Spawn issue 10, published in 1993, featured something I’d never heard of before: An ad for a series called Gay Comics. This may have been the first time I saw “gay” used non-pejoratively. And it was definitely the first time I saw queerness depicted in a positive light, even if it was basically only a single page with a few covers. I can’t say that it changed my life or changed my whole perspective. I’ve still never even seen an issue of Gay Comics But the ad definitely had an impact.
Gay Comics was an anthology series, originally edited by Howard Cruse (best known now for Stuck Rubber Baby) under the title Gay Comix. Andy Mangels took over editing with issue 14 in 1991. The series ran from 1980 until 1998 and featured a who’s who of LGBTQIA2S+ creators, including Cuse, Alison Bechdel, Roberta Gregory, and Mary Wings.
I feel confident saying this was the first time a LGBTQIA2S+ themed comic was advertised in top-selling mainstream comic. The ad was not without controversy. Here’s what Andy Mangels, the editor of Gay Comics around this time, told Syfy (Internet Archive backup):
The merge into the larger comics world wasn’t always a smooth transition, though. Says Mangels, “I went over to [fellow comic creator] Todd McFarlane’s house. I said, ‘Hey, would you be willing to donate an ad page in Spawn?’ Spawn was the number one top-selling comic of the time. And he did! He donated an inside cover in Spawn. Once that issue came out, he had retailers asking, ‘How dare you? How can I sell this comic to children? I can sell it when people are murdered, limbs are torn off… but I can’t sell this because there’s an ad for gay characters.’
“First, he called me, and he said, ‘So I did this on faith… but I never read Gay Comix, is this a porn book?’ I said, ‘Absolutely not, there’s no nudity allowed in the book. It’s adult-oriented, but it’s not an adult-only book. It’s less adults-only than Spawn.’ So, he went to the retailers that wanted to return Spawn, and he said, ‘You can return this issue for full credit, but you will never again be allowed to order Spawn.’ This is of course the number one comic, so they all just shut up and went away.”
I have my qualms about McFarlane, but I have to give him props for this.
Happy Pride Month everyone!