LGBT Themes in Comics - Underground and Alternative Comics

Underground and Alternative Comics

LGBT themes were found first in underground or alternative comics, often published by small independent presses, or self-published. Such comics frequently advocated political positions and included depictions of sex, usually not intended solely to cause arousal but included as part of the exploration of themes including gender and sexuality.

“Captain Pissgums and His Pervert Pirates” by S. Clay Wilson in “Zap” #3 (1968) featured explicit sexual homosexual acts, and was instrumental in making other underground cartoonists approach taboo subjects. However, gay characters rarely featured in underground comics from 1968–1975, and when they did they were usually lisping caricatures and comic transvestites. An instalment of “Harold Hedd” by Rand Holmes in 1971 stands out for attacking the homophobia of Dr Reuben’s sex manual “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)”, featuring explicit mutual gay sex acts, and promoting Gay Lib.

Eventually comics appeared aimed at a gay audience: the first documented example of a widely-circulated underground gay comic was Gay Heart Throbs, which produced several issues in the mid-1970s, but struggled to find an audience.

Notable publications included Gay Comix, which was created in 1980 by Howard Cruse, featured the work of gay, lesbian, and transsexual artists, and had close ties with the gay liberation movement. Much of the early content was autobiographical, but more diverse themes were explored in later editions. Autobiographical themes included falling in love, coming out, repression, and sex. Gay Comix also served as a source for information about non-mainstream LGBT-themed comics and events. Artists producing work for Gay Comix included Mary Wings, creator of the first one-off lesbian book Come Out Comix (1972) and Dyke Shorts (1976), and Roberta Gregory, who created Dynamite Damsels (1976) the first lesbian underground serial comic book and the character Bitchy Bitch. Wimmen's Comix also tackled issues of homosexuality on a regular basis, and the first issue was also the venue for the first ever comic strip featuring an out lesbian, called "Sandy Comes Out", by Trina Robbins. Excerpts from Gay Comix are included in the 1989 anthology Gay Comics, one of the earliest histories of the subject.

Meatmen: An Anthology of Gay Male Comics and its sequels collect works by a range of artists and cartoonists. The work of "every gay cartoonist of note" has appeared in the series, including works by Howard Cruse, Jeff Krell, Brad Parker, John Blackburn, Jon Macy, and the stylized pornography of Tom of Finland. The contents of Meatmen are generally more explicit and lewd than the more mainstream oriented Gay Comics. Tom of Finland was a prolific fetish artist, specializing in images of men with exaggerated primary and secondary sex traits, such as extreme muscularity and improbably large penises. His drawings frequently feature two or more men either immediately preceding or during explicit sexual activity. Howard Cruse has been described as "the most important gay cartoonist", and his work explores both pop and gay culture. His LGBT-themed work is often adults-only, and in addition to being featured in Meatmen and Gay Comics, has been syndicated in publications such as Heavy Metal, RAW, and Village Voice.

Creators have used the comics medium to educate readers about LGBT-related issues including safe sex, examples being Strip AIDS U.S.A; and to influence real-world politics, as with the British comics book AARGH (Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia), produced by British, American, and Canadian artists in response to a law that would make "promoting homosexuality" illegal by the British government. The comic book format and humour has been described as giving such works a more positive message than typical education material. Comic strip style educational material about AIDS dates back to a chart in the French magazine Liberation from 1986, which used simple figures to explain unsafe practices. Fiction comics produced specifically to foster AIDS provention include the widely distributed French-language La Sida (1995), created by the Institut Alfred Fourrier as part of its "Prevention Sourire" series. La Sida was aimed at a young audience and used humour to de-dramatise the subject, with HIV status indicated a metaphorical "little green monster". Such educational comics have been criticised for ignoring the special relevance the subject has to the LGBT community, with homosexuality marginalized in favour of depicting HIV as a threat to conventional heterosexual relationships. This has been blamed on the continuing perception that comics are for young people, and as such should be "universalised" rather than targeting specific groups, and hence are heteronormative, failing to provide characters that LGBT-identfying young people can identify with. Other educational comic books such as the Swiss Jo (1991) also exclude explicit reference to homosexuality (as well as drug-taking and prostitution), in spite of their target audience being older.