This review is by Mark Hain of the beautiful Dirt and Sky and the occasionally-published Boys Who Wear Glasses. He writes for Xerography Debt too, and will soon be publishing a zine all about horror movies!
No two ways about it, I am a scrawny, bespectacled, geeky-looking queer boy who spends most of my meager discretionary income on books and music rather than my wardrobe or health clubs. Comic artist Matt Fagan seems to be on the same wavelength, and this compilation of his comic Love provides a necessary alternative to the stultifying, ubiquitous mass media perpetuated image of all gay men as moneyed and muscular male models who dress great but have the depth of saucer. Friendly but not insipid, sweet without becoming saccharine, Love stars Jack and Pokie, two guys in love who blast expectations of how homos are supposed to act and what they�re supposed to look like. Jack is a chubby, furry long-hair; Pokie resembles an extravagantly mohawked punk variant of King of the Hill�s Dale Gribble (who in turn is based on notorious queer William S. Burroughs). Riding the ragged edge of poverty, the duo deal with crappy employment, lack of health care, and their place outside the gay �mainstream� with easy-going humor, buoyed by their love for good food, bad movies, and each other. If you�re a homo that finds Queer Eye insulting or wants to stomp the characters on Will and Grace (Will especially, that contemptuous, self-hating asshole), or if you�re someone that just wants reassurance that not all queer men are vapid, arrogant eye-candy, check out Love.
