Shirtless doodle in the style of "Loren and Sylvia"

From 1987-89

Back when I was in college I had a close friend named Kathy Sprague. Kathy was also gay and helped me find my way out-of-the-closet. I will always admire and appreciate what she did for me and despite our lives diverging along sexual lines, I will always consider her a dear friend.

We also collaborated on a comic book, based somewhat on our own lives. Our alter-egos were named "Loren", which is my middle name and "Sylvia" which is a name Kathy always liked. There is also a well known syndicated comic with the title "Sylvia", but we felt safe using the name because we were telling deeply personal stories, which had nothing to do with that syndicated newspaper strip. Someday I may share here the one issue of "Loren and Sylvia" that Kathy managed to print with her own money.

Anyway, I drew "Loren and Sylvia" with a distinctive stylized shorthand for creating characters like I'd seen done with other popular comic strips, namely "Peanuts" and "Doonsbury". This doodle of a shirtless male is an early attempt to draw a character in this style without clothes.  It looks a little like "Loren", but even at this late date I doubt that is who it really is.