks on how “radiant” she looks), suggest that the two are lesbians, but since the Cobweb series often satirizes the writing styles of earlier eras, it is unlikely that this will ever be anything but implied.

In the Greyshirt mini series, “Indigo Sunset” Cobweb and Greyshirt are shown to have a romantic/sexual relationship which happens to the knowledge of Cobweb’s chauffeuse Clarice. No definitive answer has been given to the length of this relationship or if it periodically recurs.

However, it has been stated that Cobweb and Clarice both have children together by parthogenesis (Google the term!) and follow their clan tradition of passing along their vigilante identities to their children, and returning to their ancestral home in Peru.

The Cobweb appears to be a skilled fighter and athlete. She first appeared in Tomorrow Stories #1.

Note from the admin: In the past several people have contacted me to tell me about the romantic/sexual relationship that happens between Cobweb and Greyshirt as shown in “Indigo Sunset” mini series, which I have not read. Their reasons were compelling and I believe sexuality is complicated. While the Cobweb stories I’ve read seem to indicate the character is lesbian, I’ve added “bisexual” as a tag.

The Cobweb is created by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie. © ABC Comics, LLC. Used without permission.

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Utopia 1 – 6

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

utopia1Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Marc Silvestri, Terry Dodson, Luke Ross, and Mike Deodato
Marvel  $3.99

Contributed by Chris Eastwood

Anyone who has read the X-Men knows that they are at their best when things are at their worst. With our favorite Mutants moving to the west coast and Spider-man’s mortal enemy calling the shots in the Marvel Universe, it was only a matter of time before things went bad.

The story begins when Simon Trask, brother to Bolivar, comes to the city by the Bay looking to show the X-Men the what for. Naturally this does not sit well with the X-Men and the other mutants that have gathered in San Francisco, and a riot ensues which attracts the attention of Norman Osborne and his Dark Avengers. Soon after Osborne arrives he declares martial law and declares Cyclops a wanted criminal, as well as revealing his plan to Emma Frost, who defects to Osborne’s side to lead his newly formed Dark X-Men.

Fraction’s story has a strong beginning, not wasting any time getting to the action and the meat of the story, allowing the reader to experience the “WTF” moment that the characters experience themselves. This stride doesn’t continue through to the next issues. The middle issues deal mostly with the Dark X-Men coming together and trying to work as a team as well as dealing with Osborne and his team.  Fraction does little in introducing the reader to the members of Osborne Dark Avengers of the new characters that become his Dark X-Men, as most of them are characters that we already know. I also recommend reading the Dark X-Men: the Beginning miniseries that reintroduces each member of the Dark X-Men and shows just how Osborne got each member to join.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have really enjoyed Matt Fraction’s time on Uncanny X-Men. He, IMHO, has breathed new life into a franchise that, although has been commercially successful, has not changed much in premise in the last 50 years. He has taken Cyclops from the leader of a team of superheroes to the leader of a group of people struggling to survive. Fraction’s conclusion keeps with this theme and although I have no desire to reveal it here, it is worth reading the story.  Utopia may very well be Fraction’s best X-Men story so far, and I give it 4.5 out of 5.

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Dueces Wild & Summer Ice

Monday, September 28th, 2009

The setting for Don McGregor’s Sabre is a future world in which the United States has been devastated by nuclear holocaust. Unsavory characters led by the Overseer have seized control of vast parts of the world. Sabre is one of a few people who fight to against the powers in this New World order, He enlists others to join the small guerilla band he leads. Two of those individuals are men who go by the colorful names Dueces Wild and Summer Ice.

At the point they’re first introduced, McGregor matter-of-factly tells us “the two men have known each other for five years…been lovers for three… been cellmates in [a] fatuous version of death row for two months.” Dueces Wild had been a geneticist working on a government subsidized research project. Summer Ice was a historian who refused to “correct” history for the official education network.  The stress of the dire straits they’re in is taking its toll and the two argue about past decisions that led them to being imprisoned and awaiting execution. Summer is distraught, wishing he’d simply re-written as he’d been instructed. The tension is palpable as Dueces yells that he hates Summer being defeatist.  Summer either reels away or is pushed or hit by Dueces. The art leaves it unclear which action happened. Dueces consoles Summer. (Issue #3)

Execution Day arrives in issue #4. Summer is understandably fearful as he watches a crowd gather inside a high tech Coliseum. The transparent sealed structure rings a geyser that will be used to execute the two lovers and Sabre. Dueces is still angry and, according to Summer, spouting ideology when guards come for them. Sabre is the first victim, but the resourceful hero escapes and causes chaos, allowing Dueces and Summer the opportunity to escape with him. The trio steals a jet, providing the ability to put a good distance between them and their former captors. Later that night Dueces admits he’s starting to wonder what brought them together. Sabre joins them and a couple pages are spent detailing Sabre’s love for Melissa. Dueces tells Sabre they’d like some time alone. Sabre smiles and says, “Have yourself a good time…but I wouldn’t wander too far…Remember there’s a good chance the boogeyman is not far behind us, looking for our asses. And he doesn’t give a damn about love or sex and he sure as hell has no sense of humor.”

