Charlie secretly hopes to have a friend named “Krystyna”
on April 19, 2011 at 12:00 amSo I was drawing this comic and thinking, this feeling out of place business is not a gay thing. I bet there are gay people who have never felt weird, but I know there are straight people who do. (So many of them are friends of mine.)
Anyway, a big thanks to everyone who came to Stumptown! And welcome new readers.
A woman came by the booth and said she had a gay teenager and was looking for a good comic to get him. I handed her one of my bookmarks and said “my comic is about an older gay couple, but when I was a gay teenager, I read a comic about an older gay couple, and it was helpful to me.” So… maybe he’s reading now? And even if not, I know I do have some readers who are gay teenagers. I hope I can do for you what the previous generation of gay cartoonists did for me.
Speaking of which, at Stumptown I met Robert Triptow, which was (to me) pretty exciting. He’s the man who introduced me to gay comics, by putting out a compilation (in 1989) called Gay Comics, which I found at my local bookstore. I psyched myself up and went in and bought it, thinking, it doesn’t mean anything, it’s a book of comics, and comics are for everyone.
Which is of course true! I’m dedicating todays comic to misfits of every kind everywhere.
Oh let’s see, what else… you all know that in addition to writing this comic, I help to run an independent radio station in Chicago called CHIRP Radio, right? We are volunteer-run and listener-supported. And it’s fund-raising time. And I have an idea. Lately I’ve been exploring the idea of pinups. Donate $50 or more to CHIRP and I will make you a custom pinup—just give me a theme! Donate $25 or more and I will send you a print of a pinup of my choice. Donations can be made here (tell them I sent you); then email me at hitched at tonybreed dot com.
I actually wish there was some sort of misfit secret handshake.
We need to create one.
You do have gay teenagers reading. I’m one of them.
Welcome, Eggplant! Glad to have you here.
Hi Tony, your comic is great, I love to read it. I was glad when I found it, because there is few gay web comics in the Internet.
But… There is no polish name ‘Krysztyna’. It should be ‘Krystyna’. 
Oh no! Would you believe I looked it up and still got it wrong?
When I was a teacher we had a young student named Grzegorz. Most people called him Gregor or Gregory because Grzegorz sounded to weird to our American ears. But our bookkeeper (who is still a good friend) had a Polish wife and spoke Polish, and he always said the name correctly.
Anyway, that’s what I was thinking about when I wrote “Krysztyna”.
There. Fixed!
Hah, we are everywhere… ;P
Hey Tony, just wanted to say that I love your comic! Just discovered the comic yesterday and I hope to get myself up to date by tomorrow. Everything is better with fist bumps.
Thanks!