QueerComix🦄

[queercomixspring2022]

The Google Drive folder I mentioned in class!

It's still in progress, currently it contains:

Boys Run the Riot — All four volumes of the official English translations, available as CBZ and PDF, in three different image quality levels.

Nimona — Original images (as it was a webcomic), unmodified and turned into CBZ and PDF.

Still to come:

Everything else, which I'll be working on this summer. Stay tuned, and let me know if you'd like to be notified when it's complete or has major updates!

Please note, I've set it so that anyone can edit. This means feel free to add to it, but please be mindful of who you share the link with!!! (I'll probably delete this post shortly, as this is definitely against brown's google drive usage policy, and also this Tumblr page is public. I'll also share to the class Discord server, and I won't delete that post, so don't worry about losing the link.)

link

[queercomixspring2022]

Tuesday’s queer webcomic recommendations

Some webcomics/webtoons I recommend with queer protagonists! This list is very incomplete, but I'm posting now so there's not nothing, and will update it later. (Some of these have already been talked about here)

These vary as to what platform they’re on; let me know if you can’t find something!

Dame Daffodil — A fun magical-girl story.

Never Satisfied — Fantasy comic with magic and familiars. Very compelling, has a non-binary protagonist, and is made by someone I know!

Always Human — Cute love story in a future where nanobots enable people to do many things and customize their appearance easily, but one of them is basically allergic to nanotech :/

Cupido — Protagonist can see soulmate marks

Fluidum — A world where everyone has a male and female version of their body, until they must pick one on their 21st birthday. Protagonist doesn't want to pick. (Some valid criticisms can be made about the way this one works, but I think it’s probably worth a read)

Hella Good — Gorgeously drawn people. Demon summoning GONE WRONG??? NOT CLICKBAIT

Honey and Venom — In modern California, a woman is approached by a 2000-year-old goddess who thinks she's found her devoted priestess from long ago.

Muted — Excellent story, and wonderfully drawn. Witch's demon summoning GONE WRONG??? NOT CLICKBAIT

Soulmate — Protagonist's selves from 10 years apart switch bodies, leaving her adult self back in high school, and her high-school self a confused adult, who apparently has a girlfriend?

[queercomixspring2022]

Lovebot

This week I searched on google, comics with hot they them characters because I was wondering what kind of representation nonbinary people have in the smut world of comics. I found Lovebot which is set in a world where there are robots that have an AI that is so advanced it is almost human-like. It follows Ael, a robot who 'glitches' such that the prohibitive code (or something along those lines) is removed from their 'brain,' and as a result they can say what they 'think' and 'feel.' I haven't finished it yet, but it has been really interesting to think about robots, gender, and sex? Ael is addressed as 'he' so far, so I'm not completely sure if trans-ness and/or nonbinary identity is discretely talked about. But there is certainly a lot to be unpacked about the way that bodies, technology, 'human-ness' are depicted and addressed in the comic.

-KH

[queercomixspring2022]

I started reading Check, Please based on an earlier post on here about the comic. It has a cute art style, and I’ve been meaning to get into lighter, episodic reading as my schedule gets too busy to sit down for long periods of time. 

Check, Please is exactly that, light, quick, and generally uplifting. While the episodes have their ups and downs, like stress over coming out, disappointing your parents, or losing a big game, they’re not dwelt upon and are balanced by humor, etc. While I’m tempted to knock it for its unrealistic and sanitized depictions of frat culture, I don’t think Check, Please is going for realism. It’s supposed to be a feel good and fun “could be,” narrative, and introducing more serious topics would take away from that. While glossing over tough topics is not always advisable, I think that it is so, so important for some narratives to just be allowed to be fun and innocent. That goes double for queer narratives, which are dominated by horror and tragedy, often in the name of “realism.”

-LH

[queercomixspring2022]

For my final Tumblr post, I want to talk a little about a theme in queer comics that I've uncovered as a result of the research I was doing for my final paper: sailors. The sailor costume became a queer symbol during the interwar period between between World War I and World War II. At this time, European sailors were regarded as leading unconventional lifestyles, bearers of transgressive sexual proclivity, and having an exotic taste for military manhood. Through gay comics, advertisements, postcards, and other forms of media, the sailor uniform—which embodys the most virile hetero-masculine man—was appropriated and homosexualized. This costume has remained prevelant in gay comics since the 1920s, being present in both Tom of Finland and Felix D'Eon's artwork.

