Eric Orner (born c. 1965,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

) is an openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

American cartoonist and animator, whose works often revolve around

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

issues. He is best known for long-running syndicated comic strip '' The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green''.

Career

Orner began creating ''The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green'' in 1989, when he was working as a political cartoonist for the ''

Concord Monitor The ''Concord Monitor'' is the daily newspaper for Concord, the state capital of New Hampshire. It also covers surrounding towns in Merrimack County, most of Belknap County, as well as portions of Grafton, Rockingham and Hillsborough counties ...

'' in New Hampshire. The strip debuted in 1990 in '' Bay Windows'', a Boston LGBT newspaper. It was unusual at the time as "one of the first comics to portray gay men everywhere from the bedroom to the family dining room" The strip was carried by nearly 100 LGBT newspapers and alternative weeklies. Orner retired the strip in 2005, when it was adapted into a feature film of the same title, which received a limited national cinematic release. In the 1990s, Orner also worked in the office of US Representative

Barney Frank Barnett Frank (born March 31, 1940) is a former American politician. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. A Democrat, Frank served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committ ...

. In 2000 he moved to California, where he worked briefly as an animator for

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's ''Tinker Bell'' film. From 2007 to 2009, Orner lived on a work assignment in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, where he began work on a graphic novel to be named ''Avi & Jihad''. Orner has published comic strips and illustrations in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'', and ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

''. His cartoon story "Weekends Abroad" was included in Houghton Mifflin's Best American Comics 2011. He has been nominated for the

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

and the Small Press Expo's

Ignatz Award The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping ...

Personal life

Orner is the older brother of novelist

Peter Orner Peter Orner is an American writer. He is the author of two novels, two story collections and a book of essays. Orner holds the Professorship of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College and was formerly a professor of creative writing at ...

, as well as two younger siblings, William and Rebecca.

Bibliography

* ''The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green'' (1992) * ''The Seven Deadly Sins of Love'' (1994) * ''The Ethan Green Chronicles'' (1997) * ''Ethan Exposed'' (1999) * ''The Completely Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green'' (2015, Northwest Press) * ''Smahtguy: The Life and Times of Barney Frank'' (2022,

Metropolitan Books Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company publishes in the fields ...

)

Articles Published in The Gay & Lesbian Review

*
A Glad Day
" (2013) *
Stonewall Unremembered: (An illustrated essay).
(2012)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orner, Eric American comics writers American comic strip cartoonists American gay artists American gay writers LGBT comics creators Artists from Chicago Year of birth uncertain Living people 1960s births