 In 1980 he developed for possible syndication a comic strip titled "Ozone," which included a gay character named Leonard who had a "roommate" named Larry.The strip was unsuccessful, and he pitched another strip featuring those two characters to LGBT news magazine "The Advocate" which also turned it down.Editor Robert Triptow encouraged Barela to develop the Leonard & Larry strip into longer multi-page stories, which was first featured in "Gay Comix" #5.