Donelan (cartoonist)
| Donelan | |
|---|---|
 Cover of Drawing on the Gay Experience by Gerard P. Donelan | |
| Born | Gerard P. Donelan 1949 (age 74–75) Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist |
| Pseudonym(s) | Donelan |
Notable works | "It's a Gay Life"
"Drawing on the Gay Experience" "Donelan's Back" |
| Spouse(s) | Christopher McKenna (m. 2013) |
Gerard P. Donelan (born 1949),[1] known mononymously as Donelan (dɔnəlɛn),[2] is an openly gay cartoonist. Part of the first wave[3] of LGBT cartoonists, he drew "It's a Gay Life", a regular single-panel cartoon feature in The Advocate, for 15 years.[4]
Personal life
[edit]Donelan was born in Jamaica Plain,[5] a neighborhood in Boston, but grew up in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the son of advertising artist Paul Donelan. He graduated from Plymouth Carver Regional High School in 1967.[5] He studied art at Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute but did not finish a degree, and went to work in retail.
He met and began dating Christopher McKenna in May 1979. The couple chose to wait to be married until same-sex marriage was legalized nationally in 2015.[5] After spending most of their lives together living in San Francisco, the couple eventually moved back to Donelan's hometown of Plymouth, Massachusetts after his mother Teresa passed away in 2004.[5]
Career
[edit]In 1977, disappointed that Joe Johnson's pioneering gay comic strips Miss Thing and Big Dick had ended their run in The Advocate, Donelan submitted 29 cartoons to the publication, which turned into a long-running series of his own. "It's a Gay Life" gently lampooned the gay "clone" culture of the time, also known as the Castro clone, focusing primarily on young and middle-aged gay men in their everyday lives.[6] He continued to work in retail while producing the series, which also yielded two paperback reprints: Drawing on the Gay Experience (1987) and Donelan's Back (1988).[1]
For eight years Donelan also created sexually explicit comics in color for Advocate Men, later retitled Men, which was an erotica sister publication of The Advocate.[7] His work has appeared in Drummer,[8] Frontiers, Gunner, Gay Comix (including one front cover),[9] and Meatmen (including two front covers and several back covers).[4]
Donelan's art was produced in seven countries, including South Korea,[5] and in five languages, including Dutch and Korean.[10] His work has appeared on t-shirts, rubber stamps, and in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.[7] He has illustrated calendars and greeting cards as well.[11]
Donelan created cartoons, pamphlets, and posters to educate the gay community about the importance of safe sex practices and the threat of AIDS.[5] He did this work for the NAMES Project, which worked to honor victims of AIDS and AIDS-related diseases in an enormous patchwork quilt.
In May 2015, he was a featured panelist at the first Queers & Comics conference, as one of the "Pioneers of Queer Men's Comics".[7]
Contributions
[edit]- "Donelan" from Strip AIDS U.S.A.
- "The Quilt" from Strip AIDS U.S.A.
- cover of Gay Comix #7 (color credit to Robert Triptow)
- "Night Moves" from Gay Comix #7
- "The Discussion Group" from Gay Comix #7
- "A Donelan Look at Women" from Gay Comix #10
- "A Donelan Look at Men" from Gay Comix #10
- "Blip..." from Gay Comix #25
- untitled from No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics
- untitled from Meatmen #1
- "Interrupted Transmission" from Meatmen #2
- back cover from Meatmen #2
- "It's a Gay Life" from The Advocate (active strip from 1977-1992)[11][10]
Quotes
[edit]From the first Queers & Comics conference, on the panel for Pioneers of Queer Men's Comics
[edit]“I always try to talk to younger gay people, to tell them what happened before … I think it’s important that we all understand what everybody else did before us so that they can appreciate what they have now.”[7]
From Wicked Local article/interview with Emily Clark
[edit](speaking on the push for equality and acceptance) “We’re still not there, because not everybody agrees that you have a right to be who you are. We’re still the outliers – not part of the heterosexual community that everyone thinks is normal.”[5]
From the Preface of Drawing on the Gay Experience
[edit]"I loved recognizing little bits of real life in the black and white blocks of the daily papers. Hasn't everyone at one time had the urge to cut out a cartoon because 'That's me!'? That's what I wanted to do with my cartoons for the gay community. I wanted to do what Joe Johnson's 'Miss Thing' in the early days of The ADVOCATE had done for me when I was first coming out. I wanted some fairy to see one of my cartoons, say, 'That's me!' and realize that there are others who do what 'I' do, feel as 'I' feel. I wanted to help show other gay people that 'we' have a validity, a sense of humor and a sense of community. Why cartoons connect me to real life, I don't know. But I hope my cartoons connect my readers to our gay life in a positive way."[1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c Drawing on the Gay Experience: Cartoons from The Advocate, by Gerard P. Donelan, "About the Cartoonist", 1987, Liberation Publications
- ^ "How to Pronounce Donelan - PronounceNames.com - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2019-11-25.
- ^ "Queers & Comics: The LGBTQ Cartoonists and Comics Conference | The Comics Journal". www.tcj.com. 18 May 2015. Retrieved 2017-01-22.
- ^ a b GBLTQ - arts - Comic Strips and Cartoons Archived April 14, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d e f g Clark, Emily. "Celebrating LGBT Pride Month with Plymouth gay artist Gerard Donelan". Wicked Local Wareham. Archived from the original on 2020-08-04. Retrieved 2019-11-25.
- ^ "Gay Ghetto Comics 1: Constructing a Dominant Gay Habitus « The Hooded Utilitarian". www.hoodedutilitarian.com. 14 November 2011. Retrieved 2017-01-22.
- ^ a b c d CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies (2016-09-08), Queers & Comics: Pioneers of Queer Men's Comics, archived from the original on 2021-12-20, retrieved 2017-01-22
- ^ "Drummer Magazine No 158 October 1992". Jack Fritscher. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
- ^ Gay Comix #7 at Grand Comics Database
- ^ a b www.zipcomic.com. "Read online Gay Comix (Gay Comics) comic - Issue #25". www.zipcomic.com. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
- ^ a b Theophano, Teresa.http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/comic_strips_cartoons_A.pdf(PDF). GLBTQ Archive. Retrieved May 5, 2016.