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The Complete Wendel
The complete collection of the entire groundbreaking gay comic strip series. Originally published in The Advocate throughout the 1980s, Howard Cruse’s Wendel is widely considered the first gay comic strip to be featured in mainstream media. A topical and heartfelt chronicle of one gay man’s journey through the often-rocky Reagan-Bush years, the strip followed the adventures of Wendel Trupstock, his boyfriend Ollie, and an unforgettable cast of supporting characters. More realistic than most comics of the time, Wendel did not observe the traditional comic strip formula. Instead, it presented realistic depictions of relationships, politics, personal struggles, and public triumphs, all seen through a gay perspective that was just coming into relative widespread acceptance. Wendel became more than a comic strip as it, and Cruse, were propelled into the rarefied pop culture category reserved for art and artists that not only entertain, but also influence and are influenced by shifts in public consciousness. Its influence was such that Tony Kushner wrote, "Wendel unfolds with the narrative complexity, nuance, detail, and honesty of a great satirical novel." The Complete Wendel contains every episode of the series and includes a new foreword by Cruse, who contextualizes the story of the creation and publication of the strip within the often tumultuous political zeitgeist of the 1980s. It also features a new cover and a special "where are they now" section created for this book.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
171 people want to read
About the author
Howard Cruse
52 books20 followersHoward Cruse was an American alternative cartoonist known for the exploration of gay themes in his comics.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
May 26, 2015
"Wendel" was a popular continuing comic strip that ran in the GLBT newsmagazine The Advocate throughout much of the 80's. Reading this comprehensive collection is fun and nostalgic (as well as anti-nostalgic: the Reagan years were rough ones for non-hetero folk). "Wendel' has been criticized as being old-fashioned, unrealistic, and taking place in a sort of cozy cartoon Never Never Land. Cruse has more than a bit of the vaudevillian in him, and he peppers these stories with generous amounts of slapstick and broad, theatrical flourishes. His characters may be huge drama queens, but only in the most endearing, larger-than-life, often hilarious sense; they are all people you would want to know and hang out with in real life. It's also notable just how much nudity and fairly explicit sexuality is in evidence here - this strip was far more revolutionary than its critics would allow: this material would never ever fly in today's far more conservative GLBT media (the price we've paid for assimilation). The first paperback collection (published in 1985) was the very first book of gay-themed comics I ever read and as such "Wendel" and Howard Cruse - a true gentleman in person - will always have a very special place in my heart.
August 11, 2018
Amazing. All the stars
June 17, 2017
Reading this book was like visiting old friends: I read many of the comics back when they were new, and in the cast of characters I saw many people I knew in real life. The characters were fun, had distinct personalities, and were definitely gay. They also had both a libido and sex lives, which wasn't common in those days. In fact, "Wendel" was the first gay comic dealing with real life and what gay people went through. It inspired other comics artists, such as Alison Bechdel ("Dykes to Watch Out For"), who wrote the introduction to this collection.
The comics were written in the 1980s and included the topics of the day: Ronald Reagan and the rise of the "Religious Right", the 1987 March on Washington, and, of course, the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Those old enough to remember those times will recognise the feelings of annoyance and even anger and rage—and, too often powerlessness—about what was being done to gay people at the time. Younger people can get a first-hand view of those times through these comics, and the characters who reflected the experiences of the witnesses to those years. And yet, it was all presented with Cruse's humour and good natured storytelling.
So, sure, this book is a document of the time it was written, but it's far more than that. It's a whole cast of characters, most of them gay, all of them with full personalities and lives that mainly just entertain us. The rest is a bonus.
Visiting them again was fun, nostalgic, and well worth the time.
The comics were written in the 1980s and included the topics of the day: Ronald Reagan and the rise of the "Religious Right", the 1987 March on Washington, and, of course, the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Those old enough to remember those times will recognise the feelings of annoyance and even anger and rage—and, too often powerlessness—about what was being done to gay people at the time. Younger people can get a first-hand view of those times through these comics, and the characters who reflected the experiences of the witnesses to those years. And yet, it was all presented with Cruse's humour and good natured storytelling.