The three men continue their trek across a scarred land, recalling various disastrous events that culminated in the current apocalyptic world. While they do reach an encampment that provides some peace, it doesn’t last long as forces of the Overseer arrive to spread panic and recapture the rebels (issue #5).

Sabre as leader is their primary target. Summer spies Dueces running toward the “Lounge Lizard” (a sophisticated robot crafter to look like a cross between a human and a lizard) who has an experimental “matter dissolver” rifle trained on Sabre. Fearful for Dueces’ life, all Summer can do is shout “Come back here you dumb bastard! You’re going to get yourself killed!” Dueces spontaneous plan doesn’t get him killed, but it does earn him the Lounge Lizard’s wrath and full attention, albeit briefly as a new player, a woman named Midnight Storm, arrives on her futuristic motorcycle and provides enough distraction to help get Sabre to another safe haven. Unfortunately, it leaves the Lizard angrier and poised to kill Dueces. Interesting to note that as progressive as McGregor was in handling gay and lesbian characters, he still felt it necessary to write his villains using slurs like “daffodil perverts” and “lavender” like the Lizard does with Dueces. (Issue #6)

Continuing to issue #7, the sight of Dueces on the verge of being killed by a matter dissolver snaps Summer out of his extreme denial. Adrenaline fills his body, and Summer rushes the Lizard. He’s hit several times by the weapon’s rays and still manages to bash the Lizard with a fence post, wrestle it to the ground, and disable it with a blast from the rifle.

Art by Billy Graham from Sabre #7.

Art by Billy Graham from Sabre #7.

With what appears to be his last dying breath, he crawls over to his lover, cradles and kisses him, and telling Dueces he now understands Dueces’ fight back attitude. They’re rescued by Midnight Storm and another of Sabre’s compatriots (issue #9) and taken to a second, secure encampment where Summer begins to heal in a makeshift hospital ward resembling a MASH unit (issue #10). Dueces seems to have made a miraculous recovery and reveals to his lover that he was once married  “What I remember most vividly,” Dueces confides, “is trying to explain my homosexuality to her. She kept insisting that she had made me gay. I kept telling her that was silly. That she hadn’t. That wasn’t the way it worked. To punish me, she took our son…I haven’t seen him in six years.”

The following issue (#11) McGregor has Summer divulge his painful coming out story to Dueces. Like so many others, Summer first suspected his homosexuality as a teenager and thanks to homophobic messages, strongly considered suicide. Summer: “I had a gift for morbidity. You helped me temper that, Dueces.” Dueces: “Don’t flirt with it again. You fight this…you’re going to win…you’re not going to die.” There is only a brief scene with the lovers in #12 and they don’t appear in the next two issues. Sabre ended publication with #14.

The indicia in Sabre #3 indicates it was published in December 1982, making it possibly the earliest portrayal of a gay male couple in comics.

Characters are © and ® Don McGregor.

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Donatella

Monday, September 28th, 2009
Art by David Lapham

Art by David Lapham

First seen in issue #1 of David Lapham’s Young Liars, Donatella, also known as Don Diego, Don, and Donnie, appears to be a transgendered person and one of a group of friends that inhabit part of the Manhattan club scene. Not enough information has been by Donatella to ascertain the character’s sexuality, though Danny, one of the other characters refers in some internal monologue to Donatella as a guy. Donatella presents herself visually throughout the story as a woman. Another character, Sadie, mentions that Donnie sometimes gives men oral sex when rent money is short. We also learn through Danny that Donatella’s dream is to open a café where “some of the waiters are girls and some aren’t, but you can’t tell which is which.” Donatella is beaten up and called a “faggot punk” when a drug deal goes bad in one of the club’s restrooms.

In later issues the stories moved from Manhattan to various locations. Lapham sparingly revisited the character as both Donatella and Don, who’s been convinced he leads a perfectly normal and boring life as a therapist, just as the other residents of the “Brown Bag” dominated town (a reference to Wal-Mart) are similarly convinced that their lives are numbingly typical.  My understanding of the confusing plot, which is undoubtedly compounded by cancellation, is limited, making an attempt for real clarification of the character’s significance moot. Lapham never fully addressed the character’s orientation and gender identity.

© Lapham Inc. Used without permission.

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Boy Meets Hero

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

boymeetsheroChayne Avery writer, artist
Russell Garcia writer, colorist
Bruno Gmünder
$30.99 (numbered and signed) includes shipping when bought from BMH website. Less at Amazon.

Where can a comics reader tired of multiversal crises and Earth on the brink of doom from alien invasion find a book that deals with neither, and if not Utopia bright isn’t encrusted with grittiness? Gay fans may find the world of BOY MEETS HERO created by Chayne Avery and Russell Garcia is one that fits the bill.

