CONFESSIONS OF A SEX CARTOONIST

My second cover for SCREW, and the first incarnations of SLUG & GINGER.

I did not start putting ‘sex’ in my art to make money; I wanted to do it. I’m good at it. It comes naturally.

You can believe it or not, but ever since I was a kid (late 1960s) I wanted to do 'adult' cartoons. It was early viewings of cocktail napkins, magazine gag cartoons, and the subtly voluptuous women of the cartooning manuals that did it. I wanted to be the boss chasing the secretary around the desk!

I was also immersed in fine art. After high school hours, I drew nude models at BOCES Cultural Arts Center (Syosset, NY), and was aware that many artists I admire have dabbled in the erotic, much of it comical. I did not have the concept as the nude as “nasty”.

I never conceived my work to be masturbatory material, feeling it too situational and outlandish. Some fans have experienced it differently to a point where I’ve had requests for commissions reducing my characters into mindless porno zanies. I insist that they remain true, and the results are ones I’m sure satisfy neither one of us.

I see sex as a very important experience in the characters’ lives. It can be comic, sublime or grotesque; it can strip their inner workings bare as well as their outer ones.

The comic book atmosphere in America has become a lot more uptight. While the “serious” ones are turning more violent and depraved, sexual situations in the humorous are “unclean”; confined to the inane “jerk off” books.

While the idea is touted that comics aren’t just for kids anymore, they still haven’t really “grown up”.

Cordially Yours, MK

COPYRIGHT 2014 BY MILTON KNIGHT