While I�m an avid reader of old romance comics, I can�t claim to be any sort of expert. Even still, I�ve noticed a few things which make Heart Throbs #132 (DC Comics, July 1972) stand out with homo subtext. Typically, the covers of romance comics depict a woman in turmoil�usually in tears. Often it is her lover, or ex-lover saying something upsetting, or sometimes he�s with another gal. Another common theme is the heroine is under verbal attack from another gal who�s trying to move in on the man. Once in a while the heroine is posed with a difficult decision, between two suitors�often so different that the choice is clear: the lazy bum or the nice boy next door? What�s a girl to do? That brings us to the cover to Heart Throbs #132. The first thing you�ll note is that there is an unprecedented THREE men on the cover. You know right off this is out of the ordinary, because the heroine never has so many choices, and I�ve yet to see any bi-threesomes depicted in  [Continue reading...]

Thunder. It's like tearing. It's ending and beginning. It's sound and light. And "Thunder" is also the title of the fifth chapter of an epic storyline which, in 1987, infamously rumbled its way through three different Spider-Man comicbooks. For those of you who, like Ye Reviewer, were too busy playing Dungeons and Spazzes or tearing the stickers off of your Rubik's Cube to notice, "Fearful Symmetry: Kraven's Last Hunt" was, and remains, an innovative, unflinching examination of a supervillain's footsore soul: Kraven the Hunter, one of Spidey's oldest and most implacable foes, seeks malevolent redemption from the dittoed dishonor of his repeated defeats at the sticky-fingered hands of our friendly neighborhood schlimazel. To this laudable end, Kraven drugs, buries, and replaces Spider-Man for two weeks--or, as our cool-headed hero would recount, "TWO! WEEKS!"--proving himself Spider-Man's superior...when held to supervillain standards, anyway. How? Well, by mugging  [Continue reading...]

[Originally presented 8/1/04 on Sequential Tart]  Prism Comics traces it origins to Out In Comics, a who's who guide about out comics creators published by Andy Mangels back in 1999. It was enthusiastically received and a group of volunteers added their efforts to make sure that another issue came out in 2000. The same group (plus a few more volunteers) made sure that 2001 and 2002's editions were even bigger and better. In 2002 the "Out In Comics crew" decided to officially incorporate as Prism Comics, a 503(c) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the work of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) creators. Recently I had a chance to speak with Rich Thigpen, a member of the Prism advisory board and pick his brain about issues related to the industry in general and Prism's contributions to it. Sequential Tart: What drew you to comics? Rich Thigpen: I grew up in a small town in Northwest Alabama and didn't have many friends as a kid, so comics  [Continue reading...]

This story made me gay! Well, not really. But it was while reading it as a kid that I first experienced �gay feelings�, although I didn�t know that�s what they were at the time. I was nine years old. (I�ve always been a late bloomer.) We�ll get to the two panels that caused my nascent homosexual reaction in due time. Looking at the tale today, however, I see several other things in it that are also �family� friendly, so I�ll go through the story from the beginning. The fun starts in the hideout of that fashion trendsetter, The Joker. Years ahead of its time, Mr. J�s purple and green outfit would fit right in at any fashionable queer gathering today. Is The Joker gay? Well, throughout this tale he does smoke cigarettes using a long, effeminate looking holder. (Maybe he borrowed it from The Penguin, another dapper dandy who surrounded himself with rough �street trade� types as his henchmen.) Relaxing in opulent splendor in a room decorated with multiple portraits  [Continue reading...]

It�s not every comic book archive collection that would have the balls to put two cross-dressers on the cover, but if there is one thing The Essential Ant-Man is not is not lacking in, it�s balls. Rarely does a comic have as much gay sexual innuendo without having to be ordered from Amsterdam via a tacky popup ad. If you�ve read my last review on Ant-Man, you already know he�s a cross-dresser, but on this cover, the mustachioed daddy in the hobnail-boots is really Madam X, a woman in drag! OK, she�s lacking in balls, but not the book. If you are anything like me, when you heard there was going to be a book with the words "Essential Ant-Man " in the title, you thought it was some sort of oxymoronic joke like �jumbo shrimp� or �President Bush� or maybe that a book that compiled all the essential Ant-Man stories would actually be ant-sized. As it turns out, The Essential Ant-Man is a man-sized compendium even if Marvel Comics had to cheat a bit to make it so. The book  [Continue reading...]

Editor's Note: In an effort to class-up our low-brow act, we've brought in a sophisticated effort in the style of the "Harper's Index". This comic book just plain sucks. But hey--anyone can say that, right? To challenge myself... well, as they say, let's do the numbers. MINOR'S INDEX* of Heroes Reborn: Avengers #1 Year in which Marvel Comics decided to give control of their top four flagship titles to hot-selling creators from the flailing Image Comics, naming the project "Heroes Reborn": 1996 Number of issues that Heroes Reborn: Avengers (aka Avengers, Volume 2) lasted: 13 Number of issues after which hot young artist and plotter Rob Liefeld was ousted from the project: 6 Approximate number of characters depicted in this issue: 24 Number of those characters with cheekbones you could easily  [Continue reading...]

The aim of this article is not, as the title might lead you to believe, to kill a legend, but instead to tell a story of pubescent lust channeled into comic book dreams. At the age of thirteen, I was a few years away from making that first petrifying purchase of Mandate magazine at a downtown Montreal newsstand. In fact, I was a year away from looking up the word "Homosexual" in the 1973 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. But my body knew what it wanted and occasionally sought it out in those harmless colorful pamphlets called comic books. I'm neither proud nor ashamed of this fact. It simply is, and I'm sure it is not an experience peculiar to me. I know I owned a copy of Detective Comics #500, but I can't remember how I managed to afford it, or for that matter, sneak it into the house (comics were anathema in my household and I probably would had endured less trauma getting caught with a copy of Playboy). Money was a commodity not easily at my  [Continue reading...]

Although #58, this issue marked the return of All-Star Comics to the stands after a 24-year absence. With new and revamped characters and an emphasis on contemporary issues, we quickly saw this wasn't our grandpa's Justice Society of America (the original super-hero team who inspired the later Justice LEAGUE). Unfortunately, the guys were still wearing pretty much the same crappy costumes they had in the 1940s. Our story begins on "Earth Two: it's a world much like our own, though slightly-different" in the meeting place of a bunch of old white men in gaudy clothing. Yes, it's the 1976 Kiwanis Club of Gotham City. Actually, it's the JSA, and they're concerned that the world's going to end in 24 hours. Why do they think that? Because they received, as Dr. Mid-Nite says, "a communication directly to our private computer." Something tells me that the JSA also believes the "communications" it receives about  [Continue reading...]