Today's Guest: Howard Cruse, cartoonist, Stuck Rubber Baby, The Other Sides of Howard Cruse, The Essential Howard Cruse: A Reader, From Headrack to Claude Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of cartoon characters largely abandoned in the 1970s but praying for a revival any day now… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida!   Order 'The Other Sides of Howard Cruse,' available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! My dad once said that nothing bad would ever happen to me because I could always turn around and write about it, thus finding some good in any situation. He might as well have been talking about my friend, gay cartoonist Howard Cruse. Every time I turn around, it seems that Howard has unleashed another collection of his wonderful underground cartoons and comic strips. HOWARD CRUSE audio excerpt: "When I was in high school, I had a (sexual identity) crisis. Unfortunately, I had a therapist who was homophobic. He said, 'You're not gay; you just spent too much time going to an all-boys boarding school.' He said, 'Be sure to go to a co-ed college and it will all sort itself out.'" That speaks to a deep archive of quality content he’s created, of course, but also to never letting any slight or perception of wrong going unrewarded by revealing it in his art. Howard Cruse, Ed Sedarbaum and new pup, Molly Or I could be making this all up as I go along… which I suppose could also be a trait of Howard’s! Howard’s newest raid on the archives is The Other Sides of Howard Cruse. It includes a big helping of his beloved Barefootz strip—which means cockroaches, frogs, sexually frustrated Dolly and is-he-or-isn’t-he Headrack. Then we get introduced to Shearwell the sheep, the squirrels of Tops & Button, Big Marvy, and yes, even “The Nightmares of Little Lulu.” There is plenty of the underground, stoner, sex-starved humor for which he is famous, as well as some straight, above-ground comics that you could probably show your grandmother. (But not a whole lot.) This Cruse fellow has a lot of sides and I’m hoping we’ll see a few more of them today. Howard Cruse • • • LISTEN! (2009)   You might also enjoy this earlier video interview with cartoonist Howard Cruse!         Order 'Will Eisner: A Spirited Life' (2nd Edition) by Bob Andelman, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!