raider
in canada:
portrait of sean martin
a documentary by Randy A. Riddle
Wild
Drag Race:
Taking Chances
Another
event unique to the Gay rodeo circuit, the Wild Drag Race uses a team
of three people -- a man, a woman, and a member "in drag". The cowgirl
holds a 25-foot rope attached to the animal in the chute; the cowboy and
"the drag" stand forty feet away. When the gate opens, the team tries
to direct the steer towards the finish line 70 feet from the chutes. The
"drag" must be mounted on the steer before it starts across the finish
line and must stay on until the animal is completely across the line.
Sean
was really excited -- against his better judgment and the advice of a
few friends, he was going to actually enter the rodeo this year as a contestant.
He and two friends entered the Wild Drag Race, facing the challenge of
coming face to face with a very big steer that probably wasn't too interested
in having some drag queen on its back. I was a little concerned about
Sean and his friends myself -- I watched all during the weekend as it
kept raining, turning the arena into one big gooey mess of very deep,
very wet mud. The rodeo officials made accommodations for the safety of
the animals and contestants, but I wouldn't even think about getting near
those big animals even without the mud.
 
|
| (c) Randy A. Riddle and (c) Sean Martin |
Sean and his two cohorts entered the arena, trudging through the arena goo that was covering the boots and pants of all the contestants. They lined up as instructed by the rodeo officials, the steer emerged from the gate, and Sean very quickly was dragged twenty feet through the deepest, wettest mud west of the Mississippi.
Sean
emerged from the arena, his clothes, his face, everything dripping with
the caked-on mud, beaming with joy. "How was it, Sean?" I asked. "It was
the best," he replied, laughing, as he headed off to the campground shower
to see how much of the mud he could wash off before heading home. He was
like a kid in a candy store, proudly holding up the almost unrecognizable
contestant number from the back of his denim jacket during the interview,
a souvenir better than any shiny buckle or ribbon. They didn't even come
close to winning the event, but that didn't matter.
 |
| (c) copyright Randy A. Riddle |
There are not many folks that would risk life and limb, let along getting their clothes muddy, in pursuit of having a good time. But, Sean is like that -- willing to take chances and take the bull by the horns, so to speak, when it really means something to him.
About
a year before shooting the documentary, Sean took a few chances with Doc
and Raider. With the release of the second book in the series, Sean
included an illustrated novella -- a character study of the Gay men who
inhabit "The Steps", an area just outside an actual coffee house in Toronto.
It was a little slice of life that broke away from the single-panel cartoons
and added more depth to Doc and Raider as we see other people in their
lives and share a warm, funny story about one in the close-knit group
who finds himself in love for the first time. If there's going to be a
third book in the series, Sean notes, "it will probably be like The Steps
-- written pieces with illustrations."
 |
| (c) copyright Sean Martin |
For
fans of Doc and Raider, more changes are in store. Sean is beginning
the process of "winding down" the series. He feels the panel has "run
its course" and that "he's taken Doc and Raider about as far as
he could go". His comments are interesting, reminding me of other successful
cartoonists that have ended a series or taken a long sabbatical when their
work was at its height -- Berke Breathed who stopped drawing Bloom
County, Gary Larsen's discontinuing The Far Side, and even
Gary Trudeau tooking a long break from producing Doonesbury.
 |
| circa, early 1990's (c) copyright Sean Martin |
The desire to move on is understandable. The boys followed Sean on his travels throughout Canada -- from their birth as roommates in Vancouver, a long stay in Toronto where the bulk of the series was produced and the characters lived an urban existence, to Calgary where Doc and Raider live on a small ranch. In a sense, Doc and Raider helped Sean, and more importantly us, survive through some difficult times and soul searching, through relationships, AIDS, Gay-bashing, and just living day-to-day.
In the few years that I've known Sean, I've never seen him happier, his face and clothes caked with the mud of a rodeo arena. Sean has returned to his roots, or at least the closest he can find to the ranches and cowboys of the Texas where he was born and raised. Sean leads a less hectic life these days and will probably stay in Calgary for some time to come, giving his energy and enthusiasm to the open and welcoming family that the Gay and Lesbian community in Calgary fosters.
"I can drive thirty minutes out of town," Sean says, "and camp out under a night sky literally filled with millions of stars. I had forgotten how much I missed that."
I imagine Doc and Raider appreciate that sky full of stars too.
rand@coolcatdaddy.com, 3.15.99