History ComicBook / Circles

* BadassGay:
** Gus is a ButchLesbian who is big and strong and hits the gym with Ken and his buds. She has a passion for boxing and can beat up any jerk they encounter.
** Arthur is a big bear with a heart of gold, but when he and Doug encounter a thief, he chases after him and knocks him out with a mighty punch.

'''''Circles''''' is a UsefulNotes/{{Furry|Fandom}}[[note]](aesthetically, anyways; it is the TropeNamer for FurryLens, after all)[[/note]] [[QueerMedia LGBT]] SliceOfLife comic book about 6 gay men living in a large house together in Boston. The story concerns itself with the comings and goings of the 6 inhabitants: Paulie, the [[TeamMom loving den mother]] of the group dealing with the effects of HIV; his for all intents and purposes [[HappilyMarried husband]], Doug; and their four [[FriendsRentControl renters]]: Ken, part StraightGay, part GymBunny, part AnythingThatMoves; Arthur, an artist and one of Paulie's oldest friends; Taye, a CampGay PerformanceArtist, and Marty, the [[StraightMan Straight]] [[CueIrony Man]] and AudienceSurrogate. The 6 core characters, plus a few secondary characters, [[TrueCompanions form a family unit to work through problems and situations.]]

* NobodyOver50IsGay: Except Paulie, and possibly John.

The series started in the spring of 2001. According to the writers, there were supposed to be 13 issues. Issue 9 would have Ken's backstory, Issue 10 would be a collection of short stories, Issues 11 and 12 were supposed to have tragic events (fans already speculating that [[spoiler:one is Paulie dies from AIDS]]), and Issue 13 will be the final issue. However, due to the comic's severe obscurity, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen all of this was scrapped for a final issue,]] ''Circles: The Years Keep Rolling By'', which was released in 2015, thus the series has finally concluded after an extremely severe ScheduleSlip.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Paulie sadly dies from leukemia and Douglas finds it hard to cope. Until he realizes that he still has family who loves him and takes care of him. Paulie did what he could to keep the family together and on good terms so that they are never alone after his passing.]]

* CastFullOfGay: Everyone in the household except Jason.

* DragQueen: Jesús the llama.

* {{Diary}}: Paulie keeps a personal one to chronicle the events that happen throughout the years. He kept it away from everyone and including Douglas who wanted to read them. [[spoiler:Of course, Paulie knew that eventually he would stop and then he would leave the journals for Douglas and the others to read. Douglas was inspired and began to write entries to Jason to pass onto him.]]

** {{Downplayed}} with Marty who was the only character who was in the closet to his family [[spoiler:and when Marty had dinner with his family and the other Kinsey boys, he came out to his parents in a moment of weakness.]]
** PlayedStraight with Ken. His backstory involved [[spoiler:his Uncle Davis sexually abusing him and threatening to tell everyone he was gay if he ever told anyone what his uncle did to him. Ken hated himself for being gay but after opening his heart to Paulie, he reconciled with his mother and openly embraced who he was.]]

** Douglas starts out as the rudest and most bitter of the bunch. The reason for this is [[spoiler:how much he resents the fact that Paulie has AIDS and struggles to come to terms with his nearly inevitable death.]] But over time, he gets better and becomes much nicer and kinder to everyone else.

* HelloSailor: Appearently, Paulie's dad had a case of this.

* InterspeciesRomance: There are few repeated species. One exception are Doug, his ex-fiancée and their son, who are all Otters.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Carter Allen, a vehemently homophobic man who loves his kids, learns that one of his sons is possibly gay.

* ManlyGay[=/=]LeatherMan: Both associated with a subplot involving Ken.

* MoebiusNeighborhood: Mrs. Nussbaum, as well as Carter Allen and his family.
* TheMourningAfter: In the final issue/book, [[spoiler:as Paulie dies of AIDS and Douglas is left alone, falling into a detached, "going through the motions" state. Thankfully, the rest of Kinsey 6 is successful in making his life meaningful again, though Douglas makes it clear that "there will never be another Paulie".]]

