When I first bought this comic, it was purely because of the Maxx on the cover. The Maxx is, I think, one of the great superhero works to come out of the early 90s, and the real surprise about it is that it came from Image Comics at a time when the vast majority of what they were producing was extremely sub-par. But the Maxx is also a perfect character (or setting, at least) to cross over into the subculture of queer comics. Anyone who's read the series will understand how very queer it really is (in the older sense of the word, perhaps), and also that it's about people on the fringes and how they deal with the pitfalls and perils of mainstream society.
The story within the comic, not featuring the Maxx, but one of his supporting cast, Sara, tells a tale that is, sadly, something of a cliche in queer comics - the conversation with the ghost of a queer person who has killed themselves. The worst part of this cliche is that it hasn't become such because it's a particularly popular or current kind of story, but because it happens all the time. Which is exactly why a publication like Gay Comics exists, to highlight facts like this.
But not only facts like this. I don't want you to think that this comic is all doom and gloom, because it's not. The vast majority of the stories are about queer people of all sorts trying to figure out relationships, trying to understand how to navigate in a queer way through a straight world - not really so different from how things are 20 years later, though the avenues of navigation we have are becoming more and more wide.
I was absolutely overjoyed to see some early work from Paige Braddock in today's issue. I reviewed one of the collections of Jane's World a while back, and I've been meaning to track down more of Ms. Braddock's work. One of the nice things about this project, and not knowing, really, what's concealed within this collection, is discovering gems like this tucked away that I would not have recognized when I first bought the comic. It's like putting together a really, really, really big jigsaw puzzle.
There's also a few cool serialized tales in this issue, which is great because I really liked them and I love when I find a story that I really want to follow. The bad part is that the next issue, #25 (which I'll be reading later on this month) is the last issue, so I don't know if any of these serials had a chance to conclude. That, though, is life as a comics fan.
More to come...
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