So I just opened Webtoon to fuel my daily addiction, and was surprised by a pop-up of the Webtoon pride collection—sorry, I mean “festival.” In my experience of reading for almost ten bloody years on this platform, Webtoon collections were always quite big and I could always find something new and cool to read through them! So, obviously, I click on the pop-up. And, to my great surprise and indignation, I find that there’s f o u r comics on it.
Granted, two of them I don’t know and might check out (Sunny Side Up! by Chocotoon and The Imperial Court of Internal Affairs by Daki), and the other two I love and deserve recognition (Star Catcher by Ro-taniah and Cinderella Boy by Punko). But the lack of more comics irks me, when the original catalogue is absolutely FILLED with LGBTQ+ comics that deserve a spotlight on them! Another thing that bothered me is the fact that all four of these are BL. Nothing wrong with that, of course, we love our gay guys (genuinely Cinderella Boy is one of my fav comics on the platform), but for a *pride* collection, I’d expect more diversity from, again, the ample choice the originals catalogue provides. And we’re not even talking about the seven seas of queer that’s canvas.
So I decided that I will personally put some of my all time favorite queer original stories in a very handy list for everyone to enjoy.
So here we go, in no particular order, a shit ton of queer webtoons for all to enjoy:
(I put what kind of queer right behind the title if you want to be picky, I get it! Then it’s followed by the creator, a lil blurb what it entails, and my own thoughts on it!)
Always Human (GL, various other queer rep) by Walkingnorth: a sci-fi love story between Sunati, a bright optimistic woman who loves to embrace “mods” (a type of tech that allows upgrades to the human body) and Austen, a hard working, blunt uni student who has an auto-immune disease making her unable to use said mods. — An oldie but a goodie, very heartwarming, and still not on daily pass last time I checked! It’s my all time favorite check it out :)
Cinderella Boy (BL) by Punko: our mc Chase finds a key that him into books! But look at that, a mysterious guy keeps popping up in the same book he does! What’s up with that? — So much more is going on in this story but that’s the main set up haha, like I said before, one of my favorite comics on the platform atm, so even though it already has a spotlight, I will spotlight it EVEN MORE
New Magical Me (trans! other light GL rep) by Prinnstar and Chuuney: Winnie was part of a magical girl group that disbanded years ago, when the evil was defeated and their leader died in the process. But suddenly their leader is back! As the guy he always was! And the threat returns as well! How are they going to deal with all of this?? — I love magical girl stories, and I love it when people trans them (this is the second I read! The other is “magical boy” by The Kao (found on Tapas (which is why it isn’t on here))). NMM looks at how relationships change and how much it can hurt losing someone only to find out he “escaped” his life. It’s really nuanced and the overall plot is also super interesting!
Nevermore (GL) by Kate Flynn and Kit Trace: Lenore and Annabel Lee wash up on the shore of an old building with no memories, only to be told that A: they are dead and B: they need to go to school to win a second chance at life! Soon they are on opposing teams, or are they? — also one of my favorites, especially art wise (their other comic Shiloh is also rly good, dm me if you read the first three eps and tell me what you think ;) ). The story is toxic GL and gothic and takes HEAVILY from Edgar Allen Poe which I think is so cool. It’s phenomenal to see how their story develops, both in the present, and piecing together their past through the flashbacks we get. Truly phenomenal writing is happening here honestly.
Asterion (NB rep! various queer rep) by NeverDraws: this comic follows Asterion (crazy right), a (non-binary) star attempting to grant the wishes people wished on their star for, and all the chaos that ensues — honestly, I might not be entirely be doing this comic justice, it’s been completed (and not on daily pass!) for a while and I haven’t read it since (bummer, really). I just remember being enamored with the story. The new comic by NeverDraws, Sunset Phoenix (GL) is also insanely good btw with a fascinating mystery and a really interesting magic system (and toxic? Yes, toxic yuri)
Fluidum (genderfluid rep!) by GirlsOnFilm and ValeriaM: in a world where everyone’s born with two bodies of varying gender and you have to choose one at your 20th birthday, what happens when you don’t want to choose, like Jesse? — I really liked the concept of this world honestly, it had some interesting questions and the way they interact with gender identity. I remember one character who knew she was a girl from a very young age but was constantly forced to also use her boy body. There’s honestly so much you can do with the concept! Only thing is that I also remember that the ending felt quite rushed, which was a bit of a bummer. I still think it’s worth a read though!
True and Me (trans!) by Alen Fey and Claudia Giancola: a guy (“Me”) is struggling with transition and body and suddenly summons his true self (“True”). Together they get up to all kind of shenanigans and have some very important conversations about identity and body image — Honestly a comfort read for me, it’s usually really sweet and silly (until it’s not). I love seeing Me (and his friends!) become more confident in himself!
Just Roommates (…queer??) by Scragony: they’re roommates and really fucking dumb — I don’t know if this even counts as queer but technically none of them have a gender (or are even human, for that matter) and it just finished and I think it deserves some love. Biker/Knight is OTP.
Star Catcher (BL, other queer rep) by Ro-taniah: anxious sunshine boy meets confused sunshine boy. Will they won’t they?? (They will and they will be cute about it. Have patience.) — I know this one was also in the collection but I don’t read a lot of BL and this one’s also really cute. Go read it. It handles anxiety great and is so sweet it will rot your teeth away.
Murder Girlband (GL, trans & queer rep) by Grace NN and Bethany Higa: there is a girl band. They murder someone. They need to avoid living with the consequences while also being extremely gay. — one of the few comics I could think of that has a trans woman in it! Usually they’re trans guys (also extremely important, but this made me realize that media likes to complain about trans women a whole lot while comics favors(??) trans men rep, wonder why that is? Maybe I’m wrong tho haha). But regardless, I like the story, there’s a lot of drama and a lot of gay. And the art is really nice! I’m a sucker for girl group comics (which usually turn out queer for some reason).
LoveBot (BL) by Chase Keels and Miranda Mundt: imagine, you’re a love machine mechanic and hacker, and suddenly find the one you worked on previously in a ditch (if I remember correctly) asking for your help after he escaped his abusive master. Since when were these things sentient? Are they ALL sentient? And lowkey why is this one so cute?? — Miranda Mundt’s comics are always good, and always hit you in the fucking gut (her other one is Muted (GL), was really popular back in the day (from my point of view)). This one is no different! The comic deals with artificial consciousness and falling in love with it, toxic relationships, and a very very bad boss smh. Oh, and the main character is trans! Almost forgot about that.
Shout out to And Another Lovely Day by Leehama, which is not yet an original but will soon be (she’s working on it!) and has AROACE REP. ITS A ROMCOM BETWEEN TWO AROACE PEOPLE AND I LOVE IT.
If you have any other recommendations, let me know! Theres so many, these aren’t even all that I’m currently reading or have read. It doesn’t even include the treasure trove that is canvas!! I tried to be a bit more diverse w the LGBTQ representation unlike “I only put BL in my pride collection” webtoon.
You know what's important? To know that it's okay to have an invalid feeling. To look at how you feel and go 'no. no, that's wrong, I need to change that' and accept that you feel a certain way but that it's incorrect.
It's okay to feel things and look at yourself and go 'no' and fully acknowledge the feeling while also saying "i am not totally valid and it's okay."
didnt want to just vent in the tags of that post but i feel like most people who bemoan the lack of accuracy when comparing fantasy to medieval europe are talking out of their ass and talking about hollywood medieval europe instead of Actual Medieval Europe, yknow
