Guest Post & Giveaway: Gay Superhero Comics by Josephine Myles

I am soooo excited to have Josephine Myles on the blog today, she is no stranger to Pants Off and it's always a delight to have her here. She is here today talking about her new awesmazing release Handle With Care, which I reviewed previously. Lets give a warm welcome to the fabulous Miss Myles!

Gay superhero comics

I’ve always been drawn to comics—proof I am indeed a geek at heart. However, until I started researching for Handle with Care, I had no idea there was a thriving homoerotic comic book industry out there, and one that had nothing to do with Japanese yaoi manga.

For those of you not in the know, yaoi (or Boy’s Love) comics are written by and for a predominantly female audience and have their own code of conventions, including a highly stylised relationship between seme and uke – literally translated as attacker and receiver. While there are forms of gay manga out there that feature a range of body types and relationships, traditional yaoi is likely to feature lean, adolescent heroes, with the more masculine looking character topping the more feminised one.



I know there are many yaoi fans out there, but I’m not especially drawn to the artwork or stories I’ve sampled so far—I’m very happy to hear your recommendations, though! The yaoi I’ve read just didn’t have the subversive humour and punchy artwork of my all-time favourite graphic novels, such as Jamie Hewlett’s Tank Girl and Garth Ennis’ Preacher.

When I was coming up with the character of skatepunk delivery boy Ollie in Handle with Care, I knew I wanted him to be an idealist and a dreamer. I just needed to find a way of illustrating this. Inspiration came when leafing through Cali Boys, a book of gay comic book artwork by Joe Phillips. His pictures of attractive young men getting it on had certain similarities to the yaoi tradition, but with a distinctly American flavour. Further online investigation revealed that Phillips has illustrated for various mainstream comic book franchises, including Marvel’s X-Men series.

X-Men ended up having a special place in Handle with Care, as being one of the things Ollie and Ben first bond over. Ollie spots a life-size cardboard cut out of Nightcrawler in Ben’s hallway, and offers to lend Ben his X-Men comics. There were several reasons I chose X-Men rather than some other comic book superhero series. Most importantly, in 2009 Marvel made history for publishing the first mainstream comic to feature two established male heroes kissing on page (Rictor and Shatterstar in X-Factor #45). I also knew that because of the movies, X-Men would be easily recognised by the reader. Finally, I chose Nightcrawler to be Ben’s hallway key holder not only because he’s my favourite character in the films, but because he was played by Alan Cumming—an openly bisexual actor.

Ollie eventually developed into an aspiring illustrator himself, penning pornographic superhero pictures. I was heavily influenced by the artist Patrick Fillion, whose incredibly well-endowed heroes caught my eye. It was really difficult to find any “safe” pictures to illustrate this post, as Fillion revels in explicit detail. Do check out his work if you have any interest in finding out the sort of thing I had in mind for Ollie’s artwork!


There is a huge amount of gay comic book artwork out there, and when funds allow, I hope to be able to build myself up a collection to rival Ben’s DVD stash. For now, though, I’ll be choosing my purchases carefully and taking recommendations for books that combine a strong storyline with great artwork.

What about all of you out there? Do you enjoy comics, or have you never been able to see the appeal? Care to share why?

Handle with Care by Josephine Myles – the blog tour

To celebrate the release of my second novel, Handle with Care, I’m on a two week blog tour. A grand prize will be awarded to a randomly chosen commenter during the tour: an exclusive Handle with Care mug (which I’m happy to post worldwide), and a $25 voucher to spend at All Romance eBooks (or alternative ebook retailer of your choice). I’ll make the prize draw on Wednesday 9th May at 9am (GMT), and will announce the winner on my blog. Visit the tour itinerary for a list of all the stops, and comment on each to increase your chances of winning!

http://josephinemyles.com/published-stories/handle-with-care/the-blog-tour/

Blurb:

The best things in life aren’t free…they’re freely given.

Ben Lethbridge doesn’t have many vices left. After raising his little sister to adulthood, he wasted no time making up for the youth he lost to responsible parenting. Two years of partying it up—and ignoring his diabetes—has left him tethered to a home dialysis regimen.

He can do his job from his flat, fortunately, but most of his favourite things are forbidden. Except for DVD porn…and fantasizing over Ollie, the gorgeous, purple-haired skateboarder who delivers it.

Their banter is the highlight of Ben’s lonely day, but his illness-ravaged body is the cruel reality that prevents him from believing they’ll do anything more than flirt. Not to mention the age gap. Still, Ben figures there’s no harm in sprucing himself up a bit.

Then one day, a package accidentally splits open, revealing Ben’s dirty little secret…and an unexpected connection that leaves him wondering if he’s been reading Ollie wrong all this time. There’s only one way to find out: risk showing Ollie every last scar. And hope “far from perfect” is good enough for a chance at love.

Warning: Contains superhero porn comics and a cute, accident-prone delivery guy with colour-changing hair. Readers may experience coffee cravings, an unexpected liking for bad mullets, and the urge to wrap Ollie up and take him home.

Kindle US: http://www.amazon.com/Handle-with-Care-ebook/dp/B0073WI0ZU/ 
Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Handle-with-Care-ebook/dp/B0073WI0ZU/ 
Samhain: http://store.samhainpublishing.com/handle-with-care-p-6754.html

Author Bio:

English through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. Jo blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it.

Jo’s website: http://josephinemyles.com/ 
Email: josephine_myles@yahoo.co.uk 
Blog: http://josephinemyles.com/blog/ 
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/josephine.myles 
Twitter: @JosephineMyles