-AN

[queercomixspring2022]

In Episode 120 of Wendy Lee Martin's Castle Swimmer the minigod Ogo tells a story of his power and the ways in which he became the monster he once feared. The accumulation of power is seen as a bad thing in this piece and as a corrupting force. Ogo, despite his best intentions, becomes the villian of the story. He contrasts with the communal society of his fellow crabs and becomes something else entirely. This critique of power structures highlights the flaws of any cult of personality and calls for more equal power structures.

[queercomixspring2022]

We Need More Queer Books(Always)

This is a comic Maia Kobabe made emself about eir book, Genderqueer: A Memoir. Apparently in 2020 it was listed on the "Banned Books" list in several states. I think this may have been talked about in class, but I just wantted to make my final comic to share about how WE NEED more queer comics, now and always. I am thrilled about the amount of comics I was introduced to in this class, and I think I will always want and we will always need more. Kobabe, Road, Nguyen, Steveson, Bishakh etc. and etc. are all names I will be closely following in the release of their books in the coming years. I am excited for what is to come, including the talents of the artists in our own class. Thank you for a wonderful semester of comics. -Jude

[queercomixspring2022]

Emma Hunsinger's How to Draw a Horse comic is iconic for its subtle, graceful depiction of young love. Young Emma drew often, but upon seeing a girl in seventh grade, she began to practice drawing horses because the classmate liked horses. She intersects the story progression with a tutorial of drawing horses, her behavior and anatomy observations. Many artists can relate to such a thing, learning to draw something for someone else. And such is love - learning to love the world through someone else. I love this comic for its tenderness, the narration being in the moment but having a tinge of the muted maturity of looking back at a first love. The ending too is nuanced in this way, still not saying the word "love" - I enjoy when stories depict experienced of repressed queerness without stating or dramatizing it outright. In this way, the story is kept sweet, naive, deep, and precious. -KP

[queercomixspring2022]

Izzy !!!! @hibounoir

This is a comic by one of my favorite people ever, Izzy! they go to RISD and are so incredibly talented. This comic I read as ways we mask ourselves to protect or liberate ourselves. In this comic, a mask can be something we put on to become more ourself. It can represent coping with expectations others put on us that don't fit what we want. It is a deeply queer comic in my opinion. The expectations here are shown as pressure to study law or play a sport but is such an apt metaphor for heteronormativity. It is even queer in its format! The first page is set up in a traditional grid format but the other two are broken up into pie pieces, circles, and triangles. the second two pages make a circle and can be read as a loop. This articulates rumination and the cyclical nature of these patterns of pressure. GO FOLLOW IZZY ON INSTAGRAM YOU WON'T REGRET IT!!!!!!!

Ahhh sorry i forgot to put my name! -lucinda!

[queercomixspring2022]

“The Prince and the Sea” is a really beautiful short-form horror comic by Emily Carroll. The central coupling is ill-fated in a way reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet, but the narrative also manages to subvert the romance trope, opting towards Brother’s Grimm style gore and misfortune. The romance is also deviant, not only because the two members are different species—one is a man and one is a mermaid—but also because of how the sea is incorporated into the plot.

MC

[queercomixspring2022]

The Fire Never Goes Out

For my last Tumblr post, I thought I’d highlight another one of ND Stevenson’s works: his graphic memoir The Fire Never Goes Out. The book compiles several personal comics that Stevenson made from 2011-2019, with reflections for every year. The comics are disconnected, but they all elaborate on some aspect of Stevenson, such as their mental health, artistic journey, and difficulty accepting their own queerness. It’s a really interesting read after exploring her other works, like She-Ra and Nimona, as it elaborates on the difficulty Stevenson had creating these things, with the weight of expectations on their shoulders. All in all, if you’re interested in Stevenson as an author, The Fire Never Goes Out is a good survey of a lot of his work, as well as a look into the life of an artist. Also, if you like his autobiographical comics, his substack, "I'm Fine I'm Fine Just Understand," has a lot of really nice ones. - ANN

