Howard Cruse
Howard Cruse (1944-2019) was an influential American cartoonist known for his groundbreaking contributions to underground comics, particularly within the LGBTQ community. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he began drawing at a young age and pursued a diverse range of artistic roles throughout his career, including art director and puppeteer. Cruse was a pioneer in creating comics that explored personal and social themes, often incorporating humor while addressing serious issues such as homophobia and racism. His notable works include the autobiographical strip "Wendel," which ran in *The Advocate* and reflected on life during the AIDS epidemic, and the graphic novel "Stuck Rubber Baby," which critically examined the social dynamics of the 1960s American South. As a founding member of *Gay Comix*, Cruse played a vital role in shaping gay and lesbian comics and left a lasting impact on the genre. Despite not achieving the same level of mainstream fame as some contemporaries, his work is celebrated for its depth and social commentary. Cruse's legacy continues to resonate within the comic community and beyond, highlighting the importance of diverse narratives in art.
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Subject Terms
Howard Cruse
- Born: May 2, 1944
- Birthplace: Birmingham, Alabama
- Died: November 26, 2019
- Place of death: Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Biography
Howard Cruse was born May 2, 1944, in Birmingham, Alabama. His father, Jesse Clyde Cruse, was a minister, journalist, and photographer. His mother, Irma Russell Cruse, was a business executive. Cruse began drawing when he was five. While a drama student at Birmingham Southern College in 1968, Cruse worked as an assistant art director at television station WAPI (later WVTM), and as a staff artist for the Birmingham News.
After graduating in 1968, Cruse received a Shubert Playwriting Fellowship to Pennsylvania State University but decided he was unsuited to graduate school. Between 1968 and 1978, Cruse was a paste-up artist for Mag Computer Corporation in New York; an art director and puppeteer for WBMG in Birmingham; a scenic design assistant and actor for the Atlanta Children’s Theater; a staff artist for Art Service, Inc., in Atlanta, Georgia, and Luckie and Forney Advertising in Birmingham; and an art director for the science-fiction magazine Starlog in New York.
Cruse preferred to create comics unfettered by public opinion. At Birmingham Southern, he wrote a comic strip for the student literary magazine satirizing the conservative John Birch Society. He did a daily strip, Tops and Bottoms, featuring talking squirrels, for the Birmingham Post-Herald in 1972. Cruse began to see comics as a way to “explore [him]self without inhibiting editorial constraints.” During the 1970s, his work appeared in such publications as Bizarre Sex, Cracked, Dope Comix, Fooey, Sick, and Yellow Dog. He has also contributed to magazines as varied as American Health, Artforum International, Crawdaddy, Heavy Metal, and Playboy.
Cruse, who called poet Allen Ginsberg his role model, began dealing with gay subjects in the strip Barefootz, while often parodying such famous comics as Little Lulu, the only comic he followed regularly as a child. In 1979, he became a founder of the influential Gay Comix. Starting in 1983, his autobiographical strip Wendel appeared regularly in the gay and lesbian publication The Advocate. Initially focused on humor, the comic took on more serious themes in the midst of the AIDS epidemic before ending its run in 1989. Much of Cruse’s work was collected as Dancin’ Nekkid with the Angels: Comic Strips and Stories for Grownups (1987).
Cruse spent four years on his graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby (1995), an examination of homophobia and racism in the 1960s American South. He called the novel an attempt to document an era of reluctant social change. It would go on to receive the British Comics Creators Guild, Critics’ Choice, Eisner, Harvey, Luchs, and United Kingdom Art Awards, as well as the Prix de la Critique. Later work included illustrating The Swimmer With a Rope in His Teeth (2004) by Jeanne E. Shaffer and overseeing various compilations of his earlier strips.
Cruse is noted for exploring beyond the mainstream surface of American life. In one panel, for example, when a man tells his girlfriend, “We never leave our childhoods behind us, baby!” she replies, “All those green lawns and white picket fences. . . and underneath them—the terror!” Though he never found the level of fame some other cartoonists achieved, he was recognized as an important figure in the underground comics community. In particular, his influence on gay and lesbian comics—and the LGBTQ community in general—was significant.
Cruze had a daughter, Kimberly Kolze Venter, from an early relationship; she was put up for adoption but the two eventually met and formed a close relationship. Cruse later married Ed Sedarbaum. After battling cancer, Cruse died on November 26, 2019, at the age of seventy-five.
Bibliography
Bechdel, Alison. "The Godfather of Queer Comics." Slate, 21 July 2020, slate.com/culture/2020/07/alison-bechdel-howard-cruse-stuck-rubber-baby.html. Accessed 5 Oct. 2020.
Hall, Justin. "Howard Cruse 1944–2019." The Comics Journal, 2 Dec. 2019, www.tcj.com/howard-cruse-1944-2019/. Accessed 5 Oct. 2020.
Howard Cruse Central, Feb. 2020, www.howardcruse.com/. Accessed 5 Oct. 2020.
Sandomir, Richard. "Howard Cruse Dies at 75; His Cartoons Explored Gay Life." The New York Times, 4 Dec. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/arts/howard-cruse-dead.html. Accessed 5 Oct. 2020.