Five things I like and five that I don't like about "My Brother, the Minotaur." #5 involves backsides and Ely d*ck

  

Link to the n*de photos

My Brother the Minotaur (2026) is an Irish animated series about a minotaur boy named Lorcan being raised by humans.

In Greek mythology, the Minotaur is a monster, the offspring of Pasiphaë and a bull, hidden away in the Labyrinth and fed human youth, but here minotaurs are humanoid beings with massive torsos and bull-horns.

Lorcan's questions about his heritage become urgent as he enters his teen years, and begins experiencing rage, hardening horns (symbolic of something or other), and disturbing nightmares.  Meanwhile, strange things are happening in the village.  His younger brother Charlie helps him investigate.

After watching several episodes, here is my evaluation:

Things I like:

1. The animation is very impressive, with stone cottages and dark forests  drawn in loving detail. The Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon wanted something unique, different from what other teen cartoons were doing.

2. The Irish culture.  They live on Bryony Island, named after an indigenous clinging vine.  Lorcan means "fierce one" in Irish.  You see the Irish flag and currency.  

3. Antagonist Craignelder's son Wesley Junior (Elliot Grihault, top photo and below) feels guilty about his involvement in his father's evil schemes, and may be working toward becoming an ally.  He has a poster of a sword-and-sorcery muscleman on his bedroom wall, an easy-to-miss queer code.

4. Lorcan (Ely Solan, left) and his brother have two female friends, but they never pair off into romantic dyads.  Actually, the girls have a lesbian subtext relationship of their own.

5. Many of the voice cast are queer in real life or have played gay characters.  

Ely Solan (Lucan), age 28, has a girlfriend, but he also has some potential n*de pics online (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends)

Billy Jenkins (Charlie, the brother, left) emphasized the queer undertones as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! on stage and the tv series Dodger.

Billie Boulet (Dana, the tall, thin female friend) emphasizes the queer undertones in Anne Frank's story in A Small Light.

Michael Sheen (Antagonist Craignelder) has played several gay characters, including Robbie Ross, Oscar Wilde's boyfriend, in Wilde (1997); the closeted Carlos in Nocturnal Animals (2016); and the angel Aziraphale, who is in love with the demon Crowley in Good Omens (2019).

Elliot Grihault (his son, Wesley Jr ) is reputedly gay in real life.

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Veronica and Betty are Going Steady, and Other Gay Hints in Classic Archie Comics

Long before Kevin Keller came out in Veronica #202 (2010) and on tv in Riverdale (2017), you could find many references to gay men and lesbians in Archie comics.

And you didn't even have to take panels out of context.  Story after story hinted about the existence of same-sex desire.

For instance, Betty finds a little black book in Betty’s Diary 34 (1990), believes it is a boy’s date book, and is surprised to find that her name is not in it. “There’s no accounting for tastes,” she muses. “I’m a much better date than Tom Cameron or Ron Cook.”  

So this boy is dating boys, and it's an everyday occurence -- Betty is not the least surprised. 

A moment later, she realizes that it is actually Veronica’s book. But for a moment, there were gay students at Riverdale High.   

It's even easier to find explicit references to female same-sex desire. In “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (2000), the boys abandon the girls for the basketball playoffs, so the girls plan a series of “all girl nights.” Afterwards, when the boys are available for dates again, they refuse, explaining that “We discovered how much fun it was to hang out with just the girls.”

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Rooster, Episode 1.1: Trashy novelist at an elite college, hetero romance problems, a gay sidekick, Dunster d*ck, and the guy from "Scrubs"

  

Link to the n*de dudes

Robert Heinlein once complained that science fiction was about exploring the vastness of time and space, while mainstream fiction -- the Rabbit Runs, Appointments in Samarra, and  Complaining Portnoys of our college lit classes -- was about men who hate their jobs and their wives.  "For Heaven's sake, get new jobs, get new wives, and shut the f*k up."

I am reminded of that quote when I think of the works of Steve Carrell:  Anchorman, Dan in Real Life,  The 40 Year Old Virgin, Cafe Society,  Date Night, Dinner for Schmucks, The Morning Show, The Four Seasons, all about little men trying desperately to find meaning in jobs and wives that they hate. Coincidentally, this is precisely the "job, house, wife, kids" trajectory that I rebelled against growing up.

So I wasn't planning to watch the HBO MAX series Rooster (2026).  Then the promo showed a young man telling Steve, "nice washboard (abs)," referring to the hunk on the cover of his book.  Later he seems to become Steve's sidekick.  So Steve probably writes gay novels, and probably has a gay sidekick.  Enough potential to review Episode 1.

Scene 1:  Famous novelist Greg Russo (Steve) looks morose as he is escorted through the elegant Spanish Colonial campus of Ludlow College (actually the University of the Pacific, Stockton).  He sees a n*ked old guy, who waves -- but his escort, Eric (Myles Perez, left), doesn't see anyone.  A hallucination?

