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Interview with Greg Fox
By Patricia Melton
Mineral City, Ohio
Proud mother of a talented, wonderful, beautiful, gay son
I'm going to let Patricia introduce herself here, as she does it better than I think I ever could:
As a longtime reader of Kyle's BnB, Greg Fox recently invited me to participate in a redesign of his webpage by interviewing him to discover what makes this comic strip so special to its readers. I certainly can't speak for everyone out there, but I think Kyle's BnB is one of the best comic strips ever created because it helps me stay close to my gay son, Robby. The two of us follow the antics and adventures of the whole BnB gang together and I greatly look forward to that inevitable, excited phone call of "Mom, you have to logon and check out the new strip, it's up today!". We follow this comic together, like it was a soap opera, and often find ourselves discussing some of the issues this strip has brought up, such as AIDS, gay adoption, romantic issues, and closeted/out athletes and entertainers. I can't tell you what a blessing Greg Fox's work has been to me! Robby and I have always had a close relationship and his homosexuality was never a cause of strain between us (I always knew he was gay, even when he was a toddler, I just knew). I started an informal PFLAG group in my hometown of Mineral City when Robby officially came out in high school and have actively tried to keep myself in my son's life as he continues to emerge into the man he's become, and is still becoming. Kyle's BnB is just one very convenient outlet for our discussions, because I can always count on this comic strip being funny, provocative, heart-warming (and breaking), intelligent, and above all, honest. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry, but we always end up talking for hours about things this comic brings to our minds. I can never thank Mr. Fox enough for all the conversations and special moments he has, in a small way, created for me and my son Robby. I wrote him a few emails letting him know how special this strip was to us, and I was so pleased he took the time to write me back! If I can repay his generous talent in even a small way by interviewing him for his website, I must say it would be an honor and pleasure to do something nice for him. There have also always been some questions I wanted answered about the BnB, Mr. Fox himself, and the whole idea behind this comic.
(Patricia's questions are in black bold print)
What inspired you to set the comic inside a bed and breakfast on Long Island, New York? I remember a special on The Flintstones that aired once where Hanna Barbera talked about different concepts for this cartoon; where the Flintstones originally were pirates or ancient Romans before being drawn as Cavepeople in the Stone Age. Did you ever consider setting the "BnB" gang in another world, like in a gay club or in something more stereotypical and trendy like a modeling agency or fashion store? I think the BnB itself has evolved into a character in its own right in this comic and I can't imagine the depth your stories and characters reach being translated into a world like a club or other "more trendy" venue.
Well, first of all, thank you, that's a very sweet compliment! It's interesting, I did play around with locale concepts when I was first conceiving the comic strip. Because the strip kind of evolved around the Brad/baseball player character, my primary focus was creating a place that would make sense for this closeted baseball player to be living in. And then, there was also the idea in my mind that I wanted to provide an alternative vision to what we've seen already in the media of "how gay people live". I mean, it seemed to me that almost every gay film I'd seen was set in either New York City or West Hollywood, or some other urban location, and usually involved lots of scenes in nightclubs. It felt more natural, to me, to show the sort of suburban life that I live, that a lot of gay people live. Now, it just so happens I do live pretty close to New York city, so if I was going to do that urban scene I could probably pull it off pretty well. Probably a lot more realistically than some other works I've seen set in NYC, which seem to reflect a NYC of someone who watches lots of "Friends" episodes, or whatever. <laughs> But I think there's a certain magic to this town Northport, where I live, this harbor village with all the boats and docks and seagulls and little antique shops and tree-lined streets along the harbor filled with colorful Victorian houses. I think Northport itself has sort of become a "character in it's own right" within the comic strip. As I've mentioned elsewhere, my original idea of the strip was not set in a B&B, but was merely this bunch of gay guys as housemates, sharing a house together. That was actually the working title of the strip, when I was first writing it, "Housemates"! But the B&B idea opened things up a bit more, allowing new characters to come and go more naturally. I do think that the locale of the strip, Northport, the B&B….it's very…romantic would be the best word to describe it, I believe. It sets the tone for the stories that come forth.
