October marks Long Beach Arts Month, and the Long Beach Post has partnered with the Arts Council for Long Beach to celebrate the image makers, the painters, the dancers, the designers, the musicians, and the countless other artists who make our city vibrant and cultured. Our homepage will feature an artist’s own unique interpretation of Long Beach daily, so make sure to check back every weekday to discover or rediscover a local talent.

If you are LGBTQ and live in Long Beach, it is unlikely you haven’t—at some point or another—seen the prolific work of nerd-meets-underwear fetishist Steven H. Garcia. He’s kind of like a boyish Tom of Finland who discovered Photoshop and a pile of superhero literature.

In other words, he’s awesome.

The Chicago native is inspired by DC Comics guru Michael Turner (Witchblade, Fathom, Soulfire), DC/Marvel Comics master Jim Lee (X-Men vol. 2, Superman: For Tomorrow, Batman: Hush), most notably Joe Phillips. Phillips’s style is one that Garcia clearly mimics but not to the extent of being parody.

“My art is kinda like male fashion underwear models but if they were superheroes,” Garcia said. “Kinda suggestive but not too explicty—well, wait, there a few that are. But that’s the fun, right?” 

Fun indeed. Take, for example, his take on X-Men’s Rogue, slinkily twisting her body, pulling back her hair, and showing a set of mammary glands are sure to make both gay and straight want to cop a(n inappropriate) feel. Or take a glance at his Batman, set for an upcoming 2015 calendar: mask off, one leg up and practically naked, the boyish face paired with a daddy-sized package is thoroughly fun. 

And his Wolverine? Woof.

Even more awesome is his series of pictures turning Long Beach drag queens and kings into comic-like caricatures of themselves in all their campy glory (you can point out Jewels in the “G” of his image here).