Dale Lazarov Copyright 2014 Juddy Art GraffiteDale Lazarov has a talent for writing erotic stories that are turned into comic books without any words. And they certainly do not need them. Gay readers will have the time of their lives. Fortunately, he took some time in his busy calendar between the years to answer some questions for Lazy Literature. (Portrait ©2014 Juddy Art Graffite)

Dale Lazarov / Mauro Mariotti & Janos Janecki – Peacock PunksThank you for taking the time for this interview.
Your comic books are very erotic and explicit. How did you start with these topics?

I’ve always written about sexuality and gay relatedness in literary prose fiction and poetry. In 2002, when Steve MacIsaac asked me to write homoerotic comics for him because he liked my prose fiction, it wasn’t a difficult transition, especially as I’ve loved comics for as long as I can remember. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, with zero visibility for gay culture and relationships when I was growing up, so producing affirming material is very significant for me.

You work with different artists who draw your stories. How would you describe the different ways of working with them and is there one who is particularly easy to work with?

Most folks get a script that’s pre-existing and I ask them to consider drawing it if they’re good casting for the material. This is how Mauro Mariotti came to draw „PEACOCK PUNKS“; the script had been unproduced for ten years until I met him on Facebook. Mauro was the perfect artist for it due to his illustrative style and his love of alternative culture. The rest of my collaborations happen when I ask an artist what they want to draw, or I see their work and what they are capable of drawing, and I pitch them an idea based on either possibility. Say, in the case of „PARDNERS“, I networked myself to a gay cartoonist in Nashville because I wanted to do a Nashville-themed gay graphic novel and Bo Revel was delivered to me, as if by kismet, by my fans in that area. Thankfully, Bo wanted to draw what I pitched him so we went ahead with the production stages that follow the pitch.

Dale Lazarov / Bo Revel – PardnersI tend to work with pros so they need very little notes for revision at the character design, page layout, pencils, inks and coloring stages so it’s not like I can say some are easier than others. 🙂

The focus of your comic books is sex positive – that’s the description that is always given at the beginning of the stories. Was that a specific focus you took in your stories and how do you manage to always incorporate that?

Well, from day one I was interested in writing and art directing gay-affirming, character-based graphic novels that showed that sex between men is an expression of intimacy and character as well as a purely spectacular event in a comic. Avoiding the rapey, prescriptive tropes of, say, gay manga and yaoi was an unintentional side-effect so I went about publishing them without having to making an overt claim about the difference about how we approach gay relationships and sexuality. I just assumed people would notice that difference, and the world is a big enough place for different stances about sexuality in graphic novels. I have to be more deliberate, nowadays; unfortunately, gay manga and yaoi tend to get the lion’s share of publicity in gay culture and I kept getting either associated with it OR displaced by it. I had to take a stance in the branding to make sure people know my work is not gay manga or yaoi but something distinctly different that is worth talking about as a body of work separate from the genre conventions that (pardon the expression) dominate the way gay sexuality and relationships are represented in sequential art. Since consent and mutuality is a central descriptor of „sex positivity”, I decided to use the term to describe Sticky Graphic Novels.

How did the cooperation with Bruno Gmünder start?

When we sent them „STICKY“ ten years ago; it was pretty easy as they’d just started publishing graphic novels and looking for material. Since then, I’ve published 8 graphic novels with Gmünder. This year, I started licensing the Sticky Graphic Novels imprint for the graphic novels I write and art direct; it’s licensed through Gmünder (for hardcover) and Class Comics (in digital). „STICKY“’s 10th Anniversary Edition comes out in March 2016, by the way!

Dale Lazarov / M. Broderick – Fast FriendsSince you haven’t yet been to the Euro Pride Con: Have you been to other conventions and which one has been the most interesting for you, so far?

The economics of selling $25 hardcovers at cons is different than for selling $3 zines so I am very hesitant to participate unless the conditions for a con make it economically-feasible for me.  Ultimately, it doesn’t affect my ability to publish since Sticky Graphic Novels have world-wide bookstore distribution.

Your newest work, “Pardners”, has been fresh out of the press. What can readers expect from this new adventure you take them on and why should they try it out?

„PARDNERS“ gives a new, Nashville-themed context to the Sticky Graphic Novels brand for carnality and sweetness in articulate and evocative sequential art.

Dale Lazarov – Pardners p. 14

The mentioned kiss-scene from the interview

Let me elaborate what I mean by “Nashville-themed context”: I wondered if the vague homoeroticism in some country album covers and videos was something I could appropriate as the context for a gay graphic novel. Everyone loves homoerotic cowboys, so that was an easy way to use that imagery without being cliché, and country music stars tend to be gorgeous… And I wondered if the tension between the traditionally hypermasculine Ol’ Country Music guys and the more flamboyant NuCountry Music guys would make interesting chemistry between two men. Given that part of what I do is about being subversive, the idea of subverting what appears to be a very homophobic and/or closeted culture with issues about masculinity and generational differences was hard to resist. Once it hit me that I’d have to write the kissiest gay graphic novel ever — since C&W music is all about kissing! — it was impossible for me to NOT work on this book. I was lucky to find Bo Revel, a Nashville native who knows that scene, to draw the book within days of networking through my Nashville fans.

Since “Pardners” is out now, do you already have a new project on your mind or will you be taking a vacation now?

Dale Lazarov / Chas Hunter & Si Arden – BulldogsNope! „BULLDOGS“ comes out in hardcover from Sticky Graphic Novels in March. Also, there will be several new digital releases in the coming months: „SLY“ #2, „TAPSTUDS“ #2, „CARNAL“ #2 (all of which I plan to collect in hardcover after serializing them digitally) and two digital mini-comics.

What do you want to say to your readers – old ones and new?

To old fans: Thank you for getting what we’re up to and supporting it. It’s incredibly challenging to be a creator of gay graphic novels — say, I just got blocked from Facebook for 30 days due to someone reporting a perfectly FB-safe image, with no means to appeal the block — so your steadfast interest in Sticky Graphic Novels keeps me going.

To potentially new fans: Don’t you want to see what inspires such fan loyalty? Check us out at Sticky Graphic Novels! 😉

Thank you for the interview!