* OneLastFling: While explaining about his past in Issue 5, Paulie reveals that he thought this and had sex with Keith, but it became the biggest mistake of his life as [[spoiler:this caused him to contract HIV from Keith.]]

* StraightGay: Several characters fall into this simply by not addressing any particularly "gay" stereotype.

* TragicAIDSStory: [[spoiler:The only character who dies is Paulie and he dies from HIV. Douglas was devastated but soon he was comforted by everyone else. While everyone else was alive and had an EarnYourHappyEnding, at least Doug had a BittersweetEnding.]]

** Chapter 5 reveals [[spoiler:Paulie's backstory and the events that led up to him contracting HIV.]]
** Chapter 6 reveals [[spoiler:Douglas has a son named Jason and how he first met Paulie after being with Linda.]]
** Chapter 9 reveals [[spoiler:the backstory of Ken and how he was psychologically abused in his childhood.]]

-->'''Doug:''' I have bad feelings about [[spoiler: the guy who got you sick.]]

* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: [[spoiler:Douglas says this cold-heartedly to Arthur after he blames himself and wishes it was him that got sick instead of Paulie.]]

** Douglas starts out as the rudest and most bitter of the bunch. The reason for this is [[spoiler:how much he resents the fact that Paulie has AIDS and struggles to come to terms with his almost inevitable death.]] But over time, he gets better and becomes much nicer and kinder to everyone else.
**
**

'''''Circles''''' is a UsefulNotes/{{Furry| Fandom}} (aesthetically, anyways; it is the TropeNamer for FurryLens, after all), Gay-themed SliceOfLife comic about six men living in a large house together in Boston. The story concerns itself with the comings and goings of the six inhabitants: Paulie, the [[TeamMom Den mother]] of the group dealing with the effects of HIV; his for all intents and purposes [[HappilyMarried Husband]], Doug; and their four [[FriendsRentControl renters]]: Ken, part StraightGay part GymBunny Part AnythingThatMoves; Arthur, an artist and one of Paulie's oldest friends; Taye, a FlamboyantGay PerformanceArtist, and Marty, the [[StraightMan Straight]] [[CueIrony Man]] and audience stand-in. The six core characters, plus a few secondary characters, form a family unit to work through problems and situations.

A very much beloved comic book series among those who have read it, ''Circles'' is usually one of the books many furries would indicate to prove that they're not all sex maniacs. It also has a fairly glacial issue speed, as it has taken seven years to come out with eight issues in a comic that started out as "four times a year".

The series started in Spring, 2001. According to the writers, there were supposed to be 13 issues. Issue 9 would have Ken's backstory, Issue 10 would be a collection of short stories Issues 11 and 12 were supposed to have tragic events (fans already speculating that [[spoiler:one is Paulie dies from AIDS]]), and Issue 13 will be the final issue. However, due to the comic's severe obscurity, all of this was scrapped for a final issue, ''Circles: The Years Keep Rolling By'', which was released in 2015.

Oh, and by the way, don't let all of the fuzzy animal people and bright colors fool you here. This is a very dramatic and heavy story with funny moments and emotional rollercoasters. In layman's terms, [[TearJerker this is a very sad story.]]

For more SliceOfLife {{Furry Comic}}s with similar themes and a group of cast members, compare to Leo Magna's ''Webcomic/FurPiled'' and Creator/VinceSuzukawa's ''Webcomic/{{ISO}}'', which happened to be inspired by ''Circles''.

* FunnyAnimal: Species is purely aesthetic.

** PlayedStraight with Ken. [[spoiler:His backstory involved his Uncle Davis sexually abusing him and threatening to tell everyone he was gay if he ever told anyone what his uncle did to him. Ken hated himself for being gay but after opening his heart to Paulie, he reconciled with his mother and openly embraced who he was.]]

