{"id":28091,"date":"2023-06-01T17:52:32","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T17:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=28091"},"modified":"2023-06-01T17:52:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T17:52:32","slug":"from-headrack-to-claude-collected-gay-comics-of-howard-cruse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2023\/06\/01\/from-headrack-to-claude-collected-gay-comics-of-howard-cruse\/","title":{"rendered":"From Headrack to Claude – Collected Gay Comics of Howard Cruse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Howard Cruse<\/strong> (Nifty Kitsch Press\/Northwest Press)
\nISBN: 978-0-578-03251-1 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s long been an aphorism – if not an outright clich\u00e9 – that Gay comics – can we be contemporary and say LGBTQIA+? – have long been the only place in the graphic narrative business to see real romance in all its joy, pain, glee and glory.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still true: an artefact, I suppose, of a society seemingly obsessed with demarcating and separating sex and love as two utterly different and possibly even opposing principles and activities. I\u2019d like to think that here in the 21st<\/sup> century – at least in the more sensible, civilised parts of it – we\u2019ve outgrown the juvenile, judgemental, bad old days and can simply appreciate powerfully moving and\/or funny comics about people of all sorts without any kind of preconception.<\/p>\n

Sadly, that battle\u2019s nowhere near won yet and in truth it all looks pretty bleak unless you\u2019re a fundamentalist zealot or bigot. Hopefully, compendia such as this will aid the fight, if only we can get the other side to read them\u2026<\/p>\n

To facilitate that, after this archive was originally self-published in 2008 it was rendered fully digital – with updates and extra material – from those wonderful people at Northwest Press. Oh, and there\u2019s an abundance of sex and swearing on view, so if you\u2019re the kind of person liable to be upset by words and pictures of an adult nature (such as joyous, loving fornication between two people separated by age, wealth, social position and race who happily possess and constantly employ the same range of naughty bits on each other) or sly mockery of deeply-held, outmoded and ludicrous beliefs then best retreat and read something else.<\/p>\n

In fact, just go away: you have no romance in your soul or love in your heart.<\/p>\n

Howard Cruse (May 2nd<\/sup> 1944-November 26th<\/sup> 2019) enjoyed a remarkable cartooning career spanning decades that overlapped a number of key moments in American history and social advancement. Beginning as a hippy-trippy, counter-culture, Underground Comix star with beautifully drawn, witty, funny (not always the same thing in those days – or now, come to think of it) strips, his work evolved over years into a powerful voice for change in both sexual and race politics. Initially as strips in magazines but ultimately through such superb collections and Original Graphic Novels as Wendel<\/strong> and Stuck Rubber Baby<\/strong>: <\/strong>an examination of oppression, tolerance and freedoms in 1950s America.<\/p>\n

Since then he has become a columnist, worked on other writers\u2019 work, illustrated an adaptation of Jeanne E. Shaffer\u2019s The Swimmer With a Rope In His Teeth<\/strong> and continued his own unique brand of cartoon commentary.<\/p>\n

Born the son of a Baptist Minister in Birmingham, Alabama, Cruse grew up amid the instinctive race-based privilege and smouldering intolerance of the region\u2019s segregationist regime: an atmosphere that shaped him on a primal level. In the late \u201860s, he escaped to Birmingham-Southern College to study Drama: graduating and winning a Shubert Playwriting Fellowship to Penn State University.<\/p>\n

Campus life never really suited him and he dropped out in 1969. Returning to the South, he joined a loose crowd of fellow Birmingham Bohemians; allowing room to blossom as a creator. By 1971, Cruse was drawing a spectacular procession of strips for an increasingly hungry and growing crowd of eager admirers. Whilst working for a local TV station as both designer and children\u2019s show performer, he created a kid\u2019s newspaper strip about talking squirrels Tops & Button,<\/em> and still found time to craft the utterly whimsical and bizarre tales of a romantic quadrangle. Intended for the more discerning college crowd he remained in contact with, these strips appeared in a variety of college newspapers and periodicals and starred a very nice young man and his troublesome friends\u2026<\/p>\n

In 1972 the strip was \u201cdiscovered\u201d by publishing impresario Denis Kitchen who began disseminating Barefootz<\/strong> to a far broader audience via such Underground periodical publications as Snarf<\/strong>,<\/strong> Bizarre Sex<\/strong>, Dope Comix<\/strong> and Commies From Mars<\/strong>: all published by his much-missed Kitchen Sink Enterprises.<\/p>\n

