Howard Cruse's family sent out this press release and asked for coverage of his passing. I have a great deal of respect for his work, and haven't seen anything yet in local media although the area has a large LGBTQ population. I definitely recommend reading Stuck Rubber Baby.
Pioneering
Gay Cartoonist Howard Cruse
Dies at
75
(WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS., Nov. 26 2019) -- Howard
Cruse, a pioneer in the LGBTQ cartooning movement and the author of Stuck Rubber Baby, an award-winning
graphic novel about the intersection of race and sexuality in the South, died
on Tuesday, November 26. He was 75.
His husband of
40 years, Ed Sedarbaum, said that Cruse succumbed to complications from lymphoma
at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, MA. Cruse, who lived in
Williamstown, Ma., had been diagnosed in August.
Cruse’s
masterwork, the bold graphic novel Stuck
Rubber Baby, was published in 1995. It was based on Cruse’s interior struggles
as a closeted gay man during the civil rights era of the 1960s. Widely
translated, Stuck Rubber Baby has won
numerous awards, including a critics prize at the Angoulême International
Comics in France, the Harvey Award, Eisner Award and United Kingdom Comic Art
Award for Best Graphic Album.
Stuck Rubber Baby will be reissued in a 25th anniversary
edition by First Second Books in May 2020.
Howard Russell
Cruse was born May 2, 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama, as the younger of two sons
born to Clyde and Irma Cruse. The family moved to Springville when his father,
a photojournalist, was ordained as a Methodist minister and assigned to
Springville Methodist Church. Cruse's creative talents were encouraged by both
his parents. His first published work was a 1959 comic strip called “Calvin” in
the St. Clair County Reporter. Young Cruse also had cartoon art published in the
humor magazines Fooey and Sick. He was mentored through an ongoing
correspondence with famed cartoonist Milton Caniff, the creator of “Terry and
the Pirates” and “Steve Canyon” newspaper comic strips. At age 16, Cruse was
invited to visit Caniff in New York City.
At Birmingham Southern
College, Cruse became involved in the theatre program, designing sets and
appearing In several productions. He wrote and directed his own play during his
senior year. For the college literary magazine, Quad, Cruse satirized the conservative organization the John Birch
Society. The controversial work appeared in print, but the faculty advisor
insisted on running a full-page disclaimer.
After
graduating from BSC in 1968, Cruse joined Birmingham’s WBMG-TV as art
director and a
puppeteer on “The Sergeant Jack Show.” At this time, he became
romantically
involved with a man, Don Higdon, for the first time.
During this
time, Cruse created “Tops & Button,” a cartoon panel about two
squirrels,
which ran daily in The Birmingham
Post-Herald from 1970 to
1972. He also
created the subtly subversive comic strip “Barefootz,” which
debuted in the
University of Alabama's newspaper Crimson
White. “Barefootz” would appear in several Birmingham-area publications
during the decade, and later in underground comic books.
In 1977 Cruse
relocated to New York City to make cartooning his full-time profession. In
1979, he met Eddie Sedarbaum and they moved in together. The couple was married
in 2004.
Cruse’s career
reached a personal and professional breakthrough in 1980 when he was founding
editor of Gay Comix, an underground
anthology for lesbian and gay cartoonists. Cruse’s own work, exploring his
conflicted childhood and repressive Southern upbringing, appeared in these comic
books.
In an era
before the formal passage of LGBT rights, these frank cartoon explorations of
gay culture, politics, sex, and camp had a huge influence on young people in
the closet. During the four years of his editorship, Cruse received letters of
gratitude from readers all over the country, many who had considered suicide.
During this period, Cruse did many pro bono illustrations to support fledgling
LGBT organizations, as well as mentoring of young queer cartoonists. Cruse
created a high-profile poster about gay male safe sex practices in 1985 for New
York City’s Gay Men’s Health Crisis.
Cruse’s profile
as a cartoonist grew with the debut of “Wendel,” a comic
strip about a gay
everyman, his lover, friends and family. It appeared in the national
newsmagazine The Advocate from 1983
to 1989. He also contributed frequently to The Village Voice. Cruse and Sedarbaum became active in LGBT and AIDS grass-roots
politics, joining the direct-action organizations ACT UP and Queer Nation.
Cruse and
Sedarbaum left New York City in 2003 and moved to Western Massachusetts, settling
first in North Adams and then Williamstown.
Cruse
frequently appeared at comic book conventions over the decades, and was the
guest of honor at academic and fan conferences, especially those addressing the
subject of queer comic art. His final published comic work appeared this year in
Northwest Press's horror anthology “Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers.” Cruse was among LGBT
cartoonists and illustrators appearing in the documentary “No Straight Lines,” scheduled for a
2020 release.
Cruse’s work has been collected in several
books, among them, Barefootz Funnies (Kitchen
Sink, 1975-79), Wendel (Gay Presses
of New York, 1986), Dancin’ Nekkid with
the Angels (St, Martin’s, Kitchen Sink, 1987) and Wendel on the Rebound (St. Martin’s Press, 1989).
In addition to his
husband Ed Sedarbaum, Cruse is survived by his daughter, Kimberly Kolze Venter,
and his brother, Allan Cruse.
Donations in
his memory can be made to New York City’s LGBT Community Center, the Queers &
Comics Conference, and Rainbow Seniors of Berkshire County.
Memorial
services, open to the public, will be held in Berkshire County, Massachusetts,
and New York City in the near future. Exact information will be posted on howardcruse.com/
Obituary
compiled by Richard Goldstein and Jay Blotcher
Gahan Wilson, self-portrait. (Fantagraphics Books)
