| Tony Arena | |
| Birth Date: | Circa 1965 |
| Birth Place: | Franklin Square, New York, U.S.[1] |
| Other Names: | Anonymous Boy |
| Occupation: | Artist, writer, filmmaker |
| Known For: | Queer and punk media |
Tony Arena (born circa 1965), also known by his pen name Anonymous Boy, is an openly queer artist, writer, and filmmaker. He is known for his comics, his involvement in the queercore movement, and other contributions to queer punk zines, his column in Maximum Rocknroll magazine, his public-access television program The Wild Record Collection, and animation such as his film Green Pubes.
He adopted the pen name Anonymous Boy after G.B. Jones, the editor of queer punk zine J.D.s, credited an illustration he'd submitted to "an anonymous boy".
Anonymous Boy was a queer punk zine that Arena began in the 1980s and ran through the early 2000s with nine known collections.
After this, he and boyfriend Ron Grunewald began producing a regular public access television show called The Wild Record Collection which appeared on Manhattan Neighborhood Public Access Television on Friday nights. Public Access pioneer George C. Stoney, widely regarded as "the Father of Public Access" was in attendance to vehemently criticize the featured programs as the "worst" of what Public Access had to offer.[2]
In 2001, Arena began writing a regular column for the long running punk rock zine Maximum Rocknroll. His column lasted until 2004. He continues to draw comics, contributes to books and publications, and produces his own fanzines Homopunk World, created in 1997. Homopunk World featured interviews with many queer punk comics and musicians, including G.B. Jones, C. Bard Cole, and Joe Butcher of the American Band Ludichrist. Arena would also include reviews of punk fanzines and music.
He is a regular contributor to the anthology Boy Trouble, edited by Robert Kirby and David Kelly. The last issue to be released as a zine, the 10th Anniversary issue of Boy Trouble appeared in 2004. Since then, two volumes of the anthology have been published, the first, The Book of Boy Trouble, in 2006,[3] followed by The Book of Boy Trouble Volume 2 in 2008.[4]
Arena resides in New York City. He has been in a relationship with Ron Grunewald since 1986.
As Director
As Actor