Gay League is grateful to have welcomed thousands of comics nerds into our queer community since its informal founding in September, 1997. Communities change over time and certainly ours has seen its share as new people have joined while others have left and sometimes returned. Some of the people who we’ve come to know through the years have sadly passed away. The individuals named below were loved and appreciated by friends and families of birth and of choice. They touched the lives of other people with their wit, knowledge, insights, creativity, love, and passion for comics and other nerd related topics as well as other interests.
LaShawn Colvin was an out and proud Black trans woman from Montgomery, AL where she was the owner of the Comics and Geeks comics shop off Perry Hill Road. Not long before her death Colvin had signed a deal with Scout Comics to publish her Beautiful Soldiers.
Stevie Disme described himself as “man child about town talking about comics, tv and whatever strikes my fancy.” It was an attitude that inspired him to do the very popular Comic Book Queers podcast.
While attending the University of Houston in 1992 Shane Patrick Boyle was a columnist at its Daily Cougar student newspaper. Over the two years he received both fan and hate mail and became the inspiration for the campus’ conservatives efforts to stop funding the Daily Cougar. Boyle founded the Houston Zine Fest which held its first unofficial gathering in Hermann Park in 1993. Upon leaning of Boyle’s death in March 2017 the Zine Fest organization described him as “[…] a gentle, nurturing soul and always put his friends and work first.” The Free Press Houston wrote of Boyle as being “Easily one of the kindest most soft spoken people Houston’s art community has ever known.”
Bill Tucker was beloved by many fellow comics nerds for his kind friendship and gentle nature. He loved to visit his family and he especially enjoyed spending time with his young nieces and nephews. Summers often included camping trips with uncles Ken and Nelson. In his youth Bill joined the Boy Scouts and spent every Saturday morning that he could watching Hanna Barbera cartoons. Bill’s genuine interest in other people began before he earned a Bachelors in Sociology/ Social Services from New Hampshire’s Keene University and it continued throughout the rest of his life. Tucker considered himself to be Aquaman’s number one fan of all time and in the 1990s he often wrote letters to the editorial staff of the comics he read. Bill also had a special love of the late actor James Dean. Writing zombie science fiction was another joy in Bill’s life.
Robert S Harris III was instantly likeable for his kindness, thoughtful insights, humor, and gentle natured confidence. Steven Leitman devoured comics and reviewed them at his Reading With A Flight Ring blog. Scott Gutierrez had a biting sense of humor and loved to cosplay. Like Gutierrez, Michael Endora Colin Shiner was acerbic to his core. It was not for nothing that Shiner was widely known as Michael Endora as he emulated Agnes Moorehead’s portrayal of the iconic Endora on the Bewitched TV series. Henry Ryk Abetya loved the Doom Patrol. It didn’t matter which writers and artists were creating the stories or which version of the team was featured at any given time. Henry especially enjoyed seasons one and two of the Doom Patrol series before his death. Edoardo Bordon loved to design cosplay costumes. According to Rene Morales, a former boyfriend and longtime friend, Edoardo had a love for cult movies, Star Trek, and DC comics. He also found great pleasure in food; his favorites were quesadillitas de sesos and chicharron, ramen with bacon bean tlacoyo, pickled quesadillas, tamarind water, pineapple pie, chocolate cake, a marzipan.
Ron Weaver claimed he hadn’t missed reading a superhero comic since 1980. Theater was his other passion. Weaver was the box office manager of the North Shore Center For The Performing Arts in Skokie, IL. Weaver’s first stage play Bewildered, a parody of the Bewitched show, garnered rave reviews when it ran at Chicago’s Stage 773 theater. Weaver was working on his second play at the time of his death. The sense of humor infused in his writing carried over into all other aspects of his life.
Chris Companik earned a degree in journalism from the Athens campus of the University of Georgia. Known to his friends as Chrisco, he made his home in Atlanta where he produced Giant Size Comic Book Show for local TV. Companik loved the Legion of Super Heroes and joined the Interlac APA in either 1980 or 1981 according to Ken Gale who was in charge of the APA at the time. After his AIDS diagnosis in 1993 Companik started a comic strip titled HIV + Me which initially focused on his life with AIDS but then grew to encompass larger HIV/AIDS issues. The strip was also published in POZ and then later A & U. Companik also created a gay soap opera comic strip titled 881 Midtown Court which appeared in the UK’s Buddies magazine. Companik also had a comic strip that appeared in the gay erotic bondage Bound & Gagged magazine which ceased publication in 2005.
Patrick Kenny had a deep appreciation for Green Lantern. Patrick’s passion led to a career in health and medicine, from being an RN/PhD to hospital administrator, health educator, and a specialist in hospice care. Among these accomplishments, Patrick established nursing protocols for treatment in the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Looking back from the vantage point of today this achievement may not carry much meaning for many younger people since medical science’s many accomplishments and advances in HIV treatment. At the time though, there was much fear because of ignorance and there was too little dignity given to people as they were dying from AIDS.
