Reading list: Queer comics

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For

Between creating the Bechdel Test and penning the bestselling memoir Fun Home (which was adapted into an award-winning musical), Alison Bechdel is maybe the most famous queer comic artist working. Bechdel started the strip Dykes to Watch Out For nearly 40 years ago, and panels from 11 past collections of that sprawling saga of intersecting lives are included in this hefty 2020 softcover, along with a sampling of more recent strips.

Seen: True Stories of Marginalized Trailblazers - Rachel Carson

Learn more about the lesbian who became the godmother of the modern environmentalist movement through Birdie Willis and Rii Abrego's graphic portrayal of her life and work. The brand new book is the second in a series geared toward young adult readers.

Keeping it Unreal: Black Queer Fantasy and Superhero Comics

For his entry into NYU Press' Sexual Culture series, author Darieck Scott explores how the fantasies of Black power and triumph found in works like Black Panther and Luke Cage provide both a challenge to and a respite from white supremacy and anti-Blackness.

Drawing Power: Women's Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Survival

Edited by Diane Nooman and featuring a forward by Roxane Gay, this Eisner Award-winning anthology makes ample space for queer voices in its compendium of lived experiences with harassment, rape, and other forms of sexual violence, rendered in black and white by more than 60 female comics creators.

A Self-Defense Study Guide for Trans Women

This 'zine-sized comic was created by the organization Transfighters Oakland with input from the community it serves. Short and to the point, it offers strategies for how to handle anti-trans sentiments in public and in personal relationships, from offhand comments to outright attacks.

No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics

All history books should be this absorbing. Through a range of visual and storytelling styles, from the intimate to the silly, the strips collected by Justin Hall evoke a defining era for being LGBTQ in America, with all the good (pride, community) and bad (AIDS, hate crimes) that came with it.