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Robert Triptow
Robert Triptow (born May 10, 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is an American writer and artist. He is known primarily for creating gay- and bisexual-themed comics and for editing Gay Comix in the 1980s, and he was identified by underground comix pioneer Lee Marrs as "the last of the underground cartoonists."
A long-time resident of San Francisco, Robert Triptow was one of the earliest contributors to Kitchen Sink Press' anthology Gay Comix, beginning with issue #2. He succeeded Howard Cruse as editor of the series, editing issues #5 through #13 (1984–1991). During this time he edited the 1989 anthology Gay Comics, one of the earliest histories of the subject, which won the first Lambda Literary Award for Humor. He also co-edited and contributed to the HIV-research fund-raising and educational anthology Strip AIDS U.S.A. (1988) with Trina Robbins & Bill Sienkiewicz.
As a journalist, Triptow has contributed to The Advocate, The Bay Area Reporter, Frontiers, The San Francisco Sentinel, and other West Coast LGBT publications.
In 1978, as the assistant to the publisher of The Advocate, David B. Goodstein, Triptow was close to the heart of the historic events “during the year of Harvey Milk.”
Triptow received his title as "the last of the underground cartoonists" at WonderCon when asked whether he considered Gay Comix to be alternative or underground. Lee Marrs, standing witness to the question, asked Triptow if he starved while living in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, to which he answered yes. It was then that Marrs coined his title. This conversation was filmed and circulated widely via the internet.
In 2009, Triptow announced his plans to relaunch Gay Comics as a series of trade paperbacks under a new publisher, hoping to begin gathering comics for the collection by the end of the year. These plans were confirmed by Triptow in 2013, adding that he wants it serve as "a platform for all the queer cartoonists," however, no such series has reached publication yet.
In 2015, he released Class Photo, which has been described as a wryly comedic graphic novel imagining short biographies for the individuals depicted in a 1937 school group photograph.
Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Robert Triptow considers himself a "late bloomer" in the gay community as he did not come out until his mid-20s. Triptow had no exposure to alternative cartooning until a junior high journalism field trip to Brigham Young University, where he discovered the works of cartoonists Jules Feiffer, Gilbert Shelton, and R. Crumb in the school's book store. This prompted him to begin cartooning, creating a rift between him and his conservative parents as they deemed the nature of his queer-themed comics pornographic and sinful. Triptow commonly references his home state's dense Mormon population, noting he was often considered an outsider as a non-Mormon in Utah. Triptow broke away from his family in 1971, the same year he found the photograph which inspired Class Photo.
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Robert Triptow
Robert Triptow (born May 10, 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is an American writer and artist. He is known primarily for creating gay- and bisexual-themed comics and for editing Gay Comix in the 1980s, and he was identified by underground comix pioneer Lee Marrs as "the last of the underground cartoonists."
A long-time resident of San Francisco, Robert Triptow was one of the earliest contributors to Kitchen Sink Press' anthology Gay Comix, beginning with issue #2. He succeeded Howard Cruse as editor of the series, editing issues #5 through #13 (1984–1991). During this time he edited the 1989 anthology Gay Comics, one of the earliest histories of the subject, which won the first Lambda Literary Award for Humor. He also co-edited and contributed to the HIV-research fund-raising and educational anthology Strip AIDS U.S.A. (1988) with Trina Robbins & Bill Sienkiewicz.
As a journalist, Triptow has contributed to The Advocate, The Bay Area Reporter, Frontiers, The San Francisco Sentinel, and other West Coast LGBT publications.
In 1978, as the assistant to the publisher of The Advocate, David B. Goodstein, Triptow was close to the heart of the historic events “during the year of Harvey Milk.”
Triptow received his title as "the last of the underground cartoonists" at WonderCon when asked whether he considered Gay Comix to be alternative or underground. Lee Marrs, standing witness to the question, asked Triptow if he starved while living in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, to which he answered yes. It was then that Marrs coined his title. This conversation was filmed and circulated widely via the internet.
In 2009, Triptow announced his plans to relaunch Gay Comics as a series of trade paperbacks under a new publisher, hoping to begin gathering comics for the collection by the end of the year. These plans were confirmed by Triptow in 2013, adding that he wants it serve as "a platform for all the queer cartoonists," however, no such series has reached publication yet.
In 2015, he released Class Photo, which has been described as a wryly comedic graphic novel imagining short biographies for the individuals depicted in a 1937 school group photograph.
Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Robert Triptow considers himself a "late bloomer" in the gay community as he did not come out until his mid-20s. Triptow had no exposure to alternative cartooning until a junior high journalism field trip to Brigham Young University, where he discovered the works of cartoonists Jules Feiffer, Gilbert Shelton, and R. Crumb in the school's book store. This prompted him to begin cartooning, creating a rift between him and his conservative parents as they deemed the nature of his queer-themed comics pornographic and sinful. Triptow commonly references his home state's dense Mormon population, noting he was often considered an outsider as a non-Mormon in Utah. Triptow broke away from his family in 1971, the same year he found the photograph which inspired Class Photo.