Donelan

Gerard P. Donelan (born 1949),^[1] known primarily as just Donelan, is an openly-gay cartoonist. He drew "It's a Gay Life", a regular single-panel cartoon feature in The Advocate, for 15 years.^[2]

Donelan was born in Boston, but grew up in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the son of advertising artist Paul Donelan. He studied art at Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute but did not finish a degree, and went to work in retail. In 1977, disappointed that the pioneering gay comic strip Miss Thing had ended its run in The Advocate, Donelan submitted a cartoon to the publication, which turned into a long-running series of his own. Artists in the same period included Rupert Kinnard, an artist known as the first African American artist who publicize his homosexual identity.^[3] "It's a Gay Life" gently lampooned gay culture of the time, focusing primarily on young and middle-aged gay men. He continued to work in retailing while producing the series, which also yielded two paperback reprints: Drawing on the Gay Experience (1987) and Donelan's Back (1988).^[1] His work has appeared in Frontiers magazine, in issues of Gay Comix (including one cover),^[4] and in the gay comics anthology Meatmen.^[2]

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