Donelan | |
---|---|
Born | Gerard P. Donelan 1949 (age 74–75) Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
Nationality | American |
Area(s) | Cartoonist |
Pseudonym(s) | Donelan |
Notable works | "It's a Gay Life"
"Drawing on the Gay Experience" "Donelan's Back" |
Spouse(s) | Christopher McKenna (m. 2013) |
Gerard P. Donelan (born 1949), [1] known primarily as just Donelan (dɔnəlɛn), [2] is an openly gay cartoonist. Part of the first wave [3] of LGBT cartoonists, he drew "It's a Gay Life", a regular single-panel cartoon feature in The Advocate, for 15 years. [4]
Donelan was born in Jamaica Plain, [5] a neighborhood in Boston, but grew up in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the son of advertising artist Paul Donelan. He graduated from Plymouth Carver Regional High School in 1967. [5] He studied art at Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute but did not finish a degree, and went to work in retail.
He met and began dating Christopher McKenna in May 1979. The couple chose to wait to be married until same-sex marriage was legalized nationally in 2015. [5] After spending most of their lives together living in San Francisco, the couple eventually moved back to Donelan's hometown of Plymouth, Massachusetts after his mother Teresa passed away in 2004. [5]
In 1977, disappointed that Joe Johnson's pioneering gay comic strips Miss Thing and Big Dick had ended their run in The Advocate, Donelan submitted 29 cartoons to the publication, which turned into a long-running series of his own. "It's a Gay Life" gently lampooned the gay "clone" culture of the time, also known as the Castro clone, focusing primarily on young and middle-aged gay men in their everyday lives. [6] He continued to work in retail while producing the series, which also yielded two paperback reprints: Drawing on the Gay Experience (1987) and Donelan's Back (1988). [1]
For eight years Donelan also created sexually explicit comics in color for Advocate Men, later retitled Men, which was an erotica sister publication of The Advocate. [7] His work has appeared in Drummer, [8] Frontiers, Gunner, Gay Comix (including one front cover), [9] and Meatmen (including two front covers and several back covers). [4]
Donelan's art was produced in seven countries, including South Korea, [5] and in five languages, including Dutch and Korean. [10] His work has appeared on t-shirts, rubber stamps, and in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. [7] He has illustrated calendars and greeting cards as well. [11]
Donelan created cartoons, pamphlets, and posters to educate the gay community about the importance of safe sex practices and the threat of AIDS. [5] He did this work for the NAMES Project, which worked to honor victims of AIDS and AIDS-related diseases in an enormous patchwork quilt.
In May 2015, he was a featured panelist at the first Queers & Comics conference, as one of the "Pioneers of Queer Men's Comics". [7]
“I always try to talk to younger gay people, to tell them what happened before … I think it’s important that we all understand what everybody else did before us so that they can appreciate what they have now.” [7]
(speaking on the push for equality and acceptance) “We’re still not there, because not everybody agrees that you have a right to be who you are. We’re still the outliers – not part of the heterosexual community that everyone thinks is normal.” [5]
"I loved recognizing little bits of real life in the black and white blocks of the daily papers. Hasn't everyone at one time had the urge to cut out a cartoon because 'That's me!'? That's what I wanted to do with my cartoons for the gay community. I wanted to do what Joe Johnson's 'Miss Thing' in the early days of The ADVOCATE had done for me when I was first coming out. I wanted some fairy to see one of my cartoons, say, 'That's me!' and realize that there are others who do what 'I' do, feel as 'I' feel. I wanted to help show other gay people that 'we' have a validity, a sense of humor and a sense of community. Why cartoons connect me to real life, I don't know. But I hope my cartoons connect my readers to our gay life in a positive way." [1]