This is Universal Love, a month-long spotlight on LGBTQ comic book stories that I have enjoyed over the years. This isn't meant as a "Best Of" list, since there are so many great works out there and so I'll spread the love around a bit, as it were.

We had some formatting delays over the last week, so I'm still catching up on the last few entries from my June spotlight features, including the aforementioned look at great LGTBQ comic book stories. Today, we take a look at a dark noir murder mystery about a closeted private detective in San Francisco in the 1950s by Anderson Gabrycch and Brad Rader called Fogtown, from Vertigo's short-lived crime sub-imprint (gray tones by Rivkah).

The set-up of the graphic novel appears to be a rather generic one at first, as hard-boiled private eye, Frank Grissel, is a gruff, distant guy who has a long-suffering secretary, Loretta, that is clearly also his lover. However, they have problems, like Frank staying out all night and not coming home and basically being a totally mystery to her. In fact, there's a plot point where she learns that Frank's wife, who ostensibly ran out on him years ago, only died recently after spending the last few decades in an asylum. She really doesn't know Frank at all. Heck, the reader really doesn't get to know Frank at all, either, as we only slowly but surely figure out that he is hiding something that would be a rather big deal in the early 1950s.

That is, of course, the fact that Frank is in the closet. Gabrych does a wonderful job exploring just HOW out of the realm of possibility that sort of thing would be for a guy like Frank in this environment. Throughout the comic book, there is a series of attempts by women to seduce Frank and Loretta, for her part, thinks that the reason that Frank is distant from her has to do with her and not that, you know, he isn't into women period.

The murder mystery backdrop of all of this is that prostitutes are being murdered in the city and Frank finds himself drawn into the sordid affair purely by mistake. This is straight out of stuff like Chinatown, with a private eye running afoul of some powerful people who live on a whole other level than him. One of the other key figures in the story is a psychologist who is interviewing the prostitutes of the city to get their story. Frank goes to see her after her business card is found in the handbag of one of the murdered prostitutes. As it turns out, she has a hidden history with Frank, as well.

Honestly, that whole plot line was, to me, a bit of a bridge too far. It is clear that Gabrych is going really broad with the story beats, as it really is sort of a typical noir, with the significant twist of the closeted lead. But some of the twist (including the one involving Frank and the "Doc") seem a bit TOO over the top.

Brad Rader's art serves the over-the-top style of the story well, as the long time animation artist really knows how to make the characters seem larger than life. They're all part of noir tropes, but Rader uses that approach well, by leaning into the outlandishness of some of the scenes. Like there's an early page that literally contrasts a murdered prostitute splayed out on the street with Frank, similarly splayed out on the street after a night of drinking so much that he passes out.

Gabrych's insight into the culture of the era was top notch. He talked about the era in an interview with Lawrence Ferber back when the book came out:

Ferber: The story takes place during a strangely repressive period in San Francisco's history. What sort of research did you do, and could you talk more about this period?

Andersen Gabrych: I did really hardcore research, actually. My cousin's husband is a S.F. historian and Dashiell Hammett scholar, so he really helped out. The reason S.F. first became such a gay mecca, besides the mining town and Barbary Coast stuff, was during WWII, which was the first time gays weren't allowed in the military. If they found out you were gay [ and you served ] in the Pacific Rim you were sent off to S.F. with a public notice on your head, so nobody went back home. They just stayed there.

S.F. was a very open city much like Amsterdam is now, but they clamped down on the whole city and everything went underground. The Korean War was coming to an end and S.F. was pressured under Oakland and Berkeley to clamp down on all the gay activity. Oakland and Berkley newspapers at the time were very anti-S.F., with headlines like "The Gay Menace." S.F. was called The Barbary Coast. Rough, drugs, whores, it was a sailor town, and that point was when it changed. That's where [ our book ] begins. And if it's underground, somebody is making a buttload of money on purpose.

That's shown with a bar that Frank goes to visit, that famously won a Supreme Court case allowing it to remain open, just not to members of the military.

Frank does a really clever trick in the bar where he very publicly insults everyone in the bar and tells them that he is looking for a missing person. He gets thrown out of the bar right away, but he just stays outside the bar hidden and sure enough, the person he is looking forward leaves the bar to go move the girl that Frank is looking for. Good stuff.

There is an enforcer for the bad guy named "Bone" (for when he punches you, you feel it to the bone) that is a fascinating love interest, of sorts, for Frank. We see the two hook up in secret, but things get awkward when Frank's case brings him directly to the attention of Bone's boss, leading to Frank getting his ass kicked, but Bone makes an interesting move that allows Frank to get away.

The book is an interesting enough murder mystery (with one twist that I thought was a bit much), but it really shines as a snapshot of a time when a guy like Frank Grissel really had no way of being his true self.

If anyone else has a suggestion for a great LGBTQ comic book, I've gotten all my choices for June (going into July a little bit, even, as you can see), but I'll continue this feature beyond Pride month, just less frequently, so feel free to continue to send in suggestions to me at brianc@cbr.com!