* MusicalEpisode: Issue 8.

%%* SliceOfLife

'''''Circles''''' is a UsefulNotes/{{Furry| Fandom}} (aesthetically, anyways; it is the TroperNamer for FurryLens, after all), Gay-themed SliceOfLife comic about six men living in a large house together in Boston. The story concerns itself with the comings and goings of the six inhabitants: Paulie, the [[TeamMom Den mother]] of the group dealing with the effects of HIV; his for all intents and purposes [[HappilyMarried Husband]], Doug; and their four [[FriendsRentControl renters]]: Ken, part StraightGay part GymBunny Part AnythingThatMoves; Arthur, an artist and one of Paulie's oldest friends; Taye, a FlamboyantGay PerformanceArtist, and Marty, the [[StraightMan Straight]] [[CueIrony Man]] and audience stand-in. The six core characters, plus a few secondary characters, form a family unit to work through problems and situations.

'''''Circles''''' is a UsefulNotes/{{Furry| Fandom}}, Gay-themed SliceOfLife comic about six men living in a large house together in Boston. The story concerns itself with the comings and goings of the six inhabitants: Paulie, the [[TeamMom Den mother]] of the group dealing with the effects of HIV; his for all intents and purposes [[HappilyMarried Husband]], Doug; and their four [[FriendsRentControl renters]]: Ken, part StraightGay part GymBunny Part AnythingThatMoves; Arthur, an artist and one of Paulie's oldest friends; Taye, a FlamboyantGay PerformanceArtist, and Marty, the [[StraightMan Straight]] [[CueIrony Man]] and audience stand-in. The six core characters, plus a few secondary characters, form a family unit to work through problems and situations.

* BuryYourGays: [[spoiler:The only character who dies is Paulie and he dies from HIV. Douglas was devastated but soon he was comforted by everyone else. While everyone else was alive and had an EarnYourHappyEnding, at least Doug had a BittersweetEnding.]]

* FurryLens: TroperNamer. The characters are actually humans, but portrayed as animals visually. The illustrated novel that concludes the series pretty explicitly describes human characters, as opposed to the FunnyAnimal illustrations.

* {{Expy}}: Dave, an expy of Davan from ''SomethingPositive''.

[[caption-width-right:350:Clockwise from the top: Paulie, Arthur, Ken, Marty, Taye, and Douglas.]]

For more (slightly NSFW) SliceOfLife {{Furry Comic}}s with similar themes and a group of cast members, compare to Leo Magna's ''Webcomic/FurPiled'' and Creator/VinceSuzukawa's ''Webcomic/{{ISO}}'', which happened to be inspired by ''Circles''.

** TheSmartGuy: Arthur
** TheBigGuy: Ken

** TagalongKid / TheHeart: Jason

-->-- The beginning of every one of Paulie's journal entries.

* DragQueen: Jesús.

* OfficialCouple: Paulie and Douglas. They were together since the beginning of the story and always remained faithful and stayed together until death.

----

* ButchLesbian: Gus.

Oh, and don't let all of the fuzzy animal people and bright colors fool you here. This is a very dramatic and heavy story with funny moments and emotional rollercoasters. In layman's terms, [[TearJerker this is a very sad story.]]

This comic book provides examples of:
* {{Adorkable}}: Marty.
* AuthorAppeal[=/=]BigBeautifulMan: The focus on the romances of the chubbier cast members, one of whom is one half of the OfficialCouple, might reflect a bit on one of the author's proclivities. Also, attractive women are rarely shown.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Paulie is the sweetest man, but he can get extremely angry if you set him off.

* CrankyNeighbor: Carter Allen.

* FlamboyantGay: Taye, on occasion.
* FriendsRentControl: Paulie inherited a fabulous Boston mansion from his American aunt, then converted it to four spacious apartments.

* GymBunny: Ken.
* HappilyMarried: A gay example played absolutely [[IncrediblyLamePun straight]].
* HasTwoDaddies: Well, for Jason, more like a daddy and stepdaddy, er, Uncle Paulie.