Rich Thigpen was a dedicated volunteer who provided advice and guidance among other contributions to Prism Comics, the non profit organization representing LGBTQA+ creators and issues, beginning in its fledgling days and for a number of years to follow. During his time at the non profit Thigpen served as Volunteer and Membership Chairs, lent his editing skills to the Gay Agenda, and in 2006 worked on the Hard Heroes events. Thigpen was dedicated in raising the organization’s profile and mission. Thigpen’s volunteer spirit extended beyond Prism. He was an ardent supporter of the UCLA community and served as Project Leader for UCLA Volunteer Day and was a mentor to students in addition to UCLA’s Dance Marathon and Relay For Life charity events. Working with the Starlight Children’s Foundation, Thigpen also made wishes become reality for seriously ill children who wanted to meet their favorite celebrities.
Chip Nanco exemplified the meaning of “good people.” Close friendships lasted decades with him and without hesitation he helped several people who found themselves in desperate situations. When Facebook friends hadn’t posted in several days Chip checked in to ask if they were alright. Long before the Internet Chip was a huge figure and a key organizer of events in Legion of Super Heroes fandom and he certainly continued to be afterwards. Various Legion members were frequently the subject of Nanco’s drawings. The first issue of Comics Feature (March 1980) included an article about the Legion written by Mike Flynn with illustrations by Nanco and Jim Chadwick. A love of Rocky Horror Picture Show served as the inspiration for his cover art to an early issue of the long running Legion APA Interlac. Cosmic Boy in his 1970s Mike Grell bustier costume stood in for Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Nanco was one of two co-founders of the LSH: Legion of Superheroes group which began in April 2010 on Facebook. At one point in his life Chip went by Chuck. Here’s a video with Chip and other Interlac members back in 1992 at a get together in Charlotte, NC. Chip appears around the 3:40 mark. The clip is on Facebook so you may need an account to watch it.
David Theobald loved comics, action figures, toys, and LEGOS and most of all he loved his husband Jake, family, and friends. David had a gift for language, written, spoken, or signed. He especially loved interacting with children in his job at a local school. In a testament to love David and Jake were happily together for 28 years and they married shortly after it became legal in the state of Iowa where they lived. David was truly gentle and kind and brave because he met life’s challenges head on including a diagnosis that would turn anyone’s world upside down.
A longtime friend of nearly thirty years described Rickey Price as “shy, introverted, passionate about comics.” Comics were the inspiration of Rickey’s photo based art. He also served as media editor for Comic Watch. Price was involved in theater as well, whether as an actor or volunteering his time and energy in a variety of ways. Rickey and his husband Mike first met in November, 1996 and married in 2008. Mike loved that Rickey had “a whimsy and childlike energy.”
Alex Wright displayed a sense of sarcasm when he wrote about his origin story in a member profile when he joined Gay League in October, 2000. His parents were super villains who constantly moved in a bid to escape capture by police. He described himself as a teenager discovering a trunk containing proof of their knavery: their colorful crime costumes and a scrapbook of their malicious misdeeds. The three most notorious of them being the Great K-Mart Robbery of ’69, The Shriner’s Massacre of ’71, and the horrendous incident involving singe Eydie Gormé and Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. So great was Alex’s shame that he fled from Vancouver, British Columbia to San Francisco. Reading between the lines it was easy to see that Alex was born into a dysfunctional family.
Like every child, Alex started to draw when he was quite young. The difference for Alex was that he never stopped having an interest in art making. Perhaps that was because he discovered comics not long afterwards thanks to the doorman in a building where the Wright family once lived. Wright studied Commercial Art at Blanche MacDonald Career College in Vancouver, BC. Most everyone who knew Wright online was aware of his photo manipulations of superheroes and villains. Customizing action figures, writing screenplays, sculpting, and painting were other creative activities he enjoyed along with his first love of drawing. Alex’s love of comics was fairly broad though he especially loved DC’s Justice Society, Legion of Superheroes, and Wonder Woman. Alex beamed with pride when his pinup style art was featured in an issue of Alter Ego magazine. Alex was kind and generous with his talents and skills when he designed a new logo for Gay League after the Great Hacking incident in March 2009.
Two chihuahuas adopted Alex as their hoomin and he became completely devoted to them, naming them Pinky and the Brain after the cartoon characters that he loved to watch. Alex was heartbroken when first Brain died and several years later with Pinky’s death. In his younger days Alex enjoyed hiking, tennis, camping though these hobbies eluded him as years passed. Alex was a good friend to many people on Facebook and he was also an admin in the Wonder Woman Collectors Club on Facebook.
