(30) Are You Good Enough to be Queer?

In the 1980s we had to contend with Anita Bryant who accused us of recruiting. Honestly! did she really think we'd let just ANYBODY into the club??

(29) Murphy's Manor's Cute Cuddly Funny Animal

Every comic strip needs a cute talking animal character. No one ever complained that Queenie didn't talk. 

In the 1980s crabs were an STD that while uncomfortable and embarrassing were more or less harmless.  The worst crabs story I ever heard was about somebody who had a tough time getting rid of them.  He ended up shaving his entire body and the bathing in kerosene. But nobody died of crabs, so it was easy to joke about.

But you know something?  Maybe I hang out with the wrong crowd, but among today's young LGBT activists, I don't hear jokes about Crabs anymore. Are crabs extinct, or has the

LGBT community become too respectable to mention them?

(28) Murf in Bed -- TMI!

All of Murf's secrets are revealed -- he does Siskel & Ebert in bed

(27) A Little Magic

Sometimes I go for sentiment more than a laugh. Hey, it's my dream. And yet -- it turned out to be an accurate prediction.

(26) Murf's "Someone" - after only 26 strips

This is a key strip in the development of Murphy's Life. He meets Mark and begins living happily ever after immediately. This was my dream in 1982, still a year before I met John. So Mark was based on my dream of a life partner, my "someone" that I didn't know yet. Over the years he came to resemble John more and more. 32 years in June. We got married on our anniversary in Chicago.

If Mark and Murf hooking up seems abrupt in the comic strip, so it was in real life. Dramatically, I should've built it into a plot line and it would've been good for 12-15 strips. Actually John  and I knew each other slightly for something like a year; but realizing we belonged together was still a "some enchanted evening" moment for me.