Sunday, August 28, 2016

(59)Sid Meets Jan

I've always said that Sid Jacobs was based on Toledo's Jan Suter. This strip illustrates it. And it's an exercise in self-censorship'.

Perhaps half a dozen people who knew Jan will read this post. We recall how open Jan was about his sex life; he noted that it pays to advertise. If he cared what other people thought about him, he knew how not to let it bother him. I on the other hand, was a freelance cartoonist who was trying to keep editors happy. That required that I not be too explicit about sex. Yes, gay bar newspapers had their limits, and Murf lost more than one subscriber who thought my cartoons too racy. I thought they were no more explicit than "Three's Company."

Jan also viewed life as a series of virginities to be lost. This became a joke. "I lost my Ring Cycle virginity when I was seventeen," he might say.

He also likened publicly acknowledging one's interest in S&M to coming out for a second time. Again, it pays to advertise. He socialized with a Midwest group called FFA. I'll give you a clue. These boys were not Future Farmers of America. And "FF" does not stand for French fries.

Here's where my self-censorship came in. In the comic strip below, where it says "leather" substitute "S&M." At the time it seemed generally assumed that leather meant S&M 75% of the time, so leather could be understood by the readers as code for S&M. Today I don't know readers would make that presumption.

Oh, Sid and the woman have just finished an opera performance. Hence the costumes.



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