Howard
Cruse

Howard Cruse was a revolutionary underground comic book artist and writer whose editorship of the first run of Gay Comix made him a paternal figure in the queer comic book world. Cruse’s greatest work, Stuck Rubber Baby, an ambitious saga of a queer man navigating his sexuality during the Civil Rights Movement in the American South, took him four years to write and illustrate—almost bankrupting Cruse in the process. But it was worth it. Cruse won multiple awards across the US and Europe for the graphic novel, and it became a staple in college classes thereafter. It is held up as an example of how powerful the medium of graphic novels can be, as well as being a demonstration of the intersectionality of race issues and homophobia in the United States.