Comics haven’t been just for kids since the mid-’80s, when writers like Frank Miller and Alan Moore came on to the scene with material that was meant for a mature audience, proving there was a market for adult fare and changing the face of the comic book industry in the process.
Prism Comics is a non-profit organization that points out that comics aren’t just for straight guys, nor are they written and drawn just by straight guys, even though the vast majority of characters in mainstream comics are still strictly heterosexual. And the way they see it, there’s a market for diversity, not to mention a need.
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| The cover of this year's Prism Comics: Your LBGT Guide to Comics features gay superheroes getting married |
Prism spreads the word about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) comics through the annual Prism Comics: Your LGBT Guide to Comics, which includes creator profiles and feature articles, and through PrismComics.org, the organization’s website, offering expanded features, reviews, and coverage of LBGT themes, characters, writers, artists or support staff for mainstream, indie or adult comics.
Rich Thigpen, a member of Prism’s advisory board, says that the organization’s mission is, “to educate the public about LBGT themes in comics, and to help promote LBGT creators in comics.”
Part of fulfilling that mission is educating the comic book industry about LGBT issues, including consulting on character development. “Prism doesn’t try to force creators to add gay characters to their comics, we try to act as sort of a resource for creators,” Thigpen said. “So if a straight creator wants to add a more diverse character to the comic that they’re doing, maybe they don’t have someone to ask, ‘Is this offensive? I don’t know.’ So we sort of do that as well.”
PrismComics.org also serves as a place where adult retailers with a LBGT clientele can find information on adult comics that their customers might appreciate. A lot of the material isn’t strictly sexual, but does include sexual themes and scenes within a storyline.
Prism lists 140 creator profiles LBGT comic creators in the Resources section of their Website, knowing that many of the comics with overt LGBT themes aren't carried through mainstream distribution channels.
“Retailers can use the information here to gauge what might sell well to their local buyers,” Thigpen said. “There is a lot of gay erotica from the publishers that are out now, like Tokyo Pop. A lot of the Manga is gay erotica. A lot of the creators with adult material are on our site and in the guide, like Colleen Coover, who does Small Favors, which she bills as a girly porno book."
Yet promoting marginalized material is only effective up to a certain point. Eventually, Prism hopes that LBGT material won’t be marginalized, something that would take cooperation from the existing mainstream companies that currently present a mostly white heterosexual male worldview. Thigpen suggests that the lack of diversity in the characters portrayed in modern comics is a problem that needs to change.
“I think it’s important to have the full diversity of people represented in comics,” Thigpen told AVN.com. “Especially for kids, because when people are growing up and in adolescence, that’s when a lot of their long-term prejudices are formed. If they’re reading comics, and they see only white heterosexual males, they’re going to think the world is full of only white heterosexual males.
“They need to see people of color. They need to see people of different ethnic backgrounds. They need to see people whose sexual identities are different than their own. They need to see people who think differently than they do, or else they might never get exposed to it.
“Not everyone grows up in a city like Los Angeles where you know gay people growing up. I grew up in a small town in Alabama. I didn’t know any gay people before I moved to LA,” Thigpen says. “Lots of people grow up in small towns. They’re in the Bible Belt or wherever, where it may be a big stigma to be out.
“I remember when I was growing up, Maggie Sawyer – one of the characters in Superman – was the police captain that he worked with a lot. She didn’t ‘come out’ as a lesbian, but you could tell … the lesbian word was never said, but everyone knew that she was a lesbian.
“I thought that was so cool and progressive, because there was finally a heroic character who just happened to be gay,” Thigpen said. “When you think you’re the only one in the world who is a certain way, it’s a big deal to discover you’re not alone.”
[Ed. Note: When not volunteering for Prism, Rich Thigpen works at AVN as our network adminstrator]
