Bros Before 'Mos...Apparently
Yesterday, I received an e-mail requesting that I be a part of one of the nationwide rallies to let the world know how upset we are that Americans were open-minded enough to elect a partially African-American president, but not open-minded enough to let gay people marry. While I would certainly love to support the event, I have to work.
Upon learning that I was skipping the event to sell comics, I received an e-mail from Well-Dressed Steve, calling me out for being a bad homo (it should be pointed out that Well-Dressed Steve, though a very dapper dresser, is 100% non-cock sucker):
Pshaw!
If California had voted to outlaw comic book stores, I'll bet you the gays would have come to the rally to support you. Fairweather friend.
Gay people rarely support comic books, literature in general, their friends getting married, and me. Granted, the same goes for straight people. Having worked in seven different comic book stores (all part of the same chain) for the last year and a halfish, I can tell you, there aren't a lot of gay comic book readers in New England. And I know why. There are very few gay male characters in comic books. Plenty of lesbians, and bisexual women (even if you don't count porno comics), but, with the exception of yaoi, not a lot of gay men.
I don't read yaoi. It's mostly two-dimensional, black-and-white cheesefests about older men "mentoring" then seducing and fucking younger men. And, being Japanese, these stories often involve giant squids, sentient vibrators, and thirty-seven kilometer cocks. Why would I want to read such drivel? I mean, I already live this kind of drivel.
Mainstream American comics, however, don't have a lot of gay characters. In the Marvel Universe (the one I obsessively read/collect) the few gay characters are all drama, no plot. Northstar, a member of the little read/respected Canadian super team, Alpha Flight, infamously came out in issue 106 (1992) while rescuing an HIV positive baby, which may sound like a good story, but it wasn't. Ultimate Colossus's coming out was handled a little better. As opposed to Northstar's homosexuality coming out of left-field, there were many hints an innuendos in the sixty-four issued before he decloseted. I won't even mention the fact that two of the three male gay teens in the Marvel Universe were originally named Anole (hasn't changed), and Assgardian (renamed Wiccan) {I've got no beef with Hulkling as a name).
Now, there are some specifically gay, all-gay, oh-so-gay comics out there. The problem is, I haven't found any that I've liked. Someone recommended Stuck Rubber Baby to me about a year ago, and I picked it up, and just didn't care. I find it really difficult to get into biopic comics, unless they're really well-written, like Maus and Persepolis. Which got me thinking that I only really like biopics about people surviving genocide.
Two weeks ago, I was reading Dave Eggers's non-comic novel, What Is The What, as well as a new anthology of illustrated journals of real-life refugees (mixed in with a few fictional ones) called I Live Here. I was getting incredibly depressed, and not just because of the quality of Eggers's writing. Too. Much. Suffering. Luckily, right next to I Live Here on the new arrival shelf was Bottoms In Love, an anthology of gay comics by gay writers.
Man, that comic needed more genocide. The art was cool, but the writing was hideous. Awful. Bad. Gay. Like the books you find in the LGBTA secton of Borders. Too trite for the literature shelf. If I want to see vapid, shallow, attractive men whining about how hard it is to find another vapid, shallow, attractive man, or how hard it is to be faithful to their vapid, shallow, attractive boyfriends, I'll get a gym membership. Stay the hell out of my comic books.
Ummm...way sidetracked. What I meant to say was Penguin Lust..
So, I don't see gay people flocking to my rescue, should they vote to ban comic book stores. But being gay hasn't been banned either, just gays being married. And while I certainly support gay marriage rights (and gay divorce rights), and while I have already petitioned the IRS to remove the Church Of Latter Day Saints from their religious exemption status, since those M-holes have spent 14 million dollars influencing the government, ignoring the whole "separation of church and state" thing, which reminds me that hey, marriage is a religious institution, anyway, why is the government involved to begin with? Ahem, Penguin Lust.
I will, unfortunately, not be present at any of the rallies this Saturday. But Asterisk will be one of the speakers at the Boston rally. And, I suspect, Ben will be speaking in Northhampton. These are just two of the rallies taking place in Massachusetts. I would now like to devolve myself to toilet humor, and let you know that one of the other MA rallies is taking place at *giggle* The Old *snerk* Creamery in *snort* Cummington, MA. Thanks to Well-Dressed Steve for the heads up on that one.
