A Personal History of a Queer Cartoonist and Self Publisher

(i.e. Me)

(Read Part 7 here)

One of the lessons I’ve learned throughout all this cartooning business is that the best things come about when you put aside the self-doubts, ignore the naysayers and Doubting Thomases and simply follow your bliss. In early 1994 the notion of publishing a little anthology of alt gay boy comics felt right to me. I didn’t like feeling isolated from the queer male cartoonists who I just knew were out there somewhere, and I’d really taken to heart how my dyke cartoonist peers had organized and banded together for support and community (and the artistic thrills, don’t forget).  Meanwhile, there was a definite faction in the queer underground publishing world who, disgusted with the divisions and separatism between queer men and women, advocated strongly for co-sexual publications. I am totally down with boys and girls working in solidarity, but I also know that there are times when boys need to band together with just boys and girls with just girls. Thus I ignored the few people who’d cautioned me about being “separatist” and forged on. Boy Trouble - the title manifested itself almost immediately - was my particular bliss and that was that.

What I had in hand to start was a few pages that had come out of the blue from Michael Fahy, a twentysomething boy from Philly. 

Fahy was clearly a tremendously talented artist and cartoonist and I made him the centerpiece of this project – apropos as he was in fact the catalyst for Boy Trouble in the first place.  Michael has a BFA in printmaking and it really shows in his work, which exhibits a smooth, confident elegance that still feels spontaneous and instinctual.  He is also quite versatile and has demonstrated his skills in a wide range of mediums from ink to oils to scratchboard and beyond.  I peppered Fahy’s contributions throughout BT #1 from the first page all the way to the inside back cover; other than his two-page “Mikey’s Tips for Beginning Queer Boys” they consisted of snarkily humorous one-pagers like "Four Fun Words Some Ex-Boyfriends Have Used to Describe Me" and "Uncle Mikey's Snappy Answers to Stupid Pick Up Lines."  Fahy would remain one of the major draws of Boy Trouble throughout its run and remains one of my very favorite cartoonists to this day. 

Meanwhile there was another boy – literally a boy, a mere 17 years old - who’d written to me all the way from bonny old England:  Sina Shamsavari, who signed his work simply “Sina.”  Sina’s work had an honesty, humor and lively energy that smoothed over any rough spots in execution (he was after all, just 17 and still developing).  He started out doing the zine Concerned Müthers with his sister Sara but soon launched the mostly solo comic book Boy Crazy Boy.  One of my single favorite comics of the whole early-90’s queer zine era was "Sunday 31st October - c. 5pm," his charming, funny and ultimately rather moving slice of life encounter with a handsome acquaintance on whom he had a mad crush.  This was one of those rare instances where I felt it was okay to use a reprint as the story was special to me and fit perfectly with my vision of presenting comics of a very personal nature in Boy Trouble - I figured that the majority of my stateside readers wouldn’t have seen it anyway.  Sina, like Fahy, would become a regular BT contributor and remains a close pal and confidant of mine in the cartooning scene.

Naturally, Nick Leonard was aboard in BT as well, with a funny, acerbic little Family Circus parody called “Billy Goes to Hell.” Christian Schroeder drew another of his scratchy, raw yet poetic comics, “Hot Wired Head,” which detailed in 3 short pages a painful upbringing of coiled familial violence and emotional disconnect.  Meanwhile, I drew one last piece of whimsy from zinester/writer Jeffery Kennedy, "I Dreamt Madonna Was My Best Friend," and, as our last collaboration had worked so well, another short piece of Orland Outland’s called “Conversation.” This time, however, our teaming didn’t quite come off. I made the mistake of many a cartoonist in adapting a written work: rather than fleshing out and supporting out the text with visuals, I’d simply illustrated it, and as Orland opined, I brought nothing new to the table. Hopefully, I have learned my lesson since then.  The other piece I did for the issue was more successful: a three page pantomime (i.e. no text) strip, “The More You Ignore Me the Closer I Get.” (BTW, what was with all the long-ass story titles in this issue? I just now noticed this.)  “Ignore Me” concerned a seemingly regular guy obsessed with a handsome acquaintance, and things went from bad to worse to quite strange.  This was my first attempt at pantomime and I think it turned out well. It is very hard to do purely visual comics – I’d never noticed before how often word balloons can mask those difficult-to-draw areas! 

Next: Along came the Boy from Seattle

top image(c) 1993 by Sina Shamsavari; middle image (c) 1993 by Michael Fahy; bottom image (c) 1994 by Robert Kirby