Have you ever owned a BnB? Do you spend a lot of time in them?
No, I haven't owned one….and I haven't even spent all that much time staying in them, although I did stay at a great one in Colorado years ago. That is probably the B&B that most influenced me in my creation of the comic strip, in terms of just the internal feel of a B&B, (it wasn't a gay B&B, either, by the way!). But that warm sense of family you get over the breakfast table, bonding with these strangers who come from various places around the world. That is just a wonderful thing about B&Bs, and it's really something I was excited to incorporate into the comic strip. I would like to spend some more time in them now, if I ever get some time to travel! I do hear from a lot of gay B&B owners, who are loyal readers of the comic strip and really relate to it, so that makes me feel good!
Who did you base Kyle on? My son Robby and I talk about this ALL THE TIME. We wonder if you are really Kyle and if all the things that go on in the strip really happened and you've just changed the names of the people to protect the guilty. Are all the characters based on people you have known and loved at some point in your life?
I get asked this a lot, and it's difficult to answer. I'd say there's a lot of me in Kyle, although he's not me, 100%. I suppose there's aspects of me in all of the characters, though probably more so in Kyle than any of the others. It's funny, I was in San Francisco a couple of years ago, meeting a group of gay comics fans, and it was a really nice time, connecting with these people, some of whom were big fans of Kyle's B&B. And there was a girl there who was really giving me an in depth, serious analysis of the comic strip, the characters, etc. And she brought up the thing about me being Kyle, and I sort of wavered, and she just sort of dismissed it out of hand, "no, of course you are, there's no question", and she went on analyzing the strip and it was really funny and fascinating to hear her critique. Of course, it didn't help that I was wearing a typical "Kyle outfit" that day…plaid flannel shirt, jeans, Vans sneakers, which is how I dress a lot! <laughs> As far as the things that happen in the strip being based on real events in my life, well…..again, there are certain elements I've used, but not always directly. I tend to reinterpret events in a more dramatic way for the comic strip. Sometimes. Of course, other times, there are experiences I've had that I could transcribe word for word into the strip, and would fit perfectly. And other times, I've written things that are really not at all a part of my own experience, but which do make for interesting stories, nonetheless. It's a mixed bag, I suppose.
What do you think is REALLY keeping Brad, the athlete and minor league baseball player, from coming out completely in the comic? One of the things I respect most about Kyle's BnB is that Brad is portrayed with such mixed emotions. On one hand, he lives at a gay BnB, so he is not completely closeted, no matter what anyone might say. He doesn't really deny that he is gay; he just uses his baseball career as an excuse not to be open about his sexuality. I think this makes him a real, complicated person and makes him very easy for people to relate to. Everyone knows someone like Brad, who sort of wants to have his cake and eat it too, but most of the time walks into a bakery not knowing what he should order.
Hahaha, I like that line. The thing about Brad is, I think he feels an enormous pressure from his family to be this heroic figure, this all-american baseball hero, who could just never be gay, of all things. (Which, of course, is exactly the type of person we need to come out of the closet). I hope to show more of that in the future, his family dynamic, and how it affects the way Brad operates. I did get into that a little bit during the episodes when he was considering joining the Air Force. I think the episode with him and his father talking about the military, that said a lot about who this Brad Steele character is, why he is the way he is. He is definitely a character living on the edge, in this very high-pressure zone. This is a guy who grew up as a star athlete on his school sports teams, and probably used an almost fanatical involvement in sports as a way of avoiding dealing with being gay, all during his high school years. No wonder he always seems so tense! I think his talks with Kyle, in the quiet of the B&B, without all of the outside world pressure bearing down on him, are sort of his salvation. You get the sense that if he hadn't found the B&B, and found a friend like Kyle, he may not have made it, literally.
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