Golden Bay City, surely a stand-in for San Francisco, is the fictional metropolis of Avery and Garica’s story. In their four-color world a celestial event sparked the appearance of the first superheroes in the 1940s. A small band of these crusaders formed the World Hero Organization, a management company that in time grew to become a large corporation, thanks to marketing savvy and a hero-worshipping public. WHO dispatches its heroes to fight villains more motivated by jealousy than hell-bent on wreaking chaos and death. Blue Comet (Derek Maxwell) and Sunstar (Jillian Summers) are two of WHO’s most popular heroes. They’re the hot new super couple whose adventures and relationship make them media darlings. Like many real world celebrity relationships, theirs is an act Don’t be cynical! There’s no room for that with BOY MEETS HERO. Blue Comet offered so Sunstar wouldn’t be paired with Zap-Man, WHO’s resident horn dog, in a marketing campaign (again with the cynicism). Things just got out of Derek’s control and the fake relationship is cover for his real one with young, blond Justin, brother to Jillian who’s in on the charade.

The setting may be current day but the tone and feel of Avery and Garcia’s story borrows a lot from happier times in comics. Costumes, villains, and to a degree the heroes seem reminiscent of the 80s. In a deconstructed world an organization that made a profit by turning heroes into commodities would be played as suspicious and manipulative. Quite the opposite here with WHO as a venerable institution in the public’s eyes and an occasional minor inconvenience for its heroes.

Aside from being an entertaining read, the obvious reason for a story like BOY MEETS HERO is to explore what a gay relationship can be like in the context of the superhero genre. Derek and Justin kiss, hug, go to the beach, tease one another, and live together, which poses its own situations since Derek is not out to his family either. Humor and respect make the situations a delight to read rather than a maudlin, overwrought affair to slog through. In a trial run, Justin persuades Derek to hold hands while walking in public. When two slightly younger guys start trash talking gays, Justin confronts them loudly and threatening to “totally kick [their] scrawny asses!” And the offenders scurry away apologetically. Contrast this with the Terry Berg fag bashing storyline from several years ago in Green Lantern. Granted, Judd Winick’s story, one that needed to be told, spoke to a lot of readers for different reasons, but it’s much more satisfying to have a gay character stand up rather than being beaten. Bravo, Garcia and Avery!

There is nudity in the story, most of it is used for playful and romantic scenes with Derek and Justin, while a shower room scene at WHO headquarters is used for tension. The reader is invited and teased to watch the boyfriends, but only up to a point. An explicit voyeurism would be out of place with the aesthetics so well established with the main characters and the rest of the story. These guys are playful, loving, and totally devoted to each other, kind of what I imagine Peter Parker and Mary Jane were like before that deal with Mephisto.

Of course a superhero comic needs tension and action. It’s provided nicely in several scenes; one is a flashback recounting how Justin met Blue Comet. Old Sunstar villainess Cold Snap and new baddie Zack Savage conspire to exact revenge each for the own purposes against Blue Comet and Sunstar. Cold Snap enjoys Parisian vacations and is accompanied by her dumb, loyal, and bare-chested bodyguards. Savage is a scientific genius and social misfit who promises Cold Snap something she can’t resist. Being a mismatched set brings tension to their team up, a good deal of which is played for laughs though one brief scene feels at odds with a big reveal that happens during the climactic fight scene. Minor quibble though. Avery and Garcia turn the old “damsel in distress” convention on its head for the aforementioned showdown between Blue Comet, Sunstar, Zack and Cold Snap. To say more than this would be to spoil a nice surprise.

If I were limited to one adjective to describe the tone of BMH it would be optimistic. That buoyant feeling is carried through in the art where Avery and Garcia do double duty as artist and colorist respectively. The contour line drawing style and bright, cheerful colors are a good complement to the retro homage ambience. Production wise the book has several good points. Pages are bound by stitching instead of the less expensive and less durable “perfect” bound method of glue. The book design benefits from a thicker, matte paper that is also an asset for the coloring. Some people prefer a slick, shiny paper but I find that it often creates an annoying glare from light.

Try BOY MEETS HERO with its optimism and romance as an antidote to the Final Crisis aftermath and Secret Invasion Dark Reign overkill.

Buy either from Chayne and Russell or Amazon.

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Interview With Abby Denson

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

abbydenson1The following interview was conducted several years ago and is being republished.

Abby Denson is a writer, illustrator, and has been involved in punk music, playing in a couple of local New York City bands. Her first work, TOUGH LOVE, initially came to my attention quite by accident on Ebay earlier this year. Abby made frequent appearances this past July at the Prism Comics booth at Comic-Con. She was always animatedly talking with con-goers and I was a little too impatient to stay in one place too long to figure out who she was. I did have a chance to talk with her, regrettably too briefly, after Andy Mangels’ Gays in Comics panel. Her personality is infectious, so I hope you enjoy!

Joe: Abby, will you give us a snapshot of the story for anyone who hasn’t read a description of your TOUGH LOVE?

