Comments on: A Month of Good LGBT Comics - Pedro and Me

By: John Seavey

John Seavey — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:41:34 +0000

I'll add to the praise for this one; this, Barry Ween, and Frumpy the Clown (and possibly his Green Lantern and Exiles runs) are what I think of as the "real" Judd Winick; he's doing a lot of stuff to pay the bills right now, and I can't fault him much for that, but you can tell what his personal, heart-felt stuff is, and it's his best work. And "Pedro and Me" is very personal, very heart-felt, and very good.

By: FuryOfFirestorm

FuryOfFirestorm — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:44:35 +0000

I've been a fan of Winick since his newspaper comic strip "Frumpy the Clown". Followed his work on Green Lantern, and loved how he wrote Terry Berg and his gay-bashing storyline. Heard about this book and had to read it. By the end, I was a sobbing wreck. I actually got to meet Pedro Zamora in person in 1991- he came to my Miami middle school to address a sex-ed class about AIDS and safe sex. The world is a worse place without him. I recommend this book to everyone, even to non-comic readers.

By: Moflo

Moflo — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:51:03 +0000

This is by far one of my favorite graphic novels. I have a real appreciation for Winick's work, because everything he writes has a lot of heart. "Road Trip", "Green Arrow", "Batman" and even Barry Ween (just the last panel of Monkey Tale's #6 alone). "Pedro and Me" is definitely worth highlighting.

By: Julio Juri

Julio Juri — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:52:41 +0000

Judd Winick wasn't Exiles writer? He was in Real World? I saw that show and never noticed that!

By: Rebis

Rebis — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:00:42 +0000

This book is really great â€” and yes, touching without being cloying. After he wrote it, Winick toured the country and spoke to youth groups (including queer youth groups) about his experience. In doing so, he really made a difference. I've given it to nieces and nephews when they reached adolescence, and all of them devoured it and liked it.

The quality on "Pedro and Me" gave me a lot of good will towards Winick that I eventually lost as his mainstream DC stuff was never that great, and sometimes downright awful (Green Arrow-Black Canary wedding, I'm looking at you). I wonder what happened to that talented storyteller.

By: Ariel S.

Ariel S. — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:44:52 +0000

I HAVE to get this book. My experience reading Winnick-penned comic books wasn't really satisfying, but I have been told that both this book and Barry Ween are brilliant, so I'm eager to read them despite what little I've read from Judd.

By: Karlos

Karlos — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:18:39 +0000

This season of The Real World was shown in the UK only the once, on some throwaway time slot, but I made sure I caught it every week.

Normally, these kind of "reality" shows have me running for the hills but I saw the first episode and amongst all the usual goings on - fights, bitching, etc. - there was something that made me want to stick with it: namely, the unfolding friendship of Winick and Zamora, and I remember thinking it was such a shame it didn't reach a bigger audience over here because it did so much to inform people (including me) about HIV and AIDS.

Ironically, I've never gotten around to reading Winick's book - perhaps because the TV show has stayed with me all these years so vividly.

By: Mike Loughlin

Mike Loughlin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:43:16 +0000

This is one of those comics I can get non-comic book readers to read. Pedro & Me is a favorite.

By: Mario Fernandez

Mario Fernandez — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:15:28 +0000

I've never seen this book as a LGBT one, for me, this is an humanitarian tale above anything else, as the fact that Pedro is gay is only a tiny part of the story, the important thing here is how Pedro fights against his illness and how he, even dying, overcomes it by spreading the word of experience and teaching others how to accept themselves and not to fear the sick.

For me this is a book about tolerance, more than a LGBT one.