Biff! Bam! But no smack!

"DC Comics has ordered a New York gallery to remove pictures which show Batman and Robin kissing and embracing," sez the BBC. "The Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts gallery was told it would face legal action unless it removed watercolours of the superhero by artist Mark Chamberlain. 'DC Comics wants me to hand over all unsold work,' said Ms Cullen." Some were still up when I checked last. Click on the artist's name.

"Arts website Artnet was also told to remove the series of semi-naked images of Batman and Robin from its website. DC Comics was unavailable to comment. The colour pictures, which depict the superheroes in a number of homoerotic poses, were put on display in the gallery in February. Seven images from the collection were subsequently displayed on the Artnet site."

DC likes Batman to be subtly homoerotic only. None of this obvious stuff. Blech. Ruins the imagination.


POSTED 18:58: The more I look at those Batman and Robin watercolours, the more booooooring they become. A sad state of affairs when gay art is reduced to this -- and a pathetic state of affairs when the mainstream is shocked, shocked I tell you.

In other kissy-boy news: Readers know that I delight in trashing my local English daily, the Montreal Gazette, and so I must also acknowledge when they do something right. The paper ran a still from Canadian John Greyson's new movie, Proteus, that features two male actors kissing (Neil Sandilands and Rouxnet Brown). It was illustrating the movie listings that run in the high-circulation Saturday paper. Just a normal pic, and all. Finally.