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"Teleny and Camille" by Jon Macy

A year ago last December, you may remember my posting about the anonymously published gay erotic novel attributed to Oscar Wilde. My friend, Jon Macy, has now published his graphic novel adaptation and will be presenting it at WonderCon '10. You may obtain a copy of this limited art book edition at his site. Despite its very pornographic, and very-frankly-handled-subject-matter, I can well recommend it to anyone who is not squeamish for such erotic matters.

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.

Male Crotch

From 1987-89

This next series of images feature men. I tend to think about men a lot and how they appear to me. This includes how I appear to myself. My purpose is not to be crass or rude, but to depict the truth I see, which is perhaps the only way I can do this. I can only hope that you enjoy what I put down on paper.

Thistle design

From 1987-89

I have always been inspired by art nouveau design. This design is an early inspiration which lead to my friend Tod requesting I design a tattoo for him. The sketches that I did subsequently are in another sketchbook and I will link them when I post them. I only have one photograph of Tod right after he got his tattoo, but I can say this sketch was the first inspiration.