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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE April 8, 2005

Judie Shields, Ph.D.

A LESBIAN AND GAY PSYCHOTHERAPY PRACTICE

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Debra L. Dunkle, USW, Ph.D.

John O'Connor, USW

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eveningsout

Hide the young 'uns! Dangerous literature and naughty fun hide in comic book form

by Anthony Glassman

Everyone thinks they know what a comic book is supposed to be a gaudily-costumed hero, nefarious villains, saving the world in roughly 20 pages.

Oy, does everyone have another think coming!

Mature, adult-oriented comics come in three Clint Eastwood flavors: the good, the bad and the ugly. Sometimes they're wildly violent with little or no justification. Often they are misogynistic, portraying women as victims or tools and little

more.

However, when they're done well, or at the very least with a decent sense of humor, that is when the art form truly shines.

Perhaps the best example of comic writing at the top of the form (or "graphic novels," to use the "I'm not a kid and you're not allowed to laugh at me for reading this" lingo) is Ted Naifeh and Tristan Crane's How Loathsome (NBM, paperbound, $13.95).

How Loathsome follows the sometimes mundane, often psychedelic adventures in America of Catherine Gore, the walk-

highly by some of comicdom's brightest luminaries. Warren Ellis, one of the top gods of the current pantheon of writers, said Crane was one of the most promising new voices, and How Loathsome is a great illustration of the truth behind Ellis' words.

Green Candy Press has two books that, while perhaps not as "good" as How Loathsome,

HOMO-MERO'S

BIG BOOK OF FUN-AND

ing embodiment of genderfuck, a bisexual woman whose sexuality is as fluid and mercurial as... something really fluid and mercurial. There is no appropriate simile that can contain Catherine Gore.

Naifeh's art infuses a "life on the edge" quality to a story already very much on the edge, and he makes great use of style, deftly altering it to match whatever situation he is illustrating.

It is the writing of Tristan Crane upon which Naifeh's art hangs, however. Crane's four-part epic is about as close to perfection as one can come in this day and age, and the genderqueer writer's work has been praised

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probably qualify as more "fun" than Crane and Naifeh's book. First up is Max & Sven, the English translation of the Dutch coming-of-age comic by Tom Bouden (paper, $13.95).

Max is a bit of

a queer duck at

Sven school, but when handsome

Sven moves to town and befriends him, he begins to grow well, a queer swan.

into a ...

In between fantasies of con-

summating his unrequited love for Sven, the reader is led down Max's road of coming out, from purchasing his first "gay" book (Stephen Fry's The Liar, by the way buy it!) to his adventures in trying on condoms, it's a little zany but very warmhearted look at gay adolescence.

tom boudes

Finally, there's Homo-Hero's Big Book of Fun and Adventure by Michael Troy (hardcover, $11.95).

A lampoon of children's activity books, complete with pages to color, word searches and "fill in the rest of the picture" things, Troy has created an entire universe of heroes and villains solely as an excuse to draw naked

men.

Good for him.

Sure, it's silly, but it is good for a lark. A little not-so-innocent fun now and again is always a good thing.

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