LGBT Illustrators: Howard Cruse
I first came across the work of illustrator Howard Cruse in the magazine Gay Comix, an American import that I acquired at Gay’s the Word bookshop in London. It was his single-cell cartoon Committing A Crime Against Nature (below) that first caught my attention. It epitomized the notion of ‘a picture painting a thousand words’, demolishing the tired old ‘crime against nature’ cliche with a few strokes of the pen.
And then I read the strip he did on AIDS – Safe Sex – and found it positively cathartic. Published in November 1983 it captured the moment perfectly: the hysteria, the fear and the denial within our communities, the hypocrisy of religious and political leaders, the media sensationalism… Once again, it communicated so much that needed to be said, at a time when most of us were still struggling to say it. And Cruse himself acknowledged some of the difficulties in discussing it – particularly the sensitivities. The first cell is a cartoon of the cartoonist himself, anxiously chewing a knuckle as he thinks “Not funny, Not funny, NOT FUNNY…”
In the same issue that Safe Sex appeared, Cruse also announced that he was stepping down from the Gay Comix Editor position. But he also declared, “You haven’t see the last of me though.”
Indeed his profile was very much on the rise. Not only did he continue to contribute to Gay Comix he also produced material for New York’s Village Voice. This work in turn led to an offer from the Advocate magazine, for whom he created the gay character Wendel.
Originally positioned in the Advocate‘s ‘pink pages’ (the sex ad section) Wendel soon managed to find his way into the mainstream ‘white pages’. And it was there that he illustrated the realities of gay life during the 80s. As Cruse put it during a 2011 interview:
“…America was much more overtly hostile to gay people…not to mention that there was an epidemic going on when people who were 21, 22 were walking around looking like skeletons because of the ravages of AIDS.”
Once again Cruse managed to find the humorous elements of gay life without losing sight of the serious – and often darker – side. Still working today, he obviously recognizes that contemporary gay life is very different – and a lot better – than the 80s. But he also acknowledges that it wasn’t all darkness back in the day:
” It was a very different time to the scene now. Also a very bracing time because there was a great sense of community because basically we were embattled.
Gay people had to put aside differences within the sub-culture and fight homophobia and AIDS overtly and consequently the morale within the community was as good as it can be when people were dying.
I was very proud of my community during that period; I feel like we rose to the occasion in a really creative way.”
You can watch the first part of this online interview below:
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