Pride High
Encyclopedia
Pride High is an independent
comic book
created and written by Tommy Roddy. It follows the adventures of five friends who create a gay-straight alliance
at their high school for super-powered youth. Various artists have worked on Pride High, including Brian Ponce, Shaun "Spanky" Piela, and Robert Rivera.
The series won one of the third Queer Press Grants.
ed teens located in the fictional West Coast metropolis of Pacific City, California. The school hosts an Inter-Squad Championship (I.S.C.), a year-long competition between various squads with five members each. The story follows one of these squads, a group of friends who use a gay-straight alliance as their squad's theme, calling themselves Pride High.
Craig Newman is a telepath. Along with reading minds and "mindsweeping" memories, he has the power to bend enemies completely to his will. He is the leader of the team and Kid Mischief's boyfriend.
Official Bio
Jorge Ponce is the sidekick of the superhero Mischief. An empath with telekinesis and burgeoning telepathy. Kid Mischief has the power to induce drastic moodswings, taking the concept of emotional manipulation
to a new level. He is Mindsweeper's boyfriend. Created by Carl Hippensteel.
Official Bio
Named after the scotch bonnet pepper, Claire Aedhamair can form semi-sentient beings of living fire and attack her opponents with them. She can also heat objects to melting point by touch, as well as fly by way of her fire powers. Claire is also known affectionately as "Rojita" (little red) by Kid Mischief, her best friend. Created by Andrew Van Marle.
Official Bio
Suravi Small is a living solar battery and lives up to her first name, which means "Sun" in Sanskrit. She can unleash the stored energy in the form of incredibly destructive, searing beams of light. Blind since the age of 4, Suravi enrolled in Poseidon Prep under the fledgling Disabled Heroes Program. Mindsweeper was assigned to her as a "telepathic facilitator" and serves as her eyes in combat via "mindcasting."
Official Bio
A former asthma sufferer, Chippendale Chesterfield's life changed the day he saved a stray cat from a group of boarding school bullies. Bast, the Egyptian Goddess of Cats, appeared to him in vision and asked what he wished for more than anything in the world. "To run. To run like the wind, fast and free, faster than the eye can see!" She granted his wish a hundredfold. And so Chip became Chip Cheetah, the boy with the fastest feetah!
Official Bio
Leader of the Argonauts, Pride High's main rivals. Dionysus Tan possesses immense strength and a magical bracer blessed by the gods and goddesses of the Olympic Pantheon. He has a particular dislike for Kid Mischief and bullies him every chance he gets.
In 2007, Kid Olympus was featured in his own Mini-Comic, shipped separately, which featured some backstory to his dislike of Kid Mischief and how his bracer received its powers. In Sept 2009, Kid Olympus #2 was produced by Indypress.
Dr. Christian Gunn. Poseidon Prep's Algebra and Calculus teacher. Has the ability to control light and darkness, including teleportation through shadows. Created by Michael Millard.
Jarot Claas. The school's head resident advisor, and coordinator for the Inter-Squad Championship. A healer and plant controller.
The Pride High Boards feature Fan Fiction and Roleplay forums dedicated to reader characters, and allow readers to imagine their own involvement in the Pride High universe as an adjunct to possible appearances in the actual comic book.
A Brazilian/French-Canadian dancer and capoeira fighter. Member of the Poseidon Prep martial arts squad, The Five-Fold Path. Created by Bradley Clutts.
, Dutch
, French
, Japanese
, and Spanish
.
Alternative comics
Alternative comics defines a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to "mainstream" superhero comics which in the past have dominated the US comic book industry...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
created and written by Tommy Roddy. It follows the adventures of five friends who create a gay-straight alliance
Gay-straight alliance
Gay–straight alliances are student organizations, found primarily in North American high schools and universities, that are intended to provide a safe and supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth and their straight allies .-Goal:The goal of most, if not all,...
at their high school for super-powered youth. Various artists have worked on Pride High, including Brian Ponce, Shaun "Spanky" Piela, and Robert Rivera.
The series won one of the third Queer Press Grants.
Inter-Squad Championship
The story takes place at the Poseidon Preparatory Academy for Heroic Youth, a boarding school for superpowerSuperpower
A superpower is a state with a dominant position in the international system which has the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests...
ed teens located in the fictional West Coast metropolis of Pacific City, California. The school hosts an Inter-Squad Championship (I.S.C.), a year-long competition between various squads with five members each. The story follows one of these squads, a group of friends who use a gay-straight alliance as their squad's theme, calling themselves Pride High.
