Robert Kirby (comics artist)

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"Curbside" redirects here. For curbside pickup, see Kerbside collection.

Robert Kirby (b. 1962 in Detroit, Michigan) is the creator of the syndicated comic Curbside.

Curbside is the story of two young men, Drew, an aspiring writer, and Nathan, an aspiring musician, who meet and eventually form a tumultuous relationship. The comic is syndicated in several periodicals, including Chicago Nightlines, Out In The Mountains, Lavender Magazine and others, as well as on the internet. The series has also been collected into two books. The first book was published after Kirby received a Xeric Foundation award. A third volume, consisting of a Spanish language translation of Curbside, has also been published.

Kirby, who is openly gay,^[1] had his first venture into producing comics with the comic zine Strange Looking Exile, which also featured work by Diane DiMassa, Roberta Gregory, Nick Leonard and Alison Bechdel. The zine ran from 1991 till 1994. At that time, Kirby ended Strange Looking Exile and began producing a new comic zine called Boy Trouble with co-editor David Kelly, a comics anthology that was published from issues one to four as a zine, issue five being released in the form of a book in 2004. Boy Trouble features contributions and collaborations from the editors as well as a number of other artists and writers including Anonymous Boy, Jennifer Camper, Craig Bostick, C. Bard Cole, Michael Fahy, Andy Hartzell, G.B. Jones, Sina Shamsavari and others. In 2006, an anthology of the best of Boy Trouble was released, entitled The Book of Boy Trouble.

In 2002, State Representative Nancy Sheltra (R-Derby) protested the presence of the publication Out In The Mountains in the Vermont Statehouse due to its inclusion of Kirby's strip featuring two bare-chested male cartoon characters kissing, which she deemed "pornographic".^[2]

Kirby is also a regular contributor to the ongoing queer comics anthology Juicy Mother, edited by Jennifer Camper, and released in 2005 and 2007.

[edit] Publications

Juicy Mother 2: How They Met, edited by Jennifer Camper, Manic D Press, 2007 ISBN 978-1-933149-20-2
The Book Of Boy Trouble, edited by Robert Kirby and David Kelly, Green Candy Press, 2006 ISBN 1-931160-45-7
Los Chicos De la Acera De Enfrente, Ediciones La Cúpula, Colección Novela Gráfica, 2005
Juicy Mother, edited by Jennifer Camper, Soft Skull Press, 2005, ISBN 1-932360-70-0
Boy Trouble, edited by Robert Kirby and David Kelly, Boy Trouble Books, 2004, ISBN 0-9748855-0-9
Curbside Boys: The New York Years, Cleis Press, 2002, ISBN 1-57344-154-6
Curbside, Hobnob Press, NY, 1989, ISBN 0-9663241-0-2