Abby: TOUGH LOVE is about Brian, a gay teen coming out in a suburban high school, his friend Julie, and his kung-fu fighting boyfriend Chris. It deals with serious issues like gay bashing and suicide attempts, but it’s also a fun, life-affirming story.

Joe: If I’ve read other interviews correctly, you were going to Parsons School of Design when the idea for your story came to you. That brings to mind a couple of questions. First, how did the idea come to you, and did being in an art school environment in any way affect the project?

Abby: I was inspired to cover this subject matter by seeing some shounen-ai anime at an anime convention. I had been a fan of more mainstream manga like Ranma ½ as well as underground American comics like Love and Rockets, but hadn’t previously considered being a cartoonist. I was studying illustration and thought cartooning would be tedious, drawing the same characters over and over struck me as boring. When it occurred to me that I should do a romance comic, but with gay teens giving it a different twist, it inspired me enough to kick-start my cartooning habit, which is still going on today. Art school definitely was an enjoyable environment and it impressed my teachers and classmates that I had a paying art gig pretty early on. It also was great for the art training of course!

Joe: What qualities about shounen-ai stories first attracted you and do you still enjoy reading it?

Well, the art is very beautiful and the boys are very attractive to look at, and since none of it was translated at the time, it just seemed really mysterious and romantic. Shounen-ai is made for and by women in Japan and culturally I think it’s a bit of escapism for them as well as being titillating. Of course, it is usually not realistic at all to the actual gay experience and that was one thing I tried to address in TOUGH LOVE. I adapted the basic subject and androgynous look of the characters and a bit of the soap opera feeling, but I made the story more realistic and the art more my own high-contrast style.

I haven’t been keeping up on a lot of the shounen-ai out now, though I’m glad so much of it is currently available. I got Kizuna and Antique Bakery, which I’m not positive is technically shounen-ai though it has gay characters. A lot of it was more fun when I didn’t understand it all and was looking at the Japanese. I guess I was able to imagine better stories than were actually there! Ha!

Joe: How did the idea to send your comic to XY come about?

Abby: I had printed 50 copies of the first Tough Love mini-comic and just sent them around to cartoonists I liked as well as putting them in indy comic shops in New York. XY magazine was just coming out then, I would see it on the newsstands in New York. I thought it would be cool to send it in for review, but I also suggested it could run in there. Luckily the publisher, Peter Cummings, enthusiastically picked it up and it ran for two years. I’ve also done some other comics and illustration work for them.

Joe: In other interviews you’ve mentioned that you’d received emails from some suicidal teens when XY ran the story. It seems a very powerful comment on how people can relate to stories and a wonderful compliment to you. What kinds of reactions have there been to the collected edition?

Abby: Interestingly, I am getting a lot more Myspace messages than e-mails this time around. Technology marches on! I’m not getting any troubled teens so far, I think it’s because we added suicide hotline information and other resources in the back of the book, so if teens are in trouble they are hopefully making use of that information. Also, XY had my e-mail address right next to the comic and with the book you’d have to look at my website and find my e-mail there. I’m also getting people who had followed TOUGH LOVE in XY and are thanking me now later in life. It’s a very rewarding feeling. Also, I’ve been hearing from straight male comic fans who picked up the book because they liked the cover, didn’t know what it was about, and enjoyed it.

Joe: I think what I’m curious about is if you can use TOUGH LOVE as a sort of social barometer for how gay youths and American culture may or may not have changed between 1996 and 2006. Do you have any thoughts about that?

Abby: On one hand things have progressed a bit. I think there are many more resources now and as the youth are getting more and more wired into technology the resources on the internet are getting better and play into peoples lives a lot more than in 1996. People are coming out earlier than ever before. Also, in entertainment you have things like Will and Grace and Brokeback Mountain, gay people are getting a lot more visible in the public consciousness. However, politically things are just getting worse it seems. There’s a real tug of war going on, I feel like I’m being hit by good news and bad news all the time, from the sodomy law being changed to the back and forth on gay marriage decisions. I feel that the stances George Bush takes are unabashedly anti-gay and anti-woman. Imagine being a scared teen who’s on the verge of coming out and you see the president making these statements and decisions against you. He’s supposed to be representative of the country as a whole and is stomping on your rights. It’s not easy for teens to communicate openly about sexuality with their parents, especially if the parents are pro-Bush. That is where it’s really dangerous, when teens have nowhere to go and nobody to speak to suicide becomes a risk. Parents really have to get over their own hang-ups and realize that their silence is risking the lives and health of their children, whether it’s a closeted gay teen or a teenage girl who is uneducated about birth control and disease prevention.

Joe: Your publisher, Manic D, has sent you on a book tour. What was it like to go out and promote your book? Any surprises on the road?

