Drawn to Comics Exclusive: “Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass” Is the Mal and Molly Graphic Novel We Want!

One of the titles I built this column on is Lumberjanes, the funny, fun and heartwarming series created by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters and Brooklyn Allen. Together we’ve seen the series announced, read its first issue, and talked about the first dozen or so issues as they came out. We’ve seen the creative team change and each new writer and artist put their own lovely stamp on the series. We’ve seen YA novels come out and a movie be announced. And through it all, we’ve seen Jo, April, Mal and Molly and Ripley go on countless adventures, building their friendship with each other at every turn. We’ve seen a little book about five queer girls at a summer camp for Hardcore Lady-Types win countless awards and prove that not only can a book by, about and for queer people and women and girls be extremely good, but it can be extremely popular too. Now it’s time to announce the first ever Lumberjanes original graphic novel, Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass.

This new ogn will be written by Eisner Award-nominated writer Lilah Sturges and illustrated by exciting new artist polterink. This is an all new story about our favorite campers and the story starts “when Mal, Ripley, Molly, April & Jo become separated during an orienteering outing thanks to a mysterious compass. While Molly begins to feel more and more insecure about the effect of her relationship with Mal on the other girls, a lonely woman explorer is trying to steal the compass… with the help of some weirdly polite automaton butlers, of course.” Wow, ok, first of all, I love that such a big focus of this new book is going to be on Mal and Molly’s relationship and how that affects the whole group. Their relationship is one of the sweetest in all of comics and I can’t wait to see it explored more. Plus, who doesn’t love automaton butlers?

Dafna Pleban, Senior Editor at BOOM! fully agrees, and thinks new and old fans alike will love this book.

My favorite stories are love stories — and I can’t imagine one sweeter than what Lilah and polterink have created for Mal and Molly. Whether you’re one of the millions of Lumberjanes fans worldwide or new to this incredible world, everyone will find themselves with goofy grins on their faces as they turn each page of LUMBERJANES: THE INFERNAL COMPASS.

Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass comes out in bookstores in October, and boy howdy are you lucky, because I have a special 15-page preview here just for you!

New Releases (June 13)

Monstress #17

Tomb Raider Inferno #1

My Little Pony Cutie Re-Mark TP

Tangled #2

Detective Comics #982

Eternity Girl #4

Suicide Squad #43

Wonder Woman #48

Wonder Woman/Conan HC

Domino #3

Ms. Marvel Vol 4 HC

Star Wars Darth Vader #17

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #33

Dejah Thoris #5

Nancy Drew #1

Xena #5

Adventure Time Comics #24

Animosity Evolution #6

Betty and Veronica Vixens #7

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Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com.

The Highs, Lows and Queer Cosplays of New York Comic Con

Comic Con is always overwhelming, the good and the bad. I don’t have a ton of experience with it; I’ve only been to NYCC twice (last year and this year), but the vibe was so drastically different this year that it was hard not to notice. At first, I thought it might just be me; I’m going through sort of a rough time in my life right now. But then I saw these two tweets from Kate Leth:

https://twitter.com/kateleth/status/916727896160591874

Now maybe I had the rose-colored glasses on last year, that’s totally possible, it was my first NYCC. But y’all. I do not remember shit like this last year. So I spent the last day of NYCC asking around at the queer booths to see if they were noticing anything out of the ordinary.

At Geeks Out‘s booth, one of the lovely volunteers showed me a new shirt of theirs: it reads “Alan Turing Fought Nazis With His Big Gay Brain.” Specifically, he pointed to the word Nazis. “They’re out in force this year,” he said.

I went over the LGBTQ HQ booth and talked to Jay Justice, a badass queer Black disabled cosplayer who you should definitely follow on Twitter. She said she was so used to oppression that she hadn’t noticed anything different than cons past. But then she started listing stuff: how one person tried to put anti-choice literature on their table. Or how one white dude tried to hijack “Heroes of Diversity” by standing up at the mic and asserting that women of color are stealing comics from white dudes (Justice and the audience just shut that right down). Or how a trans woman came to LGBTQ HQ after someone had lifted her skirt in front of everyone while playing a shooting game (and y’all, NYCC did not kick the offender out as far as we knew). [UPDATE: Justice just messaged me on Twitter with some corrections. Apparently she wasn’t playing a shooting game…she was shooting cosplayers. Like with her camera. And I don’t understand slang, apparently. Also! She didn’t head to LGBQ HQ after—Justice met her elsewhere.] As Justice completed her list, she looked thoughtful. “I guess it is worse this year,” she said.

I noticed a difference in the cosplay, too; so much less queer. I couldn’t find a single set of lady Ghostbusters until the last day (the one set I did find was amazing). Even with two queer booths on the show floor this year. Even with all the strides made. Those who followed or covered GamerGate won’t be surprised at any of this — GamerGate enabled the rise of the internet-savvy Nazi. Nerds are a massive part of modern white nationalism. It’s not surprising that the show felt weird this year.

At the same time, tons of queer stuff happened at Comic Con and it was glorious. Like I said, not just one gay booth on the floor this year; we got 100% more gay booths (two, but still). Panels! Cosplay! Comics! I could pee! I don’t remember gender-neutral restrooms from last year, but that certainly doesn’t mean they weren’t there? Regardless, I’ve been having an increasing amount of trouble peeing since Trump has emboldened people to harass folks in public bathrooms. The gender-neutral restrooms were a safe place for me to go. I even hid out there for a hot minute when the crowds got overwhelming.

I don’t want to erase the massively amazing gay stuff I found just because I heard slurs on the floor (oh yes you bet I did). The gay nerds are doing the work out here and it would be awful not to cover that. And yeah, I do mean doing the work. I know it’s just nerd stuff, I know it’s just comics. But if the pipeline to White Nationalism includes nerd culture and the nerds who hang out in these spaces, it is more important than ever before to be visible in these spaces, to be making art and engaging in discourse that reflects the world around us.

So without further ado, here are the very queerest things I happened upon at Comic Con this year.

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Bingo Love

Creator Tee Franklin wins for best new title I saw in Artist’s Alley. From the Bingo Love website:

Bingo Love is a LGBTQ romance story that spans over 60 years. A chance meeting at church bingo in 1963 brings Hazel Johnson and Mari McCray together. Through their formative years, these two women develop feelings for each other and finally profess their love for one another.[…] Decades later, now in their mid 60’s, Hazel and Mari are reunited, again at a bingo hall, and their love for each other is still alive. Together again, the sexagenarians decide to divorce their husbands and live the rest of their lives together as wife and wife… despite the objections of their children and grandchildren.

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The Lumberjanes Panel

It truly was friendship to the max at this panel — despite some technical difficulties, the audience remained in high spirits by telling jokes and reciting the Lumberjanes pledge. Our very own Gabby Rivera was up there talking about her experience writing the Lumberjanes 2017 special, Faire and Square and had some really amazing, smart things to say about what inclusive writing means. It’s not just characters that mirror the diverse readership — it’s what sorts of culture (pop or otherwise) those characters are referencing as they speak. For those who haven’t yet read Faire and Square, there’s some serious telenovela love going on in there.

The panel also featured Mariko Tamaki and Brooklyn Allen, the co-conspirators creating the first ever Lumberjanes illustrated prose novel, Unicorn Power. So. In case you wanted more Lumberjanes, here’s a way to ingest some more Lumberjanes.

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Queer Pop Culture, Featuring Heather Hogan!

This panel on the state of queer pop culture was very… eclectic? That might be the word. At times it seemed strange and disjointed, trying to bring so many aspects of pop culture together at once. But despite its broad scope, the panel included bright shining constellation Heather Hogan who was a perfect human, as usual. Hogan brought levity to the panel and also made sure we all went home and watched The Bold Type, as is her custom.

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The Cosplay! Oh, The Cosplay

Presented without additional fanfare:

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Look At All These Queer Creators!

And I didn’t hit even half of them! Mallory Ortberg apparently spoke and I missed it? Rebecca Sugar was there and I missed it. Hell, Kate Leth was tweeting so I know she was there and y’all, I missed her too! Ugh. Guess I’m gonna have to go back next year and photograph their amazing selves I GUESS TWIST MY ARM I GUESS.

14 Comics That Celebrate Female Friendship For Galentine’s Day

Women’s friendships are often sidelined in pop culture, if they appear at all, while other friendships and relationships take the focus.

This Galentine’s Day, along with pizza and Pixar with your best friends, celebrate with these comics and graphic novels that put women’s friendships where they belong: front and center.

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Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi

The magical girl story that is now a classic anime in America started off as manga. Usagi, a clumsy schoolgirl, meets Luna, a talking cat, who tells her that she is one of the Sailor Scouts, a group whose mission is to find the Moon Princess. The Sailor Scouts, including Rei, Ami, Makoto and Minako, battle various baddies, including the Dark Kingdom and the Black Moon Clan. This series is a mashup of fairytale and science fiction wish fulfillment, but it also has an allegory about the power of friendship. Your mileage may vary and some moments are more on the nose than others, but in Sailor Moon, the only way to defeat the villains is when your friends combine their powers.

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Nana by Ai Yazawa

Two girls — both named Nana — meet on a train headed to Tokyo. Despite their differences (one is an aspiring rock star, the other is decidedly more preppy and naive), they discover they both are moving to the big city to pursue their dreams, and decide spur of the moment to get an apartment together. Nana is a soap opera and the characters each have huge flaws, but it is a great story if you need to remember how friendships can happen in the most unlikely places and between complete opposites.

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This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

The award-winning bestseller This One Summer follows Rose and Windy, enjoying their summer in Awago Beach. The girls do so many of the things that we did as teens: watch horror movies, talk about other people’s sex lives with anthropomorphic fascination, and swim. This is a great story if you are looking for nostalgia, even if it is sad nostalgia, since it depicts Rose and Windy’s relationship changing over time, one of the hardest and potentially heartbreaking parts of growing up.

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Jem and the Holograms by Kelly Thompson and Gisele Lagace

This candy-bright reimagining of the 80s cartoon follows our favorite girl band as they struggle with performance anxiety and against their professional enemies, the Misfits. There is a lot to love here. The fantastic art features a myriad of bodies, not just the slightly-less-skinny token that most pop culture favors. The comic has also won rave reviews for its depiction of the romance between Stormer and Kimber. Additionally, one Jem and the Holograms illustrators, Sophie Campbell, is a trans woman; Blaze, one of the Misfits and also a trans woman, is based on her experience. But the central story is all about their relationships. They each make it through their problems because they are stronger together. The series even refutes the ugly idea that women are natural enemies when the Misfits and the Holograms team up to fight an even bigger bad.

