Queer as comics: meet a real-life Michael Novotny: Richard Neal, owner of Dallas's Zeus Comics and Collectibles

It wasn't long after Richard Neal opened Zeus Comics and Collectibles in Dallas's gaycentric Oak Lawn area that Queer as Folk fans starting recognizing some similarities. "People were coming in and saying, 'Oh, you're just like Michael,'" recalls Neal, after sheepishly admitting that he's never actually watched the show. "And I'm thinking, Who the hell is Michael?"

But even though Neal and QAF's comic book impresario Michael Novotny (played by Hal Sparks) share the stone profession, the similarities end there. Neal certainly won't be mistaken for Sparks may time soon--"I'm pale, and I have red hair," notes Neal, "so I don't think I look like him." And Neal's spacious, well-organized shop--devoting as much of its 3,000 square feet to toys and collectibles as it does to comics--bears little resemblance to the claustrophobic closet that is Michael's Pittsburgh-based Red Cape Comics.

But when it comes to following a dream, these guys are on the stone page. Michael is driven by his childhood passion for fictional superhero Captain Astro. For Neal, it was the Justice League of America. "My parents bought my first comic book when I was 7--and I just fell in love with it," he says, "with the giant oversized superheroes. And it didn't hurt that I was gay and they were wearing spandex."

Toiling away in the information technology field--and rapidly approaching 30--Neal had an epiphany: "I said, 'I'm not doing what I want to do. This is not my passion. What do I really love?' And as childish as it was, toys and comic books were it."

Tapping into four widely diverse nearby communities, Neal says his shop attracts a gay following of about 30%, and he even hosts a highly regarded mixer for gay and lesbian comic book fans every three or four months at near by restaurant Ciudad. "And thanks to Queer as Folk, They've made comic book collecting chic, I suppose."

Camp is the artistic director of Q Cinema, Fort Worth's Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival.

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