Upon learning that I was skipping the event to sell comics, I received an e-mail from Well-Dressed Steve, calling me out for being a bad homo (it should be pointed out that Well-Dressed Steve, though a very dapper dresser, is 100% non-cock sucker):
Pshaw!
If California had voted to outlaw comic book stores, I'll bet you the gays would have come to the rally to support you. Fairweather friend.
Gay people rarely support comic books, literature in general, their friends getting married, and me. Granted, the same goes for straight people. Having worked in seven different comic book stores (all part of the same chain) for the last year and a halfish, I can tell you, there aren't a lot of gay comic book readers in New England. And I know why. There are very few gay male characters in comic books. Plenty of lesbians, and bisexual women (even if you don't count porno comics), but, with the exception of yaoi, not a lot of gay men.
I don't read yaoi. It's mostly two-dimensional, black-and-white cheesefests about older men "mentoring" then seducing and fucking younger men. And, being Japanese, these stories often involve giant squids, sentient vibrators, and thirty-seven kilometer cocks. Why would I want to read such drivel? I mean, I already live this kind of drivel.
Mainstream American comics, however, don't have a lot of gay characters. In the Marvel Universe (the one I obsessively read/collect) the few gay characters are all drama, no plot. Northstar, a member of the little read/respected Canadian super team, Alpha Flight, infamously came out in issue 106 (1992) while rescuing an HIV positive baby, which may sound like a good story, but it wasn't. Ultimate Colossus's coming out was handled a little better. As opposed to Northstar's homosexuality coming out of left-field, there were many hints an innuendos in the sixty-four issued before he decloseted. I won't even mention the fact that two of the three male gay teens in the Marvel Universe were originally named Anole (hasn't changed), and Assgardian (renamed Wiccan) {I've got no beef with Hulkling as a name).
Now, there are some specifically gay, all-gay, oh-so-gay comics out there. The problem is, I haven't found any that I've liked. Someone recommended Stuck Rubber Baby to me about a year ago, and I picked it up, and just didn't care. I find it really difficult to get into biopic comics, unless they're really well-written, like Maus and Persepolis. Which got me thinking that I only really like biopics about people surviving genocide.
Two weeks ago, I was reading Dave Eggers's non-comic novel, What Is The What, as well as a new anthology of illustrated journals of real-life refugees (mixed in with a few fictional ones) called I Live Here. I was getting incredibly depressed, and not just because of the quality of Eggers's writing. Too. Much. Suffering. Luckily, right next to I Live Here on the new arrival shelf was Bottoms In Love, an anthology of gay comics by gay writers.
Man, that comic needed more genocide. The art was cool, but the writing was hideous. Awful. Bad. Gay. Like the books you find in the LGBTA secton of Borders. Too trite for the literature shelf. If I want to see vapid, shallow, attractive men whining about how hard it is to find another vapid, shallow, attractive man, or how hard it is to be faithful to their vapid, shallow, attractive boyfriends, I'll get a gym membership. Stay the hell out of my comic books.
Ummm...way sidetracked. What I meant to say was Penguin Lust..
So, I don't see gay people flocking to my rescue, should they vote to ban comic book stores. But being gay hasn't been banned either, just gays being married. And while I certainly support gay marriage rights (and gay divorce rights), and while I have already petitioned the IRS to remove the Church Of Latter Day Saints from their religious exemption status, since those M-holes have spent 14 million dollars influencing the government, ignoring the whole "separation of church and state" thing, which reminds me that hey, marriage is a religious institution, anyway, why is the government involved to begin with? Ahem, Penguin Lust.
I will, unfortunately, not be present at any of the rallies this Saturday. But Asterisk will be one of the speakers at the Boston rally. And, I suspect, Ben will be speaking in Northhampton. These are just two of the rallies taking place in Massachusetts. I would now like to devolve myself to toilet humor, and let you know that one of the other MA rallies is taking place at *giggle* The Old *snerk* Creamery in *snort* Cummington, MA. Thanks to Well-Dressed Steve for the heads up on that one.