25th Anniversary of the Gays in Comics Panel Recap

pic from Evelyn Braddock

Last night, I attended my 4th Gays in Comics Panel at Comic-Con. This was a special event because it was the 25th anniversary of the panel. This time, gay writers, artists and creators took the stage to share their stories about comics and why this panel is very important.

Before the event took off, founder and moderator Andy Mangels received an Inkpot Award, a prestigious honor given to someone who provide top service to Comic-Con. After that, we had many of the panelists share their stories and some bits of history. Here are a few:

• Trina Robbins, was a pioneer for queer comics. She also put a Black lead character in her stories. Please google her, she has done a lot.

• Charles "Zan" Christensen, founding member of Prism Comics is happy there are gueer comics to publish.

• Joe Phillips shares his story of coming out and drawing comics. He said he was drawing men through the eyes of a big Black man.

• Ivan Velez, Jr is celebrating 25th years of his comic Tales of the Closet. ‪Ivan Velez, Jr said that he felt invisible all his life. It was the reason why he start writing comics.

• Steve Englehart, created the 1st out gay superhero, Extrano in 1987 DC Comics' Millennium. It was very risky to do at that time.

• Ted Abenheim, has been a fighter and tireless advocate for gay comics. He will continue doing what he can to push gay comics forward.

• Writer Gail Simone said to be fearless in all that you do. 

• The godmother of the gay comic movement Ramona Gregory provides words of encouragement.

• The creator of Elfquest, Wendy Pini, told producers that her musical will have gay male leads or there's no show.

• Cartoonist Eric Shanower talked about criticism for making the JL look too gay. The guy turned out to be a closeted gay.

• Andy Mangels stepped down as moderator last night. He thanked everyone for been there and wanting to be there.

It was a great night to be apart of gay history that actually involved geeks.