May 2, 1944 — November 26, 2019
Upon their passings from this plane, many artistic geniuses are lauded for their body of work, and occasionally for their temperament. Howard Cruse, whose work spanned six decades of publication in and around the comic book industry, will be lauded — and rightfully so — for his genius work with the graphic semi-memoir Stuck Rubber Baby and for his collections of Wendel cartoons and other stories, but his temperament was as clear as his work was detailed. Despite the battles he faced as the first openly gay male in underground comix in the 1970s, Cruse never lost his temper without first resorting to wit, and his wisdom and cool demeanor led those who met him to see him as a wise mentor. Cruse charmed everyone; even on the internet, it would be hard to find anyone with a negative thing to say about him or his talent. The talent was prodigious, ranging from stories he wrote and drew with bold thick-lined cartoonish art to heavily cross-hatched, intensely-detailed realistic art.
Born in Springville, Alabama in 1944, Howard Russell Cruse loved Little Lulu and other humor and funny animal comics as a child. He began drawing comics early, and had his first published cartoon strip in a weekly paper when he was 13! After drawing for theatrical programs, editorial cartoons, and other newspaper strips, by 1971, Cruse has debuted a strip titled “Barefootz” for a college newspaper, and he began exploring the open-minded world of underground comics, leading to Kitchen Sink publishing his first Barefootz collection in 1975.
In 1976, Cruse devoted part of an issue of Barefootz Funnies to a story, “Gravy On Gay,” which was the cartoonist’s first venture into gay topics. He was inspired by Mary Wings’ Come Out Comix in 1973, and the erotic anthology Gay Heart Throbs and Roberta Gregory’s Dynamite Damsels, both also in 1976. Cruse didn’t yet fully commit to being “out” in an industry that had nobody willing to create gay content under their own names, but he didn’t hide it either. Publisher Denis Kitchen asked Cruse if he would be willing to edit a new Gay Comix anthology for Kitchen Sink, and Cruse agreed. In September 1980, the first issue of Gay Comix appeared, featuring Lesbian and Gay cartoonists creating comics specifically for their community. Cruse edited the first four issues, then turned editorship over to Robert Triptow, who edited #5-13 (1984-1991), and Andy Mangels who changed the name to Gay Comics and edited #13-25 and a Special (1991-1998).
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Cruse’s work was not only seen in the undergrounds, but by a diverse number of fans. He illustrated for Playboy, Heavy Metal, Bananas, ArtForum International, and The Village Voice, as well as Starlog, Fangoria, and Comics Scene magazines and Topps’ Bazooka Joe Bubble Gum Comics. In the gay world, he drew the regular Wendel strip for The Advocate newsmagazine (from 1983- 1985 and 1986-1989), wherein he tackled long-term characters who lived in a realistic up-to-date gay world, including homophobia from Republican President Ronald Reagan, and the AIDS crisis.
For many years, Cruse worked on the semi-autobiographical graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby for Paradox Press, an imprint of DC Comics. The book was finally published in 1995 to immense critical acclaim. Mainstream press, librarians, teachers, and comic readers alike all praised Cruse’s work for its raw emotional honest and insanely detailed art even as he wove a story about racism and homophobia in the south, and the intersection of the Civil Rights movement with personal coming-of-age. Stuck Rubber Baby would be awarded both the prestigious Harvey Award and Eisner Award and United Kingdom Comic Art Award for Best Graphic Album, and the work would be republished in 2010, and a 25th Anniversary Edition in 2020. Other collections of Cruse’s work included multiple Barefootz and Wendel volumes, as well as Dancin’ Nekkid With The Angels (1987), and The Other Side of Howard Cruse (2012). Cruse recently self-published a book called Felix’s Friends, a “story for Grown-Ups and Unpleasant Children.”
In the time since Stuck Rubber Baby, Cruse continued to draw for comics, political and humor magazines, newspapers, CD covers, Broadway posters, erotic magazines, and more. Comic-Con International awarded Cruse their prestigious Inkpot Award in 1989, and he was again a Special Guest at CCI in 2010. Cruse curated art shows for LGBTQ cartoonists, and has been the subject of art exhibits of his work worldwide. He has spoken at colleges and high schools, at symposiums and comic cons, and at the biannual Queers and Comics educational conferences (in New York and San Francisco). In between all of the creativity, Howard met Eddie Sedarbaum around 1979 in New York and the two have been inseparable since; they were finally legally wed in summer 2004. Cruse’s final published comic work is in Northwest Press’s 2019horror anthology Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers. He is extensively profiled in the upcoming documentary feature film No Straight Lines, alongside other LGBTQ creators, and a collected The Complete Gay Comix/Comics, edited by Cruse. Triptow, and Mangels, is being prepared.
In one of his strips, “Death” (which appeared in Dancin’ Nekkid With The Angels) Howard Cruse presaged his own death. “After I’m gone, I like to think somebody might pick up my comic books and have a chuckle! Fat chance, you say — but permit me my illusions!” He also promised that his soul would be up in heaven, “Rockin’-and-Rollin’ and Dancin’ Nekkid with the angels!”
If there is any justice in this world for a talent as great as Howard Cruse’s, and a soul as forthright, readers will go pick up his books and have a chuckle, and his soul really will be dancin’ nekkid with the angels.
— Andy Mangels is the USA Today best-selling author and co-author of twenty books, including the TwoMorrows book Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, as well as Star Trek and Star Wars tomes, Iron Man: Beneath The Armor, and a lot of comic books. The past Inkpot Award recipient recently wrote the Wonder Woman ’77 Meets The Bionic Woman series for Dynamite and DC Comics. www.AndyMangels.com
Photo provided courtesy of Andy Mangels.
Please note that this tribute and several others were planned and ready for publication to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Howard Cruse’s death. Technical issues affecting Gay League arose on November 25th, 2024. Apologies extended to all for any confusion this may cause.