GAY AND LESBIAN THEMES 249
between the characters Deuces Wild and Summer Ice in 1983 in Sabre. Another
progressive step was the publication of AARGH (Artists Against Rampant Govern-
ment Homophobia) in 1988, an anthology that formed a protest against homophobic
laws in Britain. Alan Moore played an instrumental part in the project, and contrib-
uted a short piece, Th e Mirror of Love , to it. Moore’s works, from V for Vendetta to
Watchmen to Top 10 , contain several sympathetically portrayed queer characters. Neil
Gaiman , who also contributed to AARGH , featured a number of LGBT characters
in Sandman. Another successful 1990s comic, Love and Rockets by Gilbert and Jaime
Hernandez , also featured several gay and lesbian characters.
Regarding comic strips, in a February 1976 edition of Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury ,
the character Andy Lippincott announced that he was gay, thereby becoming the fi rst
openly gay character in a mainstream comic strip. Th e event, unprecedented as it was,
did not set a precedent. Andy made only sporadic appearances in the strip thereafter,
and died of AIDS on June 2, 1990. During that entire period, he remained the only
gay or lesbian character to appear in a mainstream comic strip. Trudeau introduced,
or rather outed, a second gay character, Mark Slackmeyer, in September, 1993. After a
period of denial and doubt, Mark eventually admitted to being gay and came out.
A few months prior to Mark’s coming out, on March 26, 1993, a teenage character
named Lawrence Poirier was outed by Lynn Johnston in her popular strip For Better
or For Worse. Th e public reaction to Lawrence’s coming out was immediate and sharp.
Several newspapers canceled the strip, and several more replaced the controversial epi-
sodes with another comic. Johnston herself received death threats from angry readers.
Subsequent episodes featuring Lawrence also generated controversy.
No signifi cant progress could be achieved in the mainstream without eff orts on the
part of the two main comics publishers, Marvel and DC. Unfortunately, neither has
had a commendable track record regarding sexual minorities, and representations of
gays and lesbians in their comics have ranged from, at best, sincere attempts at inclusion
to, at worst, off ensive stereotyping. Th roughout the 1980s, while under Jim Shooter’s
leadership, Marvel virtually ignored the existence of gays and lesbians in their universe.
Despite that policy, Shooter himself was responsible for the fi rst gay-themed story in
superhero comics, “A Very Personal Hell,” which appeared in Th e Hulk! #23 in 1980.
Th e story featured two gay men who attempted to rape Bruce Banner while he was
showering at a YMCA. DC publications featured a larger number of gay and lesbian
characters from the outset, with the Joker of the 1980s being perhaps the most enig-
matic among them. Th e Joker’s eff eminate representation during the 1980s, in large
part instigated by Frank Miller , suggested a homosexual undercurrent to his character.
More explicitly, in 1987, an eff eminate gay Hispanic character named Extraño appeared
in Millenium #2, thus becoming the fi rst clearly gay or lesbian character featured in a
comic under the Comic Code’s jurisdiction.
Northstar, a member of the Alpha Flight superhero team, fi nally announced that
he was gay in 1992 in Alpha Flight #106. Th e character had been introduced in 1979
and was intended to be gay from the outset, but there were only a few hints regarding
