Barefootz
Howard Cruse (May 2, 1944 – November 26, 2019) was an American alternative cartoonist known for the exploration of gay themes in his comics. First coming to attention in the 1970s, during the underground comix movement with ''Barefootz'', he was the founding editor of ''Gay Comix'' in 1980, created the gay-themed strip ''Wendel'' during the 1980s, and reached a more mainstream audience in 1995 when an imprint of DC Comics published his graphic novel ''Stuck Rubber Baby.'' Early life Cruse was born on May 2, 1944, in Birmingham, Alabama, and raised in nearby Springville, the son of a preacher and a homemaker. His earliest published cartoons were in ''The Baptist Student'' when he was in high school. His work later appeared in ''Fooey'' and '' Sick''. He attended high school at Indian Springs School in (what is now) Indian Springs, Alabama, and college at Birmingham-Southern College, where he studied drama. Cruse worked for about a decade in television. In 1977, Cruse moved to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gay Comix
''Gay Comix'' (later ''Gay Comics'') is an underground comics series published from 1980 to 1998 featuring cartoons by and for gay men and lesbians. The comic books had the tagline "Lesbians and Gay Men Put It On Paper!" Much of the early content was autobiographical, but more diverse themes were explored in later editions. The contents of ''Gay Comix'' were generally about relationships, personal experiences, and humor, rather than sex. It is generally less sexually explicit than the similarly themed (and male-focused) '' Meatmen'' series of graphic novels. Its editors each made a deliberate effort to feature work by both women and men. Development The idea for ''Gay Comix'' came from Denis Kitchen, a publisher of underground comics through the company he founded, Kitchen Sink Press. In 1979, after realizing underground cartoonist Howard Cruse was gay, Kitchen asked him to edit an anthology of gay comic artists. The two had worked together previously; Cruse's comic ''Barefo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stuck Rubber Baby
''Stuck Rubber Baby'' is a 1995 graphic novel by American cartoonist Howard Cruse. He created his debut graphic novel after a decades-long career as an underground cartoonist. It deals with homosexuality and racism in the 1960s in the southern United States, in the midst of the civil rights movement. While the book is not autobiographical, it draws upon Cruse's experience of growing up in the South during this time period, including his accidental fathering of a child, as referred to in the title. Background Howard Cruse was born in 1940s Alabama to a Baptist preacher and his wife. He earned a degree in drama and worked in television before turning to a cartooning career. From 1971 he published a strip called '' Barefootz'', which appeared in a number of underground comix publications, including three issues under its own title. Cruse's contemporaries gave it little regard, deeming it too cute and gentle compared to the countercultural works alongside which it ran. In 1976, Crus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Alabama, second-most populous city in Alabama, and estimated at 196,357 in 2024. The Birmingham metropolitan area, Alabama, Birmingham metropolitan area had a population of 1.19 million in 2020 and is the largest metropolitan area in Alabama and List of metropolitan statistical areas, 47th-most populous in the US. Birmingham serves as a major regional economic, medical, and educational hub of the Deep South, Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion, Piedmont, and Appalachian regions. Founded in 1871 during the Reconstruction Era of the United States, Reconstruction era, Birmingham was formed through the merger of three smaller communities, most notably Elyton, Alabama, Elyton. It quickly grew into an industrial and transportation ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Panel From "Death" By Howard Cruse
Panel may refer to: Arts and media Visual arts *Panel painting, in art, a painting on a wood panel (as opposed to canvas, a wall etc) *Panel (comics), a single image in a comic book, comic strip or cartoon; also, a comic strip containing one such image *Groupings of rock art, pictographs or petroglyphs Television * ''The Panel'' (Australian TV series), an Australian talk show * ''The Panel'' (Irish TV series), an Irish talk show * Panel game, a form of game show involving a group of celebrities Law * Judicial panel, set of judges who sit to hear a cause of action * Jury panel, body of people convened to render a judicial verdict * ''Panel'', or ''pannel'', in Scotland, formal term in solemn proceedings for an accused person; see Indictment People *Brice Panel (born 1983), French sprinter *Caroline Giron-Panel (born 1979), French historian and musicologist Science and technology Electrical devices *Breaker panel, a flat area containing electrical circuit breakers * ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nib-Lit
''Nib-Lit'' is a weekly comics journal edited by Mykl Sivak and published both independently in an electronic format as well as running as a two-page section in ''Southern News'', the student newspaper of Southern Connecticut State University. The journal features original and syndicated strips by a wide range of international cartoonists, both established and up-and-coming. It features a number of comics formats from single panel comic strips, to multi-page graphic short stories, to serialized graphic novels. The journal also prints comics related columns and criticism by writers from within and outside of the comics world. Nib-Lit also regularly releases a podcast featuring interviews with creators from across the comics world. Nib-Lit sponsors and organizes the New Haven Summer Comics Fest. The Fest is a one-day event featuring artist and publisher tables; panel discussions; short films and animations directed by and/or featuring work of comics creators; comics slide shows; and a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jennifer Camper
Jennifer Camper is a cartoonist and graphic artist whose work is inspired by her own experiences as a Lebanese-American lesbian. Her work has been included in various outlets such as newspapers and magazines since the 1980s, as well as in exhibits in Europe and the United States. Furthermore, Camper is the creator and founding director of the biennial ''Queers and Comics'' conference. Early life When she was younger, Jennifer Camper did not have the dream of becoming a cartoonist and contributing to the world of queer comics. In an interview with Rob Kirby on ''The Comics Journal'', Camper stated that she "sort of fell into it and just continued. From early childhood I played with all kinds of art forms, including comics and illustrated stories. In school, I made comics and illustrated stories as class assignments, or for the school paper, and sometimes just to entertain my friends and myself. My family encouraged this." After gaining support and inspiration from the world aroun ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Queer
