Welcome to the GLA Timeline! In these pages we have attempted to catalog the representation of the LGBT community in comic books and comic strips. We start with the earliest days of the format, when gay content could only be hinted at; through to the time of the gay liberation movement when LGBT themes began to appear overtly in the underground comics and comic strips running in the niche magazines serving the burgeoning gay community; to today when LGBT characters and themes appear in the most mainstream of comic books and strips.
Every attempt has been made to thoroughly and accurately document each item on this timeline. We were helped in this work by the earlier efforts of Andy Mangels to chronicle the representation of the LGBT community within comics and the work of openly LBGT creators. We have confined ourselves to the story of the LGBT community in the comics themselves in these pages, but suggest that you go to our LGBT Creators section for information about LGBT creators and their achievements.
This is an ongoing project, and we invite help from anyone with information about LGBT representation in comic books and strips. You can send information to glajoe at gayleague dot com .
Based in part on the work of Andy Mangels . His faithful efforts and dedication to LGBT comics history are appreciated.
Many of the images included in the timeline were scanned by Jon Sauer from Mr. Mangels’s extensive collection. Additional images were provided by Joe Palmer.
For more information about LGBT representation in comics, see:
“Coming Out in the Comic Strips“: an interesting short article on gays in mainstream comic strips.
“Comic Strips and Cartoons“: a brief overview of gays in comic strips and comic books.
The Gay Comics List : a good resource for LGBT comics of all kinds.
Please click on the links or in the sidebar to read various sections of the timeline.