The Skin Tight party — in which the costumes range from the familiar (like Spider-Man) to ones that only a comics geek would recognize (like the 1993 version of Superboy) — is one way that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender comic book fans are expressing themselves today. They are coming out, loud and proud, in blogs, peer groups, Web comics and more, simultaneously pronouncing their sexual identity and their devotion to comic books. But it wasn’t that long ago that the environment was less than welcoming for those who wanted to make the two seemingly disparate worlds one.
Oddly, none of the major comic book news sites (except for Rich Johnston, bless him) have picked up on this story yet. Which is kind of funny; they usually find mainstream media attention to be a totally gratifying and link-worthy experience. Another thing the major comics news websites are burying? Kick-Ass's disappointing box-office performance. They're also ignoring Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar's highly objectionable sense of humor:
I pitched this to DC for a laugh years back. The idea was that, like Death of Superman, we had Rape of Wonder Woman; a twenty-two page rape scene that opened up into a gatefold at the end just like Superman did.
I guess they don't want discussions about sexual politics to get mixed up with all the press-release-dumping they're doing for the mainstream comics publishers.
