SUPERHERO CRUISING!

Last week I had perhaps the strangest gig of my life, doing a lecture on the history of superheroes and comic books on a seven-day-long, gay, Caribbean cruise that featured a superhero-themed party. The trip was put on by RSVP cruises, a large gay cruise line that was recently bought out by planetout.com. Planet Out is a San Francisco-based company, and I have a number of friends who work there, so I managed to weasel my way on board as a guest lecturer and comic book expert.

The lecture itself was really fun to put together... I already knew a lot of the comic book lore, of course, but it was absolutely fascinating to dig deeper into the back stories of many of the important figures of the early comic book industry. The primary text I used was Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones, a truly fantastic (and Eisner-Award-winning) book that delves deeply into the complex and shady past of American comics.

As an indy cartoonist, I have a love/hate relationship with superheroes... They're how I got into comics, and are my first love, but I also resent how they have such a stranglehold on the American comics market, making it so difficult to find a sizable audience for any material that doesn't contain muscular guys with tights shooting laser beams from their eyeballs. Doing the research for this lecture, however, actually let me fall in love with superheroes again; digging into their history in all its messy glory made me appreciate how strange and wonderful this distinctly American icon really is.

Some random, interesting points from the lecture:

1) Superheroes (at least those created during the Golden and Silver Ages) are virtually entirely a product of second-generation, Jewish-American imagination. Even the creators with WASPy names are usually Jews who Anglicized their names (Bob Kane who created Batman is Bob Kahn; Stan Lee and Jack Kirby who created the Fantastic Four, Hulk, X-Men, etc. are Stan Lieber and Jacob Kurtzberg, for example). The precursor to D.C. Comics was actually in part a front for the Jewish mob to smuggle Prohibition-restricted alcohol and goods.

2) Most comics creators were screwed by the system. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who created Superman, were paid $130 for their creation, and spent most of their lives in poverty.

3) Wonder Woman's creator William Moulton Marston was a psychologist who helped create the lie-detector test (magic lasso of truth, anyone?), a polygamist who believed that the world should be ruled by strong women, and a bondage fetishist (bullet-proof bracelets/manacles, anyone?).

4) Before the sudden censorship crackdown of the mid-1950's, comic books were growing away from superheroes and diversifying and expanding in a remarkable way. Every genre was available, millions of books were sold, and almost half the readership was women. The market here probably looked a lot like the Japanese market looks today. Comics, for a brief moment in American history, were mainstream. Then came the comics code authority, and the industry was slashed down back down to whitewashed, superhero fare.

5) Superheroes remain a distinctly American phenomenon. While other cultures have plenty of super-heroic characters, superheroes with all their distinguishing traits (superpowers, distinctive costumes, secret identities, vigilantism, etc.) remain entirely American. If you can crack the mystery of the superhero, I think you can crack a significant part of the mystery of the American identity.

As for the cruise itself, I had a blast. 3000 faggots (with a small smattering of dykes) trapped on a boat on the open seas does lead to some drama, of course, and by the end of the seven days I was pretty gay-ed out. I just wanted to blast punk-rock to get rid of the dance music stuck in my head, and only talk to straight people for awhile.

Also, the whole concept of a cruise is pretty shocking for someone like me who's used to staying in $3 a night hotels with a pit toilet down the hall when he travels. The ship was 18 stories tall and contained close to 10 pools (I couldn't even count them all), and everything was set up to insure maximum pampering... you never had to cook your own food, wash your own plates, hang up your own towels, clean your own bathroom... they practically wiped your ass for you. While I know this is many people's idea of paradise (and indeed I met many guys who are chronic cruisers, whose only vacations are cruises), it makes me feel a little uncomfortable, and ultimately sort of numb.

A gay cruise is like a big bowl of cotton candy... sweet, colorful, pretty, but when you try to eat it, it vanishes in your mouth, and you're left with sticky hands, a sickly sweet sensation in your stomach, and wondering if you really had anything to eat at all. I had a fucking blast, with lots of sun, swimming, sex, superheroes, and hanging out with friends, but ultimately I prefer a trip that I can sink my teeth into in a different way.

One of the best parts of the cruise was the superhero party. People TURNED OUT for the costumes, and we didn't even get into the running for the prize with our Green Lantern outfits. Still, I think we looked fabulous, thanks to John (who forged the rings himself out of silver), and Brian (who did the make-up masks). And by the way, spandex feels... sexy. Especially when rubbing up on more spandex. Now I understand a little more of what makes up a superhero...