Gay Comix was an underground comics series published from 1980–1998. Created by Howard Cruse

Howard Cruse

Howard Cruse is an American alternative cartoonist known for the exploration of gay themes in his comics.Cruse was raised in Springville, Alabama, the son of a preacher and a homemaker. His earliest published cartoons were in The Baptist Student when he was in high school. His work later appeared...

, Gay Comix featured the work of gay, lesbian, and transsexual artists. Much of the early content was autobiographical, but more diverse themes were explored in later editions. Autobiographical themes include falling in love, coming out, repression and sex. Gay Comix also served as a source for information about non-mainstream LGBT

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

-themed comics and events.

The contents of Gay Comix were generally about love and affection, rather than sex. It is generally less sexually explicit than the similarly themed Meatmen series of graphic novels.

Artists producing work for Gay Comix included Mary Wings

Mary Wings

Mary Wings is an American writer, artist, and musician.In 1973 Mary Wings made history by releasing Come Out Comix, the first lesbian underground comic book. She may be best known for her series of detective novels featuring lesbian heroine Emma Victor...

, creator of the first one-off lesbian book Come Out Comix (1972) and Dyke Shorts (1976); Roberta Gregory

Roberta Gregory

Roberta Gregory is an American comic book writer and artist best known for her character Bitchy Bitch from her Fantagraphics Books series Naughty Bits.Gregory's father was Disney comics artist Bob Gregory...

, who created Dynamite Damsels (1976), the first lesbian underground serial comic book, and the character Bitchy Bitch; Jerry Mills

Jerry Mills

Jerry Mills was a gay cartoonist, noted particularly for his creation of the "Poppers" comic strip. The strip told of the adventures of Billy, a West Hollywood muscleboy, and his sidekick Yves , a big-hearted nebbish who offered good advice and caution for his glamorous friend...

, creator of Poppers; Howard Cruse

Howard Cruse

Howard Cruse is an American alternative cartoonist known for the exploration of gay themes in his comics.Cruse was raised in Springville, Alabama, the son of a preacher and a homemaker. His earliest published cartoons were in The Baptist Student when he was in high school. His work later appeared...

, editor of the first four issues; Robert Triptow

Robert Triptow

Robert Triptow is a writer and "the last of the underground cartoonists." His 1989 anthology Gay Comics is one of the earliest histories of the subject, and won the first Lambda Literary Award for Humor....

, editor of issues #5 through 13; Jennifer Camper

Jennifer Camper

Jennifer Camper is an American comics artist, graphic artist and editor residing in Brooklyn, New York.Camper, who is openly lesbian, has been producing comics since the 1980s. Her work has appeared in many publications including The Village Voice, San Francisco Bay Times, Ms...

, editor of Juicy Mother; Tim Barela

Tim Barela

Tim Barela , is an acclaimed gay cartoonist, best known for his creation of the comic strip, Leonard & Larry. The Leonard & Larry characters first appeared in a 1984 issue of Gay Comix, then were later featured in The Advocate and Frontiers magazines...

, creator of Leonard & Larry; Jon Macy

Jon Macy

Jon Macy is a gay American comics writer and artist. He began his career in 1990 with the series Tropo. Since then he has contributed to various LGBT comics anthologies and gay pornographic magazines, but is best known for his graphic novel Teleny and Camille, which won a 2010 Lambda Literary...

 creator of Teleny and Camille, and Lee Marrs

Lee Marrs

Lee Marrs is an American comic book writer, animator, and one of the first women underground comix creators. She is best known for her comic book series, The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp, which lasted from 1973 to 1978.-Underground comics:Marrs was a frequent contributor to...

 and Trina Robbins

Trina Robbins

Trina Robbins is an American comics artist and writer. She was an early and influential participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the few female artists in underground comix when she started. Both as a cartoonist and historian, Robbins has long been involved in creating outlets for...

, two of the original members of the Wimmen's Comix

Wimmen's Comix

Wimmen's Comix, later titled Wimmin's Comix, was an influential all-female underground comics anthology published from 1972 to 1992. Though it covered a wide range of genre and subject matter, Wimmen's Comix focused more than other anthologies of the time on feminist concerns, homosexuality, sex...

 Collective.

Kitchen Sink Press

Kitchen Sink Press

Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen owned and operated Kitchen Sink Press until 1999. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in...

 published the first five issues of Gay Comix; thereafter it was published by Bob Ross

Bob Ross (publisher)

Bob Ross was the former publisher of the Bay Area Reporter and a key gay rights and AIDS activist in San Francisco.Ross was born in New York City....

, publisher of the Bay Area Reporter

Bay Area Reporter

The Bay Area Reporter is a free weekly newspaper serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered communities in the San Francisco Bay Area; it is the oldest-continuously published, and one of the largest LGBT newspapers in the United States....

gay newspaper.

The first four issues were edited by Cruse; issues #5 through #13 were edited by Triptow. Andy Mangels

Andy Mangels

Andy Mangels is an American science fiction author who has written novels, comics, and magazine articles, and produced DVD collections, mostly focusing on media in popular culture...

 edited issues #14 to #25 and a special issue featuring Barela

Tim Barela

Tim Barela , is an acclaimed gay cartoonist, best known for his creation of the comic strip, Leonard & Larry. The Leonard & Larry characters first appeared in a 1984 issue of Gay Comix, then were later featured in The Advocate and Frontiers magazines...

; Mangels changed the title to Gay Comics starting with issue #15, in part to divest it of the "underground

Underground comix

Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books which are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality and violence...

" implications of "comix".

Excerpts from Gay Comix are included in the 1989 anthology Gay Comics.