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Princess Jellyfish by Akiko Higashimura

In Princess Jellyfish, awkward Tsukimi is a member of the informal Sisterhood, a group of mostly thirtysomething Otaku women who all live in the same apartment building and (half-jokingly) call themselves nuns. None of the women are employed fulltime, but they still find ways to enjoy each other’s company by doing things like having a weekly hot pot. When the local council decides to bulldoze their building for redevelopment, they discover an ally in cross-dressing sweetheart Kuranosuke. Although imperfect in its depiction of women’s sexuality, the manga never treats the core friendships or the crossdressing as a joke (an unfortunate rarity in manga).

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DC Bombshells by Marguerite Bennett

DC Bombshells is about the most iconic DC women, including Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Supergirl and Stargirl, as they fight Nazis and help the Allies in WWII. The art is pin-up style and clearly meant for queer women’s eyes. If you already love DC characters, this is a delightful alternate universe where Batwoman is a queer Jewish woman who plays on a baseball team, Supergirl and Stargirl are sisters who fly with Russia’s Night Witches, and Constantine is reduced to Zatanna’s pet bunny. It takes a while for the Bombshells to finally coalesce as a team, but when they do, there are moving storylines, like when Wonder Woman cares for Supergirl after a traumatic event.

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Lumberjanes by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh and Carolyn Nowak

Lumberjanes centers on Jo, Mal, Molly, Ripley and April, who solve mysteries and fight monsters like yetis and sea monsters at summer camp in this Eisner- and GLAAD-winning series (and Autostraddle favorite). The Lumberjanes aren’t gender normative; Mal and Molly sometimes smooch; Jo came out as a trans girl; and former Scouting Lad Barney recently started using they/them pronouns and joined the Lumberjanes in one of the series’ sweetest moments. This series is friendship to the max.

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Spell on Wheels by Kate Leth, Megan Levens and Marissa Louise

Spell on Wheels is about three witches — Claire, Jolene and Andy — on a Supernatural-like road trip to recover their stolen belongings. It is a pretty accurate representation of modern witches. Each of the characters is drawn to different magical practices, and the story tracks the moon cycle, just as many witches and Wiccans do. Issue number three is particularly fun, where the witches bond with older women, which is nice to see when pop culture mostly has friend groups that are all the same age.

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Cardcaptor by CLAMP

Cardcaptor follows several pre-teens who are hunting for the magical Clow cards in suburban Japan. Sakura may ultimately be the most powerful of her friends, but each of them brings their talents to their informal group. Two of those characters, best friends Sakura and Tomoyo, are the Ann and Leslie of manga. It is hard not to love Tomoyo, who is so utterly selfless and grateful for Sakura’s friendship, even when her romantic overtures are not returned. There is even a bonus: Tomoyo, an aspiring fashion designer, is always making Sakura adorable outfits.

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SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki

Another award winner and former webcomic, SuperMutant Magic Academy is about a group of mutant teens in their final few years of high school. Although about characters with superpowers, the focus is on the relationships and the normal teen struggles like crushes, depression and ennui. The best scenes are about the girl- or femme-identified characters socializing together, like where they have a séance and the only person they talk to is a misogynist jerk. This comic is real in the worst way.

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Batgirl by Hope Larson and Chris Wildgoose

Barbara Gordon moves to Burnside, the cool, new, Brooklyn-esque neighborhood of Gotham City, to fight crime with all sorts of fun gear, including a motorcycle, while still finding time for normal Millennial hijinks. Although the original run was rightly criticized for being transphobic (which has now been changed), the comic features the delightful Frankie Charles, a queer disabled woman of color with awesome computer programming skills. Babs and Frankie treat each other with respect; Babs does not pass judgement when she notices Frankie spending time with a man. Moreover, Babs eventually learns to support Frankie’s ambition to be more than just someone else’s tech support.

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Goldie Vance by Hope Larson, Jackie Ball and Noah Hayes

Goldie Vance is a queer biracial teen detective, beating the pavement and solving mysteries in 1950s Crossed Palms, a Florida resort. The art is appropriately sunny and clearly inspired by midcentury cartoons. The series is full of girl power moments, like when Goldie helps an aspiring female astronaut dealing with a toxic boss.

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Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan, Matt Wilson and Cliff Chiang

On Halloween 1988, a group of tween girls on their paper route, including both a Jewish girl and an Asian American girl, discover a group of demons invading Earth. The girls here are rough (they carry weapons) and, yes, they are sometimes say cringeworthy things that real girls in the late 80s said, but it is impossible not to root for girls who chase after what they want and protect each other.

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The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North and Erica Henderson

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl follows Doreen Green as she goes to school at Empire State University and defeats the worst supervillains the universe has to offer. While there are lots of great details about this series (Tippy Toe! Chipmunk Hunk! Twitter convos with Ironman!), the best parts always have Doreen and Nancy, Doreen’s roommate. Nancy is a no-nonsense cat fanatic and faithful friend. Their friendship is so strong that when Doreen is transported back in time, Nancy tricks Doom into rescuing Doreen, despite being the only person who still remembers Doreen. Now that’s friendship.

Women and LGBTQ People Will be Hit Hardest by NYT’s Decision to Kill the Comics Best Seller Lists

One of my favorite things to do is to laugh at men who say that women don’t care about comics and then point them to the New York Times graphic novels bestseller list where Raina Telgemeier always has at least half of the top ten books (if not all ten) and many other women, including queer women and women of color, regularly appear. It brings me so much joy to see them have to scroll down past Sisters, Smile, Ghosts and half a dozen Babysitter’s Club graphic novels before they see anything close to a Batman or Iron Man. But I won’t be able to do that any more because yesterday the Times announced, without any warning, that they’re eliminating many of their lists, including the Graphic Hardcover, Graphic Paperback and Manga Categories, which are the places where the comics would be listed. This isn’t only a major blow to creators and publishers of comics, but to comics fans and fans of all types of books.

Many in the comics world are understandably reacting with shock and sadness. This is a big blow to a part of the publishing world that is often regarded as “books for kids” or something less than “real literature.” It’s an especially big blow to marginalized people. Queer women, for example, have been able to find success on these lists and have been able to build careers partially off of that. But they’ll no longer have that chance. I spoke to several industry insiders after the announcement yesterday.

Robin Herrera, an Editor at Oni Press, sees it as nothing more than a way to make the publishing world even more exclusive.

I’m disappointed in the New York Times’ decision. They’re making it feel like some kind of exclusive club now, and of course that means sticking to more traditional book publishing. Lots of the children’s and YA categories are now gone too, and that’s a real shame with how big that market is. Now the window to be labeled as a bestseller is even smaller for authors and creators, including those who are published through many indie presses as paperbacks. It feels as if the New York Times is trying to tell us which books should be considered “real” books, books that are “worthy” of reading. Honestly, I don’t see how anyone will actually benefit from this decision.

Shannon Watters, an Editor at Boom! Studios and Lumberjanes co-creator added that this decision will erase marginalized creators even more than they already are.

The NYTimes Bestseller List for graphic novels offered irrefutable proof that the creators, genres and themes truly dominating the medium were those marginalized by so-called “mainstream” comic book publishing (women, creators of color, LGBT creators, kids graphic novels, etc.). Thanks to that list, we know that the largest group reading comics right now are young women. What a valuable tool to lose for such ridiculous reasons at such a terrifying, tumultuous juncture.

Wendy Xu, the co-creator and artist of Mooncakes sees it as a move by a business that’s already falling behind the times and will only fall farther.

I think the gutting of the NYT bestselling comics list just shows how uninvested they are in getting with the times. More and more non-comic imprints across the major houses are picking up graphic novels, helped in no small part by what they’ve seen in critical reviews and bestselling lists. It definitely influences the market, and opened up traditional prose editors to working with more illustrators. I’m so disappointed; it feels like a petty power play (especially given just who was on that bestseller list to begin with).

Fans are also angry. Many of us found out about comics we might be interested in through the list, and many more became new fans by seeing these lists and the books on them. The New York Times Bestseller list is prestigious, and when you see a book on it, you’re more likely to buy it. That’s not ideal, but it’s true. As one comic fan I talked to pointed out that getting on this list is a way for comics to gain some credibility and notoriety.

It was widely reported that John Lewis’s autobio comic “March” shot up the NYT bestseller list post-inauguration of the Trump regime — a book that may be loved and lauded by many comics people and a selection of educators, but certainly not a wider public who are both unfamiliar with comics or the ragged history of America. Appearing on the NYT list meant more people noticed the comic, and more people went to buy it out of curiosity or surprise that such a work exists – and of course being greeted with an exceptional work with astonishing relevance to the current climate in the US. To wipe out the lists is to remove this book and others like it from a wider readership’s ken.

This isn’t just a puzzling move, it’s one that will have a real impact on industry people, fans and people who could have been potential fans. Not only that, but it will also have a real impact on the artistic and social landscape of America. It’s no secret that a lot of queer women love comics. We’re able to see heroes who look like us and we’re able to see writers and artists who look like us. So go out and buy comics and we shape these lists. When there’s no longer a “legitimate” place like the New York Times reporting that women, people of color and queer people are constantly selling and buying the most comics, straight white men will be even less likely to believe us or think they need to pay attention to us.

Drawn to Comics: Announcing the 3rd Annual Autostraddle Comic and Sequential Art Award Winners

Your votes are in and you’ve chosen your favorite comics in seventeen different categories celebrating not just the best in comics, but also the best in positive representation for queer women and non-binary people and feminist themes. Thousands of you voted for the second year in a row and now it’s time to unveil the winners!

I want to thank everyone who voted. Recognizing, supporting and celebrating the creators who make these comics is extremely important, especially if we want to see more comics and creators like this. These comics are the best out there today, they’re the not only great comics, but they’re leading the way in providing positive representation. They know that women and girls and queer people read comics and make comics and love comics, and they want to be a part of that.

Again, please, check out all the comics that were nominated, not just those that won. They all deserve your attention and support.

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Favorite All-Ages Comic: Lumberjanes

Lumberjanes by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Carey Pietsch Ayme Sotuyo, Maarta Laiho and Aubrey Aiese

Lumberjanes continued to show why it’s one of the most important all-ages comics of all time by bringing in Barney, a non-binary camper who uses they/them pronouns as the newest Lumberjane. It also continued to show that comics about girls and their friendship are a vitally important thing in the world of comics and in the world overall.

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Favorite Big Two Book: Ms. Marvel

Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa, Ian Herring, Irma Kniivila and Joe Caramagna

Ms. Marvel is back for a third straight year in this category, something that’s only happened in one other category. No longer just a phenom, Ms. Marvel is now one of the brightest stars in the Marvel universe and she continues to be a character that teen girls, Muslims, Pakistani-Americans, and people of color can all look up to.

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Favorite Indie Book: Bitch Planet

Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro, Kelly Fitzpatrick and Claton Cowles

For the second year in a row, the feminist opus Bitch Planet wins here. DeConnick keeps on writing this comic in better and more feminist ways, and it shows no sign of slowing down in it’s march toward taking down the comics patriarchy.

