It’s Queer Pride Month, and The Beat is unapologetically celebrating with 30 queer graphic novels – one for every day of June!
This is just a fraction of the queer comedian choices obtainable at a neighborhood bookstore and/or public library close to you. Did we embrace your favorites? Be certain and tell us, both right here within the remark part or over on social media @comicsbeat!
Affiliate hyperlink disclaimer: all picks are chosen independently, however we could make a small fee from affiliate hyperlinks.
Flung Out of Space
Flung Out of Space by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer is a fictional portrait of the complicated writer of the important lesbian novel The Price of Salt, Patricia Highsmith. This attention-grabbing graphic novel examines Highsmith in a means that might solely be achieved via comics.
Read The Beat’s evaluate of Flung Out of Space right here!
Eighty Days
Eighty Days by A.C. Esguerra is an epic romance that takes place in a singular fictional world. Between the breathtaking artwork and spellbinding story, this graphic novel will certainly win you over many times.
Read The Beat’s interview with Esguerra right here!
Galaxy: The Prettiest Star
Galaxy: The Prettiest Star is a DC Comics graphic novel by Jadzia Axelrod, Jess Taylor, and Ariana Maher that tells the story of an alien princess who has been residing on Earth disguised as a human boy, however who’s discovering the energy to stay as her true self.
Read The Beat’s interview with Axelrod and Taylor right here!
The Third Person
The Third Person by Emma Grove makes use of the distinctive sides of the medium of comics to share Grove’s experiences as a trans girl with Dissociative Identity Disorder in search of gender-affirming care. The Third Person attracts inspiration from the “graphic simplicity” of Peanuts and digs deeply into the complicated scenario.
Read The Beat’s evaluate of The Third Person right here!
The Never Ending Party
The Never Ending Party is a five-issue collection from writers Rachel Pollack and Joe Corallo, artist Eva Cabrera, colorists Cons Oroza and Claudia Aguirre, and letterers Zakk Saam and Micah Myers. About the undertaking, Pollack, who handed away earlier this yr, stated, “This was great fun to work on. I got to write a Tarot reading heroine, play with how a street smart wild trans woman from the 1990s might look at our current world, and turn the Greek God of ecstasy, Dionysus, into a super-villain who’ll destroy the world just to keep the party going!”
Read The Beat’s remembrance of Pollack right here.
Grand Slam Romance
(*30*)
Grand Slam Romance: Book One by Ollie Hicks and Emma Oosterhous tells a “smart and gloriously horny sports story”! This blisteringly humorous graphic novel follows Mickey Monsoon, who insists, “Softball is my girlfriend.” But what in regards to the enigmatic Magic Girl from her previous (and shortly, the collective previous of your entire softball group’s roster)?
Read The Beat’s interview with Hicks and Oosterhous right here!
Stuck Rubber Baby
Stuck Rubber Baby is the groundbreaking 1995 debut graphic novel by legendary underground cartoonist Howard Cruse. It’s a fictional account of a younger homosexual man’s closeted life within the Nineteen Sixties American South amid the Civil Rights Movement. Although the graphic novel isn’t autobiographical, it attracts on Cruse’s expertise rising up within the South, and the time he by accident bought his girlfriend pregnant.
Read The Beat’s interview with Cruse right here!
The Gay Who Turned Kaiju
The Gay Who Turned Kaiju by Kazuki Minamoto with translation by Leighann Harvey and lettering by Carolina Hernandez is a one-of-a-kind story a few bullied homosexual teen who needs he might be another person… solely to search out himself reworked right into a Kaiju-headed monster.
Hollow
Shannon Watters and Branden Boyer-White, alongside with artist Berenice Nelle, and colorists Kaitlyn Musto, Kieran Quigley, and Gonçalo Lopes, reimagine Washington Irving‘s 1820 story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” in Hollow. This original YA supernatural queer romance is set in the present day, and it’s enjoyable to see how modern characters react to the notorious haunting of the New York city.
