Somehow I missed it, but in the mid-80's DC cleverly slipped a Gay Pride March into the background of one of their "Who's Who" books, and I think it's great:
I've grayed out the background characters so you can focus in on the brave warriors leading the charge for a comics-wide acceptance of their sexuality. From the very proud "Rainbow Raider" (need I say more about that name?), to the see-through red silk sleeves and striped stockings of "Red Bee", to the flowery jester-like cowl and low-slung floppy boots of "The Ray", and finally to the man-on-man flight of love of "Reactron" and "Reverse Flash", these fabulous men in spandex are finally willing to let it all hang out. It's long past time gay supers had the freedom to come out of the secret closet and fly proud. I salute you, one and all!
The only question I have regards what's going on down in the lower left. That's "Queen" from "The Royal Flush Gang" there in the front position. At first I assumed the character behind her (clearly getting into amorous position) was another female hero, to carry on the gay pride them by including lesbian members. But actually that's "Quicksilver", a male character. Apparently he got the memo that this was a Gay Pride event, and tried to dress like a girl in hopes of getting some time with "The Queen". I give him points for ingenuity, but he's got no chance, as clearly she's staring lustily at "Queen Bee" (not shown) on the other side of the cover. After all, no queen worth her salt would waste time with a commoner, especially considering he's straight and has a reputation for being "extremely speedy", if you know what I mean.
Professional pride prevents me from commenting on the fact that the artist's last name is "Colon". But come on, that's awesome.
(Characters and images ©1986, DC Comics, Inc.)
Dude, Jeff, Love you and everything man, but seriously…did you really have to put the colon part…I hope you don’t mean what I think you mean, Do you…? 🙁
I’m just saying that the artist’s name is Ernie Colon (I can’t figure out how to make the accent mark on the second O there), the signature is right underneath Reverse Flash’s leg. As to what that has to do with anything, I leave that as an exercise for the reader.
*giggles* That’s awesome. This totally reminds me of the pick for the UGO HeroMachine contest, “The Flamer.” From his pink toy to the cutoff short shorts, he truly is a Gay Pride member. Wonder if these guys would let him join the party?
PS: To get the accent mark, use Wordpad’s character map then copy/paste.
I could be wrong, but are you sure that’s not “Collin”? I mean, do you see the dot above the “O”? I think that’s an “li”.
Yep, I checked the inside cover, where the credits show “ERNIE COLON, Cover”.
Thanks for the tip, Brad! I should have knówn that.
Accents can be got with AltGr-[letter]
(AltGr is the right hand Alt, and can usually be emulated with Ctrl-Alt)
ie: AltGr-O = ó
Alternatively Start>Run “charmap” [return] – will give you Windows Character Map (nothing to do with Wordpad?)
People using OSX can I think use Cmd-Opt-T for the Mac Character Palette.
Anytime, Jeff, glad to help ^_^
Speakingh of heroes in an amorous position – reverse flash and reactron’s pose, while dynamic, also looks a little like they’re spooning.
It’s the matchign positions of their groins that does it, along with the fact that reactron appears to be having a great time while the reverse flash’s expression appears to be one more of moderate discomfort.