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Favorite Single Issue: Bitch Planet #8

Bitch Planet #8 by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro, Kelly Fitzpatrick and Claton Cowles

Bitch Planet was already one of the most intersectionally feminist comics in the world. And then with this issue, they introduced trans women into their world, and did so wonderfully. Full disclosure, I was one of the consultants on this issue, but the fact that I was one of three trans women consulted is just another reason why it deserves this award.

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Favorite Webcomic – Serial: Strong Female Protagonist

Strong Female Protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag

For the second year in a row, this brilliant, brilliant comic about a young woman with Superman-level powers who quits being a superhero and tries to figure out other ways to contribute to society got your votes in this category. Strong Female Protagonist regularly pushes against the constraints of the superhero comic genre, tackling complex issues of life, feminism and philosophy in a superpowered world with grace, intelligence, poise and always gorgeous and distinctive art.

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Favorite Webcomic – Episodic: Hark! A Vagrant

Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton

Kate Beaton is pretty much a legend in the comics world by now, so I’m happy to be able to recognize her for her contributions to feminist comics. For years Hark! A Vagrant has been shining a light on often forgotten feminist heroes of the real life past and fictional literature.

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Favorite Webcomic – Single Story: Lady of the Shard

Lady of the Shard by Gigi D.G.

Gigi D.G., who also does the terrific webcomic Cucumber Quest, wins here, with her lovely, sometimes terribly intense, and always stunningly beautiful story about a space goddess and the acolyte who loves her. One thing, apart from the beautiful art and wonderful characters and storytelling, that makes this comic stand out is it’s different take on the webcomic format, resulting in a story that truly flows and seems like an epic tale written down on a tapestry.

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Favorite Graphic Novel/Book: Honor Girl

Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash

Thrash very deservedly wins this category for her overwhelmingly relatable coming-of-age memoir of her time at an all-girls camp. This is my second favorite book of the last two years (after SuperMutant Magic Academy) and it looks like it’s a lot of your favorites as well. Summer camp, discovering yourself, drag performances of Backstreet Boys songs, first crushes; this book has it all.

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Favorite Anthology: Chain Mail Bikini

Chainmail Bikini ed. by Hazel Newlevant

Chainmail Bikini is one of my favorite comic anthologies of all-time, and you agree, giving it this award. Just like these awards look to celebrate women in comics, Chainmail Bikini was all about celebrating women gamers. A wide variety of contributors made this book have something for everyone.

I also want to give special recognition to the Beyond Anthology which came in second place by literally just one vote. Both of these anthologies are terrific and deserve recognition.

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Favorite Writer: Kate Leth

Kate Leth – Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat, Power Up, Vampirella

Kate Leth has long been one of my favorite writers, and now she runs away with this category. Her comic Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat, is really a standout, and is, in my opinion, the best comic at Marvel or DC right now. It’s got a queer writer/artist team, and Leth writes it in a way that every issue is pretty much dripping with great queer content. If you’re looking for writing that’s filled with wonderful female and queer characters and that approaches every story from an extremely queernormative place, Kate Leth is your woman.

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Favorite Artist: Molly Ostertag

Molly Ostertag – Strong Female Protagonist

Not content with just recognizing SFP in the Favorite Webcomic category, you voted Ostertag in for your favorite artist. The way Ostertag brings life to her characters is just brilliant. In a genre (superheroes) known for a lack of diversity when it comes to character designs, Ostertag fills her world up with wonderful characters of all ethnicities, sizes, shapes, abilities and kinds. I’ve said it before, no one is as good at making me fall in love with cute comic characters as Molly Ostertag.

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Favorite Colorist: Jordie Bellaire

Jordie Bellaire – Pretty Deadly, Captain Marvel

Bellaire is simply one of the best color artists of all-time. Her work elevates any book she works on to a level where you can’t take your eyes off the page and you don’t want to.

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Favorite Letterer: Paulina Ganucheau

Paulina Ganucheau – Zodiac Starforce

Zodiac Starforce was nominated in a ton of categories this year, and so I’m happy to see Ganucheau, who also did the wonderful art in the book, get recognition here. Letterers are often ignored when we talk about comics, but without them, our comics wouldn’t be anywhere close to the wonderful things they are.

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Favorite Cartoonist: Melanie Gillman

Melanie Gillman – As the Crow Flies

Gillman, who works with colored pencils, is absolutely one of the best artists working in comics today and writes young characters better than maybe anyone. This webcomic, about two young queer girls at a Christian summer camp in the mountains is just simply brilliant. Gillman is a singularly talented artist and writer whose work deserves this award and dozens of others.

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Favorite Queer Character: Batwoman from DC Comics Bombshells

Batwoman from DC Comics Bombshells

Batwoman’s been missing from the regular DC universe for a while now, but she’s been super queer and super amazing over in Marguerite Bennett’s DC Comics Bombshells. Bennett has written her into a character whose queerness and Jewishness are vital to her story in a way that we haven’t seen since J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman left back in 2013. Batwoman is one of the most important queer characters in comics history, so it’s really really terrific to see her get her due like this.

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Favorite Queer Comic Couple: Mal and Molly

Mal and Molly from Lumberjanes

One of the cutest couples in comics is this cute young couple from one of the queerest comics around. No matter who’s on the Lumberjanes creative team, these two just keep getting more and more adorable. Mal and Molly have won this award every year so far and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them win it again in the future.

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Favorite Overall Comic: Bitch Planet

Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro, Kelly Fitzpatrick and Claton Cowles

Bitch Planet is just a brilliant comic that’s all about intersectional feminism and giving positive representation and strong role models for women of color, queer women and all other women who are considered Non-Compliant. In short, it’s exactly the kind of comic we look to celebrate with these awards. Last year DeConnick won the Favorite Writer award, and this book is her at her absolute best, working with a brilliant team that makes her terrific work so much better. Bitch Planet is going to go down in history as one of the best, most important and most revolutionary comics of all time.

New Releases (September 28)

Aliens Defiance #5

Batgirl #3

Detective Comics #941

Suicide Squad #3

Wonder Woman #7

Wonder Woman: A Celebration of 75 Years HC

Wonder Woman: The True Amazon HC

X-Files Origins #2

ODY-C #11

Saga #38

All-New, All-Different Avengers Vol 2 Family Business TP

Captain Marvel #9

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #11

Ms. Marvel #11

Spider-Gwen #12

Spider-Woman #11

Star Wars #23

Ultimates #11

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #12

Backstagers #2

Disney Zootopia GN

Jonesy Vol 1 TP

Josie & The Pussycats #1

Kim and Kim #3

Lumberjanes #30

Over The Garden Wall Ongoing #6

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Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com.

Drawn to Comics: Lumberjanes Reminds Us that All Hardcore Lady Types Are Welcome

When we were first introduced to the Lumberjanes, we saw that their camp was called Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types. At first it seemed like a cool, inclusive title, one that was more of a part of the setting than a plot device. As the book moved on, however, and we saw more and more campers, we stared to see that anyone who identifies as a lady-type person really was welcomed, affirmed and supported. Now that credo has been really hammered home in a recent issue where Barney, who was once a Scouting Lad, joins the Lumberjanes and the book starts clearly using they/them pronouns for them.

Previously we had seen Jo, one of the main Lumberjanes, come out as a trans girl (when talking to Barney, as it happens), but trans girls aren’t lady types, they’re just ladies. Still, though, it was wonderful and amazing to see a trans girl so strongly welcomed in a space like this. Especially when it’s in a comic book about kids and meant for kids.

In that original run of issues where Jo talks to Barney about being trans, we see that Barney also has some feelings that maybe the Scouting Lads isn’t where they belong. They talk about how they’re not sure what their place is or who they want to be. And Jo understands. She used to be in a similar place to where Barney is. She’s a trans girl and she understands, and she wants to help.

Another thing I really, really love is the relationship that has been building between Barney and Jo. In real life, we often rely on help from trans people who have already come out to help up and guide us. We need these sisters, aunties and elders. And so to show that type of relationship in this all-ages comic is kind of revolutionary. This is what being a young or newly-out trans person is like, and to show such an accurate depiction of that is exactly the kind of trans representation I love in comics.

Issue #28 has a really, really gorgeous scene where Barney builds up their courage and asks the Lumberjanes Council if they can join the Lumberjanes. They now know where they belong, and it’s not with the Scouting Lads. Even though they’re not a binary girl, they’re still a lady type, and that’s what’s important. Both Barney, the Council and the other lumberjanes know that and they all affirm Barney’s place among them.

This scene is so well done. The writing and art and characterization are just wonderful. I really want to praise the Lumberjanes team for doing such a great job at writing queer and trans characters. Sometimes people in comics seem like they don’t even try to do a good job, but here (and in some other comics, like those by Kate Leth, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Marguerite Bennett and Ryan North) you can tell that they really care about their LGBTQ readership and getting these characters and moments right.

I think that it really helps when we celebrate the good trans and queer representation we get. I think it helps when we thank creators like Kat Leyh, Shannon Watters, Ayme Sotuyo and Carey Pietsch for doing such a great job on Lumberjanes. I think it helps when we thank Ryan North and Erica Henderson for their work in bringing the brilliant trans man character Koi Boi to the pages of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. I think it helps when we thank Kate Leth and Brittney Williams for their queer cast and settings and jokes in Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat. Good representation isn’t just good writing and art, it’s something that actually helps people feel good about themselves, come out as themselves and love themselves. It changes and saves lives. If we only ever talk about trans and queer representation when we’re complaining about a lack of it or the bad or questionable representation, we’re only fighting half the battle, maybe even less than that. Let’s acknowledge and thank the people who work extra hard and oftentimes have to fight and risk their jobs and careers to get this kind of great representation on the pages of our comics. Thank you to the Lumberjanes team and to everyone else who’s fighting this urgently important fight.

Also, a reminder, voting is still open for the Autostraddle Comic and Sequential Art Awards.

New Releases (September 14)

Harrow County #16

Harrow County Vol 3 Snake Doctor TP

Lady Killer 2 #2

Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #2

DC Comics Bombshells #17

Detective Comics #940

Gotham Academy Second Semester #1

Harley Quinn The Joker’s Last Laugh HC

Harley Quinn Vol 4: A Call To Arms TP

Suicide Squad #2

Superwoman #2

Wonder Woman #2

Wonder Woman Vol 9 Resurrection HC

Wonder Woman Vol 8 Twist of Fate TP

Powerpuff Girls #3

Southern Cross #7

A-Force #9

Gwenpool #6

Mockingbird #7

Scarlet Witch #10

Adventure Time #56

Faith #3

Jonesy #6

Judge Anderson PSY Files Vol 5 TP

Lumberjanes Gotham Academy #4

Over the Garden Wall TP

Ghosts GN

Toil and Trouble HC

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Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com.

