881 Midtown Court was created in 1982 in response to a classified ad by the up-and-coming (and never-really-went-anywhere) weekly Atlanta "bar" magazine METRA. Specifically, they were looking for a serialized strip to run in each issue... "a gay Luke & Laura" is how the ad put it. Since I'd already become addicted to General Hospital, I knew exactly what they meant, and what better way to launch my own take on it than take my then-lover Kasey and me, make our döppelgangers Kevin and Craig, and launch them into an adventure to rival the Left-Handed Boy and Ice Princess storylines. Pretty healthy ambition for someone who was still waiting tables, eh? That story's more complex plot can be found at

The name of the strip? Midtown is almost synonymous with "gay" in Atlanta much the way "Hillcrest" is for San Diego or "Castro" in San Francisco. The first draft actually named the strip "882 Midtown Court" (at the time there was no such street in town, even now, there's an apartment complex with the name, but as far as I know, there's not either an "881" or "882" address.) Well, the offices that housed the METRA operation was at 881 Peachtree Street (Today in that spot? "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.") so the number was switched. No big deal, I couldn't figure out where the number came from in the first place.

In 1994, Howard Stangroom, longtime friend (and member of Interlac) asked me if I'd be interested in doing a strip for his British comic Buddies (which is moreless Gay Comix U.K.) In his opening letter, he stated "You always draw such cuddly guys." Wasn't sure what limits I had (apparently nudity was OK, erections weren't) but decided I drew enouigh danglers in art class, let's do the TV-PG version. A collection of some of the stories were exhibited in the 1996 and 1997 Atlanta Gay/Lesbian Arts Festival. bar to the left.

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©1982-on Chris Companik