Something Queer Hits the Funny Pages

[Blue_Tires]

"The Meaning of Lila" isn't running in a lot of papers, but it is still an excellent strip IMO and can be viewed online here: http://comics.com/the_meaning_of_lila/


Something Queer Hits the Funny Pages

The term “gay strip” has many meanings: a physical location, like a gayborhood; a naughty, burlesque activity; or, the one Clevelander John Forgetta would prefer, a welcome change.

Forgetta is the creator and writer of The Meaning of Lila, a comic strip about the lives of a working girl and her gay best friend that appears in 20 mainstream newspapers across the country. In fact, Lila is the first strip to feature a gay ongoing, main character — a groundbreaking feat with local ties.

However, waving the rainbow flag in a black-and-white comic strip hasn’t always been easy. Forgetta’s had to endure hate mail from the Heartland and faces a decline in newspapers that seems to get worse each day. But despite these challenges, one thing’s for sure: The funny pages have never been so fabulous.


* * *


Although he’s only been authoring the nationally syndicated strip The Meaning of Lila for about five years, John Forgetta’s been writing cartoons for as long as he can remember.

“I used to draw comics as a kid and then give them out to my neighbors, whether they wanted them or not,” the New York native says. “I left it in their mailboxes, copied on colored paper and tied with a ribbon. Why I had to come out to my mother, I’ll never know.”

Forgetta landed his first professional comics gig at a small newspaper in Boston shortly after graduating from college. The strip, Speckled Eggs, which followed the adventures of a snarky Dalmatian and a naïve turtle, won a national award but was never picked up by other papers. He created a few more titles, but it wasn’t until he conceived The Meaning of Lila that he signed his first syndication agreement.

http://www.spanglemagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=258:the-meaning-of-lila&catid=41:miscellaneous&Itemid=78

[KellyW]

1. this story is wrong

"In fact, Lila is the first strip to feature a gay ongoing, main character — a groundbreaking feat with local ties."

What about Doonesbury ? Mark is gay and a major character. I read Lila in Stars and Stripes-and honestly I don't think it is that funny.

[Blue_Tires]

2. i think they meant in the sense of 'everyday' character

whereas now you may see Mark every 2-3 weeks depending on what the current storyline is...

Granted, the comic could use a little refinement and direction, but it is still better than a lot of the unfunny or way-past-their-prime strips on the pages these days...