Gaylord Phoenix

By Edie Fake. Published by Secret Acres. 

Softcover, 256 pages, 2-Colour, 2010.

Fake (Gaylord Phoenix) presents a striking, occasionally scatological collection of his short comics and drawings from recent years, culled from various zines and underground publications. Employing concise imagery and minimal text, and through symbology and analogy, Fake examines sex and gender with generous amounts of sly, irreverent humor. In the three-part “Foie Gras,” Fake substitutes images of food and food preparation for sexual acts and genitalia, while in “LA Silence,” a trip to a wellness center brings up post–gender-confirmation surgery issues in an unsettling fashion. In the one-page “Anal Sex for Perverts,” a drawing of a shell with a pink opening carries the caption: “Before I ask say yes.” Other more cryptic pieces require some work from readers to puzzle out, but that’s just part of the fun of Fake’s oeuvre: his comics maintain a playfully naughty mystery. (Appropriately, the book is dedicated in part to “the Queerdos out there.”) Fake deconstructs gender and human anatomy, sex and desire, then puts them back together again, on his own messy, artful terms. This provocative graphic collection pushes boundaries, and then breaks them open.

– Publishers Weekly

The Evanston, Illinois, native, who now lives in the California High Desert just outside of Joshua Tree, has something of a double career. He is probably best known as a force in the alternative comics scene, with Gaylord Phoenix, his 2011 book about a nonbinary humanoid on a journey of self-discovery, winning the Ignatz Award for outstanding graphic novel. At the same time, he is an up-and-comer in the art world whose work not only was included in “Surface/Depth” but also will be featured in the Des Moines Art Center’s 2019 show “For Today I Am a Boy: Contemporary Queer Abstraction.” …While Fake does not seem interested in conveying definite meanings in them, he does explore particular themes and motifs, as titles like Center Part or Neutralities might indicate… …Even in the less direct works, however, Fake’s overall intent seems clear: to conjure a vibrant space where freedom of gender expression can reign.

– Art in America"