A-Camp All Stars Recommend Their Favorite Comics!

It’s time for A-Camp!!! Yay!!! For those who don’t know, an annual gathering that we put on in the beautiful mountains of California where hundreds of queers and lesbians and bisexuals and trans ladies and similar folk get together to do arts and crafts and panels about gay children’s cartoons. But that’s not all we do, we also get to see amazing concerts, hilarious comedy sets, and brilliant movie and webseries screenings featuring some of the coolest LGBTQ women/folks in the galaxy. But what do those women/folks get up to when they’re not on the mountain? Do they adopt cats? Do they go shopping at Ikea? Do they read comics? You might be surprised to find out they do all these things! Probably not, though, those all seem like pretty obvious guesses. Knowing that these A-Camp All-Stars live parts of their lives off the mountain and reading comics, I decided to ask some of them what their very favorite comics are.

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Jenny Owen Youngs: Musician Extraordinaire, Bear-Suit Superstar

I pick Ninoma by Noelle Stevenson. Y’ALL. Do you enjoy fantasy, shape-shifting, and adorable scamps with asymmetrical haircuts? Have you always wanted to intern for your favorite super villain (hoping to discover they’re deeply evil for a reason your tender heart understands)? Are you DTDragon? Then please check out this delightful web comic-turned-graphic-novel; you’ll laugh and cry and possibly breathe fire all the way through.

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Jen Richards: Her Story Co-writer/Co-star, Hot Redhead

I’d say Lady Killer (Joëlle Jones, Dark Horse). I was hooked by the cover image of the first trade, of main character Josie Schuller in early 60’s perfect housewife attire, mopping up a kitchen covered in blood. I love the idea of the woman who maintains the image of docile domesticity while actually being an incredibly skilled professional assassin. Similar qualities are found in Velvet (Ed Brubacker, Image), though with a more noir look.

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Kristin Russo: Everyone is Gay, A-Camp Co-Director, Really Great Eyes and Smile

Lumberjanes: UGH I KNOW EVERYONE HAS ALREADY READ ALL OF THESE, of course you have, they are the best. They are the actual best. The reason I am choosing Lumberjanes is because, much to the chagrin of my lovely wife, I haven’t read all that many comics in my lifetime. This is high on my list of things to remedy, but in the meantime let me tell you why I read and adore Lumberjanes: it centers strong women, it centers queer women, it centers fun and badassery, and, holy shit, how I wish I were a Lumberjane! Also apart from centering all that goodness within its pages and (brilliant) characters, it is created by strong, badass, fun, queer women. Hell. Yes. (Also, sidebar, I ammmm headed to A-Camp, so maybe I will pack a hat with a raccoon tail and find all of the magic and adventure, and transform into a Lumberjane?!)

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Mal Blum: Musician, Dreamiest Dreamboat that Ever Dreamed

Hmmmm well, just off the top of my head this probably isn’t cool but I was really obsessed with Spider-Man as a young queer/trans/questioning child. I think because he was just a regular kid who struggled with kid stuff like fitting in in high school but also had this secret thing thrust upon him that made him inherently different, and was a gift but was also a burden that he had to hide and not disclose to people. And he couldn’t really date because of it. Unclear, but it’s basically the same origin story as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I was also very invested in that. Also they both try to be good and righteous people and are consistently misunderstood by the people they protect, which also spoke to me as a youth.

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Laura Zak: Her Story Co-Creator, Actress, Looks Great in a Hat (And Really All Other Clothes Too)

Having never delved much deeper into the world of comics or graphic novels than Allison Bechdel, this past year I tried out Brian K. Vaughan’s comics, alternating between issues of Y: The Last Man and Saga. I was hoping for (even) more overt lesbianism in Y: The Last Man, since it’s about what happens when all of the (cis) men in the world die off, except for one, but I still enjoyed it. Saga is epic and sexy and drops you into a galactic version of the classic theme of forbidden love in war.

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Elicia Sanchez: Comedian, Funniest and Coolest Person Alive

I would suggest the Charles Soule and Javier Pulido run on She-Hulk in 2014! You can buy it now in two trades, She-Hulk: Law and Disorder and She-Hulk: Disorderly Conduct! I can unequivocally tell you with absolute certainty this book is fucking beautiful. Not because I’m biased due to the fact that She-Hulk is my favorite comic book character of all time (who I may have tattooed on my forearm), but in comparison to her varied self-titled series over the years, all of which I’ve read, this book is fucking fantastic. She-hulk titles have always managed to remain light-hearted, self-aware and self-deprecating, even during the age of the many money-grabbing, soul-sucking cross-overs (i.e. Secret War, House of M, Civil War, Annihilation, etc). This self-titled series focuses more on Jennifer Walters opening a new legal practice/the pitfalls of being an officer of the court AND a superhero rather than her general She-hulk smashing, but as per usual with She-Hulk titles, it’s funny, quirky and FOR ONCE the character is not constantly drawn in weird-looking sexual stances for the sole purpose of the hetero male gaze (THANK YOU, JAVIER PULIDO). With gorgeous water-color painted covers by Kevin Wada, inner artwork reminiscent of Romita by Pulido and fun, engaging story-telling by Charles Soule, I LOVE THIS BOOK. When it was coming out monthly, I bought all the single issues and STILL bought the trade paperbacks when those were released. If you’re not a big She-Hulk fan, YOU SHOULD BE. If you are a big She-Hulk fan, PLEASE JOIN MY CAMPAIGN TO CONSTANTLY HARASS MARVEL EXECS VIA TWITTER TO MAKE A LIVE ACTION SHE-HULK MOVIE SOME TIME BEFORE I DIE. Thanks.

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Marni Kellison: Camp Co-Director, Canadian Idol

I’m not a big comics reader so I’m totally intimidated to recommend something to actual comics people but what I can say is that Calvin & Hobbes was a huge part of my life growing up (and it still holds up!) It was fun and full of imagination and also made really adult concepts palatable to me at a really young age.  I still quote it all the time! And I always thought Susie was awesome.

Mal added: YES I read Calvin and Hobbes and Foxtrot religiously!

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New Releases (June 1)

DC Comics Bombshells #14

Green Lanterns Rebirth #1

Teen Titans Go #16

Wonder Woman 77 Vol 1 TP

Paper Girls #6

A-Force #6

All-New All-Different Avengers #10

All-New Wolverine #9

Spider-Woman #8

Spider-Woman Vol. Baby Talk TP

Spider-Women Omega #1

Giant Days #15

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Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com.

Drawn to Comics: Lumberjanes Has Cute Selkies, Scary Whirlpools and Gay Kisses!

It’s time to once again catch up with one of our favorite comic series, the delightfully queer all-ages book Lumberjanes! Another storyline just wrapped up with issue #24, and boy howdy, this was a good one. It was full of cool creatures, tons of growth for our girls and some educational explanations for some of the forest’s many mysteries. Perhaps most importantly, it featured two girls being happily in love and kissing, but more on that later.

These issues start out with an exciting game of volleyball that harkens back to both the Fastball Special reference in a much earlier issue and the episode of Steven Universe where the play the same game. But while most of the ‘Janes have been playing games, April has been her normal rip-roarin’ self and has been off succeeding at getting a bunch of new merit badges. Her quest for a knot-tying badge runs into some trouble, though, when Ripley can’t quite get the hang of it. This badge-quest is kind of just a macguffin, though, as it leads us to the beach where we see our real adventure begin.

In these issues, Molly and Ripley go off with the Bear Woman into the alternate dinosaur-filled dimension while the others help Seafarin’ Karen try to get her boat back from the selkies who’ve taken it over. You see, the selkies are saying that Karen stole Moirin’s (Moirin is one of selkies) pelt, making it impossible to transform back into a seal. So, they stole Karen’s boat. All’s fair and all that. The dinosaur dimension quest makes sense when you realize that they’re looking for rifts between that dimension and the main one, to close them in order to stop the whirlpools of doom. So, apart from two great adventures, we also get to see the team split up into not-the-normal teams, which is nice and leads to some really wonderful advancement of the overall story.

There’s a lot of great character growth in these issues, especially from Mal and Molly. When we see them split up, we get to see who they are apart from each other, and that they really, really like who they are together. I mentioned last time that feel like the series really hit another great stride with these issues, the kind they hit with Noelle Stevenson’s last issues on the book, and I think that just got more and more true as this arc completed. The characters are seeming exactly like themselves and exactly like wonderful versions of themselves.

Now, this final issue was a brilliant cap on the storyline and the arc — like, seriously brilliant. It wraps everything up perfectly, features some great and funny and exciting moments and has truly wonderful art. Plus, Mal and Molly kiss! And it’s so cute!!! As soon as they’re reunited and they realize that they’re both safe, they embrace, and not only that, they smooch, right on the lips! In an all-ages comics! This is GREAT representation. This is VITAL. A queer girl of color with a body type and gender presentation that aren’t often seen in media (Mal) and her adorable girlfriend get to be happy and get to be together. After a few weeks of stewing in the awful reality of the widespread death of queer women characters, we come back to Lumberjanes to see some happy queer kids. This makes my heart smile.

This latest four issue-arc was written by series co-founder Shannon Watters and Kat Leyh, with new artist Carey Pietsch adding her absolutely wonderful personal touch to the Lumberjane kids. I’ve talked many, many times about how Pietsch is one of my favorite artists, but I think that her style is especially great for this series. When she comes together with regular Lumberjanes colorist Maarta Laiho, she makes the girls into really lively, fully swinging versions of themselves. I especially love her Jo and Mal, and the new character, Seafarin’ Karen, a buff and burly werewolf sea captain. They seem like the volume has been turned up on them in all the best ways, they’re bold, they’re cute, they’re distinctive and they’re happy, if that makes sense.

When I look at these pages, I feel happy, which is a great thing to get from the art of a comic book, especially an all-ages one like Lumberjanes. And boy oh boy am I glad that Pietsch was the artist for this run, because her drawings of seals and especially Mal and Molly’s kiss are just out-of-this-galaxy levels of cute. I also want to give a special shout out to letterer Aubrey Aise, who’s just one of the most consistently great letterers in all of comics. The visual words she adds to these comics give Lumberjanes a lot of it’s distinctive flavor.

Overall, this was my favorite series of issues since the series where Jo comes out, and one of my all-time favorites. Everyone who worked on these issues should be super proud, because they’ve given us something that’s a wonderful change of pace from a lot of other comics and a lot of other queer media. Issues #21-#24 reminded me why I love Lumberjanes so much. When it’s at it’s best, like in these issues, it’s not only one of the best queer comic books out there, but it’s also one of the best fantasy comics, one of the best comedy comics, one of the best adventure comics and definitely one of the best all-ages comics.

