Howard Cruse, FROM HEADRACK TO CLAUDE: COLLECTED GAY COMIX cartoonist: Mr. Media Radio Interview

Cartoonist Howard Cruse collects gay comix for Mr. Media!

Howard Cruse’s comic strips and humorous illustrations have appeared in Playboy, The Village Voice, Artforum International, Harpoon, Heavy Metal, The Advocate, Starlog and many other national magazines.

In 1983, Cruse introduced his comic strip “Wendel” to the pages of The Advocate, the national gay newsmagazine, where it appeared regularly until 1989.

Five books have been published compiling Cruse’s own comic strips and stories from underground comic books and elsewhere: Wendel; Dancin’ Nekkid With The Angels; Wendel on the Rebound; Early Barefootz; and Wendel All Together. Cruse’s critically acclaimed 1995 graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby won Eisner and Harvey Awards as well as a United Kingdom Comic Art Award and a British Comics Creators Guild Award.

Cruse's seventh book, The Swimmer With a Rope In His Teeth, was a collaboration with Jeanne E. Shaffer.

For two years during the early seventies Cruse drew a daily newspaper comic strip, Tops & Button, for the Birmingham Post-Herald, while earning his living as art director (and improvisational puppeteer) for a Birmingham television station. In 1972, he began gaining a national readership with Barefootz stories drawn for underground comic books published by Kitchen Sink Comics.

His latest book is From Headrack to Claude: Collected Gay Comix by Howard Cruse.