So, sure, this book is a document of the time it was written, but it's far more than that. It's a whole cast of characters, most of them gay, all of them with full personalities and lives that mainly just entertain us. The rest is a bonus.
Visiting them again was fun, nostalgic, and well worth the time.
July 10, 2012
I'm so glad this exists.
It kind of blows my mind that people have been this progressive for so long. Before The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, Cruse was chronicling the hijinks of a gay dude, his partner, his partner's kid, and a whole bunch of wacky secondary characters. He touches on parenting (and ex-wives), AIDS, advocacy, journalism ethics, unhealthy romantic entanglements, and more.
The illustrations are very in the Archie tradition, which was rather eerie for me, as I read a lot of Archies in my younger years.
Wish there had been more lesbians, but ya know, it's a gay dude writing it, and The Advocate was skewed toward the boy's side of things for a long time (at least according to Alison Bechdel, who writes the introduction).
Lots of incidental nudity, be aware if you care. Even the back of the cover isn't particularly safe for work.
Loveable and honest.
It kind of blows my mind that people have been this progressive for so long. Before The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, Cruse was chronicling the hijinks of a gay dude, his partner, his partner's kid, and a whole bunch of wacky secondary characters. He touches on parenting (and ex-wives), AIDS, advocacy, journalism ethics, unhealthy romantic entanglements, and more.
The illustrations are very in the Archie tradition, which was rather eerie for me, as I read a lot of Archies in my younger years.
Wish there had been more lesbians, but ya know, it's a gay dude writing it, and The Advocate was skewed toward the boy's side of things for a long time (at least according to Alison Bechdel, who writes the introduction).
Lots of incidental nudity, be aware if you care. Even the back of the cover isn't particularly safe for work.
Loveable and honest.
April 27, 2022
After watching the excellent No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics documentary, I was inspired to go back and fill in some gaps in my comics history. First stop was the late Howard Cruse’s Wendel, originally printed in The Advocate between 1983 and 1989, giving voice to a generation most impacted by HIV/AIDS and the presidency of Ronald Reagan. It is, as Paul Morton once wrote, a "journal of a plague decade."
Which is what makes this collection so remarkable. Through it, we get to live with these fictional characters in real time. We see their reactions to major events and protests, but also simply observe the ups and downs of their love lives, Wendel's relationship with Ollie, his close-knit collection of friends, and the wildcard Sterno mixing things up. Through it all, it's infused with humour, making jokes and wry observations about gay life in the 80s with Wendel representing Cruse's optimistic side through it all.
Cruse, who went on to release Stuck Rubber Baby, will be missed, but this collection remains as a vital reminder of his importance.
Which is what makes this collection so remarkable. Through it, we get to live with these fictional characters in real time. We see their reactions to major events and protests, but also simply observe the ups and downs of their love lives, Wendel's relationship with Ollie, his close-knit collection of friends, and the wildcard Sterno mixing things up. Through it all, it's infused with humour, making jokes and wry observations about gay life in the 80s with Wendel representing Cruse's optimistic side through it all.
Cruse, who went on to release Stuck Rubber Baby, will be missed, but this collection remains as a vital reminder of his importance.
July 10, 2023
It's extremely irritating that this book can't seem to stay in print.
Most comics with political leanings tend to age poorly. And queer narratives from the eighties were often fairly problematic in the way they tackled issues of race, gender, mental health, and sexuality. This book reads less like a series of comics written in the eighties (which it was) and more like a comic written in the twenty-first century about the 1980s. The language seems too fresh to be dated, and the focus on general issues rather than specific immediate political issues keeps it an engaging read forty years later.
Each two page spread is a complete story about a twenty-somethingish gay dude trying to navigate eighties life, the divisions within the queer community, his relationship with a divorced dad and his son, and issues with anxiety.
