Gay Heart Throbs & Comix
Archive: Gay Themed
After writing so unkindly of Meatmen Number 26 yesterday my mind wandered back to earlier gay comics. Nuttily enough there used to be more. This was back when underground comix were still being published. The phrase ?underground comix? isn?t familiar anymore. But you?ve probably heard of Robert Crumb. Crumb is the Shakespeare, Hank Williams or whathaveyou of the old underground comics scene.
Their best period was the late 60s ?til the early 70s. They?d continue but success bred mediocrity. When anti-paraphernalia laws shut down most head shops in the US underground comics lost their main distribution channel.
I thought I?d post a few covers.
Hard to know what to say about the young godling with a sweater about his neck.
Sigh. There?s never been a shortage of homoerotic imagery of men as warriors. You have to be manly and buff if you beat and murder others for a living.
The ultimate closet case? The cover to Gay Comix #1 is an old favorite.
2Posted by: Richard on April 17, 2004 07:10 AM
There may have been a story or two by Holmes that indicated that he was bi but it has been too long ago for me to remember.
I was actually trying to find a decent-sized copy of the cover Eric Shanower did for an issue of Gay Comics. I thought we still had copies at the shop but found that we?d sold them.
Do you know if Shanower or P. Craig Russell have every done any gay comics stories?
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Thanks, Richard
1Posted by: François on April 17, 2004 06:47 AM
I love the cover to Gay Comix # 1. I probably see a lot of my younger self in the closet guy?
Rand Holmes was a very good artist (who wasn?t gay, as far as I know). He died a few years ago, from what I?ve been told.
Thanks for posting the covers for the first 2 issues of Gay Heartthrobs. I?ve never been able to find those issues!