Comic Book Queers

Joining the Avengers is a curious thing.  Occasionally, there are try-outs.  Sometimes, a new member is foisted on the team by some governmental (or editorial) mandate.  Mostly, though, the Avengers operate like a high-school clique: you just have to hang out around them until someone decides you’re cool.  Or, better yet, hang out around them until everyone else assumes you’re one of the group.  Like Firebird, who explicitly WAS NOT asked to join the Avengers West Coast back in the day, but showed up at a reservists’ meeting a few months later.  She probably claimed she left her card back in Arizona.  Whatever.
Far be it from the Scavenger to suggest that there are Avengers who managed a spot on the team solely by virtue of having an “in” with the boss.  *Cough* D-Man *cough*.  But every once in a while, the team manages to recruit somebody who actually deserves to be there.  Take, for example, Julia Carpenter, aka Spider-Woman II.

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Of course, trust Phil Noto to obviate my post about Black Canary with a single image. Although some of you might point out that this doesn’t merit a full-blown blog post, all I can say is that such majesty must be highlighted in extravagant ways.

I love you, Phil Noto. To borrow a stock phrase from  Stace of Comic Racks, I want to lick this image. To quote myself when I first saw it, I want to make a baby with it.

Show Phil Noto some love by checking out his Tumblr feed.

(WARNING: There are spoilers for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark if you continue reading)

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has been a lightning rod for controversy well before even one note was heard on-stage at the start of its now record-setting preview period at the Foxwoods Theatre on Broadway .  It also seems to me that the overwhelming majority of people griping about the show haven’t actually seen it.  I have.  Twice.  As there are substantial changes being made to show as it approaches a hiatus of preview performances from April 19 through May 11 to accommodate the reworking, what follows is my best attempt to memorialize my experience seeing the show prior to the upcoming changes being worked in.

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In honor of the return of the Zombie-Daddy of Them All, the Queers sit down to chat about rebirth and resurrection in the world of comics. What works? What doesn’t? Does death in comics have any impact left? Join TonyL, Sarospice, PattyBoom and Joe as they discuss the poignancy (or lack thereof) of it all.

There are a series of categories—cliché and sentimentality in particular—all of which have fallen into disrepute in recent decades. Replaced by the glib trinity of irony, sarcasm, and alienation, readers and movie-goers that don’t enter ecstatic convulsions parsing the self-indulgent navel gazing of a small set of (primarily) urban, white, male, heterosexual writers have been made to feel decidedly gauche.

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Hello. My name is Sarospice and I have a crush on a comic book character.

He's a younger, more ruthless Wolverine.. AND he swings both ways! What's not to love?

“Hi Saro.”

It’s Wolverine’s son, DAKEN!

“Let go and let… GAWD DAMN IS THAT HIM OVER THERE?! HEY PAPI, MIND IF I SAY WOW?!!”

I wasn’t sure at first if this really was a crush until I started getting the trades for the WOLVERINE: ORIGINS issues in which he first appeared. I mean seriously, have you seen that terrible Steve Dillon art? GIRL YOU GOT IT BAD! Still, with MARVEL deciding everyone has spawned, why do I love him? BECAUSE! He’s an unapologetic HEWHORE! Daken hasn’t decided if he is a hero or a villain, he just knows he’s not going to be his father ~ Oh! and male or female, or even shape-shifting Mystique, he’s going to tap it.

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By Brian Andersen

Indie comic creator behind “So Super Duper,” “Friend of Dorothy,” “Reignbow & Dee-Va,” “Sex and the Superhero” and lots of other super gay stuff! www.sosuperduper.com

DAY ONE: Friday: Number of comics sold – more than I can count on one hand, less than I can count on two hands

Although not a newbie to the San Francisco based comic book (and gaming, TV and movie) extravaganza known as WonderCon (I’ve attended the event for years as a fanboi and actually co-exhibited last year with a few of my dear-queer friends) I entered the convention floor with equal amounts cheer and intrepidation.

Would anyone care? Would any GLBT’ers actually fork over some of their hard-earned recession proof dough for one of my brightly-colored, funny books? Would any of my fellow gay geeks even bother to stop at my teeny-tiny indie slice of heaven hidden amidst a huge-ass convention hall filled to the rafters with comic goodness?

I was happy to be sharing my space with my fellow local queer comic creators Desmond Miller of Slumberland Press, Gene Guillette of RLT Press, and unofficial co-guest Rich Boutell, owner of “Whatever…” comics in the Castro, and the writer and creator behind the new hit comic book series “InterSections.” I was thankful I wouldn’t be facing the weekend alone.

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Hello Everyone , ready for the next installment of Sex & The Superhero? Ready or not, here it comes! But just a quick note to remind you that S&TS is brought to you by Brian Anderson, Neftali Centeno and Celina Hernandez. You can purchase this and other fagtastic comics at SoSuperDuper.com !

Previously in Sex & The Superhero: Lady Web just tries to get some lady-love respect, but the boys aren’t having it…or are they, Street Diver?

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As anyone who knows me can attest, I have a deep, abiding love for Dinah Laurel Lance. You might ask what it was about Black Canary that attracted me so; indeed, enough to bring me back to comics after a very long hiatus. Although I’m a sucker for the combination of pulchritude and wigcraft, it was the place she and Green Arrow occupied in the DCU that lured me in.  Yep, here I go again, making some semi-forced connection between comics and politics. I have this vague recollection of a scene between Hawkman and Black Canary, in which the winged right-winger tells Black Canary that “she can’t even get her man to marry her,” and Dinah responds that Ollie respects her too much to subject her to the horrors of patriarchy. I’ve never been able to find that scene again, and I suspect it actually took place between the Wasp and some douchey male Avenger instead, but the spirit is spot on. Green Arrow and Black Canary were unapologetic liberals living and loving as they saw fit in a universe where mid-century fantasies about romance abounded. Resisting Clark and Lois or Diana and Steve’s social programming, Ollie and Dinah just made it work.

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