An Exclusive Interview with Pride High Comic Book Writer Tommy Roddy

Nearly one year after the successful launch of his groundbreaking LGBT comic book, Pride High, Tommy Roddy is still raising the bar for teen superheroes. Unlike Teen Titans or New Mutants, the Pride High "Out Crowd" consists of a more diverse line up than most comic books.

For starters, the team's current leader is Kid Mischief, a gay Puerto Rican empath with growing telepathic and telekinetic abilities. The team's other members are equally unique. Suravi is a blind lesbian with solar powers. Scotch Bonnet is a fiery Scottish beauty who's still exploring her sexuality. The dashing British animorph Chip Cheetah is frustratingly straight, as is their newest member, Unison, a kid from Hong Kong who has the ability to make living duplicates of himself.

So far the team has endured hurtful prejudice from other students, the death of one their teammates, and losing their first battle in Poseidon Prep's Inter-Squad Championship. In addition to their never-ending struggle to gain respect from Poseidon Prep's other students, each member of Pride High has their own personal conflicts to deal with as well as an ongoing mystery concerning a character whose death left more questions than answers.

Currently on their fourth issue, with the fifth and sixth coming very soon, I recently got the chance to interview Tommy Roddy about the past present and future of Pride High.

What's the premise behind Pride High and what do you feel sets it apart from other super hero books?

TOMMY RODDY: It's about a gay-straight alliance at a school for super-powered teens. There are many comics about LGBT teens. There are many about super-powered teens. It's the combination of the two ideas that isn't so common. But I think the most unique thing about Pride High is the inclusion of reader characters into the storyline.

We've spoken before about how many of the characters for Pride High were created for a role-playing game. What led you to take the leap from superhero role-playing to actually publishing a comic book?

TR: The positive response I received from friends regarding the fiction I wrote.