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Dale Lazarov is best known as the writer/editor of STICKY, a collaboration with illustrator Steve MacIsaac published by Bruno Gmünder Verlag. Best-selling author Clive Barker described STICKY as "Sexy, stylish, minimalist… an intense mixture of erotic realism and the freedom of comics storytelling makes STICKY a pleasure to have in one hand."

Dale's also the writer/editor of FANCY, a gay erotic webcomic drawn by Delic Van Loond and published weekly at AdultWebcomics.com. Dale's busy collaborating with illustrators on other books of gay erotic comics: Bastian Jonsson on NIGHTLIFE, Foxy Andy on CHUMS, and Mioki on POWER POP BOYS. Dale currently lives and works in Chicago.

While snowed in at my home in Seattle, I connected with Dale this week to find out all the details on Dale's most recent book, MANLY—illustrated by Amy Colburn and recently published by Bruno Gmünder—as well as other exciting projects from this steamy storyteller…

Readers who pick up MANLY and who've also read STICKY might notice a recurring theme: the lack of dialogue. All of the action takes place without any word or thought balloons. What's behind your love of all things word-free?

Well, I love silent movies. My favorite silent movie would have to be People on Sunday. I also love Tom of Finland, whose gay erotic comics were almost all without captions, word or thought balloons. I have to admit that the silent comics idea was inspired by my frustration writing erotic dialogue that wouldn't sound cheesy to some ears and worrying about getting a translator and having to place the comics with Japanese gay manga magazines. At this point, my editor at Bruno Gmünder Verlag tells me that books without words sell better than books with them, and we have wide international distribution so it works to our benefit. The other day, I stumbled upon an Indian books website that sells MANLY; imagine having to serve the multiple language needs in that culture! So I keep my erotic and emotional language visual.

Creating a wordless comic book seems like a cushy job for the writer at first glance, but when you think about it a little more… you must have put in a tremendous amount of work to pull it off. Can you pull back the curtain a bit and give us a peek into some of the pitfalls?

The absence of dialogue has to be replaced with something, so it's not about making my job easier! Also, I work very closely with my artists at every stage of composition so there is a lot editing to be done. This is why I call myself "writer/editor".

I am lucky that I am a good visual reader, so I imagine each page as a visual paragraph. I write individual character and action points (what Scott McCloud calls "choice of moment") that go in a sequence that engages the reader on any number of levels—not just the erotic one, even though that is the principal purpose of the story. The artist is free to change the panel breakdowns in the full script as long as he or she keeps the action and character points clear and engaging. I get to see page layouts before full pencils and they rarely need reconsideration.

There are a number of other challenges to writing the scripts. I want to avoid the aspects of gay comics porn that turn me off (cruelty, anxiety) while keeping the stuff that does turn me on. Then I have to be focus on writing something the artist can and wants to draw. Amy is very dynamic in MANLY and Delic is very contemplative in FANCY because I wrote with their preferences in mind.

Another aspect that I need to be mindful about when writing the scripts is how they will come together in a collection. Each album of stories has a premise that brings the stories together; sticking to that premise when writing individual scripts for three or four stories can be challenging. Right now, I am struggling with a fourth story for CHUMS, the book I am collaborating on with Foxy Andy, because I am trying to find something new to say about the differences between young and mature gay sex and love, separate and integrated.

I also work at making the work life-affirming in very subtle and devious ways. My collabs usually tell me if that aspect of the stories works or not.

The rest comes pretty easy to me, as the idea of turning an artist on with a script so they can turn me back on with their art is pretty central to my entire purpose as a writer and editor of chic hardcovers of gay comics filth.

The art for MANLY was done by Amy Colburn, who, if I read correctly, makes her book-publishing debut with this volume. How was working with Amy? What were some of the biggest differences from working with Steve MacIsaac, who drew your last book, STICKY?

Steve asked me to write for him so at a certain point I was in an advisory position; overall, we were creative equals and Steve did respect and used my feedback when he made a unilateral decision that I convinced him needed correction and often offered a solution to the problem in a way that improved the book. Say, the four-page story around the stories in STICKY was my solution to the problem of Steve sending a cover image to the publisher that neither featured the protagonists nor the sweetness of the book and the publisher loving it and me having a cow about it. [Laughs.]

I asked Amy to draw for me but I made sure she knew we were equals; say, we both agreed on who we should hire to color MANLY. If there was something that needed expediting and I didn't have time to ask for her opinion, which was rare, I made sure Amy knew why and didn't take it personally.

