By Michael Fitzgerald Troy
When I first heard the title Mind the Gap, I was immediately taken back to my tenure as a “Gap Girl” one holiday season. The longest 3 days of my life. What? It was difficult being rude and indifferent to customers all the time. No? So, I did it for the employee discount and then bailed. It may have been a short tour of duty, yet I still line up my sweaters, so the top button faces out on the shelf. (Maybe Pavlov’s pooch shoulda’ been a Gap girl!)
The new, hotly anticipated Image series Mind the Gap has little to do with retail apparel, and I couldn’t be happier. Mind the Gap was created and written by out homosexual Marvel scribe Jim McCaan. Not being fond of labels myself, the only reason to point out his sexual status is because I personally feel it adds much to it. As a homosexual American writer myself, I found sisterly glee in writing style similarities I found in the story, such as brilliance, humorous sarcasm and song lyrics, and pop culture. She wrongly alluded to Rosalind Russell as being in the gay classic Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It was Jane Russell, sister! Touché bad gay!
I was immediately sucked into the story of well-to-do Elle who finds herself in a coma under shady circumstances. The story is half mystery of her friends not convinced (as the police are) that it was an accident and half Elle figuring out the tricks of the trade in Comaville aka “The Garden” with hottie instructional guide Bobby. I did NOT see the fun mind f–k surprise ending coming at all. The art by Rodin Esquejo and Sonia Oback is stellar. Fasten your seat belts, drama queens! It’s gonna be a bumpy ride. Mind the Gap continues the refreshingly well thought out and thought provoking line of books Image has been pumping in order to reinvent itself going into its 20th anniversary. Bravo.
Michael Troy is a deeply superficial person. Born in the midwest in the ’70s, Michael came to Los Angeles to pursue his bi-polar career path as an actor and artist. 2005 saw the release of Michael’s first published book, Homo-Hero’s Big Book of Fun and Adventure (www.greencandypress.com). Michael has contributed to the Lady Gaga comic book from Bluewater Productions and has his hand in various other upcoming projects. Michael has performed stand-up comedy at all of the major comedy clubs in Los Angeles and is making his triumphant return to the main stage of The Comedy Store in September. Michael offers an off-beat sense of humor as the star of such youtube cult classics As The Gays on Film (www.youtube.com/fullfrontaltv), A Minute With Margot, a loving tribute to Superman legend Margot Kidder (http://www.youtube.com/user/rktcommander), and currently hosts a vlog style series Lethally Blonde over at www.monsterburg.com. Sitting alongside industry heavyweight Phil Jimenez at the “Divas and Lassoes” panel for the 2010 San Diego comic-con, Michael maintains and cherishes his “underground” status. A staunch believer in Blonde Ambition, Michael hopes his new comic about shallow blonde super heroes in Los Angeles, The Blonde Squad, will set the world on fire (or at least brighten it a bit). Check out Michael Troy and Lethally Blonde updates here!!!