* ItsAllMyFault: Arthur blames himself for years fo what happened to Paulie.
* {{Jerkass}}: Ken, at least early on when his [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]] and [[TheResenter resentment]] of Marty getting together with Taye causes him to continually insult Marty's chubbiness. When he discovers that Marty has a lot more strength and determination than he thinks at the gym, and witnesses him put the bully there in his place (with [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome assistance from Gus]]), he changes his tune and apologizes, starting a true friendship with Marty and revealing [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold he has a heart of gold]] after all. Just in time to receive what some might considered delayed LaserGuidedKarma from [[spoiler:his abusive dominant boyfriend.]]

* LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Ken, apparently, in Issues 7 and 8.

* ManlyGay[=/=]LeatherMan: both associated with a subplot involving Ken.

* TheMourningAfter: In the final issue/book, [[spoiler:as Paulie dies of AIDS and Douglas is left alone, falling into a dettached, "going through the motions" state. Thankfully, the rest of Kinsey 6 is successful in making his life meaningful again, though Douglas makes it clear that "there will never be another Paulie".]]

* NobodyOver50IsGay: except Paulie, and possibly John.

* PerformanceArtist: Taye.
* ShoutOut: [[LampshadeHanging As pointed out in the first issue,]] the title of the series is a reference to the song Circle by HarryChapin

* SexyShirtSwitch: After their first time having sex, Taye walks out of the bedroom wearing only one of Marty's shirts.

* StoutStrength: Marty is a chubby guy who doesn't hit the gym but when he does, Ken and his buds are impressed with his strength and endurance.
* TeamMom: Paulie.

An ongoing UsefulNotes/{{Furry| Fandom}}, Gay-themed SliceOfLife comic about six men living in a large house together in Boston. The story concerns itself with the comings and goings of the six inhabitants: Paulie, the [[TeamMom Den mother]] of the group dealing with the effects of HIV; his for all intents and purposes [[HappilyMarried Husband]], Doug; and their four [[FriendsRentControl renters]]: Ken, part StraightGay part GymBunny Part AnythingThatMoves; Arthur, an artist and one of Paulie's oldest friends; Taye, a FlamboyantGay PerformanceArtist, and Marty, the [[StraightMan Straight]] [[CueIrony Man]] and audience stand-in. The six core characters, plus a few secondary characters, form a family unit to work through problems and situations.

* CastFullOfGay

* IDidntMeanToTurnYouOn

* SexyDiscretionShot

* SliceOfLife

The series started in Spring, 2001. According to the writers, there are supposed to be 13 issues. Issue 9 will have Ken's backstory. Issue 10 will be a collection of short stories. Issues 11 and 12 are supposed to have tragic events (fans already speculating that [[spoiler:one is Paulie dies from AIDS]]). Issue 13 will be the final issue.

An ongoing {{Furry| Fandom}}, Gay-themed SliceOfLife comic about six men living in a large house together in Boston. The story concerns itself with the comings and goings of the six inhabitants: Paulie, the [[TeamMom Den mother]] of the group dealing with the effects of HIV; his for all intents and purposes [[HappilyMarried Husband]], Doug; and their four [[FriendsRentControl renters]]: Ken, part StraightGay part GymBunny Part AnythingThatMoves; Arthur, an artist and one of Paulie's oldest friends; Taye, a FlamboyantGay PerformanceArtist, and Marty, the [[StraightMan Straight]] [[CueIrony Man]] and audience stand-in. The six core characters, plus a few secondary characters, form a family unit to work through problems and situations.

* ScheduleSlip: Big time: the eighth issue was released in 2008, with no clear timeline (as of 2012) on when the ninth will be available. Not to mention the writers are rumored to be having financial trouble.

* DevelopmentHell: Issues were released once a year. But the last issue was Circles #8 in 2008, without a formal cancellation.