The Cartoon Closet

The end result is that comic strips seem to be drawn so as to not offend the most conservative readers and newspaper editors in the nation’s most conservative communities.

Not so, says Universal Press Syndicate’s Lee Salem, who, in addition to For Better or For Worse, oversees Doonesbury. He says he would be open to gay comic strip characters, going so far as to say, “If controversial strips have taught us anything, it’s that circulations grow, that they increase with controversy.”

For Better or For Worse © 1993 Lynn Johnston Prod.
Used by permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All rights reserved.

But then he proceeds to list all the reasons why gay characters wouldn’t fit into most strips. Doonesbury and For Better or For Worse, for example, are “set in a time that’s now. In other strips, it’s vaguer, less characters that live in the real world.”

Why couldn’t gay characters exist in a world with more fantasy elements? When pressed, Salem admits they could. But then he’s quick to point to the reluctant newspaper editors he has to consider — the folks who buy the strip from the syndicates on a daily or weekly basis, and who can drop it at any time.

“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 Future of the Cartoon Closet?

The good news is that Lawrence will be returning for a final appearance on For Better Or For Worse, before Johnston goes into partial retirement on September 29^th, turning the strip into a “hybrid” of new strips and reworked older ones. “Lawrence has to do the flowers” for Elizabeth’s wedding, Johnston says, noting that he and his partner Nick run a landscaping business.

Meanwhile, McEldowney considers his gay characters an integral part of 9 Chickweed Lane. An upcoming strip has Seth, one of the gay characters, inquiring to the uncle of one of the comic’s main characters, “How long have you known you’re gay?” When this provokes a furious response from the uncle, Seth says, “I guess you haven’t known very long.”

According to McEldowney, “If they ever said don’t bring [the gay characters] up anymore, I’d say, ‘Well, let’s just call it quits.’ I’m not interested in being censored just because one person might complain.”

© Brooke McEldowney, Distributed by UFS, Inc.

But as progressive (and funny) as 9 Chickweed Lane is, it only appears in about 60 newspapers, almost entirely urban or suburban markets.

The really bad news is that we shouldn’t be expecting any new gay characters on the comics pages any time soon. The syndicates say they get few, if any, submissions with gay characters – probably in part because the industry has seemed so timid and non-receptive.

Meanwhile, the syndicates have apparently made little attempt to seek such strips out, either from alternative or college newspapers—often a breeding group for new strips—or from webcomic artists.

This is in sharp contrast to the industry’s efforts to bring racial and gender diversity to the comics pages. In discussing The Boondocks in a 2007 interview, Salem acknowledged, “For a long time we had been looking for a strip by an African-American cartoonist.” Back in the 1970s, Cathy’s Cathy Guisewite and even For Better Or For Worse’s Johnston were similarly encouraged by their syndicates to put together strips from a female perspective.

But that isn’t happening for gay artists or gay-related comics.

In other words, the cartoon closet won’t be opening any wider anytime soon.

AfterElton.com is currently writing an article on gay-related webcomics. Email the author with your favorite webcomic.