JAPAN’S CULTURE IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER COUNTRIES, SO I’M WORRIED ABOUT HOW WELL THE STORY COMES ACROSS. ALTHOUGH PEOPLE ARE GROWING MORE UNDERSTANDING, EVEN NOW THERE’S STILL CONSIDERABLE DISCRIMINATION AND PREJUDICE, SO JUST COMING OUT TO YOUR PARENTS OR YOUR FRIENDS TAKES QUITE A BIT OF COURAGE.
ACTUALLY, WHEN I WAS IN SCHOOL, EVEN I ACTED LIKE I WAS STRAIGHT, TELLING LIES TO EVERYONE ABOUT WHAT GIRLS I LIKED. BECAUSE OF THIS, WHEN FRIENDS CAME OUT OR CONFESSED THEIR FEELINGS TO ME, I COULDN’T LET MY REAL SELF OUT, AND JUST LIKE YUUDAI, REGRETFULLY, I HURT THEM. BECAUSE THESE REAL EXPERIENCES FORMED THE BASIS OF THIS STORY, MORE THAN MY OTHER WORKS, I THOUGHT MAYBE I SHOULD LET A BIT OF REAL LIFE INTO THIS ONE. ANYWAY, THESE DAYS I’VE COME OUT TO MY PARENTS AND FRIENDS AND, WITH NOTHING TO HIDE, I HAVE A GOOD LIFE AS MY REAL SELF.
After three successful Kickstarters and three amazing issues of the world's first comic about gay Mormon superheroes, Brian Andersen and artist James Neish are back with a new Kickstarter campaign for the Stripling Warrior Vol. 1: The Law of Adoption Anthology. In case you missed our earlier article about Stripling Warrior, you can check it out here.
Vol 1 includes all three of the first comics, plus two brand new issues. First up is a 50 page Stripling Warrior Annual featuring heroes Sam & Fe and their respective spouses joining forces to battle the famed Book of Mormon hero Ammon and his pet Quetzalcoatl! The Annual Issue is filled with
action, romance, and more! It wraps up the first three issues and
introduces new, exciting themes for future potential stories. There is also a special super sexy, 8 page mini issue featuring Sam and Jase's early
days in their relationship as they explore sex as out gay men."I grew up in an era when being gay was the worst possible thing a young boy could be. I was told I was broken. That I was sick. That homosexuality was a defect, a curse. That my gayness was the worst possible sin next to murder. I'd been called insulting, derogatory names my entire life, both in person, via the media, by my political leaders. And most hurtfully still by my faith.
As a youth it was rare for me to see any homosexuals depicted in the media. The few times any gay person made it on screen, or in a comic book, they were only allured to being queer. That or they were the villain, the sassy best friend, the sexless joke, anything other than equal to their straight counterparts.
Today, my own church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints, has labeled my family and I apostates. The Mormon Leaders have decreed my innocent daughter is no longer welcome simply because she has two dads.
Rhetoric like this is damning. It is one reason finally embracing my true self, accepting my inherent, ingrained queerness, was a struggle I nearly didn't survive. Yet once I was able to grapple with and shake off my shame, as I finally began to date and explore my homosexuality at twenty-sex years old, I was shocked to learn that shame was also deeply rooted within my queer community.
There still is so much shame in the gay community: bottom shame, slut shame, body shame, femme shame. It's a hold over from our culture that we, as a group, need to free ourselves from. STRIPLING WARRIOR stands as my response to this cultural, communal and religious shame meant to keep us subjugated and fearful."
Brumo Gmunder, the publishing house that first brought Mentaiko Itto's wonderful, sex filled gay manga to the US with an English translation, is teaming up with the master again and releasing large scale format poster book! The poster book will include 14 Large and 15 XL posters as well as 11 book sized sheets of naughty splendor.
The support from the NFVF (National Film & Video Foundation) for Squeers will make it the first animated television show of its kind to deal with adult topics pertaining to what it actually means to be a part of the LGBTI community and how as humans we share similar struggles and dreams.
In this character led comedy, our two gay squirrels live in the tree-tops of the City Gardens. Their life is inspired by the pink lifestyle in Cape Town, South Africa, but the Squeers reflects the contemporary macrocosm of human life across the globe. Within the city park, our furry characters experience relatable struggles and issues, with extremely human problems, like love, diets, going green, figuring out what’s real and what’s not, the work place and where to bury their nuts for the night, all while trying to reduce their carbon footprint!
Squeers has a role to play to normalise sexual diversity, breaking stereotypes and through satire, we hope to humanize shared issues and open dialogues around basic human rights and equality. There is an opportunity, not only for poking fun at perceptions and societal norms and beliefs but through comedy and these anthropomorphised squirrel’s everyday lives; we are able to explore the "tree of life".Squeers creator Roberto Millan adds, "Cartoons push boundaries, confronting relevant social topics in interesting, entertaining and often funny ways, Squeers was my way of making fun of what I observed in the community, a reaction to gay issues in and around South Africa."
I’ve always been a fan of science fiction and fantasy, but I never felt like the gay community was well represented in that genre.
For a large part of my life I felt very abnormal. I came of age during the 90s, and that was the starting point of Hollywood acknowledging and really starting to show more gay characters. I remember watching the original Ellen show, and her coming out episode and crying. For the first time I saw someone on TV coming out. That was huge for me. It made me feel less alone. It gave me a real person to look at as a role model.
Role models help you define your likes and dislikes, they give comfort and allow you to acknowledge that you’re normal. It’s that moment of connection when you see another person and realize, “I do that too!”, “That’s how I feel!”, or “I’m glad I’m not the only one like that.”
I created this huge universe with an expansive backstory because I wanted to see myself represented fully in a science fiction series. Not as a side character, but as the main character. I wanted my characters to be gay, but also be superheroes. I wanted my characters to tell an authentic story about what it’s like to be gay, but not be tragic because they’re gay. If I wanted to see gay characters in a science fiction graphic novel, then I had to make that a reality.
For such a long time, I was looking for someone to save me. To tell me I was all right. But the truth is, there is no white knight. I realized, instead of waiting for someone to tell me I was all right, I had to tell myself that. I had to be my own hero.To get a better feel for the compelling Indigo Dax storyline and illustration style, take a look at the video below! Also, check out the video preview of the Facebook game.
You can’t change the world, without first specifically defining what’s wrong with it. Once you’ve defined what you want to change, you can envision a better world. That’s why I created the Indigo Dax series. It is my vision of a better world.
