Format: Graphic novel
By: Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau
Published: 2019 (First Second)
Short: a lovely graphic novel about two boys, one who loves baking and one who can’t wait to get away from his family bakery and play in a band with his friends. When they end up working together one summer, they get to know each other better and eventually grow close. One of the boys is of Samoan heritage, and the other has Greek parents, and I thought the baking was a cool way through which to see their cultures. A wonderful book in its own right, but if you’re going in it for the gay romance, know that it’s really light and mostly towards the end.
Format: graphic memoir
By: Maia Kobabe
Published: 2019 (Lion Forge Press)
Short: so so so good, just go read this right now. About the author/illustrator growing up and eir journey with eir gender identity and asexuality/aromanticism. I love hearing trans/nb people talking about their lives candidly and with nuance, it’s affirming and enlightening and so important. I really don’t know what to say, just that I really loved it for a lot of reasons and I think it could resonate with many people and make them feel less alone and weird. An amazing debut, a best of 2019 for sure.
Format: webcomic
By: Mars Heyward
Published: 2016 - present (independently published)
Short: a enemies-to-lovers BL webcomic that’s been ongoing for quite some time now, with a great story and a classic comic art style that everyone should check out. Mitch and Jonas, two high school boys having a hard time for opposite reasons (Jonas is being bullied, and Mitch is picking on him, but mostly because he has a crush on him that he doesn’t know how to process), accidentally acquire superpowers while working on a school project in the woods, and grow closer as they learn about their powers and what could have caused them together.
TW are announced in-comic before they appear, but major ones include abusive foster parents, sexually abusive foster parents (happened in the past, and not to MC, but referenced), sex (not explicit), and drug/alcohol use.
Available to read from the beginning at longexposurecomic (.) com or on Tapas, and print bind-ups are availible on their shop!
Format: Comic series
By: Usdin, Vakueva, Flores, & Nalty
Published: Series began in 2017 (BOOM!Box Studios)
Short: What an adorable and well-done comic, full of gay and retro goodness! Boom!Box Studios sure has some good queer stuff coming out these days (no pun intended :). The year is 1998 and Chris has a new job at her favorite record store and a crush on the cute girl who works with her. But there’s more to the store than just records...it’s also a front for an all-girls investigative fight club! I’ve read a lot of comics lately and often I’m disappointed by poor pacing or character development, but this series really hit it off on a good stride. The ending did take a bit of a turn into a different tonal direction in my mind, but I’m still very excited to read the next volume and keep up with these cool girls:)
Format: webcomic (also available in print as a bound collection)
By: Morgan Boecher
Published: 2010-2014
Short: a cute, tongue-in-cheek comic series about a trans guy, Mel, going through transition while living in Florida (hence the alligator) with his lesbian roommate, Leena. It’s a wonderful example of humor used for trans healing - something I talked about before in regards to Super Late Bloomer, another comic about transition.
Read from the beginning on the comic’s website whatsnormalanyway(.)net
It was interesting for me to see how quickly the way we talk about transition has evolved - this was started almost ten years ago, and while many trans experiences are universal, I do get the feeling that this came from transitioning in a different time than even I did, just a half decade later. There’s even a panel that uses “trans*”, and he has to explain in the description box below what the asterix means - or rather, used to mean, as we don’t even use that terminology anymore!
Not an autobiographical work, but certainly informed by real-life experiences, Boecher has created a real gem that I wish more people in the trans community knew about - it deserves it.
Format: graphic novel
By: Molly Ostertag
Published: 2017- Scholastic
Short: middle grade graphic novel about a boy defying his community’s gender roles, with magic, shapeshifting, and a beautifully illustrated message.
My Rating: 5/5 (must read!)
Long: I absorbed a lot of graphic novels and comics earlier this year, and this one is definitely a recommendation. Besides the obvious talent and hard work that goes into beautifully writing and illustrating a full-length work, it had a message that is important for both adults and kids to hear.
This one isn’t strictly queer, as Aster, the main character, is not explicitly trans or gay (sexuality is not at play at all), but it couldn’t not be called queer in theme. Thirteen-year-old Aster is trying to do the thing he loves, is good at, and has a genuine interest in, but both his peers and the adults in his family tell him that he should only try to be what he is expected to be because of his gender. Both the men and women in his family enforce these roles upon him; I liked that a lot of the protesting from his parents clearly came from a place of love and concern - they genuinely wanted him to be able to succeed in the role they had put upon him, as generations before him had. They wanted him to carry the torch, and were disappointed when they realized he probably wouldn’t. It demonstrates how society pushes people into gender roles in the long term - not through violence, but through the pressure to conform that can often come from those who love you. It shows that to stay true to yourself in an environment such as this, you’d have to be very strong in your convictions, and would be required to stand up for yourself in opposition to the people you love. That gets tiring for a lot of people, and often it’s too much.
I liked that it was a very smart dialogue about gender roles. It did not demonize the masculine role nor hold the feminine role to a holy standard. The people in both the feminine and masculine roles in Aster’s life told him that what he wanted was wrong. At the end, the antagonist is the embodiment of the hatred that brews when people are forced to suppress themselves, and the turn that that can take into extremism and bigotry - in this case misogyny. Very smart, looking forward to where the story goes in the following books!
Format: graphic novel
By: Jen Wang
Published: 2018 - First Second
Short: a beautifully drawn graphic novel about a genderfluid prince and his dressmaker, sweet with lovely illustration. Genuinely good genderfluid rep, and a great example of how, with a lot of respect and a light hand, a cis author can write a trans character with general success.
ends very happy, but CW: for transphobia
