Steve MacIsaac
Canadian comic artist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Steve MacIsaac is a Canadian comics artist and creator living in Long Beach, California.[1] He is known for his comics series Shirtlifter (2006-2019)[2][3] and the graphic novel, Unpacking (2018).[4][5] His comics focus on the lives and relationships of contemporary gay men,[6] from marriage to casual encounters.[7][8] His work has been collected in “Best American Comics”,[9] and other anthologies.[10][11]
| Steve MacIsaac | |
|---|---|
Canadian comics artist Steve MacIsaac at RuPaul's DragCon LA 2022 | |
| Born | October 21, 1969 Antigonish, Nova Scotia |
| Area | Cartoonist, Writer, Artist |
Notable works | Shirtlifter, Unpacking, Sticky, |
| stevemacisaac.com | |
Career
Early in his comics career, MacIssac published gay male erotica. In 2006, he collaborated with writer Dale Lazarov on Sticky, a wordless graphic novel focusing on the sex lives of gay men.[12] However, since 2006, he has focused on his series about gay men's relationships and experiences in the early twenty-first century, Shirtlifter (vols. 1[13] - 6[14]). Shirtlifter is an anthology series in which MacIsaac has focused on creating short stories and serializing long-form comics work, such as his graphic novel, Unpacking.[15]
MacIsaac's comics explore the varied facets of gay men's lives and experiences in modern life, including sex and sexuality.[6] MacIsaac has said that he is less focused on arousing desire, but more "interested in how sex defines people, how it can be a sublime way of revealing character and motivation. People let their guard down when you sleep with them; you often get to know them in a way that doesn’t happen when you’re simply friends. I think that’s one reason why, for gay men, sex is so often a path to or conduit for building friendships.”[8]
MacIsaac's work has been honored by comics and literary professionals. His short story, "Ex-Communication" (with Todd Brower) was selected for inclusion in Best American Comics 2010[9] and his graphic novel, Unpacking, was a nominee for the 2019 Lambda Literary Graphic Novel Award.[16] MacIsaac won the inaugural Queer Press Grant for LGBTQ comics creators from Prism Comics[17][6] and a 2007 Xeric Foundation grant.[6] His work has been collected in anthologies such as No Straight Lines[10], QU33R,[11] Alphabet [18](with Todd Brower), Stripped,[19] Boy Trouble,[20] Blocked,[21] and “Best Erotic Comics 2009.[22]
