When Worlds Collide

Five pages; drawn 1984; published in Gay Comix #5, 1984, Kitchen Sink Press© 1984 Robert Triptow

Maybe it was unwise to begin my editorship of Gay Comix with a piece about a clash between a female impersonator and an audience of lesbians.

Such a clash had occurred at the Castro Theatre in 1980 at a benefit to retire the campaign debt of the late Harvey Milk. The infamously bitchy drag queen Charles Pierce was moderating with tried-and-true material guaranteed to offend a lesbian chorus, who arose en masse and walked out.

Later on I got to know Charles Pierce, who was really a very sweet soul when not possessed by Bette Davis. It took me years to work up the courage to let him know I’d depicted him as such a neurotic character in my comic book. He read it in silence, then wrote on the front, “So, so funny and so true!”