Let’s face it: Geek is in. It’s cool. “Science!” is an acceptable rallying cry. And no banner is more colorful than the splashy spectrum you find on a superhero’s costume. Those that wear one, anyway. Have you SEEN Sasquatch? The dude’s naked!
You will learn all that and more at New York’s Flame Con, on August 22 – 23, which celebrates gay geekery in all its full-frontal nerdity. Comics? Check! Artists? Check! Cosplay? OMG! (And check.)
Comic book culture diversified so much so quickly that now just about any niche market can claim a piece of the pie. After an underground intro in 1968, gays and lesbians began making serious inroads by the late 1970s not in comics but in the “funny pages” when “Doonesbury” introduced a gay character. This was followed up most eloquently in “For Better or For Worse” in the 1990s, the same decade Marvel outed hero Northstar.
Then the floodgates let loose, and today, every major publishing house has LGBTQ characters, from “Archie” to “X-Men.” Marvel made headlines when it outed Iceman, a historic character, last year; DC outed Catwoman as bi, Batwoman as a lesbian, and Superman as gay PROVIDED THAT he is exposed to pink kryptonite. No lie on that last one.
And it is not just in America; European artists hit on the same-sex subject by the 80s, but the West is blown out of the water by Japan. With no less than three illustrated genres of man-on-man comics, bara (muscle men), shota (beautiful men), and yaoi (mixed, and with plots), the Land of the Rising Sun pretty much sets the standard.
The Flame Con celebrates it all. Billed as a “ two-day comics, arts, and entertainment expo showcasing creators and celebrities from all corners of LGBTQ geek fandom,” is for gays by gays with gays on their mind. And being one of the smaller, local cons, it remains comics-driven, rather than the cinematic entertainment that 1) has completely taken over larger cons like San Diego and 2) has much less in the way of gay characters. Looking right at you, kill-all-the-gay-men Game of Thrones.
Artist from Marvel (Kevin Wada, Alex Woolfson) and independents like Ben Kahn, Chad Sell, Hiroki Otsuka, and Greg Fox (they’re big deals) are already signed up, with more on the way. Also on tap are burlesque dancers, make-up artists, writers, and gogo boys, along with geek-networks and superhero-festishists groups. It is a real con!
Only gayer.
For more information, go to flamecon.org