In a pandemic, in a time of unrest, in a world that constantly keeps marginalized people in crisis, how do we imagine an ideal future? How do we look past the obstacles immediately in front of us and consider a happy, queer world? How do we dream? Editor and cartoonist H-P Lehkonen decided to create…
New Colors for Bug Boys and Witchlight Enrich their Stories
I’m a big fan of Czap Books, especially two of their earlier publications – Laura Knetzger’s sweet, slice-of-life series Bug Boys, and Jessi Zabarsky’s emotional, warm fantasy Witchlight. I’ve written about both comics before, but since those initial pieces both books were picked up by Random House Graphic and released to a wider audience. I…
Jane Mai’s Soft is a Brilliant Retelling of Carmilla
CONTENT WARNING: This article contains discussion of abusive relationships. When a friend recommended I watch a low budget webseries about a lesbian vampire who falls in love with her plucky college roommate, I didn’t realize it was based on Carmilla, a vampire novella by Sheridan Le Fanu older than Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I was fascinated…
Normal Offers Queer, Desi Horror That Packs a Punch
The last Gaysi zine I reviewed was All that We Want, a gorgeous, warm celebration of queer desire. Their newest zine, Normal, is a complete departure from that exploration of queer joy, and instead dives into all that keeps us from such experiences. As Niyati Joshi makes known in their introduction, queer and trans people…
The Performative Horniness of Dawn of X
Adjoining bedrooms. That was all it took for the X-Men’s most infamous love triangle to suddenly become a canon poly triad in the minds of fans everywhere. Elsewhere in the same issue, we bore witness to Corsair’s partner hitting on Rachel Summers, his granddaughter, another character generally accepted as queer despite only the most subtextual…
Insta Made Me Read It: Scorching Romance and Let’s Play
Insta Made Me Read It is a twice-monthly column covering the webtoons advertised by LINE Webtoon on their Instagram account and on their app. The focus is on what’s both popular and encouraged to be popular by the publisher-platform itself. This time, I’ve been reading Scorching Romance and Let’s Play. Both are romance-themed comics with…
Good Sexual Citizenship Review: Great Ammo for the #MeToo Movement
Good Sexual Citizenship: How to Create a Sexually Safer World Ellen Friedrichs (Writer) Cleis Press September 24, 2019 We’re living in a #MeToo world where more people from marginalised communities are able to share their stories of sexual harassment and assault. Unfortunately, very few of the men accused of the crimes they have perpetrated will…
Focus on Comics Scholarship: an interview with Frederik Byrn Køhlert
Routledge will be publishing a series of scholarly texts on “Gender, Sexuality and Comics Studies,” as part of its Focus Collection, which offers quick publication of peer-reviewed work, of a length generally associated with a too-long chapter, or too-short monograph: 20,000 to 50,000 words including notes and references. The editor for the Gender, Sexuality and…
Learn to Be a Supportive Friend with The Breakaways!
The Breakaways Cathy G. Johnson (Writer and artist) and Kevin Czap (Colorist) First Second March 2019 Faith just started middle school, and on her very first day, she joined the soccer team—but not because she’s a confident go-getter. She maybe did it because Amanda, the pretty upperclassman who handed her the clipboard, is really cool…
Yes, Roya: Feminist Sex Positive Comics to the Rescue
Yes, Roya Emilee Denich (art), Kinomatika (cover), C. Spike Trotman (writing) Iron Circus Comics April 18, 2017 Yes, Roya is a book I couldn’t put down. Published by Iron Circus Comics, a comics publisher known for their adult titles and amazing anthologies (Smut Peddler), and written by their founder and fearless leader C. Spike Trotman, Yes, Roya affected…
Not a Hero’s Journey: Queer vs Normative Storytelling in Devilman
This article does not contain outright spoilers, so feel free to read it whether you’ve experienced any incarnation of Devilman or not. It does however imply the directions things take, so bear that in mind if you want to go into the series completely ‘blind’. My title means a few things, but one of them…
The Best Thing I Didn’t Know About Valerian & Laureline
It’s that they love each other. Valérian and Laureline is a french-language comic, originally published over six decades (the late 1960s through the first ten years of the 21st century), and in English currently by Cinebook. They put out single-volume books as well as bonanza compendiums; I’ve only, so far, read three of the former….