New Releases (March 23)

Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #242 (Archie)

Spire #7 (Boom!)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #25 (Dark Horse)

Tomb Raider II #2 (Dark Horse)

Harley Quinn #26 (DC)

Secret Six #12 (DC)

Starfire Vol. 1 Welcome Home TPB (DC)

We Are Robin #10 (DC)

Wonder Woman #50 (DC)

Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals (DC)

Wonder Woman: War of the Gods TPB (DC)

All-New All-Different Avengers #7 (Marvel)

All-New Hawkeye #5 (Marvel)

Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat #4 (Marvel)

Star Wars #17 (Marvel)

Ultimates #5 (Marvel)

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Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com.

Drawn to Comics: My 15 Favorite Single Issues from 2015

This week last year I made a list of my 12+ favorite single issues of comics that I read. This year, I nearly doubled the size of my pull list thanks to a number of new terrific comics written by, drawn by and starring women, so my list is a bit longer than it was last year. I’m not complaining, though, I’m celebrating. There are a ton of super great comics I wasn’t even able to put on this list, including Power Up, Help Us! Great Warrior, Runaways, Howard the Duck, Saga and Gotham Academy.

You’ll probably notice a few creators who are on this list more than once; I guess I have a type. There are also a lot of Issue #1’s here, that’s because there were so many great new series that launched or relaunched in a very big way. I also talk a lot about comics that are fun to read and comics that touch on real issues, two things I think comics are really great at doing, especially this year.

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15. Catwoman #39

This was the issue that made a million queer women’s dreams come true as Selina Kyle kissed another woman. And that woman, Eiko Hasigawa, was a queer woman of color who had taken up the mantle of Catwoman. This issue was part of a super terrific run on Catwoman by Genevieve Valentine and Garry Brown, which saw Selina Kyle become a crime lord in Gotham City and definitely harkened back to the legendary Gotham Central comics.

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14. Zodiac Star Force #1

I’m kind of a sucker for comics starring teams of girls, and I love the super fun (and diverse and queer) take on Magical Girls that Zodiac Starforce is offering. Kevin Panetta’s writing is upbeat and funny, Paulina Ganucheau’s art is gorgeous and absolutely adorable, and Savanna Ganucheau’s colors make it all pop. If you’re a fan of Sailor Moon, comics about high school girls or beautiful art, you need to read Zodiac Starforce right now.

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13. Paper Girls #1

This comic is so cool! I really love the idea of a group of foul-mouthed 13-year-old paper girls riding around on Halloween trying to figure out all the weird and scary stuff that’s going on in their formerly quiet neighborhood. Do you remember that movie Monster Squad from the ’80s? This comic is like that but with a bunch of girls instead of a bunch of boys and time travelers, mutants and flying reptiles instead of the classic Universal Monsters. Plus, with a creative team like writer Brian K. Vaughan (Runaways, Saga), artist Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman) and colorist Matt Wilson (The Wicked + The Divine) it’s hard to go wrong.

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12. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1

This comic is so freaking adorable and Lunella (Moon Girl) is maybe my favorite new character in all of comics. I mean, how can you not love a comic about a super nerdy young Black girl and her red T-Rex friend? Writers Amy Reeder and Brandon Montclare, artist Natacha Bustos and colorist Tamra Bonvillain (who also colors the great Rat Queens) do an amazing job of making you fall in love with Lunella from the first panel and making you root for her every panel after that.

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11. The Wicked + The Divine #13

Every issue of The Wicked + The Divine could be counted as one of my favorites, but this one really stood out for its examination of slut shaming, rape culture and depression. Oh my gosh, the page where it shows a spread of all the horrible tweets that Tara gets on a regular basis is all too real and all too horrible. It was maybe the hardest thing to read in comics this year. Kieron Gillen and artists Tula Lotay and Jamie McKelvie deliver a gut punch that reminds readers that even a comic about gods reincarnated at British teens and young adults can talk about very real issues.

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10. Ms. Marvel #1

Ms. Marvel has easily been one of the best comics that Marvel’s been putting out recently, so when the All-New All-Different Marvel relaunch came I was a bit worried that they might try to shake up this series in a way that didn’t work. Instead, they kept everything that was great about the series and took the characters into interesting new directions. Kamala is trying to figure out how to save her neighborhood from developers and gentrification while Bruno, her best friend gets a new girlfriend, a fat (I’m fat and I’m using “fat” here to describe a character I relate to) mixed-race Latina girl named Mike. G. Willow Wilson keeps the authentic, hopeful and youthful tone of the book and artists Takeshi Miyazawa and Adrian Alphona and colorist Ian Herring keep the book looking youthful and exciting.

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9. Harrow County #1

This is without a doubt one of the coolest witch stories I’ve ever seen, and you know I love witches. It starts by telling the story about how Harrow County’s local witch, Hester Beck, was put to death, with much difficulty, by the local townsfolk. Then we flash forward as a farm girl, Emmy, is soon to turn 18 and starts experiencing some really terrifying and weird stuff. This issue is so delightfully scary, you guys. Cullen Bunn’s writing and Tyler Crook and Owen Gieni’s art build the perfect atmosphere and fill it with creepy details. You can read the whole thing here, just remember that I warned you.

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8. Batgirl #45

Aside from being a great issue, this was a really important moment in comics history. It’s so, so rare that we see trans women get to have happy romances, or really any kind of happy stories in any kind of media, so to have an entire issue where the setting and much of the focus was on Alysia Yeoh’s wedding to another woman was just wonderful. Aside from that, Cameron Stewart, Brenden Flether and artist Babs Tarr and colorist Serge LaPointe injected the issue with Batgirl of Burnside’s trademark youthful vigor and humor, making sure that while the series takes a break to focus on a side character’s wedding, it never loses a step.

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7. Angela: Queen of Hel #1

This is easily one of the funniest comics out there; Marguerite Bennett is just killing it on these scripts. In their third incarnation since the year started (after Angela: Asgard’s Assassin and 1602: Witchhunter Angela) Angela and Sera (a Black trans woman) stop just flirting and finally make out not once, but twice. I’m also a really big fan of the way they have Kim Jacinto and colorist Israel Silva doing the art on the main story and then Stephanie Hans coming in for art on the flashbacks. This series has just gotten better and better as it goes on, but this first issue is where the fun starts.

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6. Bitch Planet #5

On the cover it says to steel yourselves for heartbreak, but i don’t know if any of us were ready for just how heartbreaking it would be. This issue was delayed a bit, but it was well worth the wait. Writer Kelly Sue Deconnick was at her absolute best, and artist Valentine De Landro and colorist Chris Peter continue to make this one of the most striking comics I’ve read all year. We finally see the women of Bitch Planet on the Megaton field, and it’s even more brutal than I expected. This issue, like several others on this list, touches on a very real issue. It focuses on the violence that women, and especially women of color face in prison and at the hands of law enforcement. Bitch Planet #5 shows why this is one of the most important series out there today.

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5. Fresh Romance #1

I had never read a straightforward romance comic before, but I’m super glad that Fresh Romance #1 was my introduction to the genre. Showing three very different, but all very enjoyable, chapters in romance stories, Fresh Romance #1, edited by Janelle Asselin, has something for everyone. My favorite story is “School Spirit,” written by Kate Leth, with art by Arielle Jovellanos and colors by Amanda Scurti. This supernatural and queer high school romance hits all the right notes when it comes to humor, drama and teenage love. The other comics, “Ruined” and “Ruby’s Equation” just make this issue even better, providing nice changes of pace and their own pleasant art and stories.

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4. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1

I’m in love with this series and the relaunch was, in my opinion, the most successful at Marvel after this summer’s Secret Wars crossover event that resulted in a bunch of new titles and new launches for the rest of the titles. Writer Ryan North is writing probably the funniest comic in stores today, and Erica Henderson continues to draw some of my favorite art in the world, infusing each character with as much life and personality as humanly possible. Rico Renzi’s colors just make Henderson’s art even more bright and poppy, making each page an absolute delight to look at. In this issue, we see Nancy get a cool new haircut and Squirrel Girl travel back in time, setting off a really fun and terrific storyline. This comic seemed like a weird idea, but it’s one of the best Marvel’s had in a long time.

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3. Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat #1

When I first heard that Hellcat was getting a solo series, I was super excited, I loved her in the recent She-Hulk series, and then when I saw that Kate Leth, one of my favorite writers, was going to be writing it, I jumped for joy. Then I saw Brittney Williams would be doing art, and I remembered how much I love her art (especially her Lois Lane) and I couldn’t wait for this series to start. It didn’t let me down one single bit. Everything about this issue was so great and actually, so much better than I even thought it would be (which was really great). It was fun, it was exciting, it was hilarious, it was beautiful and it was creative. Marvel’s been doing really great with young, exciting comics starring young women, with Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Silk and Spider-Gwen, and this book is an excellent addition to that sub-genre. Of course, Leths’ writing is hilarious and full of great puns and musical theatre references, and William’s art, bolstered by Megan Wilson’s bright but soothing colors, is even more cute and exciting than I remembered. I’m kind of obsessed with this comic, you guys.

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2. DC Comics Bombshells #7

I’ve been waiting for a superhero team like this for ages. A team of girls, mostly girls of color, and one of them is trans. One of the big things fans of Alysia have been hoping for ever since she was introduced was that she would get to put on a mask and become a crimefighter herself. In Bombshells #7 she finally got that chance. Okay, let me back up a bit, if you don’t know, DC Comics Bombshells is a series where Marguerite Bennett gets to team up with a bunch of really terrific artists to explore a world based on the successful Bombshells line of toys where, in an alternate World War II, women heroes are the ones who rose up, without any of the male heroes that populate the DC Universe. So instead of Batman, we have Batwoman saving a young Bruce Wayne’s parents as they walk down an alley; instead of Superman, there are two Russian adoptive sisters who become Supergirl and Star Girl; instead of Aquaman, there’s just Mera. It’s all really wonderful and delightfully queer.

Back to this issue. We had previously seen Batwoman inspire some local Gotham girls, including Harper Row, Kathy Duquesne and Nell Little to put on domino masks and matching dresses and become Batgirls. Now, in this issue, Alysia Yeoh joins their team as they break Harper’s little brother out of his orphanage and stop an evil “Keep America American” plot. It’s honestly so, so great seeing a team of Batgirls (which also includes Bette Kane) like this, and it’s something that I, and plenty of other fans, have been hoping for for a long time. Thank you Marguerite for writing this story into existence, and thank you Mirka Andolfo and Wendy Broome for making these girls equally adorable and kickass.

