Meet MENTANA!

Join us and get your calendars, autographs, and large size art. Eat, drink, and be gay! Happy Pride Missoula, Montana!

Meet David Herrera

     “Holy backsides Batman, he’s naked!”  This popped into my mind as I lay on the bed with superhero sheets and a bundle of comics scattered around me.  Another thought was, “Just smile and try to look relaxed!”  Well, not sure how well I pulled off the latter, but after about an hour and a half of Terry taking photographs, we were able to view several shots that hopefully would be good enough for a page in the calendar.  Having never stripped for a photographer, the experience was a first for me.  There really wasn’t ever a chance that I wouldn’t do the photoshoot.  After all, it would have seemed fairly hypocritical of me to ask guys in the community to pose for the calendar if I wasn’t prepared to do the same thing.  That said, I can certainly understand the nervousness and uncertainty they felt as they prepared for their own personal time in front of the camera, wearing next to nothing.  For me, the journey to be comfortable with my own body and in my own skin has been a long one.  Yet, one shaped by my earliest memories of fantasizing about the beautiful superheroes on the pages of comic books.

     As for most teenage boys growing up in a small town in rural Texas, comics were an escape to bigger cities filled with adventure, danger, and yes, superheroes able to leap tall buildings, run faster than a speeding bullet and bring criminals to justice.  Super heroes had no choice but to lead double lives in order to protect their personal identities.  As a young gay teen, leading a secret life and knowing that there was something about myself that I couldn’t share with anyone, was something I could easily relate to.  I yearned to wake up one day with super strength and the ability to climb walls thanks to the bite of a radioactive spider.  Or to have an alien drop out of the sky and bestow me with a green ring and the ability to create anything at will.  These were the fantasies that propelled me through junior high and high school.  Of course, I was never the muscled brawny type, more the 98-pound, skinny, brainy type.  I learned to run fast in order to stay a head of the sluggish, thick-headed bullies that chased me after school.  That was my super power.  Nonetheless, I would’ve traded running for one of those super rings in a heartbeat!

     I played tennis all through high school as a way to improve my coordination, stay fit and remain active.  Plus, it was a lot of fun and great to be part of a team.  As I grew up, I realized that even without super powers, I’d have to figure out how best to get along in the world and feel good about myself.  In many ways, comics helped shape my views of masculinity, but more importantly, they influenced my views about justice, honesty, courage and integrity.  I know now that the images of superheroes may not have been realistic for the vast majority of men, but they instilled in me the belief that through hard work and sweat, I would have the ability to create a body that I felt comfortable with.  I still struggle at times with body image, but all in all, I know that what’s on the inside, far outweighs what’s on the outside.  And that’s a lesson worth learning not only from superheroes, but from actual experience!