Media Ted | Episode 1 | Gay Comic Strip

Media Ted was a comic strip that ran in the early days of Polari. Here we look back at the short life of the little champ.

When Polari Magazine was in the planning stages, I had an idea for a comic strip about how gay identity is defined by gay media. The name Media Ted came to me while I was reading a book called Mediated: How The Media Shape The World Around You. One of my best friends is called Ted, and so there was his name in the title of the book.

The plan was that Ted and his friend Marcie – yep, it’s a Peanuts reference – would eventually leave their small town somewhere in the MidWest and travel to Big City, home to Ted’s favourite gay magazine Big City Fairy!, its tagline: “We have ways of making you gay”.

I finished 10 scripts, and we published 8 episodes. I can’t draw, and so through the magic of Deviant Art we found the young and talented illustrator Mihkel Mŏttus.

It was fun while it lasted. I have another idea for a comic strip but … well, that’s under wraps right now. Watch this space. And enjoy part 1 of Ted and Marcie’s Amazing Adventures, with more to follow. Coming up: nuns, chickens, and a cameo by 7 of 9.