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1. Lumberjanes #17

Come on, this comic made my year, it was just beyond great. It wrapped up one of the best Lumberjanes storylines yet, bringing some closure to the mysteries of the Grootslang and Rosie and Abigail’s past, and it gave the Lumberjane girls a chance to grow as characters. But more than that, it showed that trans girls deserve to have representation in the comics they love to read, just like cisgender girls do. In this issue, Jo, a nerdy girl of color who’s best friends with April, talks to Barney, a boy from the Scouting Lads, about why she’s been so rude to him. In one of my all-time favorite comic book scenes, she tells him that when she looks at him, she’s reminded of who she used to be, and more importantly, who she would’ve had to be if her life had been a little bit different. Writers Shannon Watters and Noelle Stevenson perfectly balanced humor, exciting action, touching character moments and real talk about identity issues, and artist Brooke A. Allen and colorist Maarta Laiho made this comic fun to look at, never boring and perfect for readers of all ages. Once you add in Aubrey Aiese’s unique and fun letters, you have one truly genius and truly moving comic book.

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New Releases (December 30)

Jughead #3 (Archie)

Black Canary #6 (DC)

Harley Quinn and Power Girl #6 (DC)

Wonder Woman #47 (DC)

Jem and the Holograms #10 (IDW)

Orphan Black: Helsinki #2 (IDW)

Rat Queens #14 (Image)

Beauties (Rosy Press)

Howard the Duck #3 (Marvel)

Jessica Jones: Alias Vol. 4 TPB (Marvel)

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Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com.

Drawn to Comics: Catching Up With the Lumberjanes (and Mermaids)!

I haven’t talked about Lumberjanes in a while, and I’m really sorry about that. While I’ve been busy writing about the Autostraddle Comic Awards and what comics you should buy for the holidays, an entire LJ storyline happened! In fact, that entire storyline saw the introduction of new Lumberjanes co-writer Kat Leyh, from the super wonderful Supercakes comics. I’m really excited to talk about this comic again, so let’s dive right in!

The first storyline focuses on April trying to help a mermaid that she met reunite with her friend and ex-bandmate. There were a lot of great laughs and cool looking punk rock mermaids and tons of artist Carolyn Nowak’s sometimes-exaggerated and always fun style. Colorist Maarta Laiho also did a really great job of distinguishing the parts of the comic that took place above the lake from the parts that took place below, which she washed in beautiful blues and greens.

One of the other cool things that happened in these issues was that we got to see April grow and learn. She’s really gung ho about helping out the mermaids, so much so that in trying to help them she puts her Lumberjanes friends in the rear view mirror. The girls, and especially Ripley, have been looking forward to going to the Bandicoot Bacchanal, but because April is so deadset on helping the mermaids get their band back together, it’s looking like they’re going to miss it. In the end, her friends have to stand up to her and tell her that, while they love her spirit and how she always gives whatever she’s interested in her 100%, sometimes she can be a little headstrong and leave her friends behind. It’s a good lesson and one that’s handled well.

I’m not gonna lie, all this talk about merwomyn and riot grrrls and a music festival that reminded me of real life festivals that exclude Girls Like Me made me more than a little nervous. As a trans woman, there are a bunch of words that are used by queer groups, women’s groups and feminist groups that I have to constantly be on the lookout for because they’re so often used to mean that trans women aren’t really welcome there. Unfortunately, some of those words and phrases include “womyn,” “riot grrrl” and “women’s festival,” which were all big themes in this storylines. It especially worried me because Jo, a trans girl, was there listening to April and mermaid Harlow talk about how cool the “merwomyn” and their “MerFest” were, while I was afraid that she wouldn’t be invited to go hang out with the merwomyn with the rest of her friends. So I was extremely happy to see when, in Issue #20, Harlow is trying to apologize to Taylor and Taylor says “You let me down, Harlow… and you keep using “merwomyn,” which is a super harmful movement.” I’m really glad that the Lumberjanes team stepped up and talked about how a lot of groups that consider themselves queer or women or feminist friendly use some really exclusionary and oppressive language.

With Issue #21, we saw the beginning of a new storyline and the introduction of a new artist, the wonderful Carey Pietsch, who you might remember from her terrific comics about witches and magic. This issue was straight up wonderful. It’s always nice to see a new artist offer their take on the girls, and Pietsch’s Lumberjanes are delightful and adorable. We also get to meet a cool new character, a big, buff, nautical expert who works at the camp and also happens to be a werewolf. I can’t wait to read more about her and the selkies who say that she stole one of their pelts.

After Noelle Stevenson left, making her the second series co-writer to leave (after Grace Ellis), I think some fans were worried that the series might lose some of its magic. But, especially with Issues #20 and #21, I feel like Leyh is really hitting her stride. And the book will always have really great colors as long as Laiho is doing them and really, really great lettering as long as Aubrey Aiese is on the book. Plus, co-creator Shannon Watters is still adding her touch. So if you stepped away from the book, I’d really suggest picking it back up. April, Jo, Mal, Molly, Ripley and Jen are just as awesome as ever.

New Releases (December 23)

Princeless: Make Yourself #0 (Action Lab)

Betty and Veronica Comics Double Digest #239 (Archie Comics)

Adventure Time: Marceline Gone Adrift TPB (Boom!)

Gunnerkrigg Court Vol. 2: Research TPB (Boom!)

Teen Dog TPB (Boom!)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 10 #22 (Dark Horse)

Batman and Robin Eternal #12 (DC)

DC Comics Bombshells #7 (DC)

X-Files X-Mas Special 2015 (IDW)

Pretty Deadly #7 (Image)

Saga #32 (Image)

Angela: Queen of Hel #3 (Marvel)

Darth Vader #14 (Marvel)

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #2 (Marvel)

Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat #1 (Marvel)

Spider-Woman #2 (Marvel)

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Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com.

Top 11 Times This Year Pop Culture Reminded Us Kids Are Queer and Trans Too

One of my absolute favorite things to write about is queer representation in all-ages and young adult media. Being young and queer can be super confusing, and if you don’t know where to find other people like you, it can be super lonely and super depressing. If you can’t find anyone who’s like you and your age, you might turn to books, TV, movies, comics or other media to try to find someone, anyone, who reflects you back at yourself. We need to see ourselves, we need to see possibilities for our future.

I’m going to keep on championing queer representation in all-ages media until my dying breath. As long as queer kids are taking their own lives, as long as young lesbians are told that their crushes on other girls are just fleeting feelings that all straight girls have and as long as trans girls as young as age six are treated as sexual deviants who shouldn’t be allowed to use the bathroom, we’re going to need TV shows, comic books, novels and all sorts of other media that counters the dangerous and misleading information queer kids hear every day. These are some of the best examples of that from this past year.

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1. The Legend of Korra has Korra and Asami Portal Off Into the Sunset

This technically happened in late December, but the shock waves are still being felt. After four seasons of fans shipping the main character, Korra, with one of the members of Team Avatar, Asami, in this cartoon sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender, the show’s creators rewarded their patience by ending the show with the two women holding hands and walking into a portal to the Spirit World together. If this wasn’t clear enough, the showrunners confirmed that the two were a couple and that both were bisexual. Although their relationship wasn’t shown very explicitly on the actual show, this was the first time many young queer people (and especially queer people of color) got to see someone like them end up in a happy relationship on a show designed for them.

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2. Jeff on Clarence has Two Moms

In the Cartoon Network show Clarence, one of the main character’s best friends has two moms. Jeff’s two moms, EJ and Sue, first showed up last December in the episode “Jeff Wins,” and have reappeared, including this summer in the episode “Breehn Ho!” While they’re far from main characters on the show, they still go a long way in helping queer kids, and kids with two moms feel less alone.

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3. Princeless introduces a Queer Pirate Princess

The all-ages comic book series Princeless has long been showing girls that they can be whatever or whomever they want to be, including their own heroes. With the introduction of a new princess, Raven Xingtao, to the series, the book also sent the message that girls who like girls deserve to have heroes too. Raven is the daughter of the Pirate King, and in her first appearances, she develops a crush on Adrienne, the series’ protagonist. While that crush didn’t work out, Raven is now starring in her own series, Raven: The Pirate Princess, meant for slightly older readers, where she gets to continue to go on adventures and flirt with fellow female pirates.

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4. Help Us! Great Warrior Shows that Trans Women can be Great Warriors Too

This limited series, written and illustrated by Madeleine Flores and with colors by Trillian Gunn, was a super fun fantasy comic that featured Leo, a trans girl of color, as the best friend and co-warrior to the titular Great Warrior. This comic is great for young readers and makes it clear that Leo is trans without being awkward about it and without putting her through any pain because of it. While it’s important to show that trans women are often the targets of violence and oppression, it’s also good to show that sometimes being trans is just one part of who a person is and it doesn’t always mean sadness and fear.

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5. Steven Universe Loudly Becomes the Queerest Show on TV

When it comes to Steven Universe, there’s a lot to say. Early in the year, in the episode “Alone, Together,” Steven and his best friend, a girl named Connie, fuse into one person, the wonderfully genderqueer Stevonnie, who looks a little feminine of gender-neutral and uses “they” pronouns. Then, in the episode “Jail Break,” we find out that one of the Crystal Gems, Garnet, is really a fusion of two gems, Ruby and Sapphire, who are so in love with each other that they prefer to always be fused. This character is literally two small lesbians combined into one big lesbian.

As we learn more about other characters on the show, we see that another one of the Gems, Pearl, has long held strong romantic, but unrequited, feelings toward Steven’s mother Rose Quartz. In another episode, Steven proudly and gleefully puts on a friend’s skirt and crop top and sings and dances on stage. This isn’t played for laughs or to be weird; this is Steven having a great time and expressing himself. Finally, at the end of the season, a new Gem, Peridot, joins the team. After formerly being an enemy, she straight up romantic-comedy-style tackles another Gem, Amethyst, and looks down at her, blushing. These alien space rocks are just really, really gay.

This is a show for kids and about kids (and some alien space rocks), and it has more queer characters than just about any other show on TV. And these characters are mostly coded as women of color. And they all get complex, fleshed-out, well-written storylines. Compared to what was allowed just a year or two ago on cartoons, Steven Universe is in a completely different universe.

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6. Peach and Plum share a kiss and Become a Couple in Bravest Warriors #33

Kate Leth and Ian McGinty had been having Peach and Plum, two female characters in their Bravest Warriors comic, flirt with each other ever since Peach was introduced in issue #26. This series is based on the animated web series created by Adventure Time’s Pendleton Ward, making it yet another franchise (along with Adventure Time and Steven Universe, created by former AT writer and artist Rebecca Sugar) that branched out from that series and features queer women in all-ages media. This comic went a step farther than a lot of other cartoons and all-ages comics and actually had Plum, one of the main characters, kiss Peach, right there on the page.

