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A gay friend of mine from school told me that Judy Garland was very popular with the gay community nationwide, because in the 1960's when gays were much less well received, to support the gay community she would only perform her music in gay clubs across the country. And that she would always conclude her performance with "Somewhere over the rainbow".
He said the rainbow from that song is the partial inspiration (or perhaps the complete inspiration) for the gay rainbow flag. I don't know if that's the case, but he certainly believed that absolutely, and was informed of that from others in the gay world. He spent most of his life in the San Francisco area, before migrating to Florida. I don't know how to confirm or disprove that account.
He also told me that Liza Minelli (Judy Garland's daughter) has an equal popularity in the gay world, and follows a similar performance touring of the country in many gay clubs.
Back on the topic of Dave Kraft's work, I remember 15 or 20 years ago, I picked up that whole Kraft DEFENDERS run (mostly drawn by Giffen/Janson, with two issues partially drawn by Michael Golden, some of his earliest published work) and I got them in perfect mint condition for 3 dollars each, and I thought that was a pretty good deal. But then I looked them up when I got home on mycomicshop.com, and they had the same issues in mint condition for $1.50 each.
Oh well... it was only an extra 1.50 per issue (times 12) and being good issues I've re-read a few times, I've definitely gotten my utility out of them, at any price.
