# Al Shapiro

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{{Short description|American cartoonist (1932–1987)}}
{{Distinguish|text=[Allen Shapiro](/source/Allen_Shapiro), American media executive}}
{{Infobox artist
| birth_name       = Allen J. Shapiro
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1932|02|07}}
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1987|05|30|1932|02|07}}
| known_for        = Gay erotic art
| partner          = Dick Kriegmont
| image            = Al-Shapiro-A.Jay.jpg
| caption          = 
| birth_place      = [New York State](/source/New_York_State)
| death_place      = [San Francisco, California](/source/San_Francisco%2C_California)
}}

'''Allen J. Shapiro'''<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Fritscher |first=Jack |date=2000-04-06 |title=Drummer Interview: Al Shaprio, A.Jay, & Harry Chess |url=https://jackfritscher.com/Drummer/Issues/107/Al%20Shapiro.html |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=[Jack Fritscher](/source/Jack_Fritscher) |series=Feature interview/article obituary written June 20, 1987, and published in [Drummer](/source/Drummer_(magazine)) 107, August 1987}}</ref> (February 7, 1932—May 30, 1987),<ref name=":2" /> better known as '''Al Shapiro''' and by his pen name '''A. Jay''', was a [gay](/source/Gay_men) [Jewish American](/source/American_Jews)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Morgan |first=Kyle |date=2010 |title=Finding aid of the Twice Blessed Collection, circa 1966-2000 |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6z09s281/entire_text/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=[Online Archive of California](/source/California_Digital_Library) |series=Coll2010-003}}</ref> artist active from the 1960s through 1980s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stewart |first=Jim |date=2014-07-22 |title=BARchive: Perils of Pecs O'Toole |url=https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=bartab&sc=barchive&id=233372 |access-date=2024-02-04 |website=[Bay Area Reporter](/source/Bay_Area_Reporter)}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=A. Jay Papers |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8fr0256/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=[Online Archive of California](/source/California_Digital_Library) |series=Collection number GLC 117}}</ref> He is credited with the creation of the first-ever gay comic strip, ''The Adventures of [Harry Chess](/source/Harry_Chess): The Man from A.U.N.T.I.E''.<ref name=":1" />

Shapiro is well-known for his [erotic art](/source/erotic_art), not only in ''Harry Chess'', but also for [''Drummer'' magazine](/source/Drummer_(magazine)), [the Caldron](/source/Caldron_(sex_club)) (a sex club in San Francisco), the Leatherneck (gay bar), and numerous [gay bathhouses](/source/Gay_bathhouse)<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> (some of which he often visited).<ref name=":0" />

Shapiro was ''Drummer''<nowiki/>'s founding art editor.<ref name=":1" /> [Jack Fritscher](/source/Jack_Fritscher), ''Drummer''<nowiki/>'s former editor-in-chief, described Shapiro as "the best of my pals and friends" and "one of the Original ''Drummer'' Daddies."<ref name=":0" />

Shapiro died from [AIDS](/source/HIV%2FAIDS)-related complications in 1987.<ref name=":0" />

== Biography ==
Shapiro was born and raised in [upstate New York](/source/upstate_New_York).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gunn |first=Drewey Wayne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BqOECwAAQBAJ&q=Dick+Kriegmont+obituary |title=Gay American Novels, 1870-1970: A Reader's Guide |date=2016-02-04 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-2522-5 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> He competed as a wrestler in high school, during which time he described becoming "totally fixated on men with big pecs and fine nipples," which became lasting inspirations for his art.<ref name=":0" /> After graduating, he served in the U.S. Army, stationed in [South Korea](/source/South_Korea) following the end of the [Korean war](/source/Korean_War).<ref name=":0" />

Shapiro moved to [Manhattan](/source/Manhattan) in the 1960s, where he attended the [Pratt Institute](/source/Pratt_Institute)<ref name=":3" /> in hopes of becoming a theatrical set designer for [Broadway theatre](/source/Broadway_theatre).<ref name=":0" /> He later pivoted to illustrating children's books.<ref name=":0" />

Shapiro created ''Harry Chess'' in response to a 1964 ad in the ''[New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'' by [Clark Polak](/source/Clark_Polak) seeking "a cartoonist for a new gay and sophisticated magazine" called ''[Drum](/source/Drum_(American_magazine))''.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Murphy |first=Michael J. |title=The Lives and Times of Harry Chess |url=https://glreview.org/wp-content/uploads/DigitalEditions/762900_Digital_Edition/index.html |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=[The Gay & Lesbian Review](/source/The_Gay_%26_Lesbian_Review) |archive-date=2024-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205034540/https://glreview.org/wp-content/uploads/DigitalEditions/762900_Digital_Edition/index.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> After ''Drum'' was discontinued, Shapiro continued producing ''Harry Chess'' comics for ''Queen's Quarterly'' (QQ), another gay magazine.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=QQ magazine |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/30212968?search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject_text%5D=Gay+men+--+Periodicals&search%5Bpath%5D=items |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=[National Library of New Zealand](/source/National_Library_of_New_Zealand)}}</ref> Shapiro designed the character Harry Chess as his [alter ego](/source/alter_ego) (he once said "I am Harry and Harry is me and we are all together").<ref name=":0" /> His style was influenced by [Stan Lee](/source/Stan_Lee) and [James Bond](/source/James_Bond_(literary_character)).<ref name=":0" />

