HZ5 is the product of a young artist raised on Chris Claremont and Frank Miller stories (combining the team oriented soap opera of X-Men with the violent paranoia of Ronin/Elektra:Assassin/Give Me Liberty books) and influenced by Bill Sienkiewicz and the early 90s vanguard of artists like Jim Lee and Rob Leifeld. There’s a Phoenix/Kitty Pryde character, a ninja, and a character who seems a bit like X-Force’s Cable in drag.

Politically, it’s the product of a young person fearful of right wing religious fascism in the Reagan/Bush era, fearful of Central American and Middle East wars and the covert operations of the CIA. As a newly out queer/femme person I was trying to find my way in AIDS era San Francisco, seeing Act-Up and Queer Nation actions and witnessing the AB101 Riot in San Francisco.

Personally, it’s the product of a newly out queer not-quite-trans-femme trying to find their place in a wonderous new world of drag queens, gender fuckers and the queer underground scene of clubs such as Uranus and Klubstitute. When I was first was exposed to the great drag queens and gender performers  of the time, Ms. X, Veronica Klaus, Pussy Tourette, God’s Girlfriend Brigit Brat among others, I was inspired with their otherworldy super heroic power . The cult classic “Vegas In Space” had also just premiered and I had found myself in with some of the people who made it. The spirits of the late Doris Fish and Tippi were in the air and very much in this work.