10 LGBT Graphic Novels & Comics to Add to Your Reading List
It's the best time of the year to sit in the park and relax with a good book! While some people love diving into lengthy novels and memoirs, other readers are more visually driven. So here are 10 awesome graphic novels and comics that use compelling writing and interesting art to tell diverse, LGBT stories!
1) Snapshots of a Girl
Beldan Sezen’s autobiographical novel depicts her coming of age and coming out as a lesbian as the daughter of Turkish immigrants living in western Europe. In a series of vignettes, she navigates family issues, bad dates, self-doubt, and sexual politics. While fans of Alison Bechdel’s work will enjoy Snapshots of a Girl, Sezen’s illustration, voice, and story are unique. Buy it here.
2) The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal
This 528-page Lambda Literary Award winning book collects the full 2009-2014 run of E.K. Weaver’s critically acclaimed gay road trip romance. It’s the perfect graphic novel to take on your own road trip this summer. Buy it here.
3) Kim & Kim #1
Author Magdalene Visaggio and illustrator Eva Cabrera recently released the first issue of Kim & Kim, a comic about two twenty-something besties out to make a name for themselves as bounty hunters in the world of interdimensional cowboy law enforcement. The story features queer and trans women protagonists. You can download the first issue here.
4) Honor Girl
Honor Girl is a graphic memoir by Maggie Thrash that tells the story of her 15-year-old life at Camp Bellflower for Girls. Maggie falls for an older female counselor named Erin, but when it seems Erin feels the same way it’s too much for Maggie to handle. Buy it here.
5) Transposes
In Transposes, Dylan Edwards tells the stories of queer trans men. The diversity of lifestyles and identities offers some much-needed representation in compelling vignettes. Buy it here.
6) Pregnant Butch: Nine Long Months Spent in Drag
Pregnant Butch chronicles the pregnancy of Teek Tomasson, a masculine woman in a world bent on associating her pregnancy with uber-femininity. The graphic memoir is based on writer and illustrator A.K. Summers’s own pregnancy. Buy it here.
7) Adrian and the Tree of Secrets
Adrian and the Tree of Secrets is yet another awesome graphic novel from Arsenal Pulp Press. The book, authored by Hubert and illustrated by Marie Caillou, follows Adrian, a boy who falls for the coolest kid in his small town Catholic high school. Buy it here.
8) Skim
Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki follows Kimberly Keiko Cameron when she’s accepted to a private girls’ school in the early 90s. The critically acclaimed graphic novel deals with homosexuality, suicide and depression, manipulative peers, and all the heartache of being sixteen. Buy it here.
9) Girl Sex 101
Technically Girl Sex 101 by Allison Moon and KD Diamond isn’t a graphic novel. It’s a manual—an honest, funny, illustrated manual of all the things you never learned in sex-ed—with special advice from Jiz Lee, Tristan Toarmino, Julia Serano, and more. Buy it here.
10) Fogtown
Looking for a pulpy detective novel with a gay protagonist? Fogtown, authored by Andersen Gabrych and illustrated by Brad Rader, should definitely be on your summer reading list. The novel follows Frank Grissel, a closeted private eye in 1953 San Francisco. Buy it here.