Kevin Keller Celebration
This hefty omnibus collects the primary decade of Kevin Keller’s appearances within the panels of Archie Comics! Featuring the skills of Kevin’s creator Dan Parent together with a laundry listing of Archie creators, the colossal compendium, Kevin Keller Celebration, options extra comics than you possibly can shake a stick at, and interstitial commentary by Parent on key points and ideas.
Read The Beat’s interview with Parent right here!
Mimosa
Mimosa by Archie Bongiovanni follows 4 queer characters into their “dirty thirties” and options an “unflinching depiction of privilege” (together with one of many best t-shirt slogans ever conceived: “Chubslut”). This graphic novel will draw you in with humor earlier than heading in a route you’ll by no means count on.
Read The Beat’s interview with Bongiovanni right here!
Slip
Slip by Eisner-nominated Marika McCoola and Aatmaja Pandya is a coming-of-age graphic novel about Jade, a younger ceramic artist who should juggle a difficult summer time within the crucible of a aggressive arts camp with an emotional battle to deal with a suicide try by her greatest pal. This severe and gorgeous story will stick with you lengthy after you’ve set it down.
Read The Beat’s evaluate of Slip right here!
Black Star
The sci-fi thriller Black Star by Eric Anthony Glover and Arielle Jovellanos is the story of a medical analysis vessel that crashes whereas making an attempt to reap an extraterrestrial plant pattern that holds the important thing to saving humanity from an prolonged pandemic. The sole survivor should traverse a hostile planet to achieve the escape pod… however issues get difficult when it’s revealed that she’s not as “sole” as she thinks!
Read The Beat’s interview with Glover and Jovellanos right here!
Stone Fruit
The 2022 Cartoonist Studio Prize Award winner Stone Fruit by Lee Lai is a compelling portrait of the complicated relationship between three ladies and the kid who types a bridge between them. The unflinching examination of the characters paired with the lingering inside language of the artwork ensures Stone Fruit received’t go away your thoughts any time quickly after studying it.
Monotone Blue
In Monotone Blue by Nagabe, with translation by Adrienne Beck, adaptation by C.A. Hawksmoor, and letters by Vanessa Satone, when a cat boy catches a glimpse of the brand new lizard boy’s vivid blue tail, it unlocks emotions within the younger cat that he by no means knew he had. In this furry graphic novel, Nagabe’s artwork mimics the principally monotone worldview of a cat and the way it brightens on the website of a lizard’s tail.
Trigger warning: sexual assault, bullying
I Never Promised You A Rose Garden
Mannie Murphy‘s I Never Promised You A Rose Garden begins with an affectionate reminiscence of their 1990s crush on the late actor River Phoenix, then morphs into an account of Portland’s historical past of white nationalism. The exceptional work of graphic nonfiction particulars the connection between white supremacist Tom Metzger (former KKK Grand Wizard and founding father of the White Aryan Resistance) and the “Rose City” avenue children like Ken Death that appeared in director Gus Van Sant‘s films, in addition to exploring other disturbing aspects of the director’s relationships with younger actors at his Portland house.
Mamo
Mamo by Sas Millage is the story of a witch who should return to her hometown within the wake of her grandmother’s dying to undo the ensuing harm. This graphic novel is a considerate rumination on discovering the place you slot in (particularly when going through complicated household points).
Read a preview of Mamo right here!
Submerged
In Submerged by Vita Ayala, Lisa Sterle, Amy Stelladia, and Rachel Deering, with covers by Jen Bartel & Tríona Tree Farrell, Ellie descends into the tunnels of the New York City subway system throughout a storm so as to save her brother. Soon, encounters with mythological entities drive Ellie to confront elements of herself she had been beforehand unable to acknowledge.
Read The Beat’s evaluate of Submerged right here!
The Girl from the Sea
The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag with colours by Maarta Laiho is the story of a summer time romance between Morgan and Selkie. This graphic novel combines romance and mythology for the proper Pride seashore learn.
Read The Beat’s evaluate of The Girl from the Sea right here!
Specter Inspectors
Specter Inspectors by Bowen McCurdy and Kaitlyn Musto with letters by Jim Campbell and flats by Gloria Martinelli follows the eponymous investigators as they arrive in Cape Grace, the place they hope to uncover the sinister secrets and techniques hidden within the spooky city. But quickly, the queer romance on the coronary heart of the graphic novel turns into difficult (by the imposition of demonic possession).
