The Book of Boy Trouble: Gay Boy Comics with a New Attitude [Paperback]

Robert Kirby (Editor), David Kelly (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 2006

From its first photocopied edition in 1994, Boy Trouble: Gay Boy Comics with a New Attitude emphasized personal stories and viewpoints outside the mainstream, with subject matter that ranged from sex, love, and longing to porn, drugs, and punk rock. The Book of Boy Trouble compiles the greatest hits from the zine’s first ten years, including favorites like Michael Fahy’s "Valentine’s Day Love Poem," Andy Hartzell’s "Dinner at Achmed’s," and Anonymous Boy’s "The Non-adventures of Wayne," plus 24 pages of spanking new work from both regular contributors and up-and-coming talents.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Robert Kirby launched Boy Trouble in 1994 to publish young gay men's personal stories. This book cherry-picks the zine's comics. Reflecting primarily 1990s milieus, they report typical young gay male experiences. Anonymous Boy (aka Tony Arena) limns almost-coming-out adventures; in one, hero Wayne has a crush on a fellow worker at a summer job, in the other, a "filmmaker," assuming Wayne is straight, entices him into several still-photo sessions. Kirby and D. Travers Scott's "Instruction" follows a typical "young fag" on his first cruise for back-room sex. An encounter abroad is the stuff of "Pink Dolphins" by Best American Comics 2006 "discovery" Justin Hall. Meeting a high-school friend years later, when he is (or isn't) out, too, is a common subject, as is teen intimacy. Less personal, if anything but less explicit, are Michael Fahy's humor strips and Andy Hartzell's fanciful stories. Whether basically cartoony or realistic, each artist's style is distinctive. The subtitular "new attitude" seems to be pragmatic and individualistic; gay-lib idealism and solidarity aren't much on view. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Green Candy Press; 1 edition (August 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931160457
• ISBN-13: 978-1931160452
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,375,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Minneapolitan Robert Kirby has been drawing and publishing comics for over 20 years. His self-syndicated comic strip "Curbside" (1991-2008) was collected in two books: Curbside, published with the Xeric Grant in 1998, and Curbside Boys (2002, Cleis Press). His queerboy comics anthology Boy Trouble debuted in 1994 and eventually graduated into book collections from Green Candy Press: The Book of Boy Trouble (2006) and The Book of Boy Trouble Volume 2: Born to Trouble (2008). The first issue of Robert's new all-color queer comics anthology THREE debuted in 2010 and was nominated for two Ignatz awards. In 2011 Robert published a second issue and at the Alternative Press Expo (APE) he was announced as the 2011 recipient of the Prism Queer Press Grant for THREE.