Bona To Vada: How John Smith Mastered Queer Code Switching In Comics – Shelfdust

Now Running on Shelfdust! Bona To Vada: How John Smith Mastered Queer Code Switching In Comics

"For an author whose most well-loved work was arguably published between 1987 and 1995, John Smith is the perfect example of this: an out-of-the-closet gay man, some of whose following – still to this day – is convinced that he was married to a woman, and whose queerness was simply a signifier that he was “different”, “odd”, or — my favorite — queer in “the other way”.

What makes this so true, though? I’ve talked before at length about the thinly veiled line between the two meanings of “queer” when it comes to Smith’s work, and just how prevalent the themes of queerness and the feelings of being out and gay are strung all the way through his lyrical scripting. So how exactly do we land with a fair sum of Smith’s old-school fandom still coming up with the idea that he was as straight as an arrow and could never ever possibly stray from their idea of what his writing meant? It all comes back to the greatest trick queers have ever pulled, and one that Smith managed to pull for the majority of his bizarre and delightful career. The simple truth is, whether intentional or not, John Smith mastered the art of code switching."