Gerard P. Donelan (born 1949),''Drawing on the Gay Experience: Cartoons from The Advocate'', by Gerard P. Donelan, "About the Cartoonist", 1987, Liberation Publications known primarily as just Donelan (), is an openly gay cartoonist. Part of the first wave of LGBT cartoonists, he drew "It's a Gay Life", a regular single-panel cartoon feature in '' The Advocate'', for 15 years.GBLTQ - arts - Comic Strips and Cartoons

Personal life

Donelan was born in

Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commun ...

, a neighborhood in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, but grew up in

Plymouth, Massachusetts Plymouth (; historically known as Plimouth and Plimoth) is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Greater Boston, the town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklore, and culture, and is known as ...

, the son of advertising artist Paul Donelan. He graduated from Plymouth Carver Regional High School in 1967. He studied art at

Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMass Dartmouth or UMassD) is a public research university in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. It is the southernmost campus of the University of Massachusetts system. Formerly Southeastern Massachusetts Un ...

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 Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

was legalized nationally in 2015. 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.

Career

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 ''Castro clone'' is LGBT slang for a homosexual man who appears in dress and style as an idealized working-class man. The term and image grew out of the heavily gay-populated Castro neighborhood in San Francisco during the late 1970s, when th ...

, focusing primarily on young and middle-aged gay men in their everyday lives. 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). For eight years Donelan also created sexually explicit comics in color for ''Advocate Men'', later retitled ''

Men A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...

'', which was an erotica sister publication of ''The Advocate''. His work has appeared in ''

Frontiers Frontiers may refer to: * Frontier, areas near or beyond a boundary Arts and entertainment Music * ''Frontiers'' (Journey album), 1983 * ''Frontiers'' (Jermaine Jackson album), 1978 * ''Frontiers'' (Jesse Cook album), 2007 * ''Frontiers'' ( ...

'', ''Gunner'', ''

Gay Comix ''Gay Comix'' (later ''Gay Comics'') is an underground comics series published from 1980–1998 featuring cartoons by and for gay men and lesbians. The comic books had the tagline “Lesbians and Gay Men Put It On Paper!” Much of the early c ...

'' (including one front cover),''Gay Comix'' #7 at Grand Comics Database
/ref> and '' Meatmen'' (including two front covers and several back covers). Donelan's art was produced in seven countries, including South Korea, and in five languages, including Dutch and Korean. His work has appeared on t-shirts, rubber stamps, and in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He has illustrated calendars and greeting cards as well. Donelan created cartoons, pamphlets, and posters to educate the gay community about the importance of safe sex practices and the threat of AIDS. He did this work for the

NAMES Project The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt or AIDS Quilt, is an enormous memorial to celebrate the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes. Weighing an estimated 54 tons, it is the largest piece ...

, 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".

Contributions

* "Donelan" from Strip AIDS U.S.A. *"The Quilt" from Strip AIDS U.S.A. *cover of Gay Comix #7 (color credit to

Robert Triptow Robert Triptow (born May 10, 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is an American writer and artist. He is known primarily for creating gay- and bisexual-themed comics and for editing ''Gay Comix'' in the 1980s, and he was identified by underground comix ...

) *"Night Moves" from Gay Comix #7 *"The Discussion Group" from Gay Comix #7 *"A Donelan Look at Women" from Gay Comix #10 *"A Donelan Look at Men" from Gay Comix #10 *"Blip..." from Gay Comix #25 *untitled from No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics *untitled from Meatmen #1 *"Interrupted Transmission" from Meatmen #2 *back cover from Meatmen #2 *"It's a Gay Life" from The Advocate (active strip from 1977-1992)Theophano, Teresa.http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/comic_strips_cartoons_A.pdf(PDF). ''GLBTQ Archive''. Retrieved May 5, 2016.

Quotes

From the first Queers & Comics conference, on the panel for Pioneers of Queer Men's Comics

“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.”

From Wicked Local article/interview with Emily Clark

(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.”

From the Preface of ''Drawing on the Gay Experience''

"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."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donelan 1949 births Living people American cartoonists Artists from Boston LGBT artists from the United States LGBT comics creators LGBT people from Massachusetts 21st-century LGBT people