In retrospect, of course, we all know that those who reveled, as I and many others did, in that era's celebratory (though not always untroubled) sex scene were destined to be swamped by the AIDS epidemic, either by discovering that they themselves were infected or by grieving as their friends died around them. As was noted in my later comic strip "Safe Sex," Billy did not escape.

But there was no illness in the air while I was drawing "Billy Goes Out." The story was about personal loneliness, survival, and the validity of wishing to be touched. Judging by the heartfelt feedback it generated, nothing I've drawn prior to Stuck Rubber Baby has resonated with gay readers more intensely than did that this 6-page account of one young fellow's night on the town.