Abby: The West Coast tour was probably the most amazing experience of my life so far! We called it the Summer of Tough Love West Coast Tour and I’m actually continuing my appearances in the East Coast through the fall and winter. As soon as I got the book deal I knew I wanted to tour and figured I’d start from San Diego Con since I go every year. I ambitiously wanted to go all the way up the West Coast to Vancouver, BC since I’d never been to the Northwest. I didn’t think we’d necessarily manage to get all the cities I wanted in, it took a whole month of planning, but we managed it! Also, my friend Larry designed an amazing silkscreen tour poster for me. Manic D was great and publisher Jennifer Joseph showed me all around the San Francisco area.

The Pacific Northwest is especially beautiful. I’d encourage every author to go on tour if they have the chance. It was great seeing the sights and meeting the fans, I met several teens who said some really touching things to me about the book and how it affected them. I also got great feedback from librarians and teachers. That is major since we really want TOUGH LOVE to be included at libraries and schools, especially since it includes important resource information. I was really surprised by the great folks at the store Comics Unlimited in Westminster, California. They got me a TOUGH LOVE cake with the book cover design on it. I was happily surprised at being on the cover of Vancouver’s Westender weekly paper. It was very surreal to see my face on every street corner! Also, I heard about the Stonewall Award nomination on the road. That was so great!

You can see my entire tour blog with pictures here.

Joe: What have been some of your other projects?

Abby: I’ve self-published the comics Night Club, Dolltopia, The Koi Fish, S.P.O.L., Deadsy Cat & Kissy Kitty, and Jamie Starr Teen Drag Queen. Some of those comics ended up in various anthologies and in XY as well. Night Club and Dolltopia are the only ones currently available from my website but I hope to get more in print soon. I’ve also been scripting licensed comics since 1999 and my credits include Powerpuff Girls, Simpsons, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and various ones for Nickelodeon Magazine among others. Most recently I’d been scripting Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi stories for DC’s Cartoon Network anthologiees.

Joe: Any chance of seeing them collected? I’m especially thinking of S.P.O.L. and Jamie Starr Teen Drag Queen.

Abby: I’ve thought about that and would love for that to happen. Though I’m thinking I’d like my next book to be newer material, I definitely would like a collection as well. Ideally I’d like a big collection of all my self-published stuff in one book and I fantasize that it would have some glossy color pages and illustrations included.

Joe: Do you have a dream project that you’ve been dying to work on?

Abby: I’ve been fantasizing about a TOUGH LOVE movie, complete with animated dream sequences and really hard–core Kill Bill style Kung Fu action. Something fun, but also intense. I’d also like to explore Li’s character more if I got to do a movie. Comics-wise I’d love to do a Dolltopia graphic novel and I have some other ideas brewing as well.

Joe: On a related note, are you a manga fan still and are there any manga creators you’d like to work with?

Abby: I do read manga still, but not as much as I used to. Ironically, being a cartoonist can stymie actual comic-reading, especially time-wise! Currently available manga I like include Antique Bakery, The Wallflower, Bambi and Her Pink Gun, Tramps Like Us, and Othello. Who would I like to work with is an interesting question since I usually do it all myself, but I guess Rumiko Takahashi since she’s so legendary, one of my original influences, and I bet she could teach me a LOT. I’d also like to do a comic biography of Joan Jett, Blondie, or Pansy Division. Really any rock bands I like!

Joe: Who are some of your influences?

Abby: Jaime Hernandez, Andi Watson, Roberta Gregory, Rumiko Takahashi, Howard Cruse, and Lynda Barry are a few I can think of. I’m also a fan of Keith Haring and Rodney Greenblat. I used to work as Rodney’s assistant and also was in a band with him! Writing-wise, Poppy Z. Brite, Martin Millar, and Alvin Orloff are some of my faves.

Joe: How did the GN come about? Was it your idea? What kind of experiences did you have shopping it around?

Abby: I always wanted a TOUGH LOVE collection and had a lot of stops and starts shopping it around. I actively shopped it around 1998-2000 but didn’t get any serious offers, so I started focusing more on licensed work and started other projects. The indy comic publishers I took it to weren’t ready for the subject matter and art style and the gay publishers didn’t know how to deal with a graphic novel format. Now that the market is much more graphic novel-friendly and manga has made a major splash in the bookstores, it’s a great atmosphere for TOUGH LOVE. Sometimes I feel like I was ten years ahead of my time! I found Manic D Press because I was a fan of their novelist Alvin Orloff, his book I Married An Earthling is one of my all-time faves. When I had the opportunity to meet publisher Jennifer Joseph at a release party, I pitched the book to her.

Joe: Sometimes readers latch onto a writer’s characters and create personal scenarios based on them. Well, maybe it only happens with me. But I’m curious if Chris and Brian live on in your mind and, if so, what their lives are like right now?

Abby: Hmm, good question! They are a part of me, all of my characters are. By now they’d have been in and out of college and while I think they make a great couple it would be unrealistic to expect that they’d stay together the whole time. Not many people stay with their high school sweethearts these days. Though perhaps they’d have ended up at different colleges, then get back together afterwards. I like to think they’d end up together ultimately after experiencing more of life and growing up a bit.

