Drawn and quarter century

Gay comics icon celebrates 25 years

Jayson Callowhill is a gay pioneer. In the 1980s, he broke new ground for gay representation in the entertainment industry and the indie press. Twenty-five years later, he's still doing his thing, looking remarkably young for his age. If anything, he looks better than he did when he first stepped into the limelight in 1983.

But then, Jayson is a cartoon character.

"I can't believe it myself," says Jayson's creator, Jeff Krell, of his creation's longevity. "But it's wonderful that we have this long history of gay comics, and I'm proud to be part of it." This November, Jayson officially reaches his 25th anniversary of being in print, but the party starts this month with the release of Jayson goes to Hollywood, a funny graphic novel that celebrates Jayson's history while looking to the future.

Not so coincidentally, Jayson, who by the strange time dilation of comic strips has only aged two years since he first appeared in the pages of Philadelphia Gay News, celebrates his 25th birthday in the book. "Sometimes you have to throw yourself a party," Krell chuckles. "My friend Andrea and I used to plan our own birthday parties. We didn't trust anyone else to get it right, and we don't like surprises."

Andrea Jartman has been an influence on more than party decorations. The misadventures of Jayson and his best friend Arena are based on the post-college experiences of Krell and his "best fag hag" Andrea. "When I created the strip," Krell recalls, "I wanted to write about her, and I had an axe to grind with the ex who had just dumped me. So all the early strips were just about me and Andrea and my ex who became the character Walter."

"Write what you know" is a dictum Krell has understood since childhood. While growing up in a small town "on the edges of Pennsylvania Dutch Country" he was obsessed with Archie comics from a young age. He produced his first comic book, Susan and Jeffrey Comics, while in elementary school.

"They were based on me and my friend Susan," Krell explains. "I would draw one copy and circulate it around class." He laughs, "Not much has changed since then! In high school I got serious about it. I took every art class I could, and I would submit samples to Archie comics."

But those submissions were returned without comment, and Krell headed to UPenn for a double major in Communications and German. "I wanted to do international marketing," he says. "Ask me how that worked out!" Indeed, he found that without a very practical degree he was "majoring in unemployment," and after college he went through a serious of unfulfilling, low-paying jobs, an experience that continues to inform the world of the perennially job hunting Jayson and Arena.

But the greater freedom and anonymity of Philadelphia allowed Krell to explore gay life and culture, both on-campus - as vice president of Gays and Lesbians at UPenn - and beyond. As a life-long comics fan, Krell was delighted to find that there were gay comics but disappointed to find none that reflected his own life.

There were political cartoons, sex cartoons, and wish fulfillment stories about fabulous fags leading fabulous lives. But where were the gay Archie and Veronica?

Krell would have to create them. He drew his first Jayson strip on Christmas day of 1982, but it took almost a year to sell the feature to Philadelphia Gay News. The strip appeared irregularly, to little response. But a year later Krell was invited to contribute to Gay Comix by another pioneer, cartoonist Rob Triptow, who had just taken the editorial reins of the underground gay comics anthology that gave voice to dozens of artists including Alison Bechdel, Howard Cruse and Jennifer Camper.

It was with the editorial help of Triptow that Krell found his voice. "He encouraged me to tell stories," Krell explains the shift from one-gag, four panel strips to multi pagers that were more like short stories. Drawing on his beloved Archie comics and memories of sitcom reruns, Krell gradually perfected his simple, clean art and whimsical stories.

Jayson was now reaching a national audience, and popular enough for Krell to soon be invited to contribute to Meatmen Comics; he would write for both publications for years. Still, his work was getting a mixed reception from critics.

"We were very serious then," chuckles Krell. "I was one of very few people doing comedy. Critics were negative because apparently I wasn't portraying gay characters the way they were supposed to be portrayed. But I was just writing about people I knew.

"So I've often been on the outs with the gay community. Which is sort of a theme in Jayson, anyway. He wants acceptance but on his own terms."

Years later, Krell was vindicated when he published two anthologies of his work. "They got great reviews," he crows. "People said it stood the test of time because it's character based."

In the '90s, Krell began thinking about expanding Jayson's reach. With its sharp but warm humor and small cast of larger-than-life characters, Jayson seemed ideally suited to be made into a sitcom. But Krell says, "television thought it wasn't ready" for a show about a sarcastic gay man, his high-maintenance fag hag, and their queeny neighbor. Until it was ready, in 1998, when Will and Grace became a hit with the same basic formula. Krell still sounds a little bitter about that, though he's currently shopping around a Jayson series.

But he had shelved the idea of a TV series in 1997, focusing instead on an off-Broadway musical based on Jayson. On paper it sounded like a can't-miss idea. As Krell puts it, "There was plenty of gay theatre in New York, and an audience for it. But gay theatre at the time was as much of a downer as gay comics had been. I thought it was time to laugh again."

The show proved to be a milestone in Krell's history: it was nearly the end of Jayson. "The good news is that we ran for ten weeks and made $30,000," he sighs. "The bad news is that we spent $130,000." When the show closed, Krell was dispirited and destitute. He focused on changing jobs and rebuilding his finances. Later he moved to Los Angeles, where he put his creative efforts into writing and pitching screenplays instead of cartooning.

But Hollywood never did bite, and Jayson was still on his mind. In 2004, Krell attended the San Diego ComicCon. There he discovered Prism Comics, a volunteer organization that supports gay-positive work, and rediscovered his zeal for comics. Energized by the new artists and new technologies available to cartoonists, he "dipped his toes in the water" by publishing anthologies of Jayson. Sales were good and soon Krell was brimming with new story ideas.

The result was a new approach to the strip. Jayson goes to Hollywood is Krell's first graphic novel. "I planned it out as a whole book," he explains, "with an A story and a B story, which was great and allowed me to feature more of the supporting characters."

Krell is very pleased with the new format, and plans to release a new Jayson book every other year. That might not sound like a lot, but Krell has some other projects up his sleeve, including selling some of those screenplays and pitching a Jayson TV series. After 25 years, he's as excited as ever about the possibilities.

"One of the great things about writing it all these years," he muses, "is this constant discovery. The characters change and grow, and it opens up new opportunities for storytelling. I really don't know what happens next. I'm looking forward to finding out."