I can't recommend this book enough if you're looking for a readable queer narrative that takes place in the late 20th century but doesn't feel like it was written with contempt for others and isn't littered with problematic stereotypes (oh, there are a ton of stereotypical characters but the stereotypes aren't based on race or class, and they never punch down. I wish it was more widely available.
Most comics with political leanings tend to age poorly. And queer narratives from the eighties were often fairly problematic in the way they tackled issues of race, gender, mental health, and sexuality. This book reads less like a series of comics written in the eighties (which it was) and more like a comic written in the twenty-first century about the 1980s. The language seems too fresh to be dated, and the focus on general issues rather than specific immediate political issues keeps it an engaging read forty years later.
Each two page spread is a complete story about a twenty-somethingish gay dude trying to navigate eighties life, the divisions within the queer community, his relationship with a divorced dad and his son, and issues with anxiety.
I can't recommend this book enough if you're looking for a readable queer narrative that takes place in the late 20th century but doesn't feel like it was written with contempt for others and isn't littered with problematic stereotypes (oh, there are a ton of stereotypical characters but the stereotypes aren't based on race or class, and they never punch down. I wish it was more widely available.
June 2, 2024
Fewer things fill me with a sense of bittersweet, profound accomplishment than finishing a complete compendium of a long-running queer comic series. Dykes to Watch Out For, The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green, Curbside Boys, and now Wendel. As soon as I closed the book, I started missing the characters, and that wist has yet to abate. Compared to the aforementioned other queer comics (which mostly blossomed in the 1990s), Wendel has such an open-hearted sincerity, even when it's being satirical. Despite the gee-gosh, rubber-hose aesthetics, it doesn't shy away from the often dark reality of being a queer person in the 1980s. A must-read for any queer comics fan.
June 27, 2024
While not necessarily containing the same level of continuity depth as Allison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For, Howard Cruse’s Wendel is an iconoclastic gay comic strip that balances heart and humor, though the abundant nudity makes this more suited for a mature audience.
November 28, 2018
Great little time capsule of the fantasy gay life in the 80's.
June 6, 2023
A fun window into life in the eighties.
March 5, 2016
I'm really surprised it took me this long to finish this book. My only excuse is that it was originally published in The Advocate so each two page spread is a complete mini plot arch. So even if you find the overall story really engaging it's super easy to put down.
Writing this as a serialized story, Cruse struck a really strong balance between episodic and over-arching plot. Which is pretty difficult to do sometimes. The characters were continuously developing and the plot lines were all pretty unique and engaging. I really felt like I got to know these people through this collection and it was super fun to read.
As far as the art goes, it's again a balance between cartoon and realistic. All black and white, Cruse doesn't have any unnecessary lines or a lot of heavy shading. Everything is crisp, visually simplistic but well defined. The people are somewhat caricatured but not in the least bit grotesque or tripy. They are just normal people, living out their normal (if somewhat more entertaining) lives.
What really turned me on to this comic was the fact that I could really identify with Wendel himself. He's a guy who deeply cares about life and people, he's extremely loyal, and sometimes he's perhaps a bit too serious. But the Wendel comic is nothing if not a comedy. Cruse's skill really shines in the way that he is able to balance (there's that word again) the line between laughing with Wendel and laughing at Wendel. A lot of the entertainment value for me came from the fact that Cruse never poking fun at my (or Wendel's) beliefs and actions, but we are all acknowledging that sometimes you just have to laugh because the world (and we who care) can be pretty ridiculous sometimes.
Finally, I was also pretty impressed by the amount of diversity in the comic. While the story mostly centers around two white gay men, they are surrounded by lesbians, supportive and unsupportive relatives, an ex-wife, a son, gay men of color, friends with AIDS, and at least one serious kook etc.
Writing this as a serialized story, Cruse struck a really strong balance between episodic and over-arching plot. Which is pretty difficult to do sometimes. The characters were continuously developing and the plot lines were all pretty unique and engaging. I really felt like I got to know these people through this collection and it was super fun to read.