Kitchen also hired Cruse to work on an ambitious co-production with rising powerhouse Marvel Comics: attempting to bring a (somewhat sanitised) version of the counter-culture\u2019s cartoon stars and sensibilities to the mainstream. The<\/strong> Comix Book<\/strong> was <\/strong>a traditionally packaged and distributed newsstand magazine that only ran to a half-dozen issues. Although deemed a failure, it provided the notionally more wholesome and genteel Barefootz<\/strong> with a larger audience and yet more avid fans\u2026<\/p>\n

As well as being an actor, designer, art-director and teacher, Cruse appeared in Playboy<\/strong>, The Village Voice<\/strong>, Heavy Metal<\/strong>, Artforum International<\/strong>, The Advocate<\/strong> and Starlog<\/strong> and countless other publications, yet the tireless story-man found the time and resources to self-publish Barefootz Funnies<\/strong>: two comic collections of his addictively whimsical strip in 1973.<\/p>\n

For us, a captivatingly forthright grab-bag and memoir gathers the snippets and classics left out of previous must-have collections The Compete Wendel<\/strong> and Early Barefootz<\/strong>, with Cruse tracing his development through cartoons and strips all thoroughly and engagingly annotated and contextualised by the author himself: fondly, candidly revisited against a backdrop of the men he loved at the time.<\/p>\n

Acting as an historical place-setter, Cruse\u2019s informative Preface <\/em>sets the ball rolling, laconically tracing his artistic career and development through domestic autobiographical strip \u2018Communique\u2019 <\/em>(from Heavy Metal<\/strong>) to unveil home life at the time. A more detailed exploration overview of the Queer comics scene follows in \u2018From Miss Thing to Jane\u2019s World\u2019 <\/em>before the book truly begins.<\/p>\n

For a better, fuller understanding you\u2019ll really want to see the aforementioned Wendell<\/strong> and Barefootz<\/strong> collections, but for now we relive history in first chapter Artefacts & Benchmarks Part 1: 1969-76<\/strong><\/em>, blending contextualising prose recollection with noteworthy strip \u2018That Night at the Stonewall\u2019s\u2019<\/em>, advertising art, abortive newspaper strip sample, an episode of Tops & Button<\/strong><\/em>, and other published work, plus gay sitcom feature \u2018Cork & Dork\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

An early example of advocacy comes from wry cartoon homily \u2018The Passer-By\u2019 <\/em>before further reminiscences and picture extracts take us to an uncharacteristically strident and harsh breakthrough.<\/p>\n

Preceded by explanatory sidebar \u2018Backstory: Gravy on Gay\u2019<\/em>, we are formally introduced to Barefootz\u2019s, way-out friend confidante – and openly gay hippy rebel – Headrack<\/strong><\/em> in \u2018Gravy on Gay\u2019<\/em>: wherein – the laid-back easy-going artist is confronted with the ugly, mouthy side of modern living as voiced by obnoxious jock jerk Mort<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

The march of progress continues in Artefacts & Benchmarks <\/strong><\/em>Part 2: 1976-80<\/strong><\/em>, detailing a variety of comics jobs from Dope Comix<\/strong> and Snarf <\/strong>to the semi-legitimacy of Playboy <\/strong>and Starlog<\/strong>. It also features the first meeting with life partner – and ultimately, husband – Eddie Sedarbaum<\/em> before My Strips from Gay Comix 1980-90<\/strong><\/em> traces his editorial career on the landmark anthology through reprints of his own strip contributions.<\/p>\n

It begins in \u2018Billy Goes Out\u2019<\/em>: recalling the joyous – or it that empty and tedious? – hedonistic freedoms of the days immediately before the AIDS crisis\u2026<\/p>\n

Incisive cloaked autobiographical fable \u2018Jerry Mack\u2019 <\/em>takes us inside the turbulent mind of an ultra-closeted church minister in full regretful denial, after which further heartbreak is called up in devious tragedy \u2018I Always Cry at Movies\u2019 <\/em>before home chores are dealt with in a manly manner in \u2018Getting Domestic\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Historical and political insight comes in \u2018Backstory: Dirty Old Lovers\u2019 <\/em>before the outrageous and hilarious antics of the oldest lovers in town scandalise the Gay community in \u2018Dirty Old Lovers\u2019<\/em>, whilst the thinking behind clarion call \u2018Safe Sex\u2019 <\/em>is detailed in a \u2018Backstory\u2019 <\/em>article prior to a straightforward examination of Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome and its effects on personal health and public consciousness\u2026<\/p>\n

