Stripling Warrior: The World's First Gay Mormon Superhero Kickstarter

Illustrator Brian Andersen is a life-long geek who's created comics ever since he was a young, skinny, four-eyed goober in middle school. He's also an out, gay Mormon. He joined the Mormon Church at 18, went on a mission at 19, attended Brigham Young University at 26 and came out and accepted his gayness at 27. He's married, to a fellow Mormon, and they have a lovely one-year-old daughter.

Brian's created and written a popular line of queer indie comics since 2007, with over six titles and counting under his So Super Duper Comics banner. He's been on numerous LGBT panels at Comic Con and delights that he is a part of the queer, underground comics world.

He has put up an already successful Kickstarter campaign for his latest title Stripling Warrior. Here's the official synopsis:

Stripling Warrior stars Sam Shepard, a happily out and newly married gay man who is visited by an Angel from Heaven on his wedding night. The Angel Abish - a rare female named character from the Book of Mormon - calls Sam to become the Hand of God on Earth, tasked with smiting those in need of smiting.

Why was he chosen? How does his homosexuality impact his role as a servant of the divine? And how does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints react when they hear of a homosexual man on a mission from the heavens? (*hint* Not great.)

Stripling Warrior will explore all of this. The comic is a sexy story without being XXX-Sexy (not that there is anything wrong with XXX Gay Comics). This book isn't just about a gay superhero who's gay in name only. Sam’s romantic life will be prominently featured along with plenty of fisticuffs, humor, an exploration into the mythology of the LDS Church, and of course, heroic banter and super villains.

Sounds good to me! Watch the Kickstarter video below! And be sure to check out all the awesome preview art! And, if you have a few extra dollars, consider donating. Anderson is offering some great perks!

I'd Prefer to Keep A Mystery: The Incredible Art of Rum-Locker!

I am totally infatuated with the work of freelance artist and character illustrator Rum-Locker. Though his abilities are highly in demand, very little is known about the artist himself, and for good reason. When we reached out to him, Rum-Locker explained,  "I am living in a country that is not really LGBT friendly and also I am still in the closet because I lived in conservative family. But I guess I am ok as long as I don't have to share my own picture, hahaha. I do hope you know my feeling about this?"

So, here's what we do know. Rum-Locker is a genre-crossing, self-taught artist who began seriously practicing his craft in 2010. He currently lives in Asia, "exactly where I'd prefer to keep a mystery for now." According to his Twitter description, he is an insect enthusiast and "hella gay." When I asked who his influences are, he responded, "Ah, my art pretty much inspired and influenced by J.C Leyendecker, Yoshinari Kou and Yoshitaka Amano. Some of my favorite artists are Nickie Charles, Butch McLogic, and also Marcus, and many more!! (oh and please correct my grammar as well, since my English is not that good)." I wouldn't dare!

Currently, Rum-Locker is working as a character designer for an indie game project called Sanctum Polis and doing some work for The Young Protector's Alex Woolfson! Since Rum-Locker can't divulge too much info about himself, we decided to ask Alex Woolfson for a short statement, and he couldn't say enough nice things:

"I had seen Rum-Locker's work on Tumblr, really liked what I saw, and a short time ago I reached out to him to see if he was available to work on some of my The Young Protectors' Kickstarter pin-up prints. Well, my printer has very specific requirements for the kinds of files they need and it turned out that he wouldn't be able to work with my printer's specs at this time—so Kickstarter was out—but I liked his work so much, I asked him if I could hire him to create something purely digital for my Patrons. Something really special.  

Well, as it turns out, he was already a HUGE fan of The Annihilator (the supervillain from my comic, The Young Protectors) and so I was able to commission him to do a fully-nude, full body, Full Monty pin-up of my sexy super-villain. 

And man, did he ever knock it out of the park! Such incredible detail—those beautiful eyes, the perfect expression, amazing skin and physique, down to hundreds of individual hairs. Even though it borders on photo-realistic, it still is 100% the character from my comic. The most consistent comment I've gotten from my Patrons (once they get their jaw off the floor) is "Now I totally understand why Kyle fell for him!"  He completely brought The Annihilator to life. I was over the moon with every revision he sent me while we worked together. 

