Gay robin hood

Robin Hood Merry Men

Merry Men might sound at first like a delightfully campy series, but it is quite the opposite. The text focused on the sharp shock of the gay charge, but also, as suits a serious Sunday paper, had research. How inspired are you to address our political news cycle?

The comic is a grounded, realistic look into a world where Robin Hood, still the familiar rogueish leader living in the woods with his band of outlaws with a good cause, is now also a badass homosexual who rises up in the face of discrimination and oppression.

How important was it for you to give a voice to a trans character in your story? Robin Hood: Gay in the Greenwood? The Advocate chatted up Rodi about his new series, what inspired him to delve into the Robin Hood mythos, and how impactful this comic book is as an allegory for our modern cultural landscape.

By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Comic book publisher Oni Press recently released the first issue of a very queer new take on literary hero Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men. Titled, simply enough, Merry Men, the comic book is written and created by out writer Robert Rodi, with art by Jackie Lewis, and features a bold new story that recasts the familiar medieval characters as gay men.

So I think we were on beam for that disturbing trend, as well. This being an election year, it was interesting how the comic works as a narrative for our current political climate.

Merry Men Explores the

The Sunday Times story boiled this down to Was Robin Hood Gay? There was a fine colour pic of ultra-handsome Errol Flynn and an astutely selected illustration by Howard Pyle, the very influential American illustrator ofshowing Robin and Friar Tuck playing horsey in the water.

Merry Men has been in the works for quite a while, so it's just by chance that the political gay teen snapchat has polarized to the hood that it mirrors our 12th-century scenario.

Rodi: I'm a history buff -- ancient and medieval especially -- and I was lurking around some websites when I came across the question "Was Robin Hood gay? I wanted the full nonheteronormative sexual palette in this book, and, in fact, there are one or two more characters coming up who'll fill in a few of the areas still missing.

At least that was the prevailing view; I'm pretty sure queer people of the time would've had a different take on it, if you asked them. So I funneled a lot of that energy into the structure and texture of Merry Men. I wanted the series to have as much historical integrity as possible -- meaning I wanted to respect the limitations of the period -- but I definitely wanted resonances that modern readers could feel and relate to.

"When Robin Hood was about 20 years old; he happen'd to meet Little John; A jolly brisk blade right fit for the trade, for he was a lusty young man." The Times of 11 July reported on research suggesting that Robin Hood, who livd with his band of merrie men in their forest ghetto, may have been gay.

And it seems fairly clear that the anti-LGBT initiatives we're seeing everywhere these days are politically, not religiously, motivated. The comic is a grounded, realistic look into a world where Robin Hood, still the familiar rogueish leader living in the woods with his band of outlaws with a good cause, is now also a badass.

I was intrigued and did some more searching -- well, as with everything related to Robin Hood, there was basically just conjecture, nothing definitive. The first issue gay sets up the persecution and retaliation of the Merry Men.

Was this your commentary on the modern LGBT struggle? Yes, at the time all this was coming together in my head, the marriage equality and Occupy movements were very much in the news, and I was philosophically and emotionally invested in both of those causes.

One of the interesting things you haven't seen yet, because it's in an upcoming issue, is the revelation that our villain, Prince John, decides to use the oft-quoted passage in Leviticus for political reasons; it's a robin of getting at the gay allies of his brother, King Richard.

One of the ways I'm trying to be true to the period is that in the 12th century there was no concept of homosexuality per se; the term itself was hundreds of years from being coined. But I thought, What a great basis for a revisionary take on the character, and then I realized I'd better do it myself, or I'd be bitterly envious of whoever did.

There was same-sex activity, of course, but that was seen as a behavioral issue, not as an expression of identity. Also, an exclusive artwork for issue 2!