Eric tells him to wait here, then zones him out and refuses to speak anymore.  Fortunately, Professor Shepherd, who arranged his campus visit,  is just walking up. 

He's nervous -- he writes trashy beach novels, not literature: "Characters you like do bedroom stuff characters you don't like get shot in the face."  Why would elite college students want to see him?  

Scene 2: The reading, in a giant lecture hall.  The students criticize his protagonist, Rooster, for describing the Girl in food terms during their 17 bedroom acts (18, if you count the bj). Isn't that sexist?  

Russo counters that she is strong and powerful -- she rescues Rooster, remember? "But she takes off her bikini top to do it."   A jock praises that scene: "The Girl is smokin'!"  Hey, isn't he the gay sidekick?  I'm starting to suspect that I've been tricked.

Scene 3: Next Russo meets the College President (John C. McGinley, the homophobic, sexist jerk on Scrubs).  He strips to his underwear to show off his physique: "You're thinking, most college presidents are bookish shut-ins, but this guy is jacked!" He looks like the n*ked guy from earlier.  So it wasn't a hallucination, just a crazy act that would never happen on any real college campus.

They allude to a "s&x scandal" involving Katie and Archie (not mentioned before), and the President offers Russo a job as Writer-in-Residence.  "But I didn't even go to college."  "Who cares?  It's over-rated."  Academic malaise at its snarkiest. 

 McGinley's backside on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

Scene 4:  Next stop: Another giant lecture hall, a lecture on French impressionism, Monet at Giverny.  It's Russo's daughter Katie, a professor of art history (and the s*x scandal lady).  As the students leave, she notes that her Dad doesn't like interacting with other humans, so they can get extra credit for looking him in the eye and saying "I love you very much."  A student does it!

Next Katie points out that the college has asked Russo to do a reading a billion times; why agree now?  "Admit it -- you're checking up on me, to see if I'm ok after the s*x scandal."  We finally find out what it is: her husband Archie dumped her for a grad student.  Hetero Romance Problem #1.  

She has no idea why. Everything was normal, and then she was moving into the dead hockey coach's house.   Everybody on campus knows, and keeps staring at her and asking questions.  And it's difficult to avoid running into him or his new girlfriend on a small campus.  She's about to crack.

She points them out, sitting on a park bench.  "The girlfriend isn't even hot.  She's like a regular person.  Why did he dump me for her?"  Maybe he liked her personality?

As Russo peeks through the bushes, husband Archie and the girlfriend leave, and a lesbian couple notice him.  They think he's a perv, har har.   He runs away as they film him.  

Spoiler alert: This is set up to have consequences, like Russo being arrested, or the job offer rescinded, but it is never mentioned again.

Scene 5: Russo stops at a convenience store for some water.  Tommy (Maximo Salas), the jock from earlier, praises the Rooster books. Uh-oh, he forgot his id, so Russo buys his beer for him.  If he's under 21, you're in big trouble, buddy.

More after the break

Orphans of the Sky: Gay Hints in a Curmudgeon's Science Fiction Universe

When I was growing up, I loved the juvenile science fiction novels of Robert Heinlein (1907-1988): originally published during the 1950s Cold War, they featured boys bonding in a rip-roaring cowboy future.  Plus the Ballentine paperbacks often featured beefcake.

His adult novels were unreadable, loaded down with disgusting s*x scenes, right-wing politics, and curmudgeonly grumbles about the state of the world. But in junior high and high school, I found a universe of gay hints.

My favorites, in order:

#10: Starman Jones (1953).  A muscular farmboyta longs to go to the stars.  Unfortunately, he gets a girlfriend.

#9: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961): A boy raised by Martians founds a hippie cult.  When he learns to kiss, he offers to demonstrate on his male mentor, who refuses.  But I learned that boys can kiss.

#8: Citizen of the Galaxy (1956): A rich kid is sold into slavery, but forms a buddy-bond with the guy who buys him.

#7: Time for the Stars (1956): Telepathic twins.  One stays home, goes into business, gets married, has children, the whole heterosexist trajectory.  The other goes into space for masculine adventures at near-light speed, so he stays a teenager forever.  The symbolism is obvious.

#6: Have Space Suit-Will Travel (1958): Heinlein wasn't good at envisioning social changes in his future societies.  The title is a parody of the tv series Have Gun -- Will Travel (1957-63), and the boy wins a used spacesuit in a tv jingle-writing contest.  He and a girl are captured by aliens. This edition makes her look much older, but she's only 11, and there's no hetero-romance.

#5: Starship Troopers (1959).  Rico trains to be a soldier in the war against the evil Communists -- um,  I mean aliens.  No hetero-romance.  The 1997 movie starred Casper Van Dien (top photo), Patrick Muldoon (left), and Neil Patrick Harris, and gave them girlfriends.

More after the break