Kurt Erichsen
| Kurt Erichsen | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kurt Erichsen Coos Bay, Oregon |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist |
|
Notable works
|
"Murphy's Manor" |
| Awards | Gay/Lesbian Press Association award for Outstanding Achievement in Illustration |
Kurt Erichsen is an openly-gay cartoonist and civil engineer, creator of the syndicated LGBT-themed comic strip "Murphy's Manor", which ran for 1183 weekly strips from the 1980s until 2008.
Erichsen was born in Coos Bay, Oregon. He attended Oregon State University, receiving a bachelor of science in Civil Engineering. The following year he received a master's degree in Sanitary Engineering from Michigan State University. In 1979 he moved to Toledo, Ohio, where he became vice president of environmental planning for the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments.
In 1980, he began producing "Murphy's Manor", a comic strip focusing on the lives of gay men living together in the titular manor, in the fictional town of Black Swamp, Ohio. The series was carried in about 70 papers over the course of its run, which continued until 2008. Another series he produced was "The Sparkle Spinsters" about a trio of gay friends, inspired by Gilbert Shelton's Freak Brothers. He also produced a single-panel syndicated series called "GLIB Talk" from 2000 to 2006. Erichsen's work has been published in numerous issues of Gay Comix and was a regular feature in Meatmen. He also drew commissioned illustrations for Instinct magazine, Lambda Rising Book Report, and Fairy Flicks. In 1989, he and cartoonist Bruce Billings co-produced a flip book – a single bound volume with both covers formatted as the "front" – as Under the Covers (Erichsen's cover) and Between the Sheets! (Billings').
Erichsen won the Gay/Lesbian Press Association award for Outstanding Achievement in Illustration in 1985 and 1987. Erichsen has long been active in science-fiction fandom, producing a great deal of fan art, and in 2002 he received the Rotsler Award for this work from SCIFI Inc. In 2009, he received the National Association of Regional Councils' John Bosley Award for his work with the TMACG. In May 2015, he was a featured panelist at the first Queers & Comics conference, as one of the "Pioneers of Queer Men's Comics".
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