And on top of it all, he's a total pro. Everything was delivered on time. The few notes I had were immediately addressed. He was an absolute pleasure to work with and I'm really glad to have him as part of our team. I can't wait to see what he does with our hero, Kyle."

If you would like to explore more of Rum-Locker on your own, we suggest his NSFW Tumblr, Twitter, and his totally SFW ArtStation page! Otherwise, enjoy the art below!

This Gay Life: A Coming of Age Webcomic Series by Mark C. Lindsey

This Gay Life is a wonderful webcomic series by artist/illustrator Mark C. Lindsey about coming of age in the 80s. It is filled with illustrated tales of art school, clubbing, dating, and being a dirt poor student learning how to exist in this crazy world. Even better, it is infused with a New Wave/early Indie Rock sound track that totally sets the mood and tone for each episode. By this I mean, some episodes of the webcomic comes with an MP3 player featuring a companion song that is meant to be played as you begin reading. Sometimes, he offers a complete 80s mix tape. It really kinda makes everything even more fun! Mark has also started doing some basic animation versions of the webcomic, too.

Mark

Mark C. Lindsey is an artist and writer currently living in New York City. He is the illustrator of the children's book "Away and Back"(2011, Mark Lindsey and Diane Welker) and the author and illustrator of "Faces New York - A Series of Drawings from the Subways"(2012). According to Mark's own description, This Gay Life is a "comic book about some of the formative experiences of my younger self, is a work of fiction. All of the characters here have been created, combined, extrapolated, reversed or invented. Any character outside of myself bearing a resemblance to anyone living or dead is coincidental."

Like most artists, Mark tends to give limited information on himself. When we asked for a little bit of info on the inspiration behind This Gay Life, here's what he told us, "This Gay Life is a coming of age comic.  It will be in print,  but I love the digital aspect, that it lives on the web, and that I am starting to use animation more. Season 3 is nearly up, and there will be a 4th."

If you would like to learn more about Mark, we suggest his websites ThisGayLife and markclindsey.com, his vlog This Week In The Culture, and #facesnewyork.

**CLICK THE PIC TO GO TO THE EPISODE!**

From the Void: The Illustrations of Arkahno13

It's almost impossible to classify the demonic tinged creations of gay Mexican artist/illustrator Arkahno13. It's part romantic horror, part witchcraft/demonology, part Dungeons & Dragons, part Tom of Finland (minus the oversized manhood). It's fairly unique. Even Arkahno himself has a hard time giving it a genre. When I asked him what he would classify it as, he responded, "I never though about that, I don't know if there is such a thing, I guess some place between bara and dark illustration." Whatever you wanna call it, it's pretty great.

Aside from Arkahno's illustrations, there is not much information about him on the internet. So, I asked him for a little bit of background:

I'm 31 years old at this moment, I live in Guadalajara Jalisco, is a city in Mexico, you may say I'm not the typical gay guy, I love rock-industrial music, symbolisms, I'm also a bone collector, sometimes tattoo artist and sometimes musician. I started drawing when I was a child, during my adolescence I was into comics and manga so I drawed stuff like that just for fun, I started to put my love for men anatomy, dark ambients and some ideas in my drawings latter, and that become slowly in what I do now.

Since his imagery puts us in the mood for horror, my film loving coworker wanted to know what Arkahno's favorite scary movies were. "I love "The Eye" (Japanese version) and The Woman in Black. Ghosts are creepy in those ones." When asked what artists he follows, he replied with a surprisingly diverse list, "Zoe Lacchei, Nickie Charles, Chiara Bautista, Nick Kushner, Stuntkid, Gottfried Helnwein are my favourites in this moment."

If you would like to explore the world of Arkahno13 on your own, we suggest his Tumblr, DeviantArt, and Facebook pages! 

