Stuck Rubber Baby

By Howard Cruze, 1995

This graphic novel has a compelling story line about a gay man living through the violence and racism of the American south in the 1960s or perhaps ’70s. Yet I found it rather unsatisfying. There’s a lot here that I would normally enjoy reading – and I did keep returning to finish it off – but I found that as I read, I kept criticizing it in the back of my mind.

So, to start with what’s good about it, it’s a vivid picture of what it was like to live through the turmoil of the American South in the 1960s and ’70s. The narrator, Toland, is a young white man, largely ignorant and uninvolved until a friend invites him to a mixed black party where he meets some political activists. He feels he doesn’t meet their expectations, but he is drawn to their fight against racist inequality. He’s not out as a gay man but his attraction to gay men in the political movement helps draw him in. He lives with his sister, who is also politically liberal. Her boyfriend is a redneck, which provides a complex foil.

Toland is gradually drawn more into the struggle, hears about or witnesses police repression, Klan bombings and lynching, and sees their impact on his friends. As Toland grows in political awareness and involvement, he comes out as gay but feels guilty that he is less committed than his friends. In a moment of crisis, he feels that his lack of honesty about his feelings has contributed to a friend’s death. Eventually, he moves away from the South, finds a gay lifestyle and later in life reflects on personal courage and survival.

I like the way the experience of racism and homophobia are linked in the narrative. Perhaps Toland’s gayness makes him more sensitive to social inequity, although this is not explicit. His personal experience certainly shapes his political views, although it’s not clear if he sees a link because he isn’t out for the early parts of the story. It’s impossible to draw a firm connection, but I think it is true that experience of oppression can lead to an awareness of other forms of oppression. Toland’s connections to his friends and his sister contribute to and shape his political consciousness.

The problem I have with the story is that it seems skimpy and melodramatic. It takes a long time for Toland to experience things while he comes to understand more of what he sees. The characters are oversimplified and schematic, just figures moving around a historical context. I never relate to them as people. In spite of the dramatic events in the storyline, I found Toland and his story a bit tedious.

This may be in part because of the graphic treatment. I think I’m not very receptive to graphic novels and I focus on the text. The context and background in this story are carried by the graphics, so the thinness of the text becomes more of a problem. There is less to fill out the page – less distraction – when the characters don’t have much to say.

I also find that I’m not open to Howard Cruse’s drawing style. Although Alison Bechdel compliments the art in her introduction, I find the drawings of faces and bodies simplified, comic-like, which doesn’t quite work for me. (Bechdel also has a simple drawing style, but it’s somehow more expressive.) In these graphics, everybody just looks dumb (which I thought also with Cruse’s Wendel comics in The Advocate decades ago). But it seems really clumsy. Without the pictures, I can’t imagine a story editor accepting this narrative for print.

To a large extent, these may just be personal reactions to a style that I don’t appreciate. I know that many other readers liked the book – in fact, this is a 25^th anniversary special reprint, so the publishers think there is an ongoing interest in it. But I think I will look elsewhere when I want to read about racism in America or coming out.