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The Complex and Coded Early History of Lesbian Comic Strip Characters

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The Complex and Coded Early History of Lesbian Comic Strip Characters JOURNAL OF LESBIAN STUDIES 2018, VOL. 22, NO. 4, 336–353 https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2018.1449502 Lovers, enemies, and friends: The complex and coded early history of lesbian comic strip characters Caitlin McGurk The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA ABSTRACT KEYWORDS This article seeks to recuperate four previously unexamined early Lesbian characters; queer newspaper comic strip characters that could lay the groundwork comics; LGBTQ comics; for queer comic studies. The titular characters in Lucy and Sophie Brenda Starr; Milton Caniff Say Goodbye (1905), Sanjak in Terry and the Pirates (1939) by Milton Caniff, and Hank O’Hair in Brenda Starr, Reporter (1940) by Dale Messick are analyzed through close readings, supporting archival material, and interviews. The article also theorizes the identification of the creator of Lucy and Sophie Say Goodbye as George O. Frink, and offers an overview of LGBTQ comics holdings at institutions in North America. When scholars examine the history of LGBTQ comics and cartoon art, focal points include Tom of Finland, underground comix, graphic novels, manga, and alterna- tive weekly comic strips and comic books. While this list is expansive, it omits one major area: LGBTQ characters and themes in mainstream U.S. newspaper comic strips. Based on circulation numbers,1 newspaper comics have been the format most broadly consumed by a U.S. audience; therefore, LGBTQ representation in them is of utmost importance. Why have scholars relegated the investigation of LGBTQ comics and images primarily to counterculture art, where its visibility would be expected and embraced? By the 1990s, gay male characters could be found in popular reality-based newspa- per strips, including ForBetterOrWorse(Johnston, “Lawrence’sStory”)and Doonesbury (Theophano 2), the latter of which included a storyline in which the char- acter Andy Lippincott battles AIDS. Prior to 1950, however, there were already three daily strips in the United States that had characters that could be read as lesbian: Lucy and Sophie Say Goodbye (1905), Terry and the Pirates (1934), and Brenda Starr, Reporter (1940). This article will investigate the queer content of these three comic strips, which have not received much previous scholarly attention.2 As an accessible mass medium—reaching a broad spectrum of socioeconomic classes—the most CONTACT Caitlin McGurk [email protected] Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Sullivant Hall, 1813 N. High St., Columbus, OH 43210, USA. Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/wjls. © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC JOURNAL OF LESBIAN STUDIES 337 successful newspaper comics can often be considered a bellwether for the opinions and perspectives of a wide array of people in the United States. While mainstream comic book creators and publishers have begun to include LGBTQ characters as a standard, one can tease out a genealogy of their depiction in the form by studying the treatment given to these early examples. As a result, they provide an understanding of the origins of queer representation and the progress made since. Should comics studies continue its rapid growth of the past several decades, these three comics can be seen as laying the foundation for queer comics studies within it. Accordingly, this article provides an introductory exploration of both the forgotten and the sublimated lesbian and women-loving characters in U.S. newspaper comics—those that were seen but not always understood—and a summary of institutionally held LGBTQ comics collections for further research and discovery. Lucy and Sophie Say Goodbye Published weekly in 1905 over the course of eight months, Lucy and Sophie Say Goodbye was written and drawn by an unidentified artist. The strip is a fascinating formal work in its innovative use of panel structure and narrative strategy, and it also seems to be the first instance of a romantic same-sex relationship in a U.S. comic strip. Amidst its brief life, its elegant and experimental drawing style, its playful yet wistfully melancholy tone, and its anonymity, there is an alchemical and alluring nature to the comic strip that demands investigation. Appearing in the first decade of U.S. newspaper comics, Lucy and Sophie Say Goodbye enjoyed the freedom and the freshness of the form. The medium was still new to U.S. read- ers, and artists were able to experiment with design and themes with few restric- tions. Indeed, the market was thriving and thirsty for new talent, so cartoonists created multiple comic titles simultaneously, feeding the demand for material. Lucy and Sophie’s plot remained consistent in each of its 33 weekly installments: two women embrace and kiss goodbye, oblivious to the complications arising