{{Infobox character | name = Harry Chess | series = Harry Chess: That Man from A.U.N.T.I.E. | image = HarryChess.jpg | caption = | first = November 1964 (Franky Hill: Memoirs of a Boy of Pleasure)<br/>March 1965 (That Man from A.U.N.T.I.E. series) | last = | creator = Al Shapiro (as "A. Jay") | occupation = Secret agent | gender = Male | family = Mickey Muscle (adopted brother) }}

'''Harry Chess''' is the central character of the first gay-themed ongoing comic strip, first appearing in the mid 1960s.<ref name="TGLR">{{cite web|url=https://www.glreview.org/wp-content/uploads/DigitalEditions/762900_Digital_Edition/files/assets/basic-html/index.html#22|publisher=The Gay & Lesbian Review|title=The Lives and Times of Harry Chess|author=Michael J. Murphy|date=March 2014|access-date=9 August 2015}}</ref><ref name="snidle">{{Cite web|url=http://www.jamessnidlefinearts.com/and_appraisals/Al_%22A._Jay%22_Shapiro.html|title=the drawings of Al "A. Jay" Shapiro|access-date=9 August 2015|author=James Snidle|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910231847/http://www.jamessnidlefinearts.com/and_appraisals/Al_%22A._Jay%22_Shapiro.html|archive-date=10 September 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was created by Al Shapiro under the pseudonym "A. Jay". He is a parody of the secret agent trope popularized in the 1960s, as exemplified by ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' and the James Bond franchise. Rather than the heterosexual romantic themes common to the source material, the adventures of Harry Chess were openly homosexual, intended to appeal to gay male readers.<ref name="TGLR"/>

Harry Chess is a former trapeze artist;<ref name="sleuth">{{cite book|title=The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film: A History and Annotated Bibliography|author=Drewey Wayne Gunn|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|date=2013}}</ref> his name is a pun referring to his hairy chest. He has a long thin face with a prominently cleft chin. His sidekick is Mickey Muscle, his adopted brother <ref name="sleuth"/> who is an inarticulate teenage body builder.<ref name="TGLR"/> "A.U.N.T.I.E." stands for "Agents' Undercover Network to Investigate Evil", parodying the "U.N.C.L.E." of the TV series using the affectionate gay slang for an older gay man.<ref name="TGLR"/> Harry and Mickey would later become members of F.U.G.G ("Federal Undercover Gay Goodguys"). The strip also featured contemporary political satire, parodying the families of Republican figures such as Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.

The comics villains were similar to threats gay men faced at the time and the character Harry Chess asserted a humorous and positive approach to gay sex and life. The illustrations of the comic were frequently of muscular, hairy, men wearing tight and revealing clothes if wearing any clothes. For example, in one issue Harry Chess and Mickey Muscle foil a plot to mix ground glass into tanks at the “Cay-Why” factory, a reference to K-Y Jelly, a sexual lubricant. The text of the comic was filled with gay slang, homoerotic innuendo, and double entendres that were at risk of being labeled obscene by the United States Postal Service.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Murphy|first=Michael|date=March–April 2014|title=The Life and Times of Harry Chess|journal=The Gay & Lesbian Review|pages=22–24}}</ref>

== History == Harry Chess was created by Allen J. Shapiro (1932–1987)<ref name="snidle"/> under the pseudonym "A. Jay". The character appeared in a one-off cartoon published in ''Drum'' magazine in November 1964, a homophile publication featuring news and erotica. He then became the protagonist of Al Shapiro's ''Harry Chess: That Man from A.U.N.T.I.E.'', which began running in ''Drum'' in March 1965 and ended in 1966.<ref name="TGLR"/> These early strips, edited by ''Drum'' publisher Clark Polak, were reprinted in a collection entitled ''The Uncensored Adventures of Harry Chess 0068 7/8: That Man from A.U.N.T.I.E.'' (1966).

After ''Drum'' ceased publication, the character's strips were picked up by ''Queen's Quarterly''.<ref name="interview">{{cite web|url=https://www.jackfritscher.com/Drummer/Issues/107/Al%20Shapiro.html|title=AL SHAPIRO, A. JAY, & HARRY CHESS: CONFESSIONS OF A COMIC STRIPPER|author=Jack Fritscher|date=August 1987|publisher=Drummer|access-date=9 August 2015}}</ref> In 1977, the series began appearing in ''Drummer'' magazine, where Shapiro served as art director.<ref name="TGLR"/> His role at Drummer brought him into contact with other pioneering gay comic artists including Bill Ward. Strips were reprinted in various volumes of Leyland Publications' ''Meatmen'' series in the 1980s.<ref name="sleuth"/>

== Significance == Harry Chess was an important part of the gay liberation movement. ''Drum's'' publisher Clark Polak wanted "to put the ‘sex’ back into ‘homosexual'"<ref name="TGLR" /> and he used the Harry Chess comic strip to do just that.

Harry Chess “served as an emblem of political transgression as well.”<ref>{{Cite book|title=Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas|last=Booker|first=Marvin Keith|publisher=Greenwood|year=2014}}</ref> The comic was known for its political barb, ridiculous puns, Jewish jokes, and bad spelling.

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chess, Harry}} Category:1964 comics debuts Chess, Harry Harry Chess Category:Comics characters introduced in 1964 Harry Chess Category:Fictional gay men Category:Fictional spies in comics Harry Chess Chess, Harry Harry Chess Harry Chess Category:Satirical comics Category:Political satire comics Category:American political satire Harry Chess Category:Gay male erotica artists