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The comics villains were similar to threats gay men faced at the time and the character Harry Chess asserted a humorous and positive approach to gay sex and life. The illustrations of the comic were frequently of muscular, hairy, men wearing tight and revealing clothes if wearing any clothes. For
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is his adopted brother Mickey Muscle, an inarticulate teenage body builder. "A.U.N.T.I.E." stands for "Agents' Undercover
Network to Investigate Evil", parodying the "U.N.C.L.E." of the TV series using the affectionate gay slang for an older gay man. Harry and Mickey would later become members of
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franchise. Rather than the heterosexual romantic themes common to the source material, the adventures of Harry Chess were openly homosexual, intended to appeal to gay male readers.
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Harry Chess “served as an emblem of political transgression as well.” The comic was known for its political barb, ridiculous puns, Jewish jokes, and bad spelling.
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F.U.G.G ("Federal
Undercover Gay Goodguys"). The strip also featured contemporary political satire, parodying the families of Republican figures such as
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Harry Chess was created by Allen J. Shapiro (1932–1987) under the pseudonym "A. Jay". The character appeared in a one-off cartoon in
November 1964 in
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magazine, where
Shapiro served as art director. His role at Drummer brought him into contact with other pioneering gay comic artists including
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example, in one issue Harry Chess and Mickey Muscle foil a plot to mix ground glass into tanks at the “Cay-Why” factory, a reference to
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Harry Chess is a former trapeze artist; his name is a pun referring to his hairy chest. He has a long thin face with a prominently
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publisher Clark Polak wanted "to put the ‘sex’ back into ‘homosexual'" and he used the Harry Chess comic strip to do just that.
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is the central character of the first gay-themed ongoing comic strip, first appearing in the mid 1960s. He was created by
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publication featuring news and erotica. He then became the protagonist of Al
Shapiro's
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The
Uncensored Adventures of Harry Chess 0068 7/8: That Man from A.U.N.T.I.E.
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The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film: A History and
Annotated Bibliography
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Murphy, Michael (March–April 2014). "The Life and Times of Harry Chess".
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359:"AL SHAPIRO, A. JAY, & HARRY CHESS: CONFESSIONS OF A COMIC STRIPPER"
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Harry Chess was an important part of the gay liberation movement.
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in March 1965 and ended in 1966. These early strips, edited by
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ceased publication, the character's strips were picked up by
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Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas
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November 1964 (Franky Hill: Memoirs of a Boy of
Pleasure)
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109:trope popularized in the 1960s, as exemplified by
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204:. In 1977, the series began appearing in
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297:"the drawings of Al "A. Jay" Shapiro"
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420:Comics characters introduced in 1964
271:"The Lives and Times of Harry Chess"
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465:Works published under a pseudonym
269:Michael J. Murphy (March 2014).
86:Mickey Muscle (adopted brother)
357:Jack Fritscher (August 1987).
273:. The Gay & Lesbian Review
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383:Booker, Marvin Keith (2014).
344:The Gay & Lesbian Review
153:United States Postal Service
331:. Rowman & Littlefield.
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410:American comics characters
327:Drewey Wayne Gunn (2013).
445:LGBT characters in comics
440:LGBT-related comic strips
435:Fictional spies in comics
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470:Gay male erotica artists
57:Al Shapiro (as "A. Jay")
112:The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
62:In-universe information
415:American comic strips
224:series in the 1980s.
101:under the pseudonym "
303:on 10 September 2015
216:Leyland Publications
16:Fictional character
455:Parodies of comics
405:1964 comics debuts
430:Fictional gay men
202:Queen's Quarterly
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387:. Greenwood.
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366:. Retrieved
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305:. Retrieved
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228:Significance
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169:magazine, a
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78:Secret agent
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187:Clark Polak
133:Spiro Agnew
93:Harry Chess
22:Harry Chess
399:Categories
243:References
185:publisher
124:cleft chin
117:James Bond
98:Al Shapiro
75:Occupation
54:Created by
212:Bill Ward
171:homophile
149:K-Y Jelly
30:character
368:9 August
346:: 22–24.
307:9 August
277:9 August
193:(1966).
128:sidekick
115:and the
363:Drummer
221:Meatmen
207:Drummer
159:History
234:Drum's
196:After
139:, and
126:. His
103:A. Jay
83:Family
67:Gender
370:2015
309:2015
279:2015
198:Drum
183:Drum
179:Drum
166:Drum
70:Male
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317:^
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