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7. Trans Teenager Jazz Jennings Gets a TV Show

Jazz Jennings has long been in the spotlight, making speeches, fighting for her rights and even co-writing a children’s book, but this year she took the next step when she and her family starred in a reality show for TLC. I Am Jazz followed her as she struggled to fit in, figure out if she wanted to date, and face the fact that she would be starting high school soon. Seeing a real-life trans girl go through a lot of the same struggles that other trans girls go through, all while her family stood right beside her is a huge thing for trans kids who want to know that they’ll be okay. The series was just picked up for a second season.

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8. Lumberjanes, Already Full of Queer Characters, Has Jo Come Out as Trans

Lumberjanes was already an excellent, groundbreaking and pretty queer book when issue #17 came out and forever changed the face of trans representation in comics. In this issue, Jo, one of the protagonists of the book, has a conversation with Barney, a Scouting Lad who’s been hanging out with the girls and talking about how he feels like he doesn’t know where he belongs. Jo offers support and understanding and tells him that he reminds her of a younger version of herself, a version of herself if she hadn’t been allowed to be the girl that she is. This issue was one of the best of the year, and Jo is the most prominent trans character ever in an all-ages comic.

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9. Nimona is a Finalist for a National Book Award

This graphic novel by Noelle Stevenson, one of the writers for Lumberjanes, is about a shapeshifting girl and the villain and hero whose lives she interrupts. It’s an excellent look at identity, different ways to be a girl, good and evil and sharks with boobs. Nimona very deservedly made a bunch of Best Of lists and was one of just a handful of graphic novels or comics to ever be nominated for a National Book Award. Additionally, Stevenson is the youngest ever finalist. To have such a prestigious award recognize a book like this helps to show people that books by and for queer women aren’t just niche, they can be mainstream.

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10. Maggie Thrash Talks About Coming Out at Camp in Honor Girl

Maggie Thrash’s memoir, Honor Girl, is one of the best books to come out this year, and one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read. It picks right up in the tradition of Fun Home and Skim in crafting a genius work of graphic storytelling about a queer girl coming of age. While the story of falling in love with a female counselor at summer camp, becoming a top target shooter and dealing with being queer in a place that isn’t queer friendly is all Thrash’s, the book will resonate with queer women everywhere.

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11. Best-Selling YA Author James Dawsom Comes Out as a Trans Woman

In October, James Dawson (who is still using the name James and “he” pronouns for now), one of the best selling YA authors in England, announced that he is a trans woman and will start transitioning. It’s a big deal to see someone with such a bright profile in the world of YA Lit come out publicly as a trans woman, and hopefully, many of readers will be inspired by him to either come out themselves or be better allies.

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12. Adventure Time Miniseries “Stakes” Goes Deeper into Marceline and Bubblegum’s Relationship

In a lot of ways Bubblegum and Marceline are the cat-rescuing, vegan farm-owning lesbian grandmas of the all-ages crowd. People have been considering them canonically queer since way back in 2011. This year, we saw the miniseries “Stakes,” which explored Marceline the Vampire Queen’s past, her present identity crisis and her future relationship with Bubblegum. There were a lot of longing glances and fond caresses and a really cute scene where Marceline dreams of the two of them growing old together.

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This year was a pretty good one for queer representation in all-ages media, but there’s always a need for more. Hopefully, by this time next year, we’ll look back at 2015 and laugh at the thought that this is what was considered “a lot of queer characters” in cartoons, comics and books for kids.

Drawn to Comics: Last Year I Wished for 12 Things in Comics; Here’s What I Got

At the beginning of this year I wrote an article in which I talked about 12 things I was hoping for in comics in 2015. Some of those things happened and then some; some of them, not so much. I’m going to take a look back at the things I put on that list, whether or not they happened, and what I’m hoping for in 2016. I think that while this was far from a perfect year, there were a lot of great things that happened for women and queer people in comics this year. While not all the things I hoped for happened exactly the way I wanted them too, there were a lot of things that made me happy. But there’s always room for improvement in 2016.

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1. More Trans Women in Comics

Yes! This was, in my opinion, the best year ever for trans women characters in comics. Madeleine Flores and Trillian Gunn’s all-ages comic Help Us! Great Warrior introduced us to the trans warrior Leo. In Batgirl #45 Barbara Gordon was the maid of honor in Alysia Yeoh’s wedding. Sera continued to be one of the best written characters in all of Marvel comics in 1602: Witchhunter Angela and Angela: Queen of Hel where she gets to make out with the title character. Over in The Wicked + The Divine we found out that Cassandra is in fact one of the Pantheon. Alysia popped up again over in DC Comics Bombshells as a member of the terrific team of Batgirls. Of course, no recap of trans women in comics would be complete without talking about Jo from Lumberjanes. In a very touching issue she talks about being trans and finding her community in the Lumberjanes with Barney, a Scouting Lad who’s having some of his own identity issues.

Trans women aren’t just appearing on the pages, though. Artist Sophie Campbell is doing a brilliant job over at Jem and the Holograms and Oni Press recently announced that it will be reissuing her book Wet Moon with new cover art and her correct name. Also, when Tess Fowler took over as artist for Rat Queens, Tamra Bonvillain, another trans woman, joined the team as colorist.

What I’m hoping for next

A trans woman superhero. I’ve said this before, but when most people think of comics, they think of superheroes; they think of people who put on a costume and fight crime. In Marguerite Bennett’s DC Comics Bombshells Alysia Yeoh is filling this role with tons of adorableness, pluck and fun, but that’s an alternative universe story. I want a mainstream, canonical trans woman superhero at DC or Marvel.

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Captain Marvel (or another new woman superhero) to show up in Avengers: Age of Ultron or Ant-Man

There was definitely no Captain Marvel, and The Wasp sort of did show up in the after-credits scene in Ant-Man in the form of Hope Van Dyne looking at a Wasp suit, but it was in a really condescending scene where we were told “it’s about damn time” even though the only ones who made us wait this long were the people at Marvel. Additionally, Captain Marvel got pushed back for the second time, this time all the way to March 2019, and in her place, Marvel offered up a sequel to Ant-Man called Ant-Man and The Wasp. So that means the MCU will have released 20 movies over 11 years before it releases a single movie with a female lead. For shame, Marvel, for shame.

What I’m hoping for next

For the MCU to start respecting its female fans, or at least acting like we exist. Toys and other MCU merchandise often leaves out the female characters from the movies, which is doubly bad because there are barely any women there in the first place. Then, when they announced that they were pushing back Captain Marvel, they acted like female fans should be happy because they’re giving The Wasp, an original Avenger, second billing in the sequel to one of their worst movies. I mean, come on, we’re getting a third Thor movie and a Doctor Strange movie before we get a movie starring a woman.

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3. For Skye or Simmons or Melinda May or Bobbi Morse to come out on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

NOPE. Instead, each one of those women have had multi-episode storylines focusing on their romantic relationships with men. I try to love this show, but the heterosexuality is so heavy-handed it’s ridiculous.

On the other hand, we did get Marvel’s Jessica Jones, an amazing Netflix show that featured three(!) lesbian characters and hinted at a queer identity for Jessica herself.

What I’m hoping for next

Angie to return in Season 2 of Agent Carter and maybe (please) for a bit of Peggy/Angie action. This new season moves from New York to Hollywood and so right now it’s looking like Peggy’s best pal/favorite flirting partner Angie isn’t making the trip with her. I know it’s unlikely in real life that such a major character would be revealed to be bisexual on ABC, but I can still hope, right?

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4. More screen time for Renee Montoya on Gotham, and maybe a longterm girlfriend for her

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. NOPE.

What I’m hoping for next

Since this seems like a lost cause, I’m hoping for Sara Lance to get a girlfriend on the upcoming Legends of Tomorrow. She had a few kisses with her girlfriend Nyssa al Ghul before she was killed on Arrow, but I haven’t heard anything about Nyssa joining her back from the dead, and Katrina Law, the actress who plays Nyssa, has been tight-lipped about her character’s presence on that show. So whether it’s Nyssa or someone else, I just really want to see some queer superhero (or antihero) action on my TV.

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5. More women — and especially women of color and queer women — creators, especially at The Big Two

Well, the numbers aren’t great, but they’re maybe better than last year? These numbers are all over the place, with DC sometimes having as many as 32 creators on 25 books (in April) and sometimes as low as 16 creators on 15 books (in July) and Marvel having as many as 20 creators on 26 books (in March) and as few as 8 creators on 9 books (in January). There are a few bright spots, but the numbers are still pretty dang bad.

What I’m hoping for next

Literally just the same thing, I want more women, especially queer women and women of color (and qtwoc), creators. None of the numbers are actually good when you look at them from a percentage perspective. But still, January solicits show 31 creators on 20 books at DC and 20 women on 14 books at Marvel, which are good numbers for those companies. February drops a bit with 21 creators on 19 books at DC. There are a few books I’m looking forward too, like Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, which has Amy Reeder, Natacha Bustos and Tamra Bonvillain on the team; Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat! by Kate Leth and Brittney Williams; and DC Comics Bombshells, written by Marguerite Bennett and featuring a lot of different artists, many of them women. Books like those, with teams full of women, including some queer women and woc, are extremely important to comics and we need more books like them.

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6. No more rape in Batwoman, and for Batwoman to get a new series now that hers is ending

Well, since her series is over, there’s no more rape, but she doesn’t have a new series, so, yeah.

What I’m hoping for next

Well, a new Batwoman series would sure be nice. She’s one of DC Comic’s most iconic characters and, after the bisexual Catwoman and maybe Harley Quinn, probably the most iconic queer character in comics. It’s bonkers that she doesn’t have her own title right now.

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7. The second volume of Pretty Deadly

YES! Have you read the new issue of Pretty Deadly? It’s gorgeous and weird and wonderful.

What I’m hoping for next

For the Wicked + The Divine tv show (produced by Milkfed Criminal Masterminds, the company owned by DeConnick and her husband Matt Fraction) to be as queer as the comic, including keeping Cassandra, a trans woman of color. How amazing would it be to see a TV show filled with people of color and queer people and queer people of color, including a trans woman of color, who are all literal gods? That’s my dream; that’s what every TV show should be.

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8. Miss America Chavez to show up again on a regular basis

While she doesn’t have her own solo series, she did show up in two this summer’s Secret Wars comics, A-Force and Siege. And now that the All-New All-Different Marvel lineup has debuted, she’s a regular member of the Ultimates along with Blue Marvel, Spectrum, Captain Marvel, Black Panther and Singularity. Yay for America Chavez!

