Pro-Gay Rights Artist Apologizes for Comic Perceived as Homophobic

[kweerwolf]

"Bizarro" cartoonist Dan Piraro has apologized for a New Year's Day comic that some people perceived as anti-gay.

"I'm not homophobic, in spite of how it looks," said Piraro, as quoted in a Dallas Morning News piece linked on ComicsReporter.com.

Piraro's Jan. 1 comic showed two cowboys sitting at a campfire. One strums a guitar as he sings to the other: "Well it's been six long weeks since I seen a woman, and yer startin' to look pretty good. ..." The Sunday strip's caption: "Jeremiah's last song."

The Morning News piece -- by Mike Peters, who writes a column on comics for the paper -- said: "Some readers thought was a playful joke on 'Brokeback Mountain,' while others saw something more sinister: an attack on gay people. Mr. Piraro said he got numerous complaints from various parts of the country; The Dallas Morning News received one e-mail."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/syndicates/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001805923

[sui generis]

1. I believe him

I think you have to be peeled-eyeball looking to be outraged, especially with Bizarro which is just bizarre most days anyway. Now, if I saw more like that I'd start to question it, but really, what if he'd been singing to one of the sheep? Would it have been sheepa-phobic?

[mitchtv]

3. Sounds like he heard from several of our

'very special" DU'rs. It's an old joke.

[swimmernsecretsea]

2. Dan Piraro has done some pro-gay comics

I didn't think of the particular one mentioned as very anti-gay, either, despite the content. His comics are satire, and meant very obviously as such.

One particular comic got his strip dropped or substituted in a number of papers; that one was very pro-gay and pro-same-sex marriage.