13 October 2009

God bless Uncle Harry


Book (c) AVON Books, 1978.





This collection of cartoons first appeared in the now defunct magazine Christopher Street. CS was a not-too-glossy, well-produced gay publication from the mid-70s to the mid-90s. At one point, I had a subscription to it.










It was not a skin mag like In Touch, Blueboy, Numbers or Mandate. CS was a literary - but accessible - potpourri publication with articles on politics, gay rights issues, health, entertainment, and general interest articles. It also published many first-rate authors such as Andrew Holleran, and spawned several collections of short stories.













I think the cartoons humorous but not vicious, but they did skewer some of our cliched behaviors: conspicuous consumption, over-emphasis on body image, and the travails of dating/mating.










It is important to consider that these cartoons predate the AIDS crisis at least 3 to 5+ years; at that time, gays had the luxury of not encountering any STD that was not treatable by penicillin or tetracycline, so these may seem trivial 30 years on. I believe that AIDS sapped the magazine's energy concurrently with the deaths of many of its subscriber base - just my theory.





Enjoy...

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