Are newspapers ready for gay comic characters?
Skip to commentsAfterElton.com, a blog providing news and commentary on gay men in entertainment, has a three page write-up on the topic of gay characters on the comic page starting with Lynn Johnston’s 1993 For Better or For Worse story-line about the Lawrence character coming out of the closet up to a recent subtle reference to a gay fireman in Greg Evan’s Luann strip in March of this year. The article’s author interviewed the above mentioned Lynn and Greg along with Brooke McEldowney of 9 Chickweed Lane, Universal Press Syndicate president Lee Salem and Washington Post Writers Group Comics Editor Amy Lago and Seattle Post-Intelligencer Assistant Managing Editor, Janet Grimley, for their take on the issue of homosexual characters in American newspapers.
“It’s a conservative business,” Salem says. “At this time, we may not be able to sell [a ‘gay’ strip]. I can’t say you can read on the comics page what you see on television. It’s a different art form, a more conservative medium.”
Salem says that gay characters and storylines have Universal Press Syndicate’s full support – but the reality seems to be that only applies when they’re coming from established, lucrative cartoonists like Gary Trudeau and Lynn Johnston, who they’d be absolutely crazy to alienate.
Meanwhile, over at the Washington Post Writers Group, Lago admits, “When I get a strip [for consideration], one of the first things I look at is why might a [daily newspaper] editor turn this down.” A gay character would be a red flag, she says, though, “I wouldn’t reject it out of hand. But would it be funny enough to carry in enough newspapers [to make it financially viable]?”
It’s not the sort of talk that lends itself to creative risk-taking on the part of cartoonists. On the contrary, it’s a subtle form of censorship. And cartoonists are getting the message loud and clear.
“And so the conservatism goes on,” says Luann’s Greg Evans. “For Better Or For Worse is a huge strip with tremendous popularity and power. Most of us tenuously hang onto our meager client list, ever fearful of drops. This tends to drive the boldness from our writing. I hate to admit it, but in the end it simply comes down to paying the bills.”
The end of the story has spoilers regarding upcoming story-lines in For Better or For Worse and 9 Chickweed Lane.
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