''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to reclaim the word as a neutral or positive self-description. In the 21st century, ''queer'' became increasingly used to describe a broad spectrum of non- heteronormative sexual or gender identities and politics. Academic disciplines such as queer theory and queer studies share a general opposition to binarism, normativity, and a perceived lack of intersectionality, some of them only tangentially connected to the LGBTQ movement. Queer arts, queer cultural groups, and queer political groups are examples of modern expressions of queer identities. Critics of the term include members of the LGBTQ community who associate it more with its colloquial, derogatory usage; those who wish to dissociate themselves from queer radicalism; and tho ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael Kirwan (artist)
Michael Kirwan (December 27, 1953 – May 26, 2018) was an American artist, known for his distinctively stylized erotic illustrations and comics, published in more than 600 magazines. Although he focused primarily on homoerotic themes, he also produced substantial work for the heterosexual and fetish markets. He worked primarily in Prismacolor markers and permanent ink. Biography Kirwan was born on December 27, 1953, in New York City. His family was poor, so as a child he drew on paper grocery bags. He attended a middle school run by the Catholic Archdiocese of New York that allowed the most gifted students to take art classes. He married his high-school girlfriend when she became pregnant, and they had a son, Larry. They remained married until she divorced him due to his sexual infidelity with men in the late 1970s. Kirwan began producing homoerotic art in the early 1980s, inspired by his job as an attendant at St. Mark's Baths, a gay sex club. His first published work appeare ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Hun (cartoonist)
Bill Schmeling (April 30, 1938 – September 12, 2019), better known by his pen name The Hun, was an American artist active in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, known for his explicit, homoerotic fetish illustrations and comics. Recurring characters in his comics include Big Sig (a naïve but sexually adventurous, semi-literate young man) and Gohr (a barbarian living in a brutal, post-apocalyptic world). His art is characterized by hyper-masculine characters with exaggerated muscles, nipples, and genitalia. Sex scenes routinely involve BDSM with an emphasis on bodily fluids, including urolagnia and scatophilia. Prison rape, fisting, leather and uniform fetishes, and police and military settings are also commonplace. Biography Schmeling lived in Portland, Oregon. At the age of five, he began drawing what he described as "hunky dudes in varying stages of undress, duress, and excess." He received no formal training, but cited Tom of Finland, Dom Orejudos, A. J ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Leslie-Lohman Museum Of Art
The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (LLMA), formerly the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, is a visual art museum in SoHo, Lower Manhattan, New York City. It mainly collects, preserves and exhibits visual arts created by LGBTQ artists or art about LGBTQ+ themes, issues, and people. The museum, operated by the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, offers exhibitions year-round in numerous locations and owns more than 22,000 objects, including, paintings, drawings, photography, prints and sculpture. Stamatina Gregory is Head Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Collections at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. The foundation was awarded Museum status by the New York State Board of Regents in 2011 and was formally accredited as a museum in 2016. The museum is a member of the American Alliance of Museums and operates pursuant to their guidelines. As of 2019, the LLMA was the only museum in the world dedicated to artwork documenting the LGBTQ experience. The museum maintains a Per ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paradox Press
Paradox Press was a division of DC Comics formed in 1993 after editor Mark Nevelow departed from Piranha Press. Under the initial editorship of Andy Helfer, Andrew Helfer and Bronwyn Carlton, the imprint was renamed. Paradox was best known for publishing the graphic novels ''A History of Violence (comics), A History of Violence'' and ''Road to Perdition (comics), Road to Perdition'', both of which were later adapted into feature films. Jim Higgins edited the line after Helfer's departure, and Heidi MacDonald briefly took the helm in 2000 at the time of the line's final three ''The Big Book Of, Big Books'', none of which ever saw publication. History Paradox Press was designed to publish graphic novels that were not of the superhero genre (as comprises most of DC's publishing efforts) and without the fantasy and sci-fi elements of DC's "mature reader" line Vertigo Comics. Because of the limited interest in non-fantasy stories among the graphic novel demographic, the line produced ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Piranha Press
Piranha Press, an imprint of DC Comics from 1989 to 1994, was a response by DC to the growing interest in alternative comics. The imprint was edited by Mark Nevelow, who instead of developing comics with the established names in the alternative comics field, chose to introduce several unknown illustrators with an eclectic and diverse line of experimental graphic novels and stories. Unusual for the time, Nevelow succeeded in getting DC to agree to contracts giving creator ownership to writers and artists. History DC announced its plan to form the Piranha imprint in 1987. Nevelow's associate editor on the imprint was Karen McBurnie. Designer Dean Motter created the signature Piranha cover format and logo. After the initial 1989 titles were art directed by John Workman, the in-house Piranha production design was by Bhob Stewart from 1989 to 1992, with other design contributions by Dale Crain, Rick Spanier, Richard Bruning, Veronica Carlin, Margaret Clark and Rick Keene. Artist- ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |