The following Introduction appeared in Tim Barela's collection of Leonard & Larry comic strips Excerpts From The Ring Cycle in Royal Albert Hall. It is here reproduced with the kind permission of the author.


Introduction

By Charles Solomon

In an era when prime time series and daytime soap operas compete to show the most skin, tell the raunchiest jokes and present the seamiest liasions, the comics page remains an island of unnatural purity that has little to do with life in late 20th century America. Comic strip characters never smoke, rarely drink, and never indulge in premarital sex. Most comic strip children grow up in comfortable, two-parent households, often with full-time, stay-at-home moms. Although comic strips were damned in the early '50s as too full of violence, sex, slang and unreal glamour to be good for children, today they represent Family Values, capital "F" and "V."

In this self-consciously wholesome milieu, to suggest that two men, especially two men who enjoy leather accessories, the occasional porno tape and (in Larry's case) cruising other men, can find true happiness borders on heresy. For most of the last 104 years, comic strips have focused on white, middle class, heterosexual characters. Tim Barela works within the conventional format, but challenges the norm by drawing the unconventionally conventional lives of Leonard Goldman and Larry Evans, two openly gay men who share their lives and love.

Barela's strength as a story teller lies in his understanding of what "family" really means in contemporary America. Leonard and Larry share an extended family (in some moods, Larry might call it overextended) that includes parents, brothers, nieces, nephews, kids and grandkids, as well as a circle of close friends, gay and straight. Like that other unconventional family, the Simpsons, the members of the Evans-Goldman clan love each other and drive each other crazy. They feel threatened and argue over trivial points, but support each other in difficult times; the cheap shots and petty bickering that occur in every relationship are balanced with expressions of affection.

Their awareness of the ordinariness of their lives enables Leonard and Larry to tweak their conservative in-laws by playing on their worst fears and staging a fake argument over whose turn it was to feed the slave boys. The humor comes from the characters' personalities, rather than from a contrived situation or a pasted-on joke: Garfield complains about it being Monday almost every week, but what does Monday mean to a cat?

Barela makes his characters more believable by giving them real occupations, rather than the nebulous jobs many cartoon men pursue. (What exactly does Mr. Dithers' company manufacture?) If Robert Mendez weren't a talented musician, his constant worrying and complaining would just seem irritating. Because he is genuinely talented, those complaints become another facet of the temperamental artist's personality. Larry's leather shop provides a nicely incongruous setting for many scripts. Merle enjoys his new-found celebrity status, but he's also too bemused by it to become a typically vain comic strip movie star-of course, the ghosts of Tchaikovsky and Brahms help keep his ego in check.

Most comic strip characters quickly reach a stage that fits the jokes and stories the cartoonist likes to tell, then stay that way forever. Five decades of marriage and sandwiches haven't added a pound to Dagwood's frame; despite the trend toward social promotion, Dennis the Menace has spent 48 years in kindergarten. Little Orphan Annie has been 11 since 1924, making her the only woman in history to face puberty and menopause simultaneously.

Aging the characters in a strip presents the cartoonist with special challenges. He has to alter their appearances subtly, yet preserve the features that make them recognizable. Only Frank
King ("Gasoline Alley"), Lynn Johnston ("For Better or For Worse") and Tim Barela have had the talent-or the nerve-to age their characters convincingly. Walt Wallet has become a great-grandfather; Michael and Liz, the Patterson children, are now in college and high school. Much to his chagrin, Larry has acquired a paunch and crow's feet over the years, while Leonard's graying hair has receded a bit. Jim Buchanan's bald spot grows more prominent each year. Richard and David Evans have gone from gawky adolescents who peeked at Playboy to reasonably mature adults.

Barela's skill as an artist has enabled him to draw Larry and Leonard as the young men who met and fell in love, and, in a nightmare, as two cranky old men on a park bench. When Larry dreams himself onto the set of the old "Lassie" show, Barela draws not just any little blond boy, but a little blond boy who looks like Larry would have as a child: the reader can discern the shapes in his nose, eyes and chin that will mature into the features of the adult Larry.

Many comic strip artists find a successful formula and stick with it: the characters don't change, the situations and jokes recur. The title character in "Cathy" spends two weeks each spring trying on bathing suits ("Aaack!!"). Norman Drabble embarrasses himself every time he meets a female and Dondi started school for the first time every fall for decades. This ossified approach to cartooning may produce commercial success, but it makes for very dull reading.

Barela's willingness to explore new situations keeps his strip lively and gives his characters more depth. Jim has always been a sympathetic, moody figure, but when Merle forces him to confront his real origins, both characters grow more interesting. The reader learns about them as they learn about themselves. Barela has shown Larry fixating and fussing about his children and grandchildren, his parents, his garden and, of course, his lover. When his ex-wife Sharon takes up with violinist Gene Slatkin, Larry reveals just how far his obsessions extend.

All these factors, plus Barela's fondness for punning names (Merle Oberon, Dale Evans) and occasional outrageous touches make "Leonard and Larry" funnier and more entertaining than many mainstream comics that enjoy much wider distribution.

Charles Solomon is an internationally respected critic and historian of animation and cartooning. His most recent book is The Prince of Egypt: A New Vision in Animation.