Gay comic artist 80s

A new PBS documentary shines a light on the trailblazing LGBTQ artists making underground comics and strips in the s and the ’80s. Alison Bechdel said she started making comics.

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.

We reflect on seven LGBTQIA+ artists working across the s and ’90s whose pioneering work paved the way for emerging queer artists today.

From Alison Bechdel to Howard Cruse, meet queer comic book artists who journeyed from the underground comix scene to mainstream acceptance.