Boys Will Be Boys: An Interview w/ Joe Phillips

Joe Phillips is one of the most impressive people I have ever had the pleasure to interview. His career has taken him places most artists/illustrators could only dream of. He has worked with DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW, Image, Wild Storm, Now, Prism, Wizards of the Coast , Fleer, Upper Deck, Xodus USA, Justus Boyz, and Jocko, just to name a few. He has worked on big name comics such as Speed Racer, Justice League of America, X-Men, Mister Miracle, The Incredible Hulk, Silver Surfer, Legion of Super Heroes, Captain America, Superboy, and more. And, let's not forget his original comic The Heretic. And his long running JoeBoys series in which he beautifully illustrates gay life and relationships.

Joe is also the creator of a wonderful series of animated shorts turned award winning DVD The House of Morecock: The Animated Misadventures of Jonas Morecock. The stories involve a supernatural investigator who always seems to wind up in compromising situations with vampires, werewolves, and other creatures. It's hilariously funny and pretty darn sexy, too. There was a sequel and a whole graphic novel series called Tales From the House of Morecock. 

It would be impossible to list all of the amazing work that Joe Phillips has been involved with since his start in the 80s. Despite his success, he is still driven to create non-stop and is one of the most prolific artists. Right now he has a new JoeBoys anthology book coming out via Bruno Gmunder, a 2015 Boys Will Be Boys calendar to promote,  he is participating in tons of art shows and going to lots of conventions, all despite recently losing part of his right leg in an accident. The man is unstoppable. 

Frankly, we are shocked he had the time to even do an interview. But, we are very thankful he found a few moments to talk to us. If you would like to explore more of Joe Phillips on your own, we suggest his Website, Twitter, JoeBoys site, Wikipedia, and this really insightful self written bio on the Prism Comics page.

Q: Ok, first things first...How is the world did you pull off such an amazing Dr. Zaius costume at Bent Con last week?
Joe: I went to a performing arts school and was a theater major. I have always been into dress up and making costumes is a passion.

Q:  On your twitter feed I noticed a sculpture of a very large octopus sitting in a cookie sheet on top of your oven. It was awesome, but there was absolutely no context given. Care to elaborate?
Joe: I'm also an avid sculptor and I do steam-punk. The Octopus was a lamp base and I was making it for a steam punk convention where I sell stuff as The Brass Menagerie.

Q:  What was your very first professional gig as an illustrator?
Joe: I did comics for a local gay weekly back in Atlanta back in the 90's then I started doing comics for a comic called EX-Mutants and then for the Southern Knights. My first big break was drawing SpeedRacer and  Interview with a Vampire.

Q:  My pal Steve is huge fan of yours and had a question! Which medium do you feel you have the most fun working in? IE: comic art, illustration, painting, animation. And which allows you really explore your creativity the most?
Joe: All of the above. I'm no one trick pony. I have to do everything. I guess film making would be the most as it has everything in it.

Q: I really love the award winning animated video you made for Matt Fishel's "When Boy Meets Boy." Though. now I am concerned that my crotch doesn't sparkle and shoot stars. Should I go to the doctor? And, is it wrong that I was more than slightly turned on by the thugs in the video?
Joe: They were fun to do. The stars were for censoring and just fun. If you are with the right guy I'm sure your crotch will shoot stars.


Q: On your Prism Comics bio you state that you almost became a stand up comedian but got sidetracked. Have you ever seriously considered giving comedy another shot?
Joe: I'm old school corny. I think my brand of humor was for a different generation of kids. I think I'll just add humor into my art and movies.

Q: What was your inspiration behind doing an entire Rule 63 superhero series? Do you have a favorite creation?
Joe: I just wanted to come up with something fun and sexy that folks weren't expecting from me. I love the Gotham Trio the best: CatBoy, Harvey Quinn, and Poison Oak

Q: What artists/illustrators do you currently follow?
Joe: Stuart Immonen and Olivier Coipel

Q:  You have been in the various facets of the comic industry since the late 80s. How have attitudes towards LGBT characters changed over the decades?
Joe: It's hard to say. As a whole, I would say good. There are many GLBT artist out there and many kinds of books. For the most part mainstream comics doesn't really care one way or another, as most of the talent is freelance there isn't any office politics to contend with.

Q: Would you humor us and draw Batman with your eyes closed?

**Click any pic to enlarge.