As a writer collaborating with artists, I'm sure you've experienced those thrilling moments when someone brings something to the table you hadn't anticipated. Can you point to some of the memorable intersections where your story and their art combined in a really exciting way?

I have to say my favorite surprise is when my collaborators are able to draw iconic homoerotic figures right out of my character descriptions and do page after page of nuanced expressions for the characters. I love them all, but these are my absolute favorites: the gay leather cowboy in STICKY's "Talk Show Queers", the big palooka boxer in MANLY's "Clinch", the fireplug blacksmith in FANCY's "Hospitality", the scruffy punk homo in NIGHTLIFE's "Closing Time", the sexy art nerd in CHUMS' "Second Chances"…

Do you do full scripts and camera directions for your artists, like a screen or stage play, or some other format?

I do full scripts that start with descriptions of the characters and major locations. Sometimes I send reference images, sometimes I post hyperlinks in the script where necessary. Then I start the script proper; I write pages being mindful that each page is like a paragraph (something I learned from Steve) and make sure that the last panel of the right-hand-side page asks the reader to flip the page to "discover" something (something I stole from, of all people, Chuck Dixon). I only describe what needs to be there from panel to panel for the story to be visualized and dramatized. I also describe the framing of the moment if it adds something to the illustration of the moment of a panel. The artist is free to interpret the script and embellish the illustration. I can give notes to the artist at the layout or the pencils stage of page composition if something isn't clear in the storytelling.

You can often gauge an artist's influence by looking at their work, but with writers it's always more challenging. (Especially in your case, since wordless books provide fewer obvious "clues"…) Who are your biggest influences, comic-wise?

Sugar And Spike "write your own dialogue" comics. [Laughs.]

Besides that, Len Wein and Alan Moore, along with Warren Ellis' decompressed story-telling techniques, had the most influence, comic-wise, and my imagination has a lot of Curt Swan facial expressions in it. In terms of the content of the work, I am most indebted to Tom of Finland, who would show a delinquent smiling with delight while taking two cop cocks up his ass.

So, Tom of Finland is a big influence… but what source of inspiration for your work do you think would be the most surprising?

I think people would be surprised that, as a purveyor of chic hardovers of gay comics filth, I am inspired to make gay guys less unhappy. If I cannot ease suffering, I at least do not want to make things worse for gay guys.

I suppose I can say that my work is also a response to my sisters' romance comic collection which, as a whole, is not exactly what I would call "life affirming". I am equally compelled to make gay pop culture that's surprising, that's of palpable quality, since I do not want to add to the canon of crapulent gay pop culture.

What challenges and opportunities does working in erotic comics present, compared to the broader comics industry? Do you feel like you're outside of mainstream comics and more in the book world?

I guess that as a gay comics pornographer I am more aligned with indie comics and graphic novel culture, with its interest in creators' rights and aesthetic and ideological independence. I read a lot of webcomics and Big Three comics as well but, while the mere idea of writing Legion of Super-Heroes makes me run around squealing and flapping my hands like a ten year-old nancy boy, I am not yet willing to do the footwork to land that kind of assignment.

I am most definitely in the book world since I am published by a gay art book publisher. I wrote off the local comic shop world the day that Diamond shorted orders of the first STICKY floppy from Eros Comics/Fantagraphics; I gave up on individual shops when all the gay comic book dealers in Chicago—and there are at least seven of them—would only special order gay-themed books.

There are a lot of people out there who want a thriving gay comics scene (even if it's only because they want something good to read!) What can readers do to help support your books, whether it's getting them into their comic shops and bookstores, getting press coverage, or other ways?

If I had my druthers, I would have all gay comics readers ask their local comics shop or indy bookstore if they can curate an LGBT comics display (or window!) for Pride Month. I am happy to help curate that display via e-mail or Facebook. Then, I would send a press release to local gay publications and ask to be interviewed about gay comics. I would also send out the press release to local newspapers and arts weeklies but those are less likely to look for "Pride Month" coverage. To celebrate the display, I would ask local or semi-local gay comics people to do a wine-and-cheese reception at the store, perhaps in collaboration with a Queer Nerds At Heart dating group which would totally go for an event of this kind. Why, gay comics make great marital aids!

For more on Dale Lazarov, check out his Prism Comics profile. You can get a copy of MANLY and STICKY from Amazon.com.

Charles "Zan" Christensen was the Founding President of Prism Comics. He lives in sunny Seattle with his fiancé Steve and their two cats Noblet and Geoffrey.

Prism Comics promotes the works of the LGBT community in comics. It does not implicitly endorse any other material or products associated with those works. Any opinions expressed are those of the author(s).