Talk:Barry Blair

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Creator of Barry Blair page is Paul Starling. blowzac@gmail.com

[edit] Elfquest work

I recall the Elfquest controversy: It was about the characters' apparent youth and near-nakedness, not about sexual orientation.

So it isn't clear why the complaints of his Elfquest work are characterized as "homophobic," especually given that EQ features other adult characters in same-sex relationships.

rbeschizza@valornet.com

Am not aware of anyone referring to his work as "homophobic". More issue of the youth of his characters...

Blair introduced one of the first *openly* gay relationships in Elfquest. There are strong implications that he's gay himself, although naturally you can't jump to conclusions.

Blair's actual ElfQuest contributions are possibly less the reason for complaints in the ElfQuest community than his latter era Elflord and Elfheim material. The homosexual aspects of Blair's ElfQuest contributions are very tasteful by comparison.

The issue of his artwork (and situations) was more of it being borderline "homoerotic". Blair has a tendency of drawing his female characters (both human and elf) as extremely endowed, etc. Most of his male elf characters are almost indistinquishable from his human page boy characters. His male elves are almost effemine, and always look to be in their teens. Then you add in his way of 'dressing' them, and, well, some have issues...

Blair's child-like depiction of elves is arguably a standard of the 'elf' comic-book fad phenomena of the '80s, including the likes of Peter Hsu's Elf Warrior, in which a young boy was used as model for photorealistic elves, and earlier depictions of elves by Wally Wood (in various Warren magazine shorts and underground erotic comix) and of course Wendi Pini's ElfQuest (although Wendi Pini is much more facile at illustrating children and adults within the elf stereotype).

I have to disagree with your comparisons with Elf Warrior, Wood's Elves (from Wizard King), and EQ. Wood's & EQ elves are short in stature, NOT drawn like children. As noted, Blair drew his page boy characters (humans) and elves such as they looked the same. Heck, even he made a mistake and drew a page boy character on a couple of pages with pointy ears probably because he forgot.

There is no question of shota content in (particularly the latter era of) Elflord and related works. For this fan of the Aircel publications, the unveiled perversity of many post-Aircel Elflord comics forced a re-evaluation of themes depicted early on in the series. This evolution of the Elflord material in itself might not have lost readers in such numbers, however, had it not coincided with a sharp decline in other production values. There is also a considerable element of bondage throughout the Elflord series. However, again, this is not part of Blair's ElfQuest contributions, and those unfamiliar with it might find the controvercy after his contributions to ElfQuest confusing or disproportionate.Mantic 07:54, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Paul S Responds: Guess the word "homophobic" was stretched here to avoid other imprecations~ anti-shota-con p'raps?... some lettercols in EQ did reveal readers with generalized discomfort about homoeroic acceptance...thanks for the comment!Paul starling 20:19, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New stuff

I added a bit about Blairs 'new' stuff from NBM, SQP, and Realm Walkers. Those with more/better info plus add to it.

I fixed the title of Nymphettes. Some people need to learn not to take a cover title literally...

I corrected the spelling of the name of the publisher Davdez (was Davidez) and expanded on the Realm Walker info and US publication of "Sno" - yelodoggie@yahoo.com

In reading this article, a lot of confusion with facts. I am Barry and Colin's manager and very good friend and I assure you, Barry is not gay. I have known him for the better part of 20 years. We produce artwork week per week and sell it online since the year 2000. Santos at germansaint2@yahoo.com

I don't believe anyone said he was gay. I think there are a lot of people who wonder, considering some of his subject matter.

Yeah, nobody used the G-word. Pity it's a concern, huh? There are a great number of academs who will fight to the pierced jugular to say Caravaggio was a straight-edger...if shota can be defined as mostly-naked boys menaced by tentacles and or wizards...I dunno. I myself am a BB booster.Except for vandals, y'think anybody would tool around creating an article on a guy if they didn't really like his trabajos?

How about Dave Cooper turning his adolescent relationship with Barry Blair into the surreal graphic novel Dan and Larry? I have the book -- it is clearly about Barry Blair; the character looks like him, and there are other unmistakable references. Though one scene clearly depicts the character in a heterosexual relationship, homosexual advances toward Dan make up the majority of Cooper's depiction of (B)Larry...

Has Mr. Blair ever responded to the insinuations in Dave Cooper's book? Mantic 07:18, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

No idea. May Santos knows. I happened to skim thru TCJ interview of Cooper and read his claims (cited in his article above). Wasn't aware of this book, but then, am not a fan of Cooper's stuff. Glancing over his other stuff (mentioned in the article and seen on 'his' page at Fantagraphics), all of his stuff seem to have a strange sexuality, so one has to wonder...