Arts & Entertainment
Howard Cruse, pioneering gay cartoonist, dies at 75

Howard Cruse, a gay cartoonist whose groundbreaking underground comics were a strong influence on the succeeding generation of queer comic artists, has died.
Cruse first gained attention in the 1970s with his contributions to various underground publications, particularly for his series “Barefootz,” in which he included a supporting character named Headrack who was gay. In 1979, he became the first editor of “Gay Comix,” an anthology featuring comics by openly queer cartoonists, where he highlighted the work of lesbian artists like Roberta Gregory and Mary Wings. According to Cruse’s obituary in the New York Times, publisher Mike Kitchen says he had been adamant that women be given equal representation in the magazine from the very beginning.
“From the first issue he insisted that half the book always be by lesbians and half from gay men,” Kitchen told an interviewer, “even though it was more difficult then to find lesbian artists.”
In the 80s he created the strip “Wendel,” which was published in The Advocate. Given wide freedom to include nudity and adult language in the comic, Cruse originally intended it as a humorous series about the sex lives of an idealistic young gay man and his friends. With the advent of the AIDS epidemic, it evolved into something more complex, and the strip began to address the disease – along with gay-bashing, closeted celebrities, activism, and the obstacles faced in same-gender relationships – as the characters learned to navigate the changing cultural landscape of gay life under the hostile shadow of the Reagan administration.
In a 1988 interview with the Village Voice, Cruse said, “It’s tremendously empowering when you’re gay to realize that you’ve been doing it right, and it’s the bigots who are stumbling about in a fog about this subject.”
Cruse wove his own life into “Wendel,” giving the title character a boyfriend and drawing inspiration from his own relationship with real-life partner Ed Sedarbaum, whom he met in 1979. They would eventually marry in 2004.

In 1995 Cruse published “Stuck Rubber Baby,” a semi-autobiographical graphic novel about a closeted gay man in Alabama who becomes involved with the civil rights movement. The characters include a female activist with whom he has a child (as Cruse had himself done) and a black man who becomes his first gay lover. The book, which grapples with the ingrained homophobia and racism of American society and contains some of Cruse’s most detailed, realistic art, was widely acclaimed, winning a Harvey Award and an Eisner Award as well as nominations for several others.
One of a younger generation of LGBTQ comics artists that felt the influence of Cruse’s work is Alison Bechdel, the MacArthur “Genius” Award-winning cartoonist (and creator of the Bechdel Test) whose 2006 autobiographical comic “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” was the basis for the Tony-winning 2015 musical, “Fun Home.” On hearing news of his death, Bechdel tweeted, “I am so sad and stunned. Howard Cruse died suddenly today. He is one of the sweetest people I have ever encountered, period, and he was super generous to me when I was a young cartoonist coming to him for advice. What a blow. The world has lost a true comics superhero.”
Cruse died of lymphoma on November 26 in Pittsfield, Massachusets, near the home he shared with Sedarbaum in nearby Williamstown. He is survived by his husband, his daughter Kimberly Kolze Venter, two grandchildren, and a brother, Allan.
The 2026 World Pride March was held on Saturday, Aug. 8 in Amsterdam. Tens of thousands of participants marched from Martin Luther Kingpark to the grounds of the Pride Village at Museumplein.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)








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The weekly drag show “Daddy Issues” was held at Kiki on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Performers included Evry Pleasure, Indiana Bones and Tiara Missou-Sidora.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)









Books
Something’s off about Dad. When is it time to step in?
‘When Memory Fades’ can help when families face dementia
‘When Memory Fades’
By Nathaniel Chin, MD
c.2026, St. Martin’s Essentials
$30/422 pages
Mom called you in a panic the other day.
She’d lost her keys and by the time you arrived to help, she’d found them. In the refrigerator.
These kinds of things keep happening, not often but often enough, and you don’t know quite what to worry about. But in the new book “When Memory Fades” by Nathaniel Chin, MD, you’ll learn about the journey ahead, for both of you.
You can’t remember why you walked into a room. You got lost last week, going to the bank. Popular wisdom says that things like that are normal as we age, but Chin says that’s not true – although the answer may not be a worst-case scenario, either. Yes, memory problems could just be signs of stress, dehydration, or lack of sleep – or is it time to see a doctor?
Chin says maybe, yes.
He was working his way through medical residency when his father, a geriatrician in Madison, Wisc., was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Chin, now a geriatrician, was blindsided, but that diagnosis also changed his life.
Here, he writes about the brain, and how Alzheimer’s and dementia are diagnosed, explaining that dementia has many faces and, depending on a doctor’s evaluation, memory problems might be slowed or improved. He shares his father’s illness with readers, but he also writes about his mother, a steadfast, steady caretaker.
Her story reminds reader-guardians to care for themselves, too.
Know how to talk the talk, so that you can have “a more productive” conversation with your doctor. Understand that there’s nothing “normal” about dementia or Alzheimer’s. Know the statistics – African Americans are affected with dementia twice as much as whites – and know how to lower your risks. Learn here what questions to ask, how to break the news to everyone, and any legal matters that will be important soon. And know how to tend to you.
Says Chin, “The best action you can take is to educate yourself… The more you understand, the better equipped you are to make sound judgments.”
Something’s off about Dad, just a lot of little things that don’t add up. When is it time to step in? “When Memory Fades” can help you decide.
Wise, wide-spread, comprehensive, and compassionately helpful, this is a book you can read and then take it to the doctor with your loved one. It’s a book that makes sense when nothing else does, and its biggest feature is that it smoothly transitions from easy-to-grasp science and charts, to gentle coaching for caregivers. Author Nathaniel Chin, MD writes with storytelling, humility, grace, and experience from both sides of the Alzheimer’s/dementia issue, and his words are reassuring but also urgent. Learn, but don’t wait, he says. Know how to safeguard yourself. See your doctor, and don’t fear testing. Watch for signs of depression. And never, ever stop asking for help.
Read those last seven words, and find “When Memory Fades” now. It’s a book to have on your shelf, whether you’re 45 or 95 because, as you’ll see, dementia happens and knowledge is key.
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