As far as the art goes, it's again a balance between cartoon and realistic. All black and white, Cruse doesn't have any unnecessary lines or a lot of heavy shading. Everything is crisp, visually simplistic but well defined. The people are somewhat caricatured but not in the least bit grotesque or tripy. They are just normal people, living out their normal (if somewhat more entertaining) lives.
What really turned me on to this comic was the fact that I could really identify with Wendel himself. He's a guy who deeply cares about life and people, he's extremely loyal, and sometimes he's perhaps a bit too serious. But the Wendel comic is nothing if not a comedy. Cruse's skill really shines in the way that he is able to balance (there's that word again) the line between laughing with Wendel and laughing at Wendel. A lot of the entertainment value for me came from the fact that Cruse never poking fun at my (or Wendel's) beliefs and actions, but we are all acknowledging that sometimes you just have to laugh because the world (and we who care) can be pretty ridiculous sometimes.
Finally, I was also pretty impressed by the amount of diversity in the comic. While the story mostly centers around two white gay men, they are surrounded by lesbians, supportive and unsupportive relatives, an ex-wife, a son, gay men of color, friends with AIDS, and at least one serious kook etc.
February 11, 2013
These are very good comics: witty, clever, sophisticated, satirical, realistic (more or less), insightful, and occasionally sad, as Cruse tracks the life of his eponymous hero, coming to trerms with gay adulthood in the 1980s (when these strips were written; hence the occasional strains of tragedy, as the AIDS epidemic was at its most horrifying during those years). These strips must have been groundbreaking at the time for the way they normalize gay life. Yes, there's sex and nudity (full frontal, but no erections) and some cliches of the gay lifestyle, though the cliches are usually introduced to be at leas deflated if not outright punctured, but more impostantly, his strip chronicles, in a deceptively simple, humour-oriented style, what it's like to live gay. Wendel and his lover Ollie deal with all the things everyone deals with, from a perspective no doubt unfamiliar to most straights.
The content--what with strong language and nudity--certainly suggests an undergound ethos, and one can see occasional undergoundish moments (indeed, Cruse was/is unquestionanly an underground cartoonist), but the primary influences visually are more things like Archie comics or, more apropos, I think, the Kurtzman/Elder canon. There's something vaguely Goodman Beaverish/Annie Fannyish about Wendel, with his wide, open eyes and his mix of wholesome innocence and sexuality, and the unobtrusive (mostly) satirical edges of the strip fit with that as well.
Mainly, though, these are just very well-realized, beautifully-drawn comics about a colourful cast of characters with clear personalities, goals, fears, etc. Just plain good comics. Recommended.
The content--what with strong language and nudity--certainly suggests an undergound ethos, and one can see occasional undergoundish moments (indeed, Cruse was/is unquestionanly an underground cartoonist), but the primary influences visually are more things like Archie comics or, more apropos, I think, the Kurtzman/Elder canon. There's something vaguely Goodman Beaverish/Annie Fannyish about Wendel, with his wide, open eyes and his mix of wholesome innocence and sexuality, and the unobtrusive (mostly) satirical edges of the strip fit with that as well.
Mainly, though, these are just very well-realized, beautifully-drawn comics about a colourful cast of characters with clear personalities, goals, fears, etc. Just plain good comics. Recommended.
April 29, 2013
I really enjoyed this book, it's probably the best cartoon strip series I've ever read.
The strip traces the timultous 1980's with wit and compassion, making me both laugh and cry, but ultimately not doing too much of either. The strip really lends itself to the long-format story and an in-depth look at the lives of these characters.
I took a star off as I would have liked to laugh a bit more. Also I don't understand the tendency with collections to include long introductions discussing the work up-front. Before I've even read ONE Wendel comic strip, I'm reading the introduction and the author talking about what was good and bad in the stories and future plans for the mom to quit smoking. I was waiting for that one as I recently quit smoking myself, but it turns out they were just ideas for future developement. Still, I think that would have been better positioned at the end of the book.
The cartoon itself went through probably the worst decade in American history for gays and came out with a smile, if not a laugh. It remains engaging and unlike other works from the period is not overly dated, containing few references to specific events. I think it will hold up well.
