Smells Like Queer Spirit

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I’m not a musician. Even in the punk sense that “anyone” can make music, it just isn’t in my blood. Sure, as a faggot I have a better sense of rhythm than your average straight white boy, and in the rare event that the spirit moves me, I can belt out a show tune like a drag diva. But that’ll only take you so far.

But if I was a musician, I’d want to be a member of Pansy Division. Queer. Punk. Horny.

So you can imagine how excited I was when the world’s punkest queer band played a concert here in puritan West Michigan. They were touring as the opening act with Green Day, who were themselves pretty “fringe” at the time, and local ska legends Mustard Plug (also still at it these days) filled the With Special Guest slot.


Ordinarily I do all the lettering work on the JAQrabbit Tales, because 1) I can, 2) it’s free, 3) it gives me the freedom to revise the dialog to work better with the finished art, and 4) it gives some visual consistency to the series. But Jonathan said he wanted to integrate the lyrics into the art, and the result is a great example of why lettering is an art form and not just a matter of typing.

Of course before we could do that, we needed permission. Borrowing a title for a story (something I’ve done on other Tales) or quoting a line or two from a song as “background music” is one thing, but two whole pages of the song lyrics as the full text of the story … that needed the OK of the folks that created it. I contacted Pansy Division co-founders Jon Ginoli and Chris Freeman (figuring either of the two could give us clearance), and each of them gave their OK.

Pansy Division’s multi-faceted, queer-attitude, sex-celebrating music has been a big inspiration to me over the years, and definitely contributed to me producing this whole comix series, so I’m glad to have the chance to pay tribute to that with this Tale.

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