Joe: How does it feel to have TOUGH LOVE nominated for a Stonewall Award from the American Library Association?

Abby: Amazing! And it’s really an affirmation after all the work I’ve done and the delays I’ve gone through trying to get this book out. I hope TOUGH LOVE will be recognized in other areas like the JoeAAbby Media Awards too. It’s an entertaining and socially relevant book, it does have the capacity to actually help people, which is especially rewarding.

Joe: It wouldn’t be fair to talk only about TOUGH LOVE and not mention your other love, music. How’s that going?

Abby: I’ve always been musical since being in my first all-girl band as a teenager. Rock and roll is definitely a love of mine. However, it’s always been more of a hobby than a career. Since things have been heating up with my book tour and I have other book projects on the horizon my band, The Saturday Night Things, will be taking hiatus. I have mixed feelings about it, but I’m trying to avoid biting off more than I can chew right now. Luckily I have a lot of recordings to feel proud of and you can find stuff from my bands Mz. Pakman and Let’s Audio on itunes and CD Baby. My other stuff is all available for free download on myspace. Links are all on the music section of my website (see below). We have a show on Oct. 7 at Bowery Poetry Club in NYC as part of a Punk/Comic event and that’ll be our good-bye blow-out. For now anyway! I’m also hoping at some point to get more time to work on more music with my computer like I did on my Abbymatic project. There are just not enough hours in the day!

Joe: Do you have any advice for people who are thinking about making comics?

Abby: Make sure you have an idea you’re really passionate about before you start a project because it’s a lot of work and you’ll need the inspiration to drive you all the way. Taking life drawing classes is always a good idea. Also, don’t hesitate to self-publish, especially if you have a really original idea. Making it into a web comic and having a web presence will help you a lot. Now there are great print on demand services like comixpress.com that make it so easy and cheap to make great looking books. I’m always thinking of how much easier my early zine years would have been if there had been such high quality print on demand back then! That book can be your calling card when you meet other creators and publishers at conventions and such. Always carry some copies with you because you never know who you may run into. Also I’d encourage people to get postcards and pins made once they have a book out. These are cheap items and great to give out to people who may be interested in your book. Also, getting involved with organizations like Gay League, Friends of Lulu and Prism Comics is a great way to meet other like-minded cartoonists and share resources.

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Abby Denson Returns With Dolltopia

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Green Candy Press
601 Van Ness Ave, E3-918, San Francisco, CA 94012
Tel. 415-626-0898,
Andrew at greencandypress dot com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

San Francisco, 24th August, 2009 – Green Candy Press is proud to announce the publication of Abby Denson’s latest graphic novel, Dolltopia, this October!

Lulu Award-winning cartoonist Abby Denson is a rock n’ roll ‘Jane of all trades’ and creator of the queer comic Tough Love: High School Confidential, and now she’s bringing the punked-up Barbies and stripped-down Kens of her new book Dolltopia on the road!

Having written scripts for Archie Comics (Sabrina the Teenage Witch), DC Comics (Powerpuff Girls), Simpsons Comics, and Marvel (Amazing Spider-Man Family), and between teaching comic book classes and playing in a whole host of punk bands, Abby has now gone back to her roots and returned to her childhood habit of making her dolls ‘different’ and setting them free from their predetermined fates.

Dolltopia is the story of Kitty, a ballerina doll forced into a not-so-happily-ever-after living arrangement with a male jock toy. Filled with discontent, Kitty takes it upon herself to escape her human-imposed domesticity and create a new life and a new image for herself away from the persecution of the human world. On this mission, she finds not only a host of like-minded individuals, but a veritable heaven for the alternative doll: Dolltopia.

It’s not all child’s play though: Abby’s comics explore the hugely relevant themes of identity, individuality and making a mark within a society that seeks to sterilize and monopolize. Dolltopia is a smart and sassy allegory for modern life and the need for self-expression, with reference to such hot topics as queer politics, feminism, plastic surgery, depression, and even the free will debate arising from the creator-creation relationship.

Having started as a one-page comic in 2002, Dolltopia has since taken on a life of it’s own, growing into a 24-page mini-comic, and ultimately, into a full-blown graphic novel. The Dolltopia graphic novel will be published in a deluxe edition with pink spot color throughout and French flaps with paper dolls designed into them. Dolltopia has been embraced by the New York art scene, comic book fans, and has even been used in queer theory college courses.

Join the doll revolution and discover that these dolls are more than just toys!

Dolltopia by Abby Denson
ISBN: 978-1931160-70-4, $15.00, 128 pages
Release Date: October 15th, 2009, Published by Green Candy Press

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Dalton & Richie Burgess

Saturday, September 12th, 2009
Art by Jim Baikie

Art by Jim Baikie

The Statesmen is set in a post-apocaplyptic world in the year 2064. Like The Watchmen which preceded it, this series was a deconstructed examination of superheroes and it shares at least one similarity with Moore’s plot. Smith’s self-admittedly deliberate convoluted writing weaves between the story’s present and different times in many of the characters’ pasts, but primarily November 2047 when events leading to collapse were put into motion.

