Hoo boy, this is gonna be a long one. These are the characters from my illustrated webnovel, Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days. This is a true story, these are all real people, though all names have been changed except for my own and my husband's. You can see how my art style improves over time:
First we have this handsome fellow. This is me, circa 1987.
Next we have Aiden. He was my best friend until 01 January 1985, and was also the first guy I had any kind of romantic experience with. A tragedy in his family on 31 December 1984 took him away from me (no, the tragedy was not him, it was his six year old brother, but afterwards they moved away)
Colin. This was one seriously screwed up kid. This is how he looked circa 1985/86. He was my best friend after Aiden and was also my first real crush. He was also a kleptomaniac (he'd steal your eyeballs and come back for the sockets), and he had some issues. We... did stuff, but the romantic feelings were one-way. In 2023 we'd have called him aromantic, but back then that word didn't exist, and he was simply not interested in anything more than fooling around.
Colin's affinity for stealing got him into trouble, and he was whisked away, but not before he introduced me to David. David was older than me but much smaller. He was just a fart in a mitten, really. But my God, what a sexy little firecracker he was. If Colin was my first crush, David was my first love. I can still see his bold smile when I close my eyes. Sadly, as would be a recurring theme for me, tragedy took him away.
After the loss of Colin I met some new friends. They were all straight (and I was still deeply closeted), so they were just friends, though I did have eyes for at least one of them. I actually met these guys as a result of an old drunk pervert attempting to sexually assault us. Weirdest way to make friends ever, I know.
First, Jeff. We did not remain friends for long because his family moved to Alberta. He was a husky kid, a huge hockey fan, and absolutely terrified of anything paranormal, much to the amusement of the rest of us
Trevor was a small guy and the youngest of all of us. He was a big hit with the ladies, but he would develop a serious drinking problem. He lived for baseball.
Dale was... Dale. He liked to think of himself as a tough guy, and his looks and personality very much matched that of Big Moose from the Archie comics, but he wasn't quite as dumb as he let on. He was dumb enough to get entangled in a religious cult, though, and that caused a permanent scar on our friendship. We remain friends to this day, though, scars and all.
Rodney was sexy AF, and I always had a bit of a crush on him, but his personality tempered that crush. He was selfish and bigoted. He came from a troubled home and his parents showered him with gifts. Unfortunately this did nothing more than prove that you can't buy love. He was messed up by this. Still, we remained friends to the end. When I finally came out to him he did a complete 180 and stopped being bigoted.
Wendy was the one and only girl I ever dated. I was kind of railroaded into dating her (I ran out of excuses not to and could not come out of the closet yet), and I did have a faint hope that maybe she could make the gay go away.
She could not. We split amicably after she figured my secret out and remain friends to this day. You can see the art starting to improve here.
Bruce. My first real boyfriend. I was young, naive, and desperate. He was older, experienced, and manipulative. He was also a cheating bastard. Things did not end well.
Gerry, an older gentleman I met through Bruce. Gerry was a kind soul and acted as my fairy gayfather. He helped guide me out of a deep depression and made me turn my life around when I was at a very low point. He also tipped me off as to Bruce's infidelity.
Kyle and Devin. I had encountered Kyle when he was only 14 years old (we did not meet in person, he answered a personals ad I had placed when I was 19 or so, and I told him he was too young). We would end up meeting five years later, and in a surprising coincidence he also knew Bruce.
Devin was Kyle's boyfriend, if you could even call it that. He was using Kyle for his money and cars. He was a piece of shit, and he would end up having a big impact on my relationship with Bruce. I dislike him so much, not just for what he did with Bruce but for the way he treated Kyle, that even though I've never been happy with this drawing (his tiddies are too big and too low) I won't redo it because he isn't worth it.
Johnny was the first real gay friend I made after my first trip to a gay bar. He was the most conceited, vain person that I ever met. Me being the asshole that I am, I missed no opportunity to bug him over his vanity.
"Hey, Carmen, do these pants make my ass look fat?"
"No, Johnny, it's the ass fat that makes your ass look fat."
Johnny was also, perhaps to feed his conceit, a slut. He was cheating on his boyfriend Darryl.
Darryl was one of the sexiest men I ever knew. His body was perfect and his features were beautiful. His hair was naturally burgundy and his eyes were amber. The effect was quite striking. Because he was involved with a narcissist he had low self esteem, which was ridiculous. That esteem was not helped when he caught Johnny cheating red-handed. I was present when this happened. It was not pretty. But what happened between Darryl and I later that night was.
Sadly, Darryl was a raging alcoholic, so even though his relationship with Johnny was ending, we would not become boyfriends.
Instead I ended up being boyfriend to this guy, Troy. He was, and is, the love of my life. We've been together for 24 years now and married for seven. He is my sun, my moon, my stars. And he has such a cute little inky-dinky butt.
And finally, we have me again. The image above was me at 15 years old. This is me in my late 20's:
Sine this story ends in 2001, this is as old as you get to see me.
