My Assistants
I’m occasionally asked if I have any assistants to produce the comic strip. Well, no….except for these two, (pictured below). Caught being their usual “helpful” selves!
May 29, 2006
May 13, 2006
Kyle’s Bed & Breakfast goes to College!
I was delighted to receive an e-mail several weeks ago from Sheena, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, who asked if she could present my comic strip for her final presentation in her Gay and Lesbian Literature and Culture class. I was honored to be asked, and I also requested if she could report on how it all went. Well, she was kind enough to write up an account of it just for this Blog, so I am going to turn the floor over to Sheena for a guest-post to the Kyle’s B&B Blog. Take it away, Sheena!
For a final presentation in a Gay and Lesbian Literature and Culture class, we explored the AIDS quilt and twentieth century Queer Visual Arts and Artist. Included in this presentation was Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (all male-cast), Andy Warhol, Marcelina Martin’s photography, Greg Fox’s “Kyle’s
B&B,” and other important artists we felt expressed gay art in a positive, creative, and unique way. The presentation was to answer the question of ‘what is Queer Art’ and how does it portray gay/lesbian life? What we found similar between all these artists was the importance in portraying gay/lesbian relationships. Whether artists painted with colors originating from the rainbow flag, emphasized single-sex families, or concentrated on love between same-sex couples, each artist steers away from the traditional and stereotypical roles we have about gay/lesbian individuals and couples. Instead, there was a focus on expressing the real life situations, struggles, and concerns that gay/lesbians deal with everyday.
Kyle’s B&B was the introduction to the presentation because not only was it something new and creative but it also deals with situations that many gay/lesbian college students are finding themselves in. For instance, many students get to college and find out that their university or college is more accepting of homosexuals then their hometowns were. Once these students find the support, camaraderie, and the understanding from those like them, they then have to confront larger issues. These concerns can include bringing up their homosexuality to their parents, working through the internal battle many have between homosexuality and religion, as well as finding comfort in being who they are. Kyle’s B&B definitely confronts these issues in a way that is relatable. The characters are not one-dimensional or even stereotypical! They have thoughts, fears, and concerns that express larger issues of being gay, which I felt, directly related to gay/lesbian students in college and to the Gay and Lesbian Literature and Culture course. When I handed out the latest episodes of Kyle’s B&B, I was hoping that the people in the class would look at it not only as a comic strip but also as a tool for understanding the lives of homosexuals in a contemporary setting.
On a personal level one of the things I found most interesting about Kyle’s B&B was its diverse cast. In my other course (also relating to sexuality), we have also been exploring how pop culture does not present minority homosexual characters to the public. For example, I did not realize it before, but I do not remember an episode of Will and Grace where Will or Jack ever dated or had a love interested with a minority male (e.g., African-American, Asian, Mexican/Mexican-American, etc) nor do I recall them ever exploring interracial homosexual relationships. Therefore, when I
discovered Kyle’s B&B I was fascinated that the comic strip included two minority men (Lance and Eduardo) and their struggles as homosexual minority men. Even so, I think this comic strip can really help not only white males understand and embrace their homosexuality but minority men as well.
In the end, the question of “What is Queer Art?” proved to be a variety of different arts. There is photography, sculptures, theatre, comic strips, paintings, and hosts of other Medias that help bring together and express the relationships and dynamics of being a gay/lesbian individual and/or couple. All of these forms of art are in a sense activist art because they help homosexuals and well as heterosexual men and women forget the stereotypical ideas we have about homosexuality. Instead, they focus on the realities, the pains, the joys, and the hardships of being a homosexual male or female.
