Allen J. Shapiro (February 7, 1932—May 30, 1987), better known as Al Shapiro and by his pen name A. Jay, was a

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

Jewish American American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of American Jews identify as Ashkenazi, 3% id ...

artist active from the 1960s through 1980s. He is credited with the creation of the first-ever gay comic strip, ''The Adventures of Harry Chess: The Man from A.U.N.T.I.E''. Shapiro is well-known for his

erotic art Erotic art is a broad field of the visual arts that includes any artistic work intended to evoke arousal. It usually depicts human nudity or sexual activity, and has included works in various visual mediums, including drawings, engravings, fil ...

, not only in ''Harry Chess'', but also for ''Drummer'' magazine, the Caldron (a sex club in San Francisco), the Leatherneck (gay bar), and numerous

gay bathhouses A gay bathhouse, also known as a gay sauna or a gay steambath, is a public bath targeted towards gay and bisexual men. In gay slang, a bathhouse may be called just "the baths", "the sauna", or "the tubs". Historically, they have been used for se ...

(some of which he often visited). Shapiro was ''Drummer'''s founding art editor.

Jack Fritscher John Joseph Fritscher (born June 20, 1939) is an American author, university professor, historian, and social activist known internationally for his fiction, erotica, and nonfiction analyses of pop culture and gay male culture. An activist prio ...

, ''Drummer'''s former editor-in-chief, described Shapiro as "the best of my pals and friends" and "one of the Original ''Drummer'' Daddies." Shapiro died from

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

-related complications in 1987.

Biography

Shapiro was born and raised in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...

. He competed as a wrestler in high school, during which time he described becoming "totally fixated on men with big pecs and fine nipples," which became lasting inspirations for his art. After graduating, he served in the U.S. Army, stationed in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

following the end of the

Korean war The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. Shapiro moved to

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

in the 1960s, where he attended the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

in hopes of becoming a theatrical set designer for

Broadway theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...

. He later pivoted to illustrating children's books. Shapiro created ''Harry Chess'' in response to a 1964 ad in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' by

Clark Polak Clark Philip Polak (15 October 1937 – 18 September 1980) was an American businessman, publisher, journalist, and LGBT activist. Polak was from a Jewish, middle-class family in Philadelphia. He was the youngest son of Arthur Marcus Polak and A ...

seeking "a cartoonist for a new gay and sophisticated magazine" called ''

Drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

''. After ''Drum'' was discontinued, Shapiro continued producing ''Harry Chess'' comics for ''Queen's Quarterly'' (QQ), another gay magazine. Shapiro designed the character Harry Chess as his

alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate Self (psychology), self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original Personality psychology, personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other ...

(he once said "I am Harry and Harry is me and we are all together"). His style was influenced by

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book author, writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which later bec ...

and

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

. Shapiro met his lifelong partner Dick Kriegmont through Kriegmont's

personal ad A personal advertisement, sometimes called a contact ad, is a form of classified advertising in which a person seeks to find another person for friendship, romance, marriage, or sexual activity. In British English, it is commonly known as an adve ...

in ''

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * The Advocate (magazine), ''The Advocate'' (magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States * ''The Harvard Advocate' ...

.'' In 1974, Shapiro moved to San Francisco to live with Kriegmont, where they frequented

Pacific Heights Pacific Heights (often referred to as Pac Heights) is a wealthy neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States. It has panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Palace of Fine Arts, Alcatraz, Presidio of San Fr ...

and the

South of Market South of Market (SoMa) is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, so named due to its location south of Market Street. It contains several sub-neighborhoods including South Beach, Yerba Buena, and Rincon Hill. SoMa is home to many of ...

neighborhoods. In 1977, ''Drummer'' co-founder John Embry hired Shapiro and Fritscher to be the magazine's art director and editor-in-chief and tasked them with moving the publication from Los Angeles to San Francisco. They both departed the magazine in late 1979. Numerous gay bars and clubs featured Shapiro's artwork in promotional materials, including Caldron, The Eagle, and The Slot. In 1978, Shapiro and Dom Orejudos produced a joint gallery show at

Fey-Way Studios Robert Opel (né Oppel; October 23, 1939 – July 7, 1979) was an American photographer and art gallery owner most famous for streaking during the 46th Academy Awards in 1974. Early life and education Opel was born in East Orange, New Jersey, in ...

; they were also jointly featured at the Eons gallery in Los Angeles. Shapiro was close friends with Orejudos and

Tom of Finland Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), known by the pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist who made stylized highly masculinized erotic art, and influenced late 20th-century gay culture. He has been called the "mos ...

, and also befriended

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called '' pips'' or ''dots'' ...

. Shapiro died at home of

-related complications on May 30, 1987, with Kriegmont by his side. Shapiro's art considerably influenced the style of other erotic artists including

Bill Schmeling 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. ...

. In his 2006 autobiography, Fritscher wrote:

If there is a gay
Mount Rushmore The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a National Memorial (United States), national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (, or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dak ...
of four great pioneer pop artists, the faces would be
Chuck Arnett Charles "Chuck" Arnett (February 15, 1928March 2, 1988) was an American artist and dancer who was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and died in San Francisco. His best-known work is the The Tool Box (bar), Tool Box mural (1962). Biography Arnett gr ...
, Etienne, A. Jay, and
Tom of Finland Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), known by the pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist who made stylized highly masculinized erotic art, and influenced late 20th-century gay culture. He has been called the "mos ...
.

The

Leather Archives & Museum The Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M) is a community archives, library, and museum located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Chuck Renslow and Tony DeBlase in 1991, its mission is making “leather, kink, BDSM, a ...

in Chicago holds some of Shapiro's art.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shapiro, Al Fetish artists Gay male BDSM Gay male erotica artists Leather subculture LGBTQ comics creators Pseudonymous artists 1932 births 1987 deaths BDSM people American erotic artists 20th-century American LGBTQ people Jewish American illustrators 20th-century American illustrators Pratt Institute alumni AIDS-related deaths in California LGBTQ people from New York (state) 20th-century American Jews LGBTQ people and military service Gay military personnel American LGBTQ military personnel Gay Jews

Biography

See also

References