The world has gone to hell partly due to scientific advances from human genetics code research of the Hephaestus Program (dating back to the latter years of the 20th century), which led to the creation of the genetically selected Optimen. The US government was unable to maintain tight control of the genetics program, and soon found that research and applications were leaked to big pharma, giant agricultural businesses, and arms manufacturers. Then the Ku Klux Klan employed a terrorist to create a biological weapon which rendered African American women infertile, leading to riots, government interventions. The abundance of cheap food and inexpensive medical care with new advances had unimagined and terrible social implications. Political instability (ie: the UK becoming the 51st state followed by Mexico and Nicaragua) was and concurrent crop failures in Europe. The Optimen program, using Hephaestus research to turn humans into superheroes, had been secret during this period until 2037 when an Argentian air force pilot spotted its training facility. The news soon spread worldwide and the US decided to spin the incident in its favor by turning a group of the Optimen into the Halcyon Squad, a peacekeeping force dispatched first to South Africa, and then England, where the conequences of an incident referred as Tariq Alley resulted in the force being remanded to the continental US and, the media renamed them the New Statesmen and helped transform them into “the American dream made flesh”. Except the American dream has morphed into a nightmarish parody caught between the opposing forces of a twisted government and a puritanical organization called the League of Light (led by former Statesmen Phoenix) and the media playing both sides for its own gratification.

This entry focuses on two of the Statesmen: Dalton (last name unknown) and Richie Burgess. A text piece in the first issue alludes to several unnamed characters being gay or lesbian, or as the text’s fictional writer puts it,”omnisexual”. Gay Statesmen Monhegan is quoted in the piece: “But we’re Statespeople. We live outside, or at least on the edge of society…I’m allowed to be me. Most ordinary people aren’t. I want to try and do something to help change that.” He appears only briefly in a short scene in a later issue.

Burgess is first seen sitting in a darkened room of a high rise hotel looking out into the night as a few other Statesmen sit discussing a mission in the next room. The memory of a past mission surfaces. An English Liberation Army fighter has been captured and Dalton uses his powers to collapse or crush parts of the dissident’s body as torture to extract information. Bugess wants nothing to do with Dalton’s inflicted suffering and literally storms out of the warehouse. A few days later they’re all rewarded with a short lakeside break. An untroubled Dalton cavorts in the water while Richie broods about the group’s past dark deeds. Simulataneous to Richie’s current reminiscing, Dalton has checked into a gay bath house. A handsome older man (Neville) unsuccessfully propositions Dalton in the steam room. A moment later a bomb explodes, killing everyone except Dalton, the intended target, who stands naked overlooking the crowd in the streets through a gaping hole in the building. A second assassination attempt minutes later, foiled by fellow Statesmen/ gal pal Meridien, enrages Dalton who unleashes his power on civilians and military who quickly rushed to the scene to stop him. Several days after the incident the group appear on a popular talk show to put a spin on the incident. Richie remains quiet and seems distant while the others attempt to rationalize their actions.

The effort clearly worked on some people as an early scene in issue #2 shows a throng of Dalton’s adoring public cheering as Dalton looks out at them from their lofty hotel suite. Dalton is excited whe Meridian tells him that a popular porn director tried to bribe his way into the building to offer him an exclusive and lucrative contract making adult movies. Shortly, the Statesmen are on board a private yacht discussing a mission with Irwin Freyers, an affable, balding and rotund older man who’s their liason with the “Federal Defense Council.” Their assignment is to take down former Statesmen Phoenix who’s in complete control of the League of Light and a number of businesses, legal and covert. In a private converation, Burgess tells Freyers he’s ambivalent about matters because “things have changed”, alluding to his place with the group.

dalton1Burgess and Dalton arrive at a nursing home facility to interview an old woman for information about the League of Light. In every previous appearance together, the men have been separated by distance, even if only a few feet. Now, together on an assignment, Dalton compliments Burgess on his looks, calling him the “perfect English gentleman” and shakes his hand, saying “this will be a classic partnership.” If Burgess weren’t so reserved he’d be visibly taken aback. The self-absorbed and indulgent Dalton and the self-effacing and brooding Burgess seem like an odd pair, but it’s striking when toward the end of the second issue Dalton moves to comfort Burgess after using his power to “re-view” a grisly and seemingly unconnected murder at the scene of the crime.