Read The Beat’s interview with McCurdy and Musto right here!
Other Ever Afters
Other Ever Afters by Melanie Gillman is a set of queer retellings of fairy tales. With a beautiful inventive sensibility and a transparent thematic mission, this graphic novel is bound to be one you’ll revisit many times.
M Is for Monster
M Is for Monster by Talia Dutton is a retelling of the Frankenstein story that explores queer identification and relationships. With an attention-grabbing story and interesting artwork, this graphic novel will pull you aside and put you again collectively once more.
Gatsby
Gatsby, from author Jeremy Holt and artist Felipe Cunha, is the queer AF reimagining of F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s nice American novel, The Great Gatsby. By reimagining the characters as youthful, queerer, and extra various than within the unique story, Holt and Cunha inform a narrative in regards to the ebb and movement of constructions of otherness and their relationship to wealth in America.
Read The Beat’s interview with Holt and Axel Alonso, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of AWA Studios right here!
My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness
The English model of the autobiographical manga a few younger girl’s struggles with melancholy and sexuality, My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Kabi Nagata, received a Harvey Award for Best Manga of 2018. Since then, Nagata has revealed a number of sequels: My Solo Exchange Diary, My Solo Exchange Diary Volume 2, My Alcoholic Escape from Reality, and My Wandering Warrior Existence.
Kisses for Jet: A Coming-of-Gender Story
Kisses for Jet: A Coming-of-Gender Story, created by Joris Bas Backer and translated by Ameera Rajabali, was named one among The Beat‘s 30 best comics of 2022. This graphic novel tells an “enlightening and often hilarious tale” illuminating the experience of “transgender millennials who had to navigate the world of gender identity before that information was easily accessible.” Backer’s story of self-discovery is intently tied to the imperfect function fashions of the 90s, and it’s 1000% relatable.
Golden Record
Rosemary Valero O’Connell‘s Golden Record is pleasure activism, which adriene maree brown defines as a form of protest aiming to “decrease any internal or projected shame or scarcity thinking around the pursuit of pleasure.” In the chapbook, Valero O’Connell explores internalized disgrace and overcoming it as she accepts possession over her physique and the pleasures of queer love.
Read The Beat’s evaluate of Golden Record right here!
Clementine: Book One
Clementine by Vermont Poet Laureate Tillie Walden and with tones by Cliff Rathburn is technically a continuation of The Walking Dead online game from Telltale Games. However, you don’t have to have any prior familiarity with TWD in any respect to get pleasure from this page-turning basic zombie story.
Read The Beat’s interview with Walden on Clementine right here!
Black Panther: World of Wakanda
Black Panther: World of Wakanda by Roxane Gay, Yona Harvey, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alitha E. Martinez, Afua Richardson, Rachelle Rosenberg, Tamra Bonvillain, and Joe Sabino is technically a spin-off of the modern run of Black Panther, however you possibly can’t get pleasure from it with out having learn that context. If you wish to be taught extra in regards to the underused Dora Milaje characters in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, then that is the place to examine them!
Read a Queerness in Comics column about Gay’s World of Wakanda right here!
A Thing Called Truth
A Thing Called Truth, written and lettered by Iolanda Zanfardino and illustrated by Elisa Romboli, is the lesbian reply to the frustratingly cis-het quick automobiles, fairly drives, and horny women franchise (Fast and the Furious). This 5 situation miniseries is a must have for followers of the duo’s first main comics entry, Alice in Leatherland, LGBTQIA+ romantic comedies, and lesbians in automobiles.
Chef’s Kiss
In Chef’s Kiss by Jarrett Melendez, Danica Brine, and Hank Jones, with letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, English main Ben tries to get his first job after faculty. Soon he’s going through weekly challenges whereas working as a chef, all whereas navigating his crush on his coworker Liam.
Read The Beat’s interview with Melendez & Brine right here!
This listing is non-comprehensive! Please share your favourite queer graphic novels with us within the feedback or over on social media.
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