QUEER EYE ON COMICS

[Khephra]

Press Release



Just how gay are comic books? That question is one that will be explored on a weekly basis in "Queer Eye on Comics," a new review feature presented by Prism Comics. At the beginning of each week the nonprofit organization, which advocates for greater inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) characters and creators in the comic book industry, will offer a new humorous review of a past or current comic book on its website, www.prismcomics.org.

"In the well-worn comics industry tradition of latching onto the end of a popular fad -- and here I'm talking about Disco Dazzler and Vibe the Puerto Rican break-dancer -- Prism thought it was high-time to apply our much-vaunted 'gay sensibility' to some of our favorite past and current comic books," said Rich Thigpen of Prism Comics.

"We'll be looking into mysteries of the past, such as the 'special friendship' between Green Lantern Hal Jordan and his male confidante, whom he affectionately called 'Pie.' And why Jimmy Olsen only wore a pretty stewardess on his arm during those brief periods when he wasn't wearing a dress and a wig." Thigpen added, "We'll also be addressing some of the trends in current comics, like the "lesbian cop" and the 'gay best friend.'"

Thigpen emphasized that although the review series will be extremely tongue-in-cheek, the source material is well respected by the reviewers. "These reviews are primarily of comics held in admiration by our Review Crew. They obviously love the stories," he said, "otherwise, instead of reading these comics the male reviewers would be spending their time helping straight guys pick up women and the female reviewers would be fixing their pickup trucks."

The "Queer Eye on Comics" Review Crew is comprised of ten geographically diverse LGBT comics fans and professionals with varied credentials:

• David Stanley, who will be editing and coordinating the weekly reviews, spent most of his formative years in Japan before settling in West Hollywood, California. After graduating from UCLA film school, David turned to theater, writing "Delos," "The Outing Game" and "AIDS! The Musical," and has most recently completed writing and directing the short film "Triad."

• Denise Sudell is the Resident Lesbian (and a staff writer) at the award-winning, woman-produced comics webzine Sequential Tart (http://www.sequentialtart.com). Denise is a particular fan of Silver Age DC Comics, bad cinema, incorrect/outsider music, and other sincerely meant cultural manifestations of utter wrongness. Although she has been named an "honorary fag," she feels it necessary to explain that her sense of style has been ruined by years of living in Washington, DC, and shopping at Talbots.

• Ed Natcher has been creating photo-manips, Silver Age comics parodies, and various other attempts at internet humor under the name "Mr. Cellophane" since 2000. Often told that he has a "radio voice," he is a volunteer reader for the Georgia Radio Reading Service in Atlanta, providing blind and print-handicapped Georgians with access to the printed word.

• Gregory Sanchez lives in Denver and is the author and publisher of the ten-volume series of LGBT super-hero fantasy novels, "Rainbow Arc of Fire." A former missile combat crew commander and English instructor for the Air Force, Greg was forced to resign from the military in 1979 because of his sexual orientation.

• Kyle Minor spent his formative years in West Virginia trying to convince his parents to convert their dining room into a comic book room lined with shelves like the one owned by Barry (The Flash) Allen. Threatening to date men didn't change their minds, but he decided he liked being gay, anyway, and now lives with his partner of nine years in San Francisco's Mission District.

• Michael Standish went to high school and college in Kentucky before settling in Atlanta, where he lives with two dogs and one boyfriend. The Legal Advisor and Secretary for Prism Comics, Mike has his own law practice and is an aficionado of Silver Age DC Comics and the "Beverly Hillbillies."

• Peter Di Maso was born and raised in Montreal, where he trained in design and art history. After a five-year stint at the National Gallery of Canada in the early 90s, Peter landed in Los Angeles, where he now works as New Media Director for a gay porn publisher. Peter is working on a self-published anthology of "counter-autobiographical" comics called "The Elegant Firefighter."

• Scott Anderson settled in Queens, New York, after living in various locales across America. Although Scott currently works as a legal assistant, his past jobs have included freelance editing for several science fiction/fantasy authors and assembling sparkly fairy wands.

• Susannah Mandel was born in California but settled near Boston, where she earned a degree in English literature. She recently received a Masters degree in Comparative Media Studies from MIT after writing her thesis on gay representation in superhero comics. Susannah loves top hats, pinstripes, and good New Zealand apples, and wants to spread the word about the critical delights of genre fiction.

• Terrance Griep, Jr. is a writer on "Scooby-Doo," published by DC Comics. Based in Minneapolis, he is also very involved with the queer press, having written for "The Advocate," "Lavender," "QMinnesota," "Queue Press," "Seattle Gay News," and "Out." Speaking of "Out," he is featured in the February issue as his alter ego, wrestling bad boy Tommy "The SpiderBaby" Saturday.

"'Queer Eye on Comics' will begin appearing on the features section of the Prism Comics website on February 22nd," said Charles "zan" Christensen, president of Prism Comics. "February 21st and 22nd are the dates of the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco, where Prism will be one of the exhibitors, so we decided APE Weekend was a perfect time to launch our slightly skewed reviews of mainstream comics."

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