Also admirable is the full nudity and the swearing. I don't know if the Advocate today would print a cartoon with a penis and an f-word, so well done Cruse for getting that in.
I knew nothing of this strip going into the book and I'm really glad I read it. Wendel will stick with me.
The strip traces the timultous 1980's with wit and compassion, making me both laugh and cry, but ultimately not doing too much of either. The strip really lends itself to the long-format story and an in-depth look at the lives of these characters.
I took a star off as I would have liked to laugh a bit more. Also I don't understand the tendency with collections to include long introductions discussing the work up-front. Before I've even read ONE Wendel comic strip, I'm reading the introduction and the author talking about what was good and bad in the stories and future plans for the mom to quit smoking. I was waiting for that one as I recently quit smoking myself, but it turns out they were just ideas for future developement. Still, I think that would have been better positioned at the end of the book.
The cartoon itself went through probably the worst decade in American history for gays and came out with a smile, if not a laugh. It remains engaging and unlike other works from the period is not overly dated, containing few references to specific events. I think it will hold up well.
Also admirable is the full nudity and the swearing. I don't know if the Advocate today would print a cartoon with a penis and an f-word, so well done Cruse for getting that in.
I knew nothing of this strip going into the book and I'm really glad I read it. Wendel will stick with me.
January 4, 2019
It's been a while since I revisited Wendel and friends, but it caught my eye on the bookshelf the other day and I decided to give it another read through.
It's a decidedly 80's comic strip and gay 80's at that, and manages to find a balance between a cute "funny pages" art style with occasional full frontal nudity and frequent sexual references (although no actual sex).
While there are a number of references that have definitely dated, it's more the clothes, hair and political landscape that (at least in part) ages this.
Having said that, Cruse filled his comic with a wide cast of characters, and archetypes not always seen in gay fiction/comics. And for that, it remains worth reading.
It's a decidedly 80's comic strip and gay 80's at that, and manages to find a balance between a cute "funny pages" art style with occasional full frontal nudity and frequent sexual references (although no actual sex).
While there are a number of references that have definitely dated, it's more the clothes, hair and political landscape that (at least in part) ages this.
Having said that, Cruse filled his comic with a wide cast of characters, and archetypes not always seen in gay fiction/comics. And for that, it remains worth reading.
November 28, 2015
It pains me a little to only give Wendel three stars (though it's perfectly respectable number) because my first exposures to Cruse' work was through the masterpieces Stuck Rubber Baby and "Billy Goes Out." Compared to those titles, the entire run of Wendel collected as a whole here felt too inconsistent. Some strips easily reach the those heights, usually when Cruse drops dialogue and lets his images carry the story, but many are merely amusing diversions. Nothing wrong with that, of course, hence the three stars.
July 13, 2010
A sweet and funny ride through the queer 80s. A good companion to "Dykes to Watch Out For", though without quite the scope. Cruse's novel-form comic, Stuck Rubber Baby, remains his classic, but Wendel shows Cruse at fine and accomplished form in the less common two-pager.
July 28, 2011
A wonderful gay comic, about love in a time of AIDS, (80's and 90's) when parents and exes are becoming more tolerant but there is still minds to be changed, laws to be fought, and hearts to be won. A joy to read.
July 23, 2015
While these strips aren't as funny as things like Calvin & Hobbes or Peanuts, they're a wonderful look at gay life in the 1980s. They feature well realized characters and interesting situations, and I think they explore many aspects of gay life without devolving into the usual clichés.
April 30, 2009
I really liked Stuck Rubber Baby. That was my first introduction to Cruse. While this is a lot lighter and funnier, it's still got a nice dose of good old-fashioned queer politics.
December 8, 2011
I loved it! This book was so funny. It was insightful, realistic and hilarious. Gay comics=swoon.
February 17, 2017
Divertido, profundo, comprometido... gran cómic.
May 10, 2020
First read it as serialized comic strip in the Advocate, and again when published in book form in 2001. Re-read it today just for fun.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews