➤ HOWARD CRUSE, from p.8
about their lives. And he captured
how the gay community was handling
the homophobic oppression
during the Reagan years.”
During those years, Cruse and
Sedarbaum became active in direct
action groups including ACT
UP and Queer Nation. Sedarbaum
also became active in Democratic
politics, and in 1998 challenged
an anti-gay Queens state senator,
George Onorato, in that party’s primary.
Though his effort fell short,
it was a harbinger of the dramatic
progressive shift that has overtaken
the borough in the years since.
Though the couple left New York
in 2003 to settle in western Massachusetts,
their connection to the
city and its LGBTQ community remained
profound. In a message to
Gay City News, Sedarbaum wrote
that Cruse’s “years in the heart
of the movement in NYC were essential
to who he was and who he
became.”
Cruse’s publication of “Stuck
Rubber Baby” in 1995 was a
phenomenon in the comics and
graphic novel industry. The prizes
Cruse’s “Stuck Rubber Baby” will be reissued in 2020.
it earned included the Will Eisner
Comic Industry Award, widely considered
the equivalent of an Oscar
in the fi lm industry; the Harvey
Award, another prestigious industry
honor begun in 1988; the
United Kingdom Comic Art Award
for Best Graphic Album; and the
critics’ prize at the Angoulême
COURTESY OF MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS
International Comics Festival in
France.
“Stuck Rubber Baby” will be reissued
in 2020.
A frequent presenter at comics
conventions, Cruse in recent decades
contributed to many anthologies
and published collections of
his work.
Perhaps no higher tribute in the
queer comics world can be paid
than that posted on Facebook by
Alison Bechdel, creator of “Dykes
to Watch Out For” and author of the
graphic novel “Fun Home,” which
adapted for Broadway. She wrote,
“I am so sad and stunned. Howard
Cruse died suddenly today — I
knew he was fi ghting cancer, but
it seemed like he was going to be
okay. God! He is one of the sweetest
people I have ever encountered,
period, and he was super generous
to me when I was a young cartoonist
coming to him for advice. What
a blow. The world has lost a true
comics superhero.”
In addition to his husband,
Cruse is survived by his daughter,
Kimberly Kolze Venter, and his
brother, Allan Cruse.
Donations in Cruse’s memory
can be made to New York’s LGBT
Community Center , the Queers &
Comics Conference , and Rainbow
Seniors of Berkshire County .
Sedarbaum said memorial services
will be held both in western
Massachusetts and New York. Details
will be published at howardcruse.
com
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