Brian Andersen - So Super Duper

INDEPENDENT

San Francisco-based comics creator Brian Andersen has hit upon a winning conceit for his self-published title So Super Duper, the first three issues of which are available through his website www.sosuperduper.com. Neatly written and cutely drawn, it’s the story of a gay superhero named Psyche, whose not-so-super power is empathy (handy, though, for zeroing in on supervillains) and whose initiation into the spandex-clad crime-fighting team The Amazin’ Naughts puts pressure on him to come out of the closet.

Andersen’s subversion of superhero mythology with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues is both astute and amusing. And the self-effacing humour that underlines Psyche’s experiences is really quite charming. According to the author, his creation’s experiences mirror his own, both as an unpopular comic reading nerd at school and as a gay man who came clean about his sexuality relatively late in life. Andersen’s certainly making good use of those autobiographical elements.