Comedian Jonathan Duffy and illustrator Einar Másson have created a comic strip called Angry Bears which will be featured weekly on GayIceland – starting tomorrow. The humor is dark and Einar is a bit nervous the two-some will offend readers. Jonathan says the protagonist is the voice of reason, raising a series of uncomfortable questions.
“Bruce lives in Gaykjavik with his partner Spencer. They run a steak house together and have been together a long time. Bruce has some blunt opinions of people and the world and would probably be viewed by some as a bit un PC,” says comedian Jonathan Duffy, or Jono as he is often referred to as, about the comic strip’s main character, Bruce.
Jono teamed up with illustrator Einar Másson to create the comic strip which is called Angry Bear for GayIceland.
The idea behind Angry Bear comes from Jono and the main character has been with him since 2011. “I was touring with my documentary “The doctor’s wife”. It was showing in the gay film festivals and for some reason it was always screened just before “BearCity”,” says Jono, referring to the 2010 American gay-themed comedy-drama film directed by Doug Langway.
“There were two versions of my film, a longer one and a shorter one. The festivals would sometimes mess up the advertising and would screen the long one but advertise the times of the short one. This meant that on a number of occasions I got to meet a lot of Angry Bears outside the cinema. I was quite twinky at the time and didn’t really know what to make of it. Then I came up with this idea of an angry bear who has a basket of twinks he throws at people when he’s enraged. It sat in the back of my mind for years. I was often trying to think of a way to do something with it. I had used the character in my stand up before and it worked well but I knew there was something more I could do,” he adds.
“I do feel nervous about some of the jokes we’re planning to tell in the comic. I do however see Bruce the Angry Bear as an opportunity to touch on taboo subjects in a constructive, entertaining way.”
The idea of making Bruce into a comic strip called Angry Bear wasn’t born until this year. “Earlier this year I spoke at TedX Reykjavik. After my talk, my friend and podcast partner Hulli (comedian Hugleikur Dagsson) joked to me that my life is like a comic book. I then told him about the idea I actually had for a comic book and introduced him to Bruce. He loved it and said: “You have to make this happen.” It just so happened that there was a very talented illustrator there at the
event. Einar Másson was drawing all of the speakers and I just loved his work. We got to chatting over lunch and I asked if he would be interested in collaborating. When we met, I started describing the characters to him and he drew them straight away. He showed them to me and it was like he had ripped Bruce out of the dark room in my mind he’s been sitting in since 2011,” says Jono.
Was illustrator Einar as eager to work with Jono? “Honestly, I was a little hesitant about collaborating with Jonathan,” says Einar with a grin. “As a straight, white guy, I have a very limited view into the LGBTQ-community in Reykjavík, and I didn’t think it was my place to take part in poking fun at it. That said, Jono likes my art, and I trust Jono. I think he’s funny, insightful, and he has some thoughtful, interesting things to say about LGBTQ life in Reykjavík. If I can use my art to help a fellow artist get his message across, then I must be doing something right, right,” says Einar. But he has some ulterior motives.
“I also see this as an opportunity to broaden my own horizon, to learn about a culture that’s been very close to me all my life, but that I’ve never gotten to know. At the risk of sounding sappy, I want to be a good ally and I figure this is one way I can do that. Also, I’m just doing this so I can get closer to Hugleikur Dagsson, who has basically been my hero since I was seventeen. Don’t tell Jono,” he says and laughs.
Gaykjavik is real but not real
A lot in Angry Bear is reminiscent of Iceland. Will there be a lot of references to Icelandic reality? “The setting of Gaykjavik is a bit like a parallel universe of Reykjavík. When we started thinking about the setting, Einar and I decided we wanted to sort of create a city that was real but also not real. Somewhere you could go to but the building you’re looking for isn’t exactly the same. A bit like that whole hidden people thing. Of course there are other definite inspirations that have come directly from the city I now call home. The gay bar is called Cheeky’s, the steak house that the couple run is next door to a vegetarian restaurant, which is on the corner, near the gay bar,” says Jono who has big dreams for Gaykjavik.
“Eventually we would love to have an entire map of Gaykjavik. One that can just be laid on top of the actual city of Reykjavík and you can see the inspirations for some of the places. We also would like to take inspiration from some of the people we all know and love,” he adds.