The story becomes much more complex starting in issue 3 as Smith weaves between seemingly disparate scenes and plot elements. Smith continues to bring the two men together. Burgess admonishes Dalton for a violent action while touching him. Later at a party during the annual Statesmen celebration, a drunken Burgess is confessing to a strange woman his guilt in the Tariq Alley Massacre when drunk and effusive Dalton hugs Burgess and shoos away the woman. Later a lonely Meridian walks in Dalton’s room and finds the undressed men and nearly having sex. Embarrassed, she runs down the hallway with Datlon excusing himself to Burgess to run after her. Whether or not she intended to manipulate Dalton, the two friends grow closer. Enough so that Burgess resents it when Dalton comforts Meridian on a mission to find a missing (and murdered) Statesmen in the Arizona desert and becomes short tempered with Dalton. Even their somewhat sleazy teammate Vegas notices and broaches the subject with Burgess while the core team is taking some downtime. The fact that Dalton and Meridian have a their own private time a short distance away makes a convenient excuse for Burgess to return to his brooding manner.

It wouldn’t take telepathy for Meridian to know Burgess resents her friendship with Dalton, but it exposes the depth of his feeling. Tension is already high when the pair are staking out their enemy’s tipped-off location (Smith ramps into high gear as the story reaches its conclusion) when Meridian tries to talk with Burgess and an argument ensues. What makes the situation all the more fraught is Burgess’ realization that he and Meridian were set up by the villainous Phoenix who’s finally stepped out of the shadows, and Dalton is tracking their nemesis alone. They arrive to at the scene to be surprise attacked, and the three of them are nearly killed by the villain’s merciless beating. Burgess may wish he’d died as Dalton’s true feelings about him come to light during the melee. A few days later Dalton tries to make amends with Burgess, but a happy ending is not in sight for these men.

A text piece indicates Burgess is from Optimen Batch 6 and is age 36 while Dalton is from the last group, Batch 9, and is 23. Dalton’s ability is the control of physical objects and transmutation. Burgess is a “glancer” and is able to view in full detail events of the past through touch.

Created by John Smith and Jim Baikie. © & ® by Quality/ Fleetway. Smith would later write Devlin Waugh stories serialized in several Judge Dredd comics for 2000 AD and collected in two trades.

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Tasmanian Devil

Monday, September 7th, 2009

tasmaniandevil2Hugh Dawkins was born a stooped-over were-beast on the Australian island of Tasmania and became Tasmanian Devil when his meta-gene kicked in. However, rumor has it that his mother, a “were” Tasmanian Devil, raised him in a Tasmanian Devil cult. This cult gave him a Tasmanian Devil amulet after selling his soul to a Tasmanian Devil and injecting him with a radioactive Tasmanian musk from a race of alien Tasmanian Devils who gave him his powers. OK – that’s the silly and hokey origin that his Who’s Who entry gives him… but who knows for sure what his real origin may be. He might just be some ordinary guy who got funky powers and decided to call himself Tasmanian Devil.

The character has two dichotomous sides to his personality. Where Hugh is a pacifist and a vegetarian, Tas is very aggressive and a carnivore. He’s been a member of the international superhero group the Global Guardians as well as Justice League Europe. Readers learned of the Tasmanian Devil’s sexual orientation when he made a passing comment to his fellow Global Guardian colleague Seraph.

Publisher DK’s DC Comics Encyclopedia (2006 edition) states on page 304 Hugh fell in love with JLA liason Joshua Barbizon during his time with the group. After leaving the group, he and Joshua moved to Sydney and Hugh taught drama at a local university. It also says Hugh and his father were working to better their relationship.

Tasmanian Devil reappered with other Global Guardians in Green Lantern #15 written by Geoff Johns in which the Guardians are used as pawns in a plot against Green Lantern. While Johns doesn’t give Tasmanian Devil and dialog, the writer reveals that Power Girl told Hal that Tas had a crush during Hal’s tenure as team leader and that he was teased by Flash (Wally West) and Elongated Man. Tas’ most recent appearance via a brief flashback scene was in Justice League: Cry For Justice #3. Writer James Robinson had Prometheus murder Tas in a fight. In an attempt to elevate the villain’s ruthlessness in the readers’ minds, Robinson had Prometheus use Tas’s flayed skin and intact head as a decorative rug.

Tasmanian Devil has returned from the fictional dead, thanks to James Robinson, in the pages of the Starman/ Congorilla one shot of January 2011. Details of the how will come later in order to avoid spoilers for anyone who haven’t read the story yet.

Art by Brett Booth

In times of emergency, Hugh’s muscles expand proportionately all over his body, thereby increasing his strength, speed and agility. As Tas, also augmented are his hearing, his night sight, and his sense of smell. Strongest though are his hands with which he can burrow very quickly through soil but break through a solid brick wall. In addition, during his metamorphosis, his body grows dark red hair from head to toe and a stylized “T” appears on his chest. Tasmanian Devil first appeared in Super Friends #7 and his sexuality was revealed in Justice League Quarterly #8. He was a member of the Global Guardians, Justice League International, and Ultramarine Corps.

A more detailed account of Tasmanian Devil’s history can be read at Wikipedia. Thanks to Jay who brought Joshua to my attention in a comment he left here!

© and ® DC Comics. Used without permission.

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