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Sean Z. Maker: It's almost like a double closet. It's funny you should say that because we promoted [Bent-Con] at [a gay pride event] two years ago, and I remember the distinction was so funny… We had people look, but not stop, and then once they ditched whoever they were with, they would come back and go, "This is great! When is [Bent-Con] going to be?" And, I'm like, "Oh, bring your friends," and they're like, "No, I can't tell my friends!"
You're like, Hey, what about me? I like this stuff, too, and I want to see things like that. Or, What's wrong with having someone who looks like me or feels the way I do being represented in that sort of storytelling?Can you tell me a little bit about your projects, about MYTH?
Well, MYTH actually has been put on hold since I've been doing this show, but that's changing. After the end of the show I'm moving back into digital publishing. [Have you] ever heard of Heavy Metal magazine? It was a magazine that was originally published in Europe back in the 70s that was eventually bought by Kevin Eastman, who created Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He bought it, Americanized it, and it's very sci-fi/fantasy—a lot of adult themes, but it's very hetero-centric. I'm a big sci-fi/fantasy fan, but I always thought that it was a sort of a limited story, because you're only getting one type of perspective. MYTH is sort of my love letter to that and it's very pansexual, so it's all-inclusive—I don't limit anyone's experience.
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Bent-Con was an experiment of a collective of creative friends in 2010 to see if we could draw audiences to work that was specifically geared toward diversity and inclusivity—so LGBT, female-related, people of color, that sort of thing. We did it in Silver Lake in December just to see that would happen, and we were happy to have foot traffic of over 400 people that day, and we were like, "OK, I think we're on to something."Before Bent-Con, what were your experiences as a member of the LGBT community in the comic world like?
Not terrible. It was just a different time, and we were the needle in the haystack going to more mainstream conventions—and Bent-Con has never been about segregating ourselves from any community. It's just about recognizing what's there.There's another nonprofit organization called Prism Comics and they like to identify LGBT comic creators, and I would do work with them. I remember this 16-year-old kid came up to the booth [at a mainstream convention]. He was really shy. I could tell he was interested but didn't really know what to say. He came up and started asking all these questions, and he wasn't from California—he was visiting from, like, Iowa or Idaho—and he had this whole experience of, "Well, I want to be an animator for Disney, but I think when they find out I'm gay, they're going to fire me or they're not going to like me." You and I know different, but he's from Iowa or Idaho, so he doesn't have that experience. So, I thought something like [putting LGBT-authored work out there] becomes important because they'll find themselves reflected back.The great thing about our show is it's all about safe fun, everyone having a great time—not everyone here is queer, obviously. It's really just creating a space that is matter-of-fact and sending that message out to the larger entertainment [world].
Oh, gosh, there was Braniac. There was the female Thor—she was amazing. She's taller than me and I was like, "Oh, my gosh." There was kind of a fetish-y Batman that I saw, and I was like, "That works."What did that entail?
Well, it was sort of a corset top with the cowl. I was just amazed and titillated and a bit like, "I don't know why, but I just like that."