"Felton, Show Father Morris that Newspaper I Gave You." Original 10-panel cartoon for Stuck Rubber Baby, page 122. Ink and marker on stiff paper. 587x450 mm; 23x17 3/4 inches, sheet. Unsigned, but with artist's stamp on verso.
Provenance: The Estate of Howard Cruse.
Stuck Rubber Baby, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2020, was Cruse's best-known work. The groundbreaking graphic novel chronicled his coming of age and coming out in Jim Crow, pre-Stonewall 1960s Birmingham, Alabama. The story follows lead character, Toland, who is closeted, scared, and aware of the corruption and discrimination around him. It is only when he meets Ginger Raines, who introduces him to civil rights activists and people who embrace their authentic selves despite equally conformist and hostile environments, that he is emboldened enough to do the same. Stuck Rubber Baby was the winner of Eisner and Harvey Awards in the U.S. and (in translation), a Comics Critics Award in Spain, a Luchs Award in Germany, and a Prix de la critique at the International Comics Festival in Angoulême, France.
Cruse, the American alternative cartoonist known for the exploration of gay themes in his comics, first gained attention in the 1970s during the underground comix movement and was the founding editor of Gay Comix in 1980. He created "Wendel," a gay-themed strip during the 1980s but reached a more mainstream audience in 1995 when an imprint of DC Comics published Stuck Rubber Baby.