[queercomixspring2022]

Fluttering Feelings

Fluttering Feelings is an original Korean manhwa (Korean word for comic) written by Ssamba. It updated episodically, telling the tale of Kim No-Rae and Baek Seol-A, who could be no more different, but connect when they find themselves neighbors and go to the same school. The art style differs from the manga style - hence the differentiation between manga and manhwa. The story follows them getting closer as friends, but there's always been romantic undertones and these get more intense as the story goes on. It's a very soft, very emotional story, and the line between friendship and romance gets blurred. This article references Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's work Between Men which talks about homosocial and homosexual relations, and how especially between two women, there's not a distinct boundary between homosociality and homosexuality, whereas it's more distinct between men.

In the scenes above, No-Rae (whose name means song) sings a love song for Seol-A (whose name is not dissimilar to the original Korean title which is pronounced as Seol-lae-neun Gi-beun) as a simple demonstration, but the moment after is charged with intense imagery of hands and nonverbal communication. Hands are a big part of sapphic communication and I really appreciate the panel-by-panel breakdown of every little movement in this moment.

I came across this manhwa first when I was about 16 years old, and followed it religiously, and I learned that the author, Ssamba, was struggling through cancer. They have since passed away, but their legacy is not forgotten. I think about this manhwa a lot, and found myself thinking about this story especially during our Tumblr share today. No-Rae and Seol-A's story might not be complete in the comic form, but they live in the queer space of my heart and my mind, and I'd like to think they're happily together.

-ML

[queercomixspring2022]

I saw someone share this one-panel comic while scrolling through my Instagram story, and it made me think about how one-panel and other types of comics have played a large role in the rise of "Instagram activism." Someone can share a comic easily to their story as a way of virtue signaling and performing solidarity with a community, while taking no other action. Comics have also played a huge role in educating people however on the internet about different issues. Where is the line between something being performative and something being impactful? Can something be both at the same time? Should Instagram be expected to be successful as a platform for social justice movements? Does the responsibility lie with the creator, the sharer, or both in in making sure what they create prompts real social change?

Beyond that, I really enjoy the art style of this comic and the amount of motion portrayed in it. It is made by @fakegamerjamie on Instagram.

-LB

[queercomixspring2022]

As many of my friends both at college and from high school have started using different pronouns, I've watched a lot of people in my life misgender them repeatedly, even in cases where it's been over a year since they have transitioned. People have so many excuses for why they have misgendered someone ("I need time to learn," "I've known them their whole life with a different pronoun," "It's so new to me"), but to watch them repeatedly seem like they are not trying to get it right and still not grasp the right way to correct yourself if you do misgender someone makes me look at people a lot differently. I thought this comic strip by creator Stevie Wilson really shows how easy using pronouns should be; it even fits into four panels.

-LB

[queercomixspring2022]

The images above are an excerpt of a comic by queer creator @bopolena on Instagram, and I think they speak very well to the experience of pansexuality/bisexuality and bystanders response to homophobia and biphobia. Even as a queer person themselves, the character in the comic does not stand up for their friend, even though internally they want to and know the should. Not only is this a common experience for people experiencing biphobia around other queer friends, but also for transgender and non-binary folks when they are with other cis, queer people and they are being misgendered.

-LB

[queercomixspring2022]

This is a comic done by @dinosandcomics on Instagram. While nothing about the comics that this artist creates themselves are explicitly queer, the dinosaurs feel like a part of queer culture personally to me because the triceratops featured is the reference image for one of my tattoos. I find it interesting how art can become a part of queer culture, whether it is on a personal level or more widely.

-LB

[queercomixspring2022]

Homoeroticism in Chinese Socialist Propaganda

I am not sure if this is considered queer comics, but I saw this article on unintentionally homoerotic Chinese propaganda posters. It's really interesting to think about how socialist culture had different definitions of sexual expression that confound our Western understanding, including homosociality and fraternal camaraderie. It's also interesting to consider how queer "shadow readers" of the time would interpret these posters. It also made me think why as a Western audience we immediately connote these posters with "erotic" when their original intention was not related to eroticism. - Thomas

https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/a-radical-examination-of-queerness-in-communist-propaganda-posters/