July 7, 2000

Super!

A former Marvel writer has created an online superheroic gay satire

by Anthony Glassman

Superheroes are all over the place these days. The X-Men, the movie version of the most popular comic book franchise in the history of the medium, hits theaters nationwide on July 14. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are all set to star in other movies, and the comic book industry is gaining ground after being decimated in the last half of the nineties.

Although The X-Men stars gay actor Sir Ian McKellen as the villain Magneto, most of what's out there in the comic book world is, well, not out there. There are few gay characters, and even fewer openly gay creators.

Chris Cooper is a former writer and assistant editor at Marvel Comics, and current writer of Queer Nation: The Online Gay Comic, a comic book on the Web where every gay man gets powers... and all but one of the lesbians has mysteriously vanished.

Anthony Glassman: How old are you? Chris Cooper: Thirty-seven, as of yesterday

Where did you grow up?

Born in Manhattan, raised in the suburbs on Long Island. Uniondale, New York, to be specific.

When did you come out? How difficult was the experience for you?

I came out my freshman year in college, back in January of 1981. It was a nerve-wracking experience, as I took my four heterosexual roommates aside separately, one by one, and clued them in.

They all handled it well, and we ended up rooming together all four years of school, and remain close friends. The bravest-and best thing I ever did. Those guys are gems.

Funny, but after that, coming out to the family

wasn't so hard. It was still difficult, but I guess I pretty much knew what to expect from them anyway. Liberal black family with strong civil rights traditions . . . I was on pretty safe ground.

Oops-forgot to mention that when I came out, it was before I'd actually ever slept with anybody! I'd always known I was gay since the age of about five-I had a crush on a male comic book character, and Tarzan films and gladiator movies gave me that special thrillbut I never had the chance to do anything about it until my second semester in college, after I'd told the scoop to my roommates.

How did you get into the comic book business?

I'd always wanted to work in comics. Freshman year, I created superpowered alter egos for the people in our dorm and wrote out (in text form--I'm no artist!) our adventures, posting the pages in the hall for the amusement of all. Mostly it was a great way to procrastinate about my class work.

What made you decide to start your own gay online comic book?

The original idea was just to do a gay comic book, not necessarily online. I was frustrated with the paucity of gay and lesbian characters in mainstream superhero comics, particularly Marvel, where I was working on staff at the time. I know I craved to see some gay and lesbian icons, and I figured others did as well. A couple of ideas happened to gel on a trip I took to South Beach, and it just snowballed from there.

It became an online comic because it made the most sense. It's

infinitely cheaper-no printing costs, no guessing at the size of print runs-and it's much easier for me to reach the intended audience this way.

Mainstream comic book stores don't know how to market to gay potential readers, and

most gay bookstores don't know what to do with comics. Compare that to the Internet: Gay folks are disproportionately online in comparison to our numbers in the general population, it allows me to reach folks who may live in isolated places without much of a lesbian and gay community, it allows me to reach closeted folks and others for whom anonymity is important who would never be seen picking this up at a bookstore... etc. And the medium allows us to do all sorts of new things that we hope to experiment with soon: embedding music, animated bits, special effects, etc.

Outlaw

Are there any things you would like to do with Queer Nation that you don't feel able to?

Thematically, no. The beauty of this is that my hands aren't tied story-wise as they would be at a major publisher, who would have to be concerned about controversy.

But there are tons of technical improvements that I'd love to do that we just don't have the money to do right now; incorporating the music and effects I mentioned, using

the latest cutting-edge Internet technology like Flash. Most of all, I'd like to give the readers more pages sooner. But we operate on virtually a volunteer basis, with no real budget, so it's difficult.

Are there any things that we will absolutely never ever see in Queer Nation? Why not?

Genitals. We've got lots of steamy lesbian and gay sex, but we do it in ways that keep things Rrated. I decided from the outset that I didn't want to go pornographic, that that would distract too much from the story. Our rule of thumb is: Bare breasts and butts okay, clits and cocks not okay.

Where would you like to take Queer Nation in the future?

A printed version is something a lot of fans have asked for; maybe soon. Maybe also a CDROM version. In my

@2000 CHRIS COOPER AND JOHN DENNIS (4)

wildest dreams, all those queer animators at Dreamworks get wind of this and do a feature-length animated version! And then they make a live-action movie. I've already started fantasy casting, of course! Angela Basset as Lily is a must.

As for the site, I'm working on getting advertisers, because if we start making money on the site, it means I can spend more time on it and make it better: more pages sooner, and all those technical improvements I yearn for.

Most of all, I'd like every queer in the English-speaking world to have heard of us,

Miss Thang

introducing hordes of new readers to the joys of comic-style storytelling. Every people needs their stories told, to see themselves and their concerns depicted through archetypes in larger-than-life terms. Every people needs heroes, fantasies to inspire us, epic tales in which they take center stage, embodying their hopes and fears and values at a given moment in time. If I can create a homocentric mythos, I'll be happy.

Are there any Billy-esque marketing deals on the horizon? Perhaps a XXX-film or action figures, possibly a compendium of the first story arc? More clothing?

I'm just starting to look into a printed compendium of Part I: The Messenger, which we're about to wrap up online. T-shirts are still available, so get 'em while you can!

Do you consider yourself to be in the vanguard of a new generation of cyberactivism? Why or why not?

No, John Aravosis [of StopDrLaura.com

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