My intial plan for this blog was to review an Alan Moore Obscurity at the beginning of every month. But I feel this is a little different from Alan Moore's usual work and so I'm dropping it in now. The reason it's different is that this is an anthology comic of which Moore writes only the first strip, the rest being contributed by the cream of late 80's comic book artists and writers. It was also one of the few things self published by Moore's ill-fated own publishing company - Mad Love. This is in in fact a charity comic protesting a 1988 piece of UK Goverment Legislation known as Clause or Section 28. This ill-defined act declared it illegal for Local Governments who "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as apretended family relationship". I fully recommend you read the Wikipedia article on the history of the bill, which wasn't repealed until 2003 by the Labour party who had always opposed it, despite fierce opposition from many Conservative polititicians whose party had enacted it.
If you just want the highlights there are a couple of things to note. First, being gay in 1980's Britain wasn't a barrel of laughs. Blamed for the AIDS epidemic, gay men tended to be identified as indulging in a bestial perversion punishable by God's wrath, an attitude that drove much of the impetus behind Section 28 and that was still showing up in the popular press well into the noughties. Lesbians suffered less outright hatred, but tended to be lumped in with the most extreme forms of feminism and were mainly laughed at, or considered ugly man haters who just needed a good man to bang some sense into them. As wikipedia points out:
Wikipedia: "Rising negative sentiments towards homosexuality eventually peaked in 1987, the year before the legislation was enacted. According to the British Social Attitudes Survey, 75% of the then population held homosexual activity to be 'always or mostly wrong', with just 11% believing it to be never wrong. As of 2012, those figures stand at 28% and 47% respectively."
Just Waiting by Dave Gibbons |
Wikipedia: "In 2000, David Cameron (at that time an unelected Conservative party member) repeatedly attacked the Labour government's plans to abolish Section 28, publicly criticising then-Prime Minister Tony Blair as being "anti-family" and accused him of wanting the "promotion of homosexuality in schools". In 2003, once Cameron had been elected as Conservative MP for Witney, he continued to support Section 28. As the Labour government were determined to remove Section 28 from law, Cameron voted in favour of a Conservative amendment that retained certain aspects of the clause, which gay rights campaigners described as "Section 28 by the back door". This was unsuccessful, and Section 28 was repealed by the Labour government without concession."
Clause For Concern by Kevin O'Neil |
I have to say, reading about how high homophobic sentiment was in the late 80's makes me even more impressed that Fleetway, the publishers of Crisis allowed a comic depiction of an out gay relationship in The New Statesmen, which I covered last month. Alan Moore decided he was going to uses his newfound, post-Watchmen clout in the industry to publish a comic that would raise awareness and raise money to oppose the bill (it raised at least £17,000 in the end that was passed onto a gay charity). Moore wasn't opposed to the bill just because he is a decent guy; at that time he was living in a polyamorous relationship with his wife and their mutal, female lover. So he was part of a family directly targeted by the bill. This experimental relationship didn't last, as his wife and their lover ran off together and set up home without him. Moore being the classy guy he is still continued to write postitive depictions of gay characters into his subsequent work.
Real Dream by Art Speigelman |
I didn't buy this comic during the time it was first out. I was 14 in 1988, and although I knew I wasn't straight, I wasn't gay either then, having as I did a very misanthropic attitude towards the whole human race. When it finally clicked that I was gay in 1993, being gay was already being seen as less of a tragic burden and more a legitmate part of one's identity. Having the good fortune to have liberal parents who didn't care and going to University in a city which had a large gay "village", I never have experienced direct homophobia in my life, for which I am very grateful. Anyway, enough with the background, lets look at some of the strips.
The Mirror Of Love by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and Rick Veitch |
Narrator: "Yet this tolerance could not endure the rise of Christianity, which quite ignored Christ's love for outlaws and instead embraced moral severity. Defining sex as base. St. Paul named same-sex love, for the first time, as a sin ."
The journey then continues through the executions of gay people during the dark ages, the smearing of the Knight's Templar as gay, themore liberal societies bought about by the Renaissance and the famous gay/bisexual artists it laid claim to. Further on it places the first link between homosexuality and the theatre to Shakespeares time, he also tells us a bout a lesbian community at Llangollen, then on through qwriters and dramatists placing coded words to same-sex lovers through the ages.
Narrator: "Elseqwhere in Leipzig, 1869, One K.M. Benkert first referred to 'homosexuality'. Industrial Englands view that all must be explained by science prompted dotors to declare us ill. Not friends or sinners anymore."
Then we travel through Oscar Wilde's trial and disgrace to nascent homosexual pride movements, but then WW2 breaks out and homosexual are placed in concentration camps. But post-war the push for homosexual equality gathers pace. The Uk decriminalises it, while gays in the US riot at Stonewwall. Just as it seems a more tolerant soceity is in sight, AID's arrives.
Narrator: "Policemen claimed to speak for God, describing persons with AIDs as swilling in a self-made cesspit, while councillor Brownhills, a conservative, recalled an earlier Final Solution, and offered to 'gas the queers'. Margaret Thatcher praised them for their forthrightness."
Those are not made up quotes. The Chief Constable of Manchester, James Anderton was the anti-gay policeman who made the "cess-pit" remark and made life hard for the growing gay community in that city for years. The story ends with Clause 28 being passed into law.
Narrator: "While life endures we'll love. And afterwards, if what they say is true, I'll be refused a heaven crammed with Pope's, policemen and fundamentalists, and burn instead, quite happily with Sappho, Michelangelo and you my love. I'd burn through eternity with you."
The Mirror Of Love by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and Rick Veitch |
From Homogeonous To Honey by Neil Gaimen, Bryan Talbot and Mark Buckingham |
Masked Man: "Today the world is a simpler place. We've taken out all the complications. All the square pegs and the painful and the strange. In Utopia, lacking cultural relevant for deviancy all are happy with their lot. Everybody is exactly the same. Isn't it sweet?"
From Homogeonous To Honey by Neil Gaiman, Bryan Talbot and Mark Buckingham |
Dave Sim's contribution uses characters from his long running Cerebus series, which I covered extensively when I kicked this blog off. It was a comic about an Aardvark who lived in a parody of Conan the Barbarian's world, before spinning off into a satire of politics and religion. Cerebus himself doesn't appear in this strip, instead we get the Wolveroach and his two sidekicks. The Roach was a character who shifted identities all the time, lampooning one popular super-hero character after another. What's an interesting little joke about using his character was that Dave Sim dropped little hints now and then in early arcs that at least one of his split-personalities was gay.
An Untold Tale Of The Super Secret Sacred Wars by Dave Sim |
An Untold Tale Of The Super Secret Sacred Wars by Dave Sim |
The Future of Law Enforcement by Frank Miller |
The Future of Law Enforcement by Frank Miller |
Back cover by Los Bros Hernandez |
I like the picture on the back cover.
ReplyDeleteWere any of the people who contributed to this book actually gay themselves?
Ah now there's a question.... truth is I don't know. There are a couple of stories that come across a biographical from a couple of the lesser known contributors. But I think generally people were just more closeted in life back then. In the comics industry as much as any other sadly.
ReplyDeleteA fair point, well made.
ReplyDelete