Sunday 24 January 2010

375: Gary Hallgren - Tom Comes Out




"Tom Comes Out" by Gary Hallgren - "Comix Book" #5, July 76

Tom’s a farly pathetic and unsympathetic character but then why should everyone have to be. As far as the gay character goes, the leather jacket and bandana look bears some relation to reality, and as always there’s the lisping, pursed lips and fluttery eyes. Actually on average I would have to say that there are more lisping stereotypes in the underground commix than pretty much anywhere else. So not a success on that front. Then the rest of the strip is a series of failed heterosexual attempts, constantly reinforced with gay slurs on his masculinity, mistakenly leading to the horrified punchline that Tom to think he’s gay. Although at least, unlike in the original film of MASH, that’s not cause for suicide.

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