Otava Heikkilä’s Letters for Lucardo is a delightful queer erotic horror comic that’s been crowdfunding volumes since 2016. It’s a must-read for fans of vampire fiction as a whole, and especially fans of the queer subtext found in stories like Interview With The Vampire; if you liked that film, imagine a comic where the queerness is much…
INTERVIEW: BHP Comics’ Gary Chudleigh and Sha Nazir on Their Bold New Universe
Glasgow, Scotland-based indie publishing house BHP Comics is boldly stepping into a new universe of exciting new one-shot comics, crowdfunding now on Kickstarter. With each book promising its own jam-packed adventures with exciting and unique characters — including Britain’s first south-Asian superhero — the Bold Universe Collection then combines to tell a bigger story within a…
REVIEW: Arrive In My Hands: Queer Erotic Comics is Poetic Magic
In recent years, indie comic readers have been gifted with more and more works, from short autobiographical comics to webcomics and zines to anthologies with the erotic in mind. More comics and comic-related reading material crowdfunded, printed out for conventions, and uploaded online exploring not just queer identities but queer desire and queer liberation. This…
REVIEW: Pixels of You Snaps an AI Romance in High Contrast
Pixels of You is a slow-burn, rivals-to-lovers human/AI romance. It’s also a nuanced narrative speculation on how near-future AI will shape human culture and be shaped in turn. This sleek and stylish graphic novel is a collaboration between a superstar indie creative team — writers Yuko Ota and Ananth Hirsh (Barbarous, Lucky Penny, and Johnny…
REVIEW: Sports is Hell is a Familiar, Twisted Odyssey
In Ben Passmore’s one-shot comic Sports is Hell, a Super Bowl celebration becomes a pretext for a riot in this biting satire. Follow Ash as she and a ragtag group seek safety from the ensuing chaos and violence.
INTERVIEW: Alek Shrader and the The Arizona Opera Bring Carmen to a New Stage
Carmen is an auspicious name. Not just because it’s my mother’s name, but because it’s the title of one of the greatest operas of all time. Filled with drama and passion, it is the story of the downfall of Don José. He is a naïve young soldier in the 1830s who abandons his childhood sweetheart…
REVIEW: Comrade Himbo Embraces the Softer Side of Anti-capitalist Masculinity
The himbo, he who is “thicc of thigh and even thiccer of heart,” has enjoyed something of a cultural moment in recent years. Attention has shifted away from snarky genius characters like Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes and gravitated toward an interest in the types of gentle portrayals of masculinity personified by Chris Hemsworth in…
INTERVIEW: Nate Cosby’s Alter Ego
Nate Cosby takes us back to the glitz and glamor of 1950s Hollywood in Alter Ego where scandal and crime spawn two superheroes like none other. Joined by artist Jacob Edgar (James Bond), colorist Kike J. Diaz (Red Sonja), and letterer Rus Wooton, Cosby’s Alter Ego is an original graphic novel crowdfunding now on Kickstarter….
INTERVIEW: Unboxing Ron Wimberley’s GratNin with Beehive Books
Founded by artist and designer Maëlle Doliveux and writer and editor Josh O’Neill, Beehive Books is a boutique publishing company that likes “forgotten geniuses and lost works and mysterious tomes … things that were pulled out of antiquity, and work that seems to materialize from an impossibly distant future.” As far as geniuses go, designer,…
REVIEW: Flung Out of Space Paints a Complex and Brilliant Portrait of Patricia Highsmith
I don’t have the right words to prepare you for this comic. At its simplest, Flung Out of Space is about Patricia Highsmith’s quest to escape the drudgery of writing comics and get her novels published, including Carol, considered the first lesbian romance with a happy ending. It’s also about her years-long attempt to try…
REVIEW: Queer History Sparkles in Smut Peddler: Sordid Past
All the Smut Peddler comics compile sex-positive, more or less queer- and trans-positive, very NSFW comics. They’re big anthologies, full-color, with glossy production values, and they’ve already got a following, which they very much deserve: this sixth installment in the series hits in every way. I can’t think of an NSFW comic that I’d recommend…
The 2022 Minicomic Awards Was a Triumphant Celebration of Comics
Minicomics are often the medium in which many creators get their start. It’s also a space for those of us who want to share stories in an intimate do-it-yourself fashion. Minicomics are also overlooked in the pantheon of comics awards, but cartoonists and hosts of the Salt & Honey podcast, Leslie Hung (Snot Girl) and…
