602 STUCK RUBBER BABY
U.K. Comic Art Awards. Th e book received the Prix de la critique in France, and the
Luche award in Germany, and has been translated into several European languages.
While Stuck Rubber Baby appeared a few years before the graphic novel went main-
stream as a form, it remains a noteworthy example of ambitious, historically focused
comics storytelling.
Howard Cruse reportedly spent four years creating this stand-alone, 210-page
work of graphic historical fi ction. Set in the Deep South of the United States during
the Civil Rights movement, it combines an intimate portrayal of one man’s struggle
to come to terms with his place in the world, with a larger perspective on the socio-
cultural fallout of mid-century protest. While the lens remains resolutely focused on
the main character, the story encompasses a full gamut of Cold War personality types,
from hot-headed folk singers and enraged Klansmen to anxious administrators and
fearful parents. As such, Stuck Rubber Baby off ers a rare example of a comic book that
could plausibly be assigned in undergraduate courses on memoir, historical fi ction, the
1960s, and 20th-century social movements. While many of the story’s plot elements
are fi ctional, the narrative draws heavily on Cruse’s experiences growing up on the out-
skirts of Birmingham, Alabama, as the son of a Baptist preacher and homemaker. Th e
author somehow manages to convey the impact of large-scale cultural upheaval within
the delicate framework of a roman à clef. Unlike many would-be contenders to the title,
Stuck Rubber Baby actually is a graphic novel.
Cruse’s earliest published cartoons appeared in Th e Baptist Student when he was still
in high school. He studied drama at Birmingham-Southern College in the late 1960s
and moved to New York City in 1977. By the mid-1970s he had already made a name
for himself in cartooning and activist circles for his exuberant graphic stories featuring
carefree hippie characters. He found particular success with the characters Barefootz
and Wendel, both of whom were amiable young men fi nding their way in the big city.
Headrack, a character in these comics, is arguably the fi rst openly gay character in com-
ics. Th e underground comics publisher Denis Kitchen helped bring Cruse’s artwork to
the national stage by featuring his work in such titles as Snarf, Dope Comix, Commies from
Mars, and Comix Book from Kitchen Sink Press. In addition, Kitchen published three
stand-alone issues of Barefootz Funnies in the early 1970s and invited Cruse to edit the
groundbreaking anthology series Gay Comix at the end of the decade. Some of Cruse’s
work from this period is still in print, thanks to Olmstead Press and Fantagraphics.
His most recent project, an illustrated children’s book called Th e Swimmer with Rope in
His Teeth, produced in collaboration with Jeanne E. Shaff er, was issued by Prometheus
Books in 2004. While Cruse has generated dozens of comic book stories over the years,
Stuck Rubber Baby is by far the most complex project that he has undertaken to date.
When readers fi rst meet Toland Polk he is grieving for his late parents, who were
killed by a drunk driver, and puzzling over some advice he received from his late father.
Toland comes from a modest background, works in a gas station, and would easily
blend into the crowd except for the fact that he tends to ask a lot of questions. He is
uneasy about the separation of the races under Jim Crow, and anxious about his own