Surreal comedy infuses the tale of a man\u2019s man and his adored \u2018Cabbage Patch Clone\u2019 <\/em>after which faux ad \u2018I Was Trapped Naked inside the Jockey Shorts of the Amazing Colossal Man!\u2019 <\/em>and Matt Groening spoof \u2018Gay Dorks in Fezzes\u2019 <\/em>closes this chapter to make way for Topical Strips 1983-93<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

With Cruse\u2019s particular brand of \u201cGay\u201d commentary\/advocacy reaching more mainstream audiences through publications like The Village Voice<\/strong>, a \u2018Backstory\u2019 <\/em>relates the author\u2019s ultimately unnecessary anxiety over inviting in the wider world through polemical sally \u2018Sometimes I Get So Mad\u2019 <\/em>and wickedly pointed social and media satire \u2018The Gay in the Street\u2019<\/em>. That oracular swipe and \u20181986 – An Interim Epilogue\u2019 <\/em>are also deconstructed by Backstory segments (the latter being a 2-page addendum created for the Australian release of \u2018Safe Sex\u2019 <\/em>in Art & Text magazine<\/strong>) before \u2018Backstory: Penceworth\u2019 <\/em>shares one of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher<\/em>\u2019s vilest moments.<\/p>\n

In 1988, her government attempted to set back sexual freedom to the Stone Age (or Russia, Turkey, Nigeria and other uncivilised countries today) by prohibiting the \u201cpromotion of homosexuality\u201d. The British law – (un)popularly known as Clause 28 – was resisted on many fronts, including benefit comic AARGH<\/strong> (Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia). Invited to contribute, Cruse channelled Hillaire Belloc\u2019s Cautionary Verses<\/strong> and excoriatingly assaulted the New Nazism with \u2018Penceworth\u2019<\/em>: a charming illustrated poem like a spiked cosh snuggled inside a rainbow coloured velvet slipper\u2026<\/p>\n

Luxuriating in righteous indignation and taking his lead from the New York Catholic Church\u2019s militant stance against the LGBT community, Cruse then illuminated a supposed conference between \u2018The Kardinal & the Klansman in Manning the Phone Bank\u2019 <\/em>and targeted similar anti-gay codicils in America\u2019s National Endowment for the Arts in \u2018Homoeroticism Blues\u2019<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

Another Backstory explains how and why a scurrilous article in Cosmopolitan<\/strong> resulted in \u2018The Woeful World of Winnie and Walt\u2019 <\/em>– a complacency-shattering tale in Strip AIDS USA<\/strong>, pointedly reminding White Heterosexuals that the medical horror wasn\u2019t as discriminating as they would like to believe\u2026<\/p>\n

That theme is revisited with the kid gloves off in \u2018His Closet\u2019<\/em>, after which \u2018Backstory: Rainbow Curriculum Comix\u2019 <\/em>clarify how School Board rabble-rouser Mary Cummings<\/em> set back decades of progress in American diversity education through her oratorical witch hunts. Cruse\u2019s potent responses \u2018Rainbow Curriculum Comix\u2019 <\/em>and \u2018The Educator\u2019 <\/em>follow\u2026<\/p>\n

The artist\u2019s Late Entries 2000-08<\/em><\/strong> round off the historical hay ride: snippets including a full-colour rebuttal from Village Voice<\/strong> to Dr. Bruce Bagemihl<\/em>\u2019s study on animal homosexuality. \u2018A Zoo of Our Own\u2019 <\/em>is accompanied by a fulsome Backstory<\/em> and followed by wryly engaging modern fable \u2018My Hypnotist\u2019 <\/em>and semi-autobiographical conundrum \u2018Then There Was Claude\u2019 <\/em>before the bemused wonderment wraps up with prose article \u2018I Must Be Important \u2026Cause I\u2019m in a Documentary (2011)\u2019 <\/em>and a superb Batman<\/strong> pin-up\/put down\u2026<\/p>\n

This is a sublime and timeless compilation: smart, funny, angry when needful and always astonishingly entertaining. Read it with Pride.
\n\u00a9 1976-2008 Howard Cruse. All rights reserved.
\nFor further information and great stuff check out Howardcruse.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Howard Cruse (Nifty Kitsch Press\/Northwest Press) ISBN: 978-0-578-03251-1 (TPB\/Digital edition) It\u2019s long been an aphorism – if not an outright clich\u00e9 – that Gay comics – can we be contemporary and say LGBTQIA+? – have long been the only place in the graphic narrative business to see real romance in all its joy, pain, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “From Headrack to Claude – Collected Gay Comics of Howard Cruse”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[90,125,215,105,148,111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-classics","category-humour","category-lgbtqia","category-mature-reading","category-romance","category-satirepolitics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7j5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28093,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28091\/revisions\/28093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}