around them (see Figure 1). Sometimes, the titular characters were beset by the passage of enormous amounts of time, other times by natural disaster, but all the while Lucy and Sophie remain in one another’s arms, prolonging their farewell until they could meet again in the pages of the newspaper the following Sunday. Their intense embraces—unbreakable by time, nature, and human intervention— move beyond what could, on the surface, be a stereotypical gag about women tak- ing a long time to say goodbye to their friends. Instead, these scenes transform into what can be read as a groundbreaking look at romantic love between women. Fitting, too, is the strip’s placement in the cultural awareness of women who love women, as the perception of romantic friendships was just beginning to shift (Faderman, Odd Girls 18). Lucy and Sophie’s relationship appears to be an exam- ple of a “Boston Marriage.” The term is credited to Henry James’s 1885 novel The Bostonians, which he described as “one of those friendships between women that are so common in New England” (Matthiessen and Murdock 47). Knowledge of 338 C. MCGURK Figure 1. Lucy and Sophie Say Goodbye, May 21, 1905. Chicago Tribune. such relationships would have been somewhat common, though not yet explicitly discussed. Of Lucy and Sophie’s 33 rendezvous, those of April 16, 1905, September 10, 1905, and September 24, 1905, are the only three occurrences in which we see evidence of them having male counterparts, who make what can aptly be described as “but a shadowy appearance” (Smith-Rosenberg 53), as Lucy and Sophie down- right dismiss and ignore them (which serves as the joke in the strip for that week). What would these male partners have thought about Lucy and Sophie’s relationship? As Lillian Faderman has written, “for centuries men did not take [these relationships] seriously—and not only because to do so would have violated an inviolable and universal male chauvinism that mandated the notion that women had no real existence apart from men” (Faderman, “Nineteenth-Century” 32). For the husband, a wife’s engagement in romantic friendship with another woman posed no real threat of abandonment, as he operated under the assumption that his wife would not be able to survive, economically, without him. These rela- tionships were viewed as temporary, fleeting, and frivolous. While “Boston mar- riages” were more common between women who lived together and were in the workforce (and, therefore, not dependent on the financial support of a male part- ner), Lucy and Sophie instead see each other only on Sundays (apropos, as that is the only day of the week the strip was published). They occasionally acknowledge this limitation, such as on August 13, 1905, when one character says to the other: “I hope you’ll be back next Sunday.” Dressed in traditional Edwardian attire and coiffure, Lucy and Sophie are likely women of decent societal standing whose Sunday meetings seem to be a joyful and fleeting highpoint of their week. The duo’s farewells go beyond ordinary affection. JOURNAL OF LESBIAN STUDIES 339 Instead, they are prolonged, often holding hands or with their arms wrapped around each other’s bodies, heads tilted in a passionate kiss. Tension is created in each episode by the length of time they spend saying goodbye, slowly embracing deeper and approaching a kiss, with trivial talk or repeated farewells. On August 13, 1905 (Figure 2), the artist employs a dream-like sequence in which so much time passes during the embrace that the paperboy delivering a letter to them ages from child to elderly man; meanwhile, Lucy and Sophie remain young and enrap- tured by each other. Each episode is host to its own undeniable codes for Lucy and Sophie’s romantic friendship. The strips are peppered with expressions of endearment for each other, such as “honey” and “dear,” as well as regular flirtation and compliments. If the premise of Lucy and Sophie Say Goodbye was a simple parody of women’s social behavior, certainly every strip would not necessarily need to include a passionate kiss. The element of danger or disruption that exists in each of their encounters adds to the sense of desperation for each other, as well as to their obliviousness about the chaos of the surrounding world. Bank vaults fall from the sky, elephants stampede, and tornadoes sweep through the scene. They even step into the aisle to embrace during a wedding ceremony, blocking the bride and groom—and, thus, also symbolically blocking heteronormativity—while they simultaneously mirror the positions of the soon-to-be wedded couple. Onlookers exclaim their disap- proval: “The idea!,”“For mercy sakes!,” and so on. The romantic nature of their relationship is confirmed in the final appearance of Lucy and Sophie Say Goodbye on October 15, 1905: the characters are spied by two patrol men who, commenting on their affectionate behavior, call them “nutty” and “two crazy ones,” and proceed Figure 2. Lucy and Sophie Say Goodbye, August 13, 1905.
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