Mindsweeper
Craig Newman is a telepath. Along with reading minds and "mindsweeping" memories, he has the power to bend enemies completely to his will. He is the leader of the team and Kid Mischief's boyfriend.
Official Bio
Kid Mischief
Jorge Ponce is the sidekick of the superhero Mischief. An empath with telekinesis and burgeoning telepathy. Kid Mischief has the power to induce drastic moodswings, taking the concept of emotional manipulation
Psychological manipulation
Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,...
to a new level. He is Mindsweeper's boyfriend. Created by Carl Hippensteel.
Official Bio
Scotch Bonnet
Named after the scotch bonnet pepper, Claire Aedhamair can form semi-sentient beings of living fire and attack her opponents with them. She can also heat objects to melting point by touch, as well as fly by way of her fire powers. Claire is also known affectionately as "Rojita" (little red) by Kid Mischief, her best friend. Created by Andrew Van Marle.
Official Bio
Suravi
Suravi Small is a living solar battery and lives up to her first name, which means "Sun" in Sanskrit. She can unleash the stored energy in the form of incredibly destructive, searing beams of light. Blind since the age of 4, Suravi enrolled in Poseidon Prep under the fledgling Disabled Heroes Program. Mindsweeper was assigned to her as a "telepathic facilitator" and serves as her eyes in combat via "mindcasting."
Official Bio
Chip Cheetah
A former asthma sufferer, Chippendale Chesterfield's life changed the day he saved a stray cat from a group of boarding school bullies. Bast, the Egyptian Goddess of Cats, appeared to him in vision and asked what he wished for more than anything in the world. "To run. To run like the wind, fast and free, faster than the eye can see!" She granted his wish a hundredfold. And so Chip became Chip Cheetah, the boy with the fastest feetah!
Official Bio
Kid Olympus
Leader of the Argonauts, Pride High's main rivals. Dionysus Tan possesses immense strength and a magical bracer blessed by the gods and goddesses of the Olympic Pantheon. He has a particular dislike for Kid Mischief and bullies him every chance he gets.
In 2007, Kid Olympus was featured in his own Mini-Comic, shipped separately, which featured some backstory to his dislike of Kid Mischief and how his bracer received its powers. In Sept 2009, Kid Olympus #2 was produced by Indypress.
Lightspot
Dr. Christian Gunn. Poseidon Prep's Algebra and Calculus teacher. Has the ability to control light and darkness, including teleportation through shadows. Created by Michael Millard.
Verdant
Jarot Claas. The school's head resident advisor, and coordinator for the Inter-Squad Championship. A healer and plant controller.
Reader characters
Pride High accepts reader character submissions through the Student & Faculty Registry. Several reader characters have gained cameos and supporting roles in the comic as fellow students, members of rival squads, and teachers. As of Issue 3, a reader character has also joined the main cast. A full third of the heroes depicted on the cover of Issue 3 are from readers.The Pride High Boards feature Fan Fiction and Roleplay forums dedicated to reader characters, and allow readers to imagine their own involvement in the Pride High universe as an adjunct to possible appearances in the actual comic book.
Unison
A duplicator, Unison became the first reader character to join the main cast of Pride High and the first to get a dedicated cover (Issue 4). Created by Dale Everett.Sister Bliss
Possessing pink hair, nun's habit, and white go-go boots, Sister Bliss is a fan favorite, with cameos since Issue 1. Recently formed the first reader-based I.S.C. squad, "The Vixens." Created by Dan Wren.Masquerade
A transgender girl with the ability to shapeshift into any human that she has touched. Created by Sissy Boy.Capp
A Brazilian/French-Canadian dancer and capoeira fighter. Member of the Poseidon Prep martial arts squad, The Five-Fold Path. Created by Bradley Clutts.
Foreign language versions
The first issue of Pride High is also available in BrailleBraille
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
.
External links
- Official site
- Myspace page
- Oasis Magazine interview with Tommy Roddy
- Four Color Heroines Podcast Interview
- Radio interview with Tommy Roddy about Pride High and winning the Queer Press Grant, first broadcast on Resonance FMResonance FMResonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station run by the London Musicians' Collective .The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and over 300 volunteer technical and production staff.Until September 2007, ResonanceFM...