Comics Intro: Some Of My Favorites
A life-long comic strip-lover, I was continually frustrated with the gay comics I saw in the weekly ‘alternative’ papers. I did not relate to any of them and did not feel represented. So in 2002, at 31 years old, I created, wrote, and drew my own weekly comic strip featuring a cast of gay and lesbian characters. ‘Tweaked’, later changed to ‘Gary Tales’1, was published in Boston’s GLBT (as it was then referred) newspaper In Newsweekly from 2003-2008.
I made several attempts to give the comic strip an online presence in those early days, but it wasn’t easy to build a website unless you knew HTML language. Truth be told, I spent more money hiring techies than I ever made doing the actual comic strip. Years after the comic strip ended, technology got easier for laypeople and at one point I had all my comics on a Facebook page. Recently, I decided I wanted a clean break from Meta so I deleted Facebook and Instagram—meaning my comics page was erased as well. It’s been over twenty years since I started Tweaked/Gary Tales, and things have changed SO DRASTICALLY in the gay world, so I decided to make this subsection of my Substack to show off my place in gay history.
The majority of my comics had continuing storylines about the love lives and friendships of my gay and lesbian characters, but as an intro, here are some of my favorites that work as stand-alone strips:
Coming Out Day:
Lovers’ spats…
Cell phones (something we were still getting used to in those days)…
When your friend dates someone obnoxious…
Missed opportunities…
Fashion trends…
My love for pop culture and puns…
Nightlife and ‘mean boys’…
Loneliness and unrequited love…
The things we do for love…
The Media…
Delusion…
‘Fag hags’ and friends with money…
Blurring the lines between work and personal lives…
Tech, social media, and the death of conversation…
Insecurity…
Frivolity and silliness…
What’s next?…
And here is how my tongue-in-cheek bio read on my website:
Gary Lucia grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he received a horrible public school education. He had the chicken pox during the week they taught about the fifty states, so to this day he still does not know where Wyoming is located.
Forced at a young age by his well-meaning but imperceptive parents to participate in sports activities, Gary suffered through several weeks of Little League Baseball, a traumatic experience that still shakes him to this day. After a particularly humiliating game in which Gary made the quixotically bold and unprecedented attempt to steal first base, it was decided that it would be best that he be allowed to quit the team and stay home by himself, where he wanted to be in the first place, drawing cartoons with his Crayola Scented Markers, the inhalation of which may in the long run have caused irreparable damage to his brain, but at least he didn't have people constantly throwing things at his face and then asking him why he was always flinching.
Television provided a fantastic escape from the unrelenting ridicule and torment doled out by Gary's two older brothers. Gary developed a close relationship with Television, particularly the colorful and friendly world of Saturday morning cartoons, and the always reliable zaniness of situation comedies.
Due to the fact that the VCR and DVR had not yet been invented, it was necessary for Gary to spend hours in front of the TV daily so as not to miss any important programming. This left little time for other extracurricular activities.
The less said about Gary's high school experience the better. Suffice it to say he survived, and graduated. Barely.
Upon reaching adulthood, Gary fled Western Massachusetts for Boston, where he came out of the closet, which was not only psychologically necessary, but poetically appropriate considering a closet was about the size of the apartment he was able to afford to rent.
Gary muddled through what would be best described as a 'stint' at Emerson College.[Nowadays, when he is confronted with forms requesting he state his 'Highest Level of Education Completed', Gary checks the box marked ‘Some College’. It should be noted that it took him ‘Some Years’ to pay off ‘Some Student Loans’ for this brief foray in Higher Learning.]
Like every homosexual, Gary wanted to be admired and respected in Gay Society, which meant he had three career choices: Go-Go Dancer, DJ, or Drag Queen. Unfortunately, he realized that he was too modest, too uncoordinated, and unwilling to shave his beard (which had been getting him a lot of attention with the boys).
With little hope of acquiring Gay Fame, and after enduring years of toiling in the miserable, stifling hell that is retail, with no conceivable end in sight, Gary decided he had two options: Find a creative outlet, or slit his wrists. To the Gay World's delight and his mother's relief, he chose the former.
Gary realized that he could—at the very, very least—draw passably enough and write adequately enough to create a comic strip, and trick a local gay rag into printing it. [As an added bonus, this endeavor promised to be a devious way of forcing his clever wit and vexatious opinions on an unsuspecting public.] Sure enough, the Boston-based periodical In Newsweekly (now known as The New England Blade) took the bait. Thus, Gary achieved the distinguished honor of having his creative work published weekly alongside exhaustively thorough porn film reviews and spelling-challenged RentBoy advertisements.
Gary currently lives in a kitschy loft in Boston's South End, with his demanding cats Sami and Penny. Depending on when this bio was last updated, he may or may not have a boyfriend, but chances are more than likely he is single, as he has never been very lucky in love.
Gary is proud of his achievements, as well he should be, considering his mediocre education and the lack of opportunities afforded him during his simple, unassuming life. He will continue to write and draw GARY TALES until people get bored with it, or he loses interest, whichever comes first. Until that time, he would like to see the comic strip make the transition to television and film, but his ultimate goal is for his cartoon characters to become the first openly gay PEZ dispensers.
INFLUENCES:
CHARLES SCHULZ Peanuts
LYNDA BARRY Ernie Pook's Semeek, The Good Times Are Killing Me, One Hundred Demons, What It Is
MATT GROENING Life in Hell, The Simpsons
ARMISTEAD MAUPIN Tales of the City
BERKE BREATHED Bloom County
SUSAN HARRIS Soap, The Golden Girls
JIMMY JOHNSON Arlo & Janis
LYNN JOHNSTON For Better or For Worse
DAYS OF OUR LIVES
HARVEY COMICS Richie Rich, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Jackie Jokers
VOLTAIRE Candide
To learn more fascinating tidbits about Gary, and to become his Friend, see his MySpace page HERE.2
To ask Gary to dinner, or complain about a recent comic strip, send him an email HERE.3
Comic Stripping doesn't pay very well, and Gary needs all the financial aid he can get to support his Limited Edition Candy Bar habit. To send him a cash gift, click HERE4.
The name change of the comic strip is a whole story I can get into another time
What a blast from the past! I actually miss MySpace 😔
Feel free to leave a comment or message me via Substack
Can’t remember what link I had here back then, but now I have Buy Me a Coffee!
The Thanksgiving one hit hard. When I was in high school, a boy I had a serious crush on was giving me a ride home after a (very tame, at a teacher’s house) party. Before we got to my place, he looked at me and something like “did you ever feel like you wish something would happen?” and I clammed up just like the character in your strip. So nothing did happen. Almost 40 years later and I still get discombobulated just thinking about that missed opportunity.
Love you, Gary.
You're a much funnier cartoonist than Alison Bechdel, creator of "Dykes to Watch Out For." Her slices of lesbian life never ended with a laugh-out-loud joke like yours do.
Other observations:
You cried when you were forced to join the Little League. I cried when I was forced to participate in relay races. Femme gay men and uncoordinated lesbians have some things in common.
Hate Book is really just the internet, but it's a genius idea. Go for it. As an incentive to join, every new subscriber receives an openly gay PEZ dispenser.
What's Wyoming?