MICHAEL KIRWAN SUBMITS
...to an interview!
Interviewed
by Jim Eigo
[When I started thinking about special features to appear in our
twenty-fifth anniversary issue, I knew that one feature should
focus on Michael Kirwan's work. Why? Michael has been
illustrating stories for Playguy for the last decade. Over that
time, he's illustrated more stories for us than
anyone else. And since 1995
Michael has been the pen behind three long-running Playguy comic
strips, The Roadies, The Adventures of Richie Tease, and
now,
Beginner's Luck.
So the visual look of Playguy for the past decade
(and
today) is more than a little bit due to the work of
Michael Kirwan. Of course none of this would matter much were
Michael not one of the most important homoerotic artists working
today. Michael's work on Playguy comic strips reveals a
narrative talent as forceful as his awe-inspiring facility with
the pen. So we decided we'd better let Michael speak for himself
For the last fifteen years, I've been a fan of Michael's work,
as candy-colored and quirky as sex itself--well, some sex. So I
was pleased for the magazine and for myself when Michael agreed
to help Playguy celebrate its silver anniversary and talk with
us about his work for our magazine. For the interview, and for a
decade's worth of prick-tingling, brain-teasing art in Playguy,
thanks loads, Michael! --Jim Eigo, Playguy Managing Editor]
JIM: I've been a fan of your work, Michael, since I first
encountered it in a few portfolios published by Stroke magazine
in 1986. I still have those and many subsequent issues where you
almost became Stroke's house illustrator. Every month here at
Playguy when the illustrations for your Beginner's Luck comic
strip arrive at the office, I can recapture a bit of the shock
and delight that I first felt encountering your work. Had your
erotic work appeared elsewhere before those Stroke portfolios?
MICHAEL: Stroke was the first magazine to
print my artwork. I had found a copy and was delighted to see
that the magazine accepted submissions from anyone who thought
his stuff was good enough. The magazine was sharp, beautiful and
very "hard." The first time I saw my drawings on those pages, I
was the happiest person alive. You couldn't have pried the grin
off my face with a crowbar. The only other exposure I'd had up
to that point was doing three party posters for mailings for the
Saint [a notorious gay disco in New York City in the 1980s]. I
was working at the St. Marks Baths at that time and Bruce
Mailman (the owner and true gay visionary of that era)
encouraged me to do them, even though we both knew I wasn't
really ready.
JIM: There were a few characteristics of your work that struck
me when I first encountered it: the garish color; the
extravagance of the practically psychedelic
visual patterning (I can still vividly see some of the wallpaper
and upholstery patterns from your early illustrations); the
frequent odd angles; the huge range of male types you focused
on; the equally wide range of their sexual activities--with an
emphasis on kink that was notable even for Stroke; your affinity
for foreskin (no one does it as well). Do any of these
observations seem accurate?
MICHAEL: Hmmm. The color thing. Rex, possibly the greatest
living homo artist, told me that my use of color was "vulgar and
nauseating." But I was reacting to all the homo-erotica that I'd
ever seen. Sex is the liveliest, jumpiest, most outrageously
joyful activity humans engage in. I thought all the somber,
dark, black-and-white stuff made sucking dick and getting a
finger stuck up your ass seem way too serious. It's a laugh,
snuffling in someone's hairy crack. It's an explosion of
nerve-endings and I wanted my colorization to reflect that. As
for "the huge range" of my guys, again it was a reaction to the
Tom of Finland and Etienne depictions {both Tom and Etienne were
pioneering, explicitly homoerotic artists}. Sex wasn't only for
the leather-clad muscle studs with great smiles and horse-dicks.
