Go back one page
"Please, for God, for any god's, sake, start including one gay
comic strip in your daily and Sunday comics. Don't you see
what is going to happen to us gay people, if more of you
heteros in power continue to not make an outspoken and
incontrovertible stand for gay freedom? Like it or not, we are
dependent on heterosexuals for our liberty, our food, our
homes, our survival. We gay people cannot possibly win our
rights on our own.
"Mainstream comics inevitably play an important role in
educating young people about the real world...often portraying
a minority in some situation that enlightens the readers as to
this character's humanity and normalcy. Both daily and Sunday
comics cover, on a regular basis, issues regarding the rights
of women, children, people of color, the elderly, the
physically and/or mentally challenged, the poor, and various
alternative lifestyles. But the coverage of gay people is
glaringly absent.
"This is wrong, and we must not continue to allow this-and-that
excuse of our mainstream comic strip authors, to persist
in keeping a blind eye to the gay issue. To imply that this
would be "dirty" or "obscene" to children, is a slap in our
face. We are neither immoral nor inappropriate with or without
children in our presence. Even here in our lovely gay mecca of
San Francisco...there is not one single gay comic in either of
our two major newspapers.
"Newspapers of Amerika: where is your honor, your dignity,
your sense of Amerikan values of decency and fair play? Are
you really so afraid of Christian fanatics as to toe their
party line, at the cost of gay people's annihilation? Until
you do the right thing, the heartfelt and respectful
thing...which is including a gay-relevant comic strip...our
blood, gay blood, will continue to be spilled across your
pages, across your headlines, across every newspaper in this
troubled, homophobic nation.
"For as we raise our children, so bends the tree. And if gays
remain invisible to them in our daily comic strips, as well as
in other media so influential to young minds...then
we cannot expect anything better than future generations
fearing and villifying gays.
"May Charlie Brown, our little friend to all hetero-centered
children, suddenly acquire a new neighbor...a neighbor who is
(dare we say it) also gay...and proud of it!
"We're here! We're queer! Good grief!"
--------------------------------------------------------------
Permission granted by author for anyone to distribute this
writing free of charge (including translation into any
language)...under condition that no profit is made therefrom,
and that it remain intact and complete, including title and
credit to the original author.
Ezekiel J. Krahlin
http://surf.to/gaybible
--------------------------------------------------------------
MY PEE NUT AGENDA
copyright 1998 by Ezekiel J. Krahlin
(Jehovah's queer witness)
My "Pee Nuts" parody is just one among three Sunday comic
strips that I have parodied. I intend to add more, in due
time. My home page at:
http://members.tripod.com/~ezekielk/
will give you the links to my parody on "Beetle Bailey" and
"Cathy", as well as on the "Peanuts" one.
I am criticizing the lack of visibility of gay characters in
our mainstream Sunday Comics...and daily comics at large. To
me (and probably most everyone else), Schulz's Peanuts series
represents the quintessential Sunday Comic in contemporary
Amerika. (White bread, Protestant, dull, presumably
inoffensive to anyone...geared towards making profits from pap
sentimentality, rather than making statements that might
offend "mainstream" sensibilities.)
In my opinion as a political artist, no other single comic
strip could make that claim, so readily. Thus, obviously, his
strip would clearly be a choice target for my parody.
But, it is not Mr. Schulz's comic strip itself I am singling
out for criticism...it is the Sunday Comics at large that I
parody. So I try to imagine one or another popular Sunday
Comic character as a gay revolutionary ...and I thus come up
with results that are not only criticisms, but hilarious
invocations (by virtue of society's inability to take gay
people seriously).
Imagine that! Charlie brown is a Queer Nation activist, who is
one angry faggot for not having any gay characters in his
world! And Lucy the lesbian couldn't agree with him more! They
are comrades under the skin, for the sake of their common
cause! (I believe in using humor to make a point...thus,
parody is my favorite vehicle.)
I am keeping on a web site, all concerned parties up to date
on my "Pee Nuts" issue, at:
http://www.2xtreme.net/jwd/k6/copyrite.htm
There, you will find the image in question, the letter from
Schulz's legal counsel, and other informative and relevant
material. This includes my short essay, "My Pee Nuts
Agenda"...in which is implied that I created my Peanuts parody
exactly with the hope that I would draw public attention to my
work as a result of legal ramifications...and do this without
violating any law that I know of. Should the pot continue to
get stirred, I hope to be interviewd by some media interest,
or have my say in court (if it comes to that). Using my
Peanuts parody is an attempt to gain a voice with a large
audience of Amerikans. And once I have that voice (if I have
that voice), I will say the following:
"I will gladly remove my Pee Nuts parody, if Mr. Schulz will
promise in writing, that he will add a gay character in
his regular Peanuts comic strip. But if I can't even have
that, I want to address all our major newspapers...especially
those in urban areas with a major homosexual population:
That is the essence of the point I want to make; however, I am
still reworking it to make it the best speech possible. So now
we have a more important issue about parody in art: for I am
using a larger canvas than most artists use...as my canvas is
life itself, and my imagination, the brush. So, while the
Peanuts parody may be the focal point of my work, it is but a
small piece of the canvas. The real work of art is the social
reactions to my parody, including the possibility of my
appearance and behavior in court. In effect, I have "painted"
myself into court (possibly)...or at least as an artist, I am
trying my best to! But I will at least try to "paint" myself
into media recognition one way or another, in order to present
"My Pee Nut Agenda" to our citizens.
So if the courts must evaluate my work of art, as parody or
other...jurors must also consider the essential and entire
work, and not just one part of it. And the essential work is
this real-life, animated diorama that I am creating around a
particular criticism of mine...with possibly lawyers, judges,
jurors, and news media being included in this, my greatest
work to date.
In effect, your interest in this matter, puts you on my
canvas, too. For I will have good guys and bad guys in this
diorama...as I am portraying (in my opinion) the classical
struggles between good and evil...in this case, between
corporate self interest and personal liberty...as it deals
with gay artistic activism.
If you have any doubts as to my artistic philosophy of using
life as my canvas...there is a precedent in this matter that I
have already set, with my adventure of "The Somalian Affair",
which you may view at:
http://www2.fortunecity.com/village/weaver/76/
To date, I consider that my most significant work of art. I
intentionally created controversy (in this case, addressing
our Marines in Somalia as a gay activist), in order to use
life as my canvas...to put together as many of the reactions
as I could, in order to preserve the event. The most
significant aspect of my artwork (using life as canvas) is the
actual string of events that ensue, by the brush of my
imagination. And one can only capture small pieces of that
result, here and there, as a permanent record. So that web
site is the final result...with hopefully, more things to add
should anyone who was there, add to my accounting of the
event...or anyone who knows someone who was there.
While my form of artistry may presently not be recognized as a
legitimate medium, I believe some day it will. Life as canvas.
As Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage..." blah blah
blah.
--- finis