Michelangelo! Oscar Wilde! Andy Warhol! Tennessee Williams! Some of the greatest and most influential artists and writers in history, while excelling in their own creative fields, have also excelled in the fields of flower arranging, brunch preparation, and knowing the perfect place for a pre-theater cocktail. That's right—they were gay! And before you start writing that angry e-mail, yes... I know not everyone of us is good at flower arranging. That is a stereotype. Those folks always have the best florist on speed dial. We are all good at brunch, though. True fact.
Unless you've been living in a cave or a K-hole or on a Polygamist ranch in Texas, you know that this time of the year is Pride Season... the time of year when those of us who profess to be gay ourselves can voice an especially loud "Go us!" about our many achievements, advancements, and generally fabulous qualities. All these years of parades, rallies, candlelight vigils and beer busts, though, have not prompted all our sisters and brothers out of the closet. It's still a harsh world, but in turn, sometimes harsh measures must be taken.
It's time, my fellow queer comics fans, to accept the truth about one of our holiest icons! No longer will we hide his light under a bushel! Of course, by "light", I mean crackling tendrils of popping black energy dots, and by "bushel" I mean the city-sized metallic boot of an enormous, mechanoid Space God. Now I shout it from the highest hill: Jack "King" Kirby was gay!
How do I know? What evidence do I have? Did I ever run into him at a certain Turkish bathhouse in an out-of-the-way spot just across state lines? These are all valid questions I may or may not answer. Well... that second one I guess I'll have to get to.
I became convinced of Kirby's membership in our "Super Friends of Dorothy" when I read the recent reprint book of some of his major work: Countdown Special: New Gods. One trip through its pages provides subtle, yet very telling clues about which side Kirby's bread was buttered on, so to speak.
Perhaps the most fruitful source is the first story in the book "In Search of a Dream!" starring the absolutely queer-ific Forever People. Four boyz and their gal-pal (read "fag hag") drop onto small-potatoes Earth from the outrageously over-the-top big city of Supertown. It's Priscilla, Queen of the Desert writ on a grander scale, in true Kirby fashion. One look at their day-glow wardrobe and you realize that these kids aren't exactly shopping at Wal-Mart. Even their ride, the Super Cycle, is a crazy quilt riot of color, proving that in Supertown, every trip down the street is a Pride Parade.
First and perhaps most obviously, we have the mac-daddy pilot of the Super Cycle, Big Bear. I mean... it's right there in his name! Jack must have had quite a thing for him, as he is the most striking of the crew. Who can blame him, though... which of us hasn't pined for a 7-and-a-half foot tall redhead with arms like tree trunks? I know I have.
It becomes obvious by page 6 that Mark Moonrider, the clean cut boy-next-door of the team (well... if you live next door to a costume shop that specializes in weird headgear and mixing yellow loincloths with green-and-purple jumpsuits and pale orange boots), is Big Bear's main squeeze. Mark even calls Bear their "hot pilot", as Bear gives him a tender, loving touch. You know how the big ones just loooooove to have their egos stroked.
Serifan is the runt of the litter; the shy, quiet one with the best manners. You know the type... always saying just the right thing to your mother or your best female friend. Jack, through Mark's dialogue, reveals a hidden side, though. "Serifan turns on with fantasies! He's a sensitive!" Does Serifan have a secret naughty side? I mean, that he's a "sensitive" is obvious—he passes out just a few panels later! Do his fantasies include standard cowboys-and-indians fare, as his obvious fetish-wear seems to suggest, or does he have... other appetites? Kirby must have had an ex like Serifan. It's always the quiet ones, innit?
The final of the fabulous foursome is Vykin the Black, included for obvious purposes of diversity and maybe because Kirby knew that everyone comes down with a touch of jungle fever now and again. Jack switches things up with here, though. Instead of being the head-wagging, finger-popping, ghetto queen we have come to love so deeply, Vykin is easily the most serious of the boyz. He's so responsible in fact, that he's trusted with the care and feeding of their most important piece of equipment, their iPhone. I mean... their Mother Box. I think it was the name of this device that first clued me in to Jack's leanings... I mean "Mother" "Box." Come on... Freudian much, Jack?
Requisite Damsel-in-This-Dress Beautiful Dreamer is their distaff member, and their bait for all the "straight boys who stray" from the Supertown Municipal Rugby League. BD is the reason the boys drop in on our backwater blue marble in the first place—she's been kidnapped by the un-yielding, un-friendly, and craggily un-attractive Darkseid, the old icky pedophile who has been trying to make it with the boys just for EVER. When they are finally confronting Darkseid's big ugly goons, they use their ultimate trick: they use Mother Box to "unite them as one" and make them "the door for him to enter." Who is "him", you ask? Why none other than The Infinity Man! Yep, I can pretty much guess what the "door" comment was meant to imply—but then again, Kirby was never exactly known for his subtlety!
Now... isn't The Infinity Man just everyone's ideal of the perfect stud? His golden tan offsets a go-go dancer costume that accentuates his powerful thighs and biceps in a color scheme right out of a Bob Mackie fever dream. He's the big brother/hot daddy/best buddy of your dreams who chases off the bad guys with literally infinite power. Plus, he never sticks around long enough to get tiresome! He's the ultimate love interest! Only someone who really parsed out the true masculine ideal with detailed attention, and who had a one-night-stand with an Adonis from the dancer's cage that just WOULDN'T GET OUT the next morning could have conceived of him.
I could go on, as there is plenty of grist for the lavender mill in the rest of the book's three stories: Superman experiencing a feeling of "not belonging" until he meets the Forever Studs; Scott Free's unambiguous bondage fetish, his older/younger relationship with his mentor—the first Mister Miracle, a fit and fabulous silver fox; Heggra as Darkseid's overbearing mother and Uncle Steppenwolf as his disapproving, absent father-figure; even Granny Goodness—the ultimate Stone Cold Bulldyke. It's all there!
It's time, people! Time we took this giant of modern super-hero comics and welcomed him into our honored sisterhood! And, hey... even if Jack wasn't gay* or even bi, or queer, or questioning... at least he knew how to tell a ripping good comics tale on a grand scale. And if maybe a few of us picture a hot Forever People orgy while Beautiful Dreamer is out at her OB/GYN, well... I'm sure he wouldn't begrudge us. Now there's something to be proud of!
*He wasn't.
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