Happy Pride Month, everyone! Here’s a selection of comics, both digital and in print, by LGBT creators about LGBT characters, with an emphasis on newer and lesser-known releases that not everyone might have heard of.
“No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics” (Fantagraphics, 2012)
“No Straight Lines,” edited by Justin Hall, is an anthology of LGBT comics from the late ’60s to the late 2000s, providing historical context to the development of literary gay comics after Stonewall. The anthology reminds us that it’s important to know where we came from and who made the way for LGBT cartoonists today. May make you cry. Highly recommended.
“Heavy Vinyl” (BOOM! Studios, 2018)
“Heavy Vinyl,” published by BOOM! Studios, written by Carly Usdin and illustrated by Nina Vakueva, tells the story of a group of teenage girls working at a music store in New Jersey, in the year 1998. In the first four issues. the girls fight crime, listen to music and fall in love. It’s extremely cute, and Vakueva’s art style is incredibly appealing. I really enjoyed the first collected volume of this series, and look forward to reading more of it.
“Kim & Kim” (Black Mask Studios, 2016)
“Kim & Kim,” written by Magdalene Visaggio and illustrated by Eva Cabrera, is an award-nominated limited series about two interdimensional bounty hunters and best friends, both named Kim. It’s a fun, wacky science fiction adventure story with a diverse LGBTQ cast, including a trans protagonist written by a trans author. I don’t usually go for science fiction myself, but this is just a delightfully progressive take on the familiar space bounty hunters trope.
“My Brother’s Husband” (Pantheon, 2017)
“My Brother’s Husband” by Gengoroh Tagame is a sensitive family drama that takes a serious look at gay culture in Japan and the West. The story follows the relationship between stay-at-home divorced father Yaichi, his daughter Kana, and the Canadian Mike Flanagan, who was married to Yaichi’s estranged and recently deceased twin brother. The serious subject matter is presented with a lot of heart, and is easy to digest thanks to the immensely likeable cast of characters.
“My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness and My Solo Exchange Diary” (Seven Seas Press, 2017 and 2018)
“My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness” by Nagata Kabi was a runaway success last year, striking a chord with readers both for its relatable portrayal of depression and unapologetically lesbian narration. The sequel, “My Solo Exchange Diary,” was released on June 5, and follows the author’s attempts to deal with depression, living on her own and dealing with her newfound fame. It’s a very honest sort of autobiography, and the art style is unusually cartoony and simple for manga.
“My Favorite Thing is Monsters” (Fantagraphics, 2017)
“My Favorite Thing Is Monsters” by Emil Ferris is an award-winning, absolutely gorgeous work, stylized to look like ballpoint pen drawings in a lined notebook but rendered with immense skill. It follows a young girl named Karen in 1960s Chicago trying to solve the murder of her upstairs neighbor. The way the story is told shifts from montages to illustrations to more traditional sequences of panels to create a very specific sense of mood, and Karen’s view of herself as a monster girl resonates with the reader.
“O Human Star” (ohumanstar.com)
“O Human Star” by Blue Delliquanti is an award-nominated webcomic about robots, and the future, and romance. Alastair Sterling was an inventor who died unexpectedly, only to wake up 16 years later in a robot body identical to the body he left behind. The story follows the relationship between Alastair, his ex-partner Brendan and the robot daughter Brendan had created to perfectly resemble Alastair after his death. “O Human Star” features a diverse cast of queer characters, and explores questions of gender identity and sexuality, as well as how technology can affect our ideas of both of those things.
“Always Human” (Webtoon, 2017)
“Always Human” by Webtoon user walkingnorth is a completed webcomic about two girls from the near future falling in love. In this universe, people use nanotechnology to modify their appearance at will, except for those individuals whose immune system doesn’t allow them to do that. A chance encounter at the bus stop between Sunati and Austen slowly turns into a relationship, and explores the challenges the two of them face as young adults in a changing world. It’s really cute and makes the reader feel like there’s hope in this world.
“CHAMPS” (mharz.com)
“CHAMPS” is a relatively new ongoing webcomic by Mharz about lesbian MMA fighters who punch people and fall in love. There aren’t a lot of pages to catch up on yet, but the art is very effective in communicating the story and the pacing leaves the reader eagerly anticipating the next update.
“Never Satisfied” (neversatisfiedcomic.com)
“Never Satisfied” by Taylor Robin is an ongoing fantasy webcomic about Lucy Marlowe, a nonbinary teenager competing with other teen magician’s apprentices for an important position in magical government. It’s hilarious and creative, and the characters have a lot of depth to them in a relatively short amount of pages. The cast is diverse and interesting, with a variety of complicated interpersonal dynamics playing out between them all. The art is also exceptional, with rich, beautiful background inspired by rural Italy and extremely expressive character acting. “Never Satisfied” is one of my favorite webcomics in general and I highly recommend it.
“Rock and Riot” (rockandriotcomic.com)
“Rock and Riot” by Chelsey Furedi is a completed webcomic about teenage gangs in the 1950s with an LGBTQ theme. It explores issues of sexuality and gender identity in a very appealing visual style. It is very cute and well-written, telling an entertaining and engaging story.
If you’ve already read everything on this list, the Queer Cartoonists Database maintained by Mari Naomi is a good starting point for finding new LGBT comics to read and creators to support.
