LGBT comics pioneer Howard Cruse celebrates a birthday today! Cruse began contributing his work to the underground comix scene in the late 1960s and was the original editor of Gay Comix (later Gay Comics), published by Denis Kitchen’s Kitchen Sink Press. Cruse’s editorship was short lived though, leaving the anthology comic in the hands of Robert Triptow and later Andy Mangels to focus on the groundbreaking Wendel comic strip, featuring gay couple Wendel and Ollie, that ran in the pages of The Advocate for much of the 1980s. Cruse is also known for his graphic novel, Stuck Rubber Baby, which tells the story of Toland Park caught up in the Civil Rights movement while coming to terms with his homosexuality.