I didn't want to perpetuate the exclusionary attitudes prevalent
in male erotica. Marginalizing an already marginalized group
seemed wrong. I wanted every gay person who looked at the body
of my work to see themselves reflected somewhere, to understand
that being bald, or short, or Hispanic, or just bland was a
contributing factor in a guy being hot. I look at every male I
see on the streets, subways and bars, and wonder what special
trick they do in bed, what they look like awash with sexual
pleasure, how would they like to be excited. I never wanted to
draw demigods--who the fuck needs them with so many real men
around? And thanks for the foreskin comment. I was butchered as
a baby but grew up with Puerto Ricans who have the most
beautiful foreskins on earth.
JIM: When you look at your own work, how do you see it fitting
into the history of gay art and illustration? Did other gay
artists influence you? If so, who? But also, how do you see your
work differing from the work of most other gay artists and
illustrators?
MICHAEL:
I have to say that most of the influence of other gay artists on
my work is negative in nature. I look at what they're doing and
wonder why their field of vision is so narrow. Why must everyone
be so young and buff and beautiful? Luckily, there's a whole new
breed of artists out there doing bears and men of color, and
generally incorporating all the many facets of gay life into sex
scenes. I hope that some of those guys might've seen something I
did and that gave them the impetus to start branching out and
exploring the possibilities. For positive influences, I'd have
to say Paul Cadmus, Aubrey Beardsley, Norman Rockwell (don't
laugh!) and Joe Leyendecker. I'd like to be remembered as
someone who found dizzying pleasure in the most ordinary of
situations. Someone who didn't have to grope and grasp for
idealized icons, someone who got off on real people, like Blade
and Domino and a host of other forgotten contributors to the gay
landscape. Just another cock-sucker in the alleyway of life.
JIM: When did you begin working for our publisher's other gay
magazines, Honcho, Inches, Mandate and Torso? When did you begin
working for Playguy? How did that come about?
MICHAEL: I first brought my work to your publisher in 1987. The
editors were not amused and sent me packing. Later, in 1990 or
1991, a new regime welcomed my advances, perhaps because a lot
of the stuff from Stroke had been circulating and gaining minor
cult status. (I'm still approached in bars by men who recall
specific details from those drawings.) I've drawn for Mandate,
Torso, Inches and occasionally Honcho--as well as Playguy--for
the last decade. I even had a regular column in Honcho called
"Rant" that I wrote under a pseudonym. ["Lefty Boylan's" Rant
appeared in Honcho for the duration of 1996.]
I first began drawing comic strips with my
older brother when I was about seven and he was eight. We filled
up composition books with lurid stories, me sketching the left
hand of the panel and him doing the right side. I was better at
depicting women so that was my job. My brother did all the male
characters (all of whom resembled John Lennon). As I got better
he became just the "idea man" and I did all the cartooning. The
plotlines eventually turned more demented as we got older--you
know how that goes. When one of my best buddies got sent off to
boarding school, I began sending him feverish comics featuring
superheroes with dubious powers, getting stripped more often
than actually saving the world. Years would pass before I was
asked to do another serialized strip.
JIM:
You've done three strips for Playguy. The Roadies ran for
two years, from October 1995 through September 1997. Can you
tell us anything about it?
MICHAEL: I liked The Roadies a lot.
It had four young guys exploring their sexuality and their
friendship as they journeyed about. Originally they were
supposed to be musicians, but I really knew zip about music and
was too lazy to draw instruments and amplifiers. Besides, I
wanted to concentrate on the personal relationships among four
guys growing up on the road. I loved the story line, but because
of financial and space concerns it was never more than two pages
per issue and I had to have at least one sex scene each couple
of pages. After a long haul I was informed that the strip was
meandering, reader interest had waned and I should wrap it up.
JIM: Your strip The Adventures of Richie Tease ran in
Playguy from October 1997 through January 1999. It ended rather
abruptly, with the hero winning a Playguy butt contest at a
strip club. Were there episodes that were never printed?
MICHAEL: Richie Tease was foisted on me. I did not want
to do a single character who would have sex in each installment.
