Besides a lot of the big name talent attending the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, we also keep a watch for other LGBT talent or talent that actively supports our community. This year we met Stephen Sadowski; he’s worked as an artist for DC, Marvel, and Dynomite Entertainment. He’s currently doing some stuff for Vertigo comics – the adult imprint line of DC comics.
Steve has been working in the industry for years: "after 1989 when the first Batman movie came out, I was super inspired to get back into drawing (because I used to draw all the time as a kid)...there was a comic store right next to the theatre. I...went right out and into the comic store and basically decided at that point I was going to start to try." It then took many years of sending samples to editors and building relationships, until eventually he started to get noticed.
As a gay man who’s been working in the industry, there have been a lot of changes in the last 2 decades when it comes to the acceptance of LGBT characters and LGBT talent. For the artists and writers, the consensus would seem to be that generally it’s a very open industry. "I know a lot of gay creators...and whenever we get together to try and talk about any kind of homophobic reaction, we all agree we’ve never really experienced any." Steve has had nothing but good experiences with most of the editors with whom he’s worked.
"As far as the characters in comics...I think there’s a ways to go." Granted you are seeing gay and even transgender characters in comic books, but Steve thinks there’s room to further explore. What sometimes happens is a softer form of homophobia – in the past it was the girlfriend/wife/female supporting character’s role to suffer at the hands of a villain. Today, that role is filled by the gay superhero or supporting character. While it may all be justified by the story, and there is no anti-gay agenda, the optics aren’t necessarily great.
Yet what is promising was the response to any homophobic behavior. Recently Orson Scott Card was selected as one of several recurring guest authors for DC Comics’ new Adventures of Superman series. Many people know Card for his Ender series of books. He is also a political and social commentator whose opinions, including his opposition to same-sex marriage, have made him a controversial figure.
When the news spread, a massive public outcry against Card overwhelmed DC; resulting in the cancellation of his story. What Stephen thinks was amazing regarding this fiasco was how the reaction surged so quickly over the Internet because Card’s opinions were widely disseminated. "Knowledge is out there so readily now. Back ten years ago...you would never really know what his policies were...nowadays, everything you put out there is for worldwide knowledge."
Personally Stephen thinks everyone has a right to their own opinion, and he wouldn’t want to take away anyone’s employment based on their beliefs; but when it comes to a Superman comic, Stephen believes we want writers with greater ideals to write his stories. "We just don’t want to see our heroes under the control of someone whose ideas we are so vehemently against."
Steve himself has had to face a little bit of criticism himself for this work for injecting a mild amount of homo-eroticism into his drawings. "I always try to imbue all my characters with sexuality...but not over the top. I have a reputation for giving male characters extra large packages, but all I really do is give them a package."
It’s a straight male dominated group usually doing the artwork, so no one blinks twice about giving a female hero massive breasts, but do something similar for guys and people get nervous. "The minute you give a noticeable – not even overly large – but just realistic package on a male, it’s like Whoa...I feel uncomfortable. I don’t think twice about it. I just draw it the way it would be."
