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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

April 24, 2009

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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

Worth 1,000 words

Comic anthology shows the value of graphic fiction

by Anthony Glassman

With Alison Bechdel putting Dykes to Watch Out For on hiatus and Robert Kirby following suit with his syndicated Curbside strip, the light has gone

The morning after the first night we slept together, he couldn't find his underpants.

I found them later behind the radiator, but I didn't tell him. I kept them and wore them and wished Some of his sexiness would rub off onto me.

out in some people's lives.

Without their comic strips, what is there in this cold, cruel world?

Thankfully, Kirby and David Kelly have been hard at work putting together The Book of Boy Trouble Vol. 2: Born to Trouble (Green Candy, $15, trade paper), the second larger edition of their Boy Trouble comic anthologies.

The first volume, released three years ago, was a "best of" collection, putting together some of the brightest spots in what was then the 12-year history of what started as a photocopied black and white chapbook.

Now, the strips are all new and in color, with a wider array of comic writers, or, as they probably never want to be called, strippers.

As Kirby himself notes in the introduction, the young Turks of the early days are now established mainstays, while a new generation has also stepped into the fray. He also includes some of his own idols, "featuring a few key cartoonists whose work I was reading in Gay Comix and elsewhere long before I ever picked up my first Rapidograph pen or Windsor Newton brush (namely Howard Cruse, Jennifer Camper, and Robert Triptow)."

Expanding the scope of the publication means he and Kelly have also opened it beyond the generation gap to also bridge the gender gap, bringing in work by the aforementioned Camper, whose Juicy Mother anthologies have included both Kelly and Kirby, Abby Denson and GB Jones, and they are most certainly welcome additions.

The three women acquit themselves well, turning in three of the most poignant pieces in a collection whose poignancy is almost legendary.

Denson's "Cute Boys of the '80s, aka My Pre-Teen Crushes" is a marvelous flashback that can be truly savored by many gay men "of a certain age,” namely, those who came of age at some point in the 1980s. Look for the phrase "bulge alert" in the second panel, and you can see the true genius at work here.

the "creepy older guy" who has set his sights on the boy.

Of course, the women don't have all the fun, nor do they put in all the great work in this collection.

Jones' "Steven Stayner and Queenie" appears to be a simple, cute portrait of a boy and his dog-until one looks up "Steven Stayner" on Wikipedia and reads of a child abducted in California by a pedophile who kept him for seven years, until he escaped with a second boy selected as his eventual replace-

ment.

There is something askew in Steven's eyes...

Continuing on with the pedo theme, Camper's piece puts her in the body of a boy going the bowling alley with his sister, and shows how his sister outwits

Brett Hopkins' "Secrets and Revelations"

When?

I've got my,

own personal arch project

still colle

See, I've

discovered a

Love.

We'll keep

No... don't...

It's okay.

each other

recounts two childhood friends who reconnect, only to discover that they're both gay. Sometimes romance just happens.

"The Voodoo You Do So Well!" by Tim Fish is another really adorable tale of budding romance, this one fostered by the dark arts. Either that, or a very clever female friend who knows how to creatively twist an arm here and there.

Dave Ortega turns in a trio of "Tales from the Gay Future," giving a queer spin to sci-fi tropes like giant, destructive monsters, battles against aliens, and runaway mutation. Gay comic book geeks everywhere will plotz over them.

Wuvable Oaf, Ed Luce's pink-eyed, mischievous bear, stars in "Chat Attack," which illus-. trates the advantages and drawbacks of online cruising. The

drawbacks are the people who make you want to run for the hills; the advantage is, you can torment them as easily as they torture you.

For a completely serious turn, Jon Macy's "Crazy in Bed" illustrates the depth of the comic artist's skill. A portrait in dysfunction, the strip gives readers in a single panel a character who is vulnerable, open, yet dangerous. The second panel of the strip is perhaps the most striking single image in the entire book.

Macy is currently shopping a graphic version of Teleny and Camille around to publishers. It's an anonymouslypenned Victorian gay love story.

If it is possible to fall in love with a comic creator based solely on their strips, Sina Shamsavari, Kirby and Kelly would all have lines of men at their doors waiting to woo them. Their individual contributions to the collection are all noteworthy, as are those of the more than a dozen other creators in these pages.

In small, easy-to-digest bites, these works perfectly illustrate why graphic fiction has become an increasingly recognized form of literature, and the collection is essential reading.

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