"What's Funny about AIDS?": How Howard Cruse's "Wendel" Confronted a Crisis

Hayward-Fitch examines how serial newspaper comic strips depicted the AIDS crisis in the US. The effects of the AIDS crisis on gay America cannot be overstated. The time between the discovery of the syndrome in 1981, and the widespread availability of protease inhibitors in 1997, has been dubbed the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of comic art Vol. 25; no. 1; p. 280
Main Author Hayward-Fitch, Cassia
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Drexel Hill John A Lent, Ed & Pub 01.04.2023
Subjects
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
AIDS
Comics
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
Protease inhibitors
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Summary:Hayward-Fitch examines how serial newspaper comic strips depicted the AIDS crisis in the US. The effects of the AIDS crisis on gay America cannot be overstated. The time between the discovery of the syndrome in 1981, and the widespread availability of protease inhibitors in 1997, has been dubbed the "plague years" and "the age of AIDS". Literature became an important tool to record the evolution of the crisis, and served as a space of catharsis, providing a sense of comfort to those affected. Howard Cruse's "Wendel," it shows how Cruse approached the AIDS epidemic and examines how he contended with the association between the comics format and humor in his decisions of whether, and how, to depict the AIDS crisis in his work.
ISSN:1531-6793