Shapiro met his lifelong partner Dick Kriegmont through Kriegmont's [personal ad](/source/Personal_advertisement) in ''[The Advocate](/source/The_Advocate_(magazine)).''<ref name=":0" /> In 1974,<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Fritscher |first=Jack |title=Gay San Francisco - Eyewitness Drummer : a Memoir of the Sex, Art, Salon, Pop Culture War, and Gay History of Drummer Magazine, the Titanic 1970s to 1999 |publisher=Palm Drive Pub. |year=2006 |isbn=9781890834388 |volume=1}}</ref> Shapiro moved to San Francisco to live with Kriegmont, where they frequented [Pacific Heights](/source/Pacific_Heights%2C_San_Francisco) and the [South of Market](/source/South_of_Market%2C_San_Francisco) neighborhoods.<ref name=":0" />

In 1977, ''Drummer'' co-founder John Embry hired Shapiro and Fritscher to be the magazine's art director and editor-in-chief and tasked them with moving the publication from Los Angeles to San Francisco.<ref name=":2" /> They both departed the magazine in late 1979.<ref name=":2" />

Numerous gay bars and clubs featured Shapiro's artwork in promotional materials, including [Caldron](/source/Caldron_(sex_club)),<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Caldron (UC12334655) |url=https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-47113 |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=USC Libraries |date=2021 |via=ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives |doi=10.25549/one-c4-47113}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Caldron San Francisco (UC12351424) |url=https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-44300 |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=USC Libraries |date=2021 |doi=10.25549/one-c4-44300 |via=ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives}}</ref> [The Eagle](/source/The_Eagle_(bar)),<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Eagle (UC12351618) |url=https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-44023 |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=USC Libraries |date=2021 |doi=10.25549/one-c4-44023 |via=ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives}}</ref> and The Slot.<ref>{{Cite web |title=We Want You (3000101037) |url=https://leatherarchives.org/ca/index.php/Detail/objects/97124 |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=leatherarchives.org |series=Slot, The}}</ref>

In 1978, Shapiro and [Dom Orejudos](/source/Dom_Orejudos) produced a joint gallery show at [Fey-Way Studios](/source/Robert_Opel);<ref name=":2" /> they were also jointly featured at the Eons gallery in Los Angeles.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Together At Last... Etienne/Stephen and A. Jay postcard (3000101713) |url=https://leatherarchives.org/ca/index.php/Detail/objects/98555 |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=leatherarchives.org |series=EONS}}</ref> Shapiro was close friends with Orejudos and [Tom of Finland](/source/Tom_of_Finland),<ref name=":0" /> and also befriended [Domino](/source/Domino_(artist)).<ref>{{Cite news |last=A. Jay |last2=Fritscher |first2=Jack |year=1979 |orig-date=1978 |title=DOMINO OF NEW YORK SUMMER OF '78 |url=https://jackfritscher.com/Drummer/Issues/029/Domino%20of%20New%20York.html |work=[Drummer](/source/Drummer_(magazine)) |via=[Jack Fritscher](/source/Jack_Fritscher) |issue=29}}</ref>

Shapiro died at home of [AIDS](/source/HIV%2FAIDS)-related complications on May 30, 1987, with Kriegmont by his side.<ref name=":0" />

Shapiro's art considerably influenced the style of other erotic artists including [Bill Schmeling](/source/Bill_Schmeling).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bill "The Hun" Schmeling {{!}} 30th April 1938 – 12th September 2019 |url=https://www.tomoffinland.org/bill-the-hun-schmeling-30th-april-1938-12th-september-2019/ |access-date=2024-06-15 |website=Tom of Finland Foundation}}</ref> In his 2006 autobiography, Fritscher wrote:<ref name=":2" /><blockquote>If there is a gay [Mount Rushmore](/source/Mount_Rushmore) of four great pioneer pop artists, the faces would be [Chuck Arnett](/source/Chuck_Arnett), [Etienne](/source/Dom_Orejudos), A. Jay, and [Tom of Finland](/source/Tom_of_Finland).</blockquote>The [Leather Archives & Museum](/source/Leather_Archives_%26_Museum) in Chicago holds some of Shapiro's art.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Drawing by A. Jay (Al Shapiro) [2003013601] |url=https://leatherarchives.org/ca/index.php/Detail/objects/12387 |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=leatherarchives.org}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [Harry Chess](/source/Harry_Chess)

== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{Portal bar|LGBTQ|Erotica and pornography|Human sexuality|Biography|Comics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shapiro, Al}}
Category:Fetish artists
Category:Gay male BDSM
Category:Gay male erotica artists
Category:Leather subculture
Category:LGBTQ comics creators
Category:Pseudonymous comics artists
Category:1932 births
Category:1987 deaths
Category:BDSM people
Category:American erotic artists
Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people
Category:Jewish American illustrators
Category:20th-century American illustrators
Category:Pratt Institute alumni
Category:AIDS-related deaths in California
Category:LGBTQ people from New York (state)
Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:LGBTQ people and military service
Category:Gay military personnel
Category:American LGBTQ military personnel
Category:Gay Jews

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Al Shapiro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Shapiro) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Shapiro?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.