A young stupid guy getting fucked every month is not hot; I
thought the concept was dated, even irresponsible. I tried
building up a stable of characters but the two-page spread was
very restrictive and I came to dread each page. I ended it as
soon as I could, offering the "prize asshole" as my last
editorial comment on the series.
[Despite
Michael's memories of the strip, just this week a Playguy reader
from the UK told us in an e-mail of the incredible crush he had
on Richie, and how much the strip meant to him — so the strip
had its loyal fans.]
JIM: Have you done strips for other mags? For venues other than
mags?
MICHAEL: While these two Playguy sagas ran I also had a straight
strip called Sugah in Sugah magazine. It was a four-page
job and featured a larcenous whore and her sexual adventures.
Sugah was great and her friends, relatives and lovers were
hilarious. Al Goldstein of Screw magazine called the comic
offensive, but I got hundreds of complimentary letters and my
black friends thought it was wonderful.
JIM: Your first two strips for Playguy were monthly segments of
a continuous narrative. Your current long-running strip,
Beginner's Luck, began in July 1999 and continues to this
day. It differs from your earlier strips (and from most strips)
because there's no continuing cast of characters and there's so
much text.
MICHAEL: Now I'm doing Beginner's Luck as my only comic.
I love being able to do new personalities in different
circumstances in each episode. It gives me the chance to
continue with my all-inclusive pageant and address a wide
variety of situations. This is the forum that I wanted after
The Roadies bit the dust and I have dozens of scenarios
already mapped out in my head. Beginner's Luck is a
pleasure to draw.
JIM: Having worked earlier in your career for Stroke, a magazine
that was very "hard," was it difficult to adjust to the demands
of a "softer" newsstand mag, one that is subject to different
standards? Is this a continuing source of frustration? You're
amazingly inventive in making a strip hot despite the
proscriptions. What you depict winds up "feeling" like
penetration even when none is there. Do you feel that working
within Playguy's understandable limits sometimes spurs
creativity?
MICHAEL: I don't understand the prohibitions on bodily fluids
and penetration. Ejaculate is the result of a natural human
function. Who finds them offensive and why?
It's
not like we're trying to trick anybody. If someone buys Playguy,
he's certainly aware that the pages aren't going to be filled
with gardening tips. I'm outraged that we as an industry are
forced to mask our activities as if they're somehow shameful.
There's nothing but beauty in a mouthful of spurting cock. If
distributors and outlets balk at the content, then homos will
just have to create our own means of disseminating the material
and tell the critics to go fuck themselves. That said, I usually
take the restrictions as a challenge to get the viewer hard
despite being unable to go the full monty. I push and prod the
boundaries as much as I can, implying and suggesting what the
next frame would hold if it were animation. I have to engage the
onlooker, draw him in and make him an accomplice to the scene. I
try to make it real enough so he can see in his head the cock
nudged forward that last quarter-inch, know which finger is
going to start tapping on that eager asshole to gain entry.
There's sometimes a drawing that screams at me to put a slippery
strand dangling from a polished dick-head, but I refrain.
JIM: Is there anything else about you or your work for Playguy
that you'd like our readers to know?
MICHAEL: Having an audience is important to me. I want to be
able to connect with the guys everywhere and share our
experiences. It's important for us to have a common mythology.
We should have a place where gay men can go and feel encompassed
and comfortable and Playguy serves that purpose for thousands of
guys who feel stranded or alone. I don't draw for the money.
(Speaking of which, I haven't gotten a raise in ten years; can
you do something about that?) I draw in order to applaud and
thank every man who's ever been on his knees in the dark. I just
hope every fag at some time in his life can gaze at one of my
illustrations and feel the kick of recognition and think, "Hot
damn! That's exactly what it was like."
{Fans of Michael's work will want to drop by his new Web site,
www.KirwanArts.com.
Michael tells us that: "Everyone will be able to revisit all
their favorite PLAYGUY illustrations and comix with commentary
and after-the-fact add-ons." Sounds positively, uh, juicy.} |