Which leads me to wonder about the protagonist, Bruce. What sort of a person is Bruce? “To me, Bruce is a very unreasonable person: He attacks vegans and hipsters for superficial reasons, he kidnaps twinks to throw them at people, he’s divisive and rude and he has no filter. And that’s okay, because he’s a silly cartoon character. He has foils like Spencer to help point out how unreasonable he is, while at the same time he prompts discussion about topics that we are all too embarrassed to talk about,” says Einar and stresses the importance of a character like Bruce in modern society.
“Bruce is a very unreasonable person: He attacks vegans and hipsters for superficial reasons, he kidnaps twinks to throw them at people, he’s divisive and rude and he has no filter.”
“I think it’s important that Bruce can say things that are offensive so we can talk about why they are offensive, but also to find the kernel of truth to what he’s trying to express. I’d like to explore why Bruce is the Angry Bear that he is. I don’t just want to do broad stereotypes – all gay men are catty and sassy, twinks are obsessed with their waist-line, lesbians are surly and pushy, etc. I want to illustrate these characters as real people. My hope is that our readers will stick with us long enough that we can do that.”
Jono steps in and says Bruce reflects certain aspects of the gay community. “Bruce is also reflective of something I’ve noticed in the gay community, not just in Iceland but all over the world. He represents a generation of gay men who at times feel forgotten about. Older men who were fighters for rights, but now, that a lot of those rights have been achieved, he’s not really quite sure how to grasp the current zeitgeist,” says Jono and goes on to talk about the BDSM controversy that recently arose in Iceland. A controversy that has been widely covered by the Icelandic media.
“I saw this happen in Iceland when the BDSM group wanted to join the national queer organization of Iceland. I was surprised nobody asked for my opinion at the time but also relieved. Honestly I could actually see both sides of the argument. I remember hearing from a lot of the younger queer people about how backwards they thought those opposed were, but I would also explain to them that their opinion was probably based on their own life experience. I can get a bit like that at times with Icelandic gays.
Iceland in comparison to Australia has been very privileged for quite some time when it comes to gay rights. I’m 31 and haven’t met anyone around my age who has really been through the same things as me. I’ve been beaten up, threatened, lost jobs and friends, all for being gay, and that stuff was just in my teens and early 20’s. The people in Iceland who tend to know what that’s like are usually older than me.
Bruce has had to struggle to get where he is, as has all of the characters. The struggle he has been through gives him the right to make fun of things. Without the ability to laugh at ourselves and our friends, I think we would all be dull and depressed.”
“We are all as shit as each other”
The humor in Angry Bears is undeniably dark. Aren’t Jono and Einar afraid that they will offend the readers of GayIceland? “The humour is dark? I thought Hulli was the dark one,” says Jono and laughs. “I know I have very dark humor, but then again that’s sort of what Iceland has become known for recently when it comes to comedy.
In some ways when I look at Bruce I feel like I’m looking at my own future. I’m pretty much a bear right now, I’m cynic, I seem to only attract the attention of tall skinny guys. It’s like looking into a mirror in a way. I do realize it’s a risk creating a character who is so opinionated when I’m the only gay comedian in the entire country. I understand that somebody might not like what I have to say through him, but to me it’s no different than what I do on stage,” he says.
“I’d like to explore why Bruce is the Angry Bear that he is. I don’t just want to do broad stereotypes … I want to illustrate these characters as real people. My hope is that our readers will stick with us long enough that we can do that.”
Einar on the other hand is a bit frightened of what people think. “I do feel nervous about some of the jokes we’re planning to tell in the comic. I do however see Bruce the Angry Bear as an opportunity to touch on taboo subjects in a constructive, entertaining way,” he says and Jono adds that Bruce is a sort of voice of reason.
“We are living in particularly interesting times when it comes to people’s rights and there’s no way I’m making fun of that, that’s serious stuff we all need to listen to and be aware of. Sometimes in our personal lives outside of the fight for everything we’re fighting for, we forget to laugh at ourselves. We forget that we are literally bags of meat on a rock hurtling through space around a giant exploding star. No one person is better than anyone and we are all as shit as each other.
Yes I’ve made fun of twinks, but I used to be one. I am making fun of a bear, but I am one, and vegans… well they know it’s coming. I have been a comedian for 12 years. Over that time I feel I have fine tuned the ability to make fun of someone without offending them. If someone is truly offended by one of the jokes in this strip my question to them would be, why don’t you lighten up for five minutes?”