"Put down that comic book and clean your room, Skeezix!"
Particularly when my misbehaving had some connection to same-sex desire, like when Bill and I became a "mama and a papa", when I was disappointed at the lack of muscles at A Little Bit O'Heaven., or when I asked for a statue of a naked man for Christmas.
He never used that name on my brother or sister, just me. I had no idea why.
One day I stumbled upon a book in my Aunt Nora's attic, starring a boy named Skeezix. Turns out that he was from the long-running comic strip Gasoline Alley (1918-). Originally about four buddies who hung around in an alley to talk about cars, it took a domestic turn on February 14, 1921, when Walt Wallet found a baby on his doorstep, and named him Skeezix.
The strips were now about a single dad raising a small child -- who aged in real time.
He starred in three radio series and two movies (played by Jimmy Lyndon of Tom Brown's School Days fame, with the bisexual Scotty Beckett as his brother Corky).
The strip was not known for beefcake -- Walt was rather pudgy -- but Skeezix got some shirtless and underwear shots, and displayed a nice physique.
So my father connected my homoerotic hijinks to the shirtless, buddy-bonding, arguably gay Skeezix of his childhood.
The gay symbolism didn't last. Skeezix got a girlfriend, Nina Clock (pronounced Nine-a).
He graduated from high school, served in World War II, and returned to run the gas station. He married Nina, and had two kids: Chipper and Clovia.
Rover grew up, graduated from high school, and married Hoogy Boogle. They had a son, Boog, in 2004.
And so on and so on. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in the six-generations of the Wallet family to date who isn't involved in a hetero-romance. There are no confirmed bachelor uncles or maiden aunts anywhere to provide queer subtexts (except for the outsider characters Rufus and Joel). Gasoline Alley remains a holdout from the time when gay people were assumed not to exist.
Yet for kids growing up in the 1930s, there was Skeezix.
See also: Was My Grandfather Gay?
By the way, Walt Wallet is still alive, although his remarkably advanced age of 120 is downplayed. The characters age in real time, but apparently they never die.
ReplyDeleteOne hundred twenty years? Really bro? I'm tempted to enter a comment using (adjusts bi-focal specs) ahem...vulgar (I can do it buster) language.
ReplyDeleteWalt doesn't have a canonical age, but he was well over 18 when the strip began in 1918. Fans estimate 110-120. Current artis Jim Scancarelli says that he's never going to die, since without him there's no strip. But he does live in the Old Cartoons Home and is not involved much with everyday plot arcs.
DeleteTwins named Adam and Eve? That was common in the Middle Ages.a
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be what I call the "Eden complex" to homoerotic behavior: Fine as a teen or even a bachelor, but you do settle down and marry (a.k.a. eating the forbidden fruit) and then you can't go back. Since, you know, single men during this time masturbated together a lot. Or they let gay dudes suck them. These men also had no problem swimming naked (Country boys still do.) or showering together (What's interesting is, most of my generation went into PE expecting nudity, not knowing the ACLU had sued to make showering voluntary.) Or other day-to-day activities that some might call "gay".
I haven't read many "Gasoline Alley" strips, just the big-little books from the 1940s that were in my Aunt Nora's attic, so I can't figure out if it's supposed to be a comedy or melodrama. The humorous names suggest comedy, but the plotlines are pure melodrama.
DeleteI picked up a paperback collection of the "classic" strips at a book sale a few years ago. My best description? If "The Andy Griffith Show" were a comic strip, it would be "Gasoline Alley." The humor was all character-driven. It didn't go for punch lines, and the situations were often not inherently funny.
DeleteWho is the cute boy in the first photo?
ReplyDeleteMost illustrations are taken from the internet. I don't post photos of my friends and relatives (or myself) to protect their privacy. I also change their names whenever I remember.
DeleteI don't follow your reply to the question asking about the boy in the photo. Apparently the boy is a complete stranger? Merely a photo you posted for whatever reason? Any clarification?
DeleteI acquired the photo from the internet for use as an illustration, just like I did with the other 3,000 posts here, so of course I don't know who the model is. Probably I chose this one because he is about the same age as I was at the time.
DeleteI really want to hear the story of how you asked for a statue of naked man for Christmas?
ReplyDeletehttps://talesofwesthollywood.blogspot.com/2015/02/fall-1974-naked-man-for-christmas.html
DeleteOh, speaking of comics, Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman in the Paul Dini cartoons, recently died. He was gay, and wrote about his experiences in last year's DC Pride special.
ReplyDeleteThe show also introduced Harley Quinn, and later specials have her date Poison Ivy.