What I’m hoping for next

Well, since the Marvel comics are doing a teeny tiny bit better at including women of color in their comics, how about that happens in the MCU? Seriously, the MCU is one of the whitest places in the multiverse. On Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. there are a few women like Melinda May and Daisy, in Avengers: Age of Ultron there was Dr. Helen Cho and on Daredevil (and one episode of Jessica Jones) there’s Claire Temple, but that’s pretty much it. Earlier I said that Jessica Jones is an amazing show, and I do love it, but it has a serious flaw in that it barely features any women of color. But this is just par for the course when it comes to the MCU. If I’m not mistaken, Reina, a villain on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the most prominent Black woman in the entire MCU, which is incredibly ridiculous as she wasn’t really that prominent on the show. Marvel needs to step up and start including women of color in their movies and TV shows, with each movie and episode the problem is just becoming more and more insulting.

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9. For Renee Montoya, Cass Cain and Steph Brown to become permanent members of the New 52 Universe

This is one of the few things on this list that’s actually totally happening right now! Renee is a regular in Detective Comics, Cass is in Batman & Robin Eternal and Steph has popped up in a bunch of places in the Bat-verse. Yay!

What I’m hoping for next

For more women of color heroes, like Renee Montoya and Cass Cain, to get prominent roles in comics. Representation matters! I say it over and over again. I’m really glad that Monica Rambeau is back at Marvel in the Ultimates title, that Ms. Marvel is a member of the All-New All-Different Avengers team, that we have the new series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and that the new Blade series is going to be about the original character’s daughter, but both Marvel and DC really need more women of color in prominent spots in their comics.

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10. More comics characters to come out

Well, this year we’ve got confirmation that Harley and Ivy are a couple and that Catwoman is bisexual. Over at Marvel, Angela, who is the star of her own title, was shown to be in a relationship with her trans woman partner Sera; and Iceman, one of the most famous X-Men, came out as gay. Jo from the Lumberjanes came out as trans, as did Porcelain in Secret Six. Also, did you know that Jughead from the Archie comics is asexual?

What I’m hoping for next

More of the same. I won’t be happy until every comic book has at least one trans character and one gay character. I really don’t think that’s too much to ask for.

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11. More comics creators to try to make things better

DC really stepped up and when they published the first trade paperback of The Batgirl of Burnside, they took out the transmisogynistic lines and changed a lot of dialogue. That’s how you show that you’ve learned and that you care about trans readers. Over at Image, when Kelly Sue DeConnick was starting to write trans characters, she put out a call for trans comic book fans that she could consult with (one of them was me). Other creators are doing the same thing, trying to make sure that they avoid harmful and incorrect tropes and stereotypes.

What I’m hoping for next

Again, more of the same. Comics as a whole still have a long way to go before they’re actually a doing a good job when it comes to hiring women, people of color and queer people, and including those characters in their books.

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12. Legend of Korra comics that show some sweet Korrasami action

While these haven’t come out yet, the creators did promise that their relationship would be a big focus. Also, Brittney Williams will be doing the art for the series!

What I’m hoping for next

For even more all-ages comics to feature queer characters. This was a good year for all-ages and YA comics and queer comics, Boom! Studios had a bunch, with Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Lumberjanes, Help Us! Great Warrior and Giant Days, and the youth-focused Batgirl has Alysia Yeoh and Frankie, but it would be really cool to see DC and Marvel include more queer characters in their books aimed at younger readers.

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New Releases (December 9)

InSEXts #1 (Aftershock)

Betty and Veronica Friends Comics Annual #246 (Archie Comics)

Adventure Time #47 (Boom!)

Giant Days #9 (Boom!)

Harrow County #8 (Dark Horse)

Batman & Robin Eternal #10 (DC)

Catwoman #47 (DC)

DC Comics Bombshells #6 (DC)

Gotham Academy #13 (DC)

Harley Quinn Vol 2: Power Outage TPB (DC)

Harley Quinn Vol 3: Kiss Kiss Bang Stab HC (DC)

Starfire #7 (DC

Codename Baboushka: The Conclave of Death #3 (Image)

Monstress #2 (Image)

All-New Hawkeye #2 (Marvel)

Gwenpool Special #1 (Marvel)

Runaways: Battleworld TPB (Marvel)

Scarlet Witch #1 (Marvel)

Spider-Gwen #3 (Marvel)

Star Wars Annual #1 (Marvel)

Ultimates #2 (Marvel)

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Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com.

Top 10 Queer and Feminist Books of 2015

2015 has been really awesome for giving us all a ton of new queer and/or feminist things to read! Here are some of the best.

The Top 10 Queer and Feminist Books of 2015

10. The Feminist Utopia Project: Fifty-Seven Visions of a Wildly Better Future, edited by Alexandra Brodsky and Rachel Kauder Nalebuff

This collection of essays, interviews, stories, poems and visual art from contributors like Janet Mock, Mia McKenzie, Sheila Heti, Melissa Gira Grant, Yumi Sakugawa and others aims to envision not just a dreamy future but a better one. In her review at Autostraddle, Maddie writes:

“Instead of laying out a definitive blueprint or roadmap or set of ideals, Brodsky and Nalebuff invite the reader to join them and their diverse team of contributors in a creative and collective thought experiment to imagine what the world could be. This book is not a manual to create The Feminist Utopia; it is a process that you are invited to share in.”

9. I Must Be Living Twice: New and Selected Poems 1975–2014, by Eileen Myles

This sizeable new collection, along with a reissue of Chelsea Girls, has arguably (finally) brought Eileen Myles to the forefront of the collective literary consciousness and “nothing less than the foremost lesbian poet-hero of our time.” At the Poetry Society of America, Maggie Nelson writes:

“I’ve always been fascinated, both as a feminist and a human being, in the question of where culture begins and individual humans end, especially as (human) culture is made of human beings — human beings who live in bodies, the bodies of human animals, human animals capable of making speech. Eileen has spent the past four decades plumbing these questions in poems, stories, novels, art criticism, manifestos, public performances, mentoring, journalism, teaching, and more, with more experiment, hilarity, provocation, electricity, and doggedness than any writer I know of.”

8. How to Grow Up: A Memoir, by Michelle Tea

Michelle Tea, author of Valencia and other rad things, discusses her evolution in this essay collection slash memoir. At the Rumpus, Antonia Crane writes:

“How to Grow Up is Tea’s most commercial memoir to date, because it’s a refined and polished narrative that begins with Tea in her seedy digs in the Mission as a struggling writer and ends with our fierce heroine blossoming into a woman with a successful writing career and a baby. However, How to Grow Up still contains all of Michelle Tea’s signature lust for life as she trots towards her own colorful version of adulthood, motherhood, and recovery, reminding us that there’s hope after all—even for spirited pirates who have gotten lost on the path towards maturity.”

7. Asking For It: The Alarming Rise Of Rape Culture — And What We Can Do About It, by Kate Harding

In Asking For It, Harding discusses recent issues in rape culture, including rape jokes, false reports and racism, rape kits, blame, current cases and more. In a review at the Los Angeles Times, Rebecca Carroll writes:

“The fundamentals are here — consent, politics, trolls and police accountability. But throughout, Harding offers a fluid, urgent and clear message that ends on a hopeful note. Pointing to the spike in conversations about rape on social media and in comedy series like ‘The Mindy Project,’ as well as to Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia University student who turned her rape into a performance piece for her senior thesis by carrying a twin mattress around with her on campus, Harding writes: ‘it feels more as if a dam has finally burst. It feels as if maybe, finally, this conversation won’t taper off until sexual violence does.'”

6. Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life, by Emily Nagoski

Research, brain science and sexuality come together in this exploration of desire and response that upends cultural ideas of normalcy. In an op-ed in the New York Times, Nagoski says:

“There is no reason to suspect that responsive or spontaneous desire is innate. In fact all desire is somewhat responsive, even when it feels spontaneous. But Dr. Heath and Sprout are both part of the long history of trying to call ‘diseased’ what is simply different.

When a woman experiencing responsive desire comes to understand how to make the most of her desire, she opens up the opportunity for greater satisfaction. Outdated science isn’t going to improve our sex lives. But embracing our differences — working with our sexuality, rather than against it — will.”

5. Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home, by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Lambda-Award-winning author Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha tells her own story in the autobiographical poetic Dirty River. In an email published on Little Red Tarot, she writes:

“What started as a desire to write ‘the brown girl’s version of Valencia‘ turned into a desire to try and write about some of the hardest times in my life, my early 20s where I ran away from home and the United States to deal with my family’s legacy of childhood sexual abuse, internalized racism and displacement from Sri Lanka. I also wanted to document late 90s queer of color, psychiatric survivor and queer punk of color community and life in Toronto, the city I love. To write a transformative justice childhood sexual abuse survival book that broke away from easy ideas of healing and was all queer, brown and weird everything.”

Bodymap, a collection of her poetry that Carmen calls “a tumultuous journey through otherhood, the fleeting things that change us, and the fights we have with ourselves in the mirror and in our heads,” came out this spring.

4. Lumberjanes Vol. 1, by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters, and Brooke Allen

Lumberjanes is the story of five girls at scout camp when weird shit starts happening. There are trans and genderqueer and POC characters and people swear by taking feminist names in vain and it’s earnest and sweet. In announcing Lumberjanes as the winner of multiple categories in Autostraddle’s 2015 Comic and Sequential Art Awards, Mey wrote:

“From its very first issue, Lumberjanes has been consistently delivering a diverse, complex and fun team of girls going off on adventures and being not only great friends, but also their own heroes. This book tells all girls that they deserve to have friends, do anything they put their minds to and be whomever they want to be. Plus, it’s simply one of the most consistently fun, funny and exciting comics out there.”

* Disclosure: I’m married to Shannon Watters, and Grace Ellis used to work for Autostraddle, but I would 100% recommend this book no matter what, SO.

3. The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson

The Argonauts is a part-memoir, part-theory accounting of Nelson’s relationship and queer family building. In an interview with the Rumpus, Nelson says:

“I have had a lot of ambivalence about the idea of family life, as you say. In fact, before I met Harry, “family” was not a word I ever really used or ever wanted to use, for all the familiar feminist, queer, and collectivity-based arguments against it. What became interesting via talking to him was how comfortable he was with the term, how he used it so widely and happily. It really amazed me. He would probably say this comfort came from years and years of living in a queer subculture, so that the concept for him always meant chosen family more than the nasty, privatized, oedipalized, sanctified, heterosexist, sentimentalized, used-as-an-excuse-to-persecute-all-perverts, and/or violent nuclear family. So that has probably had a profound influence on me. In some ways it was probably the condition of possibility that has allowed me to overcome my ambivalence enough to write something that could be called ‘a book about my family,’ words that still sound somewhat foreign to my ears.”

You might also remember The Argonauts from Autostraddle Book Club #8.

2. Under the Udala Trees, by Chinelo Okparanta

In this first novel by Chinelo Okparanta, two displaced girls fall in love against the backdrop of civil war in Nigeria. The resulting coming-of-age story “reads much like American lesbian novels of the 1950s,” writes Carol Anshaw in a review in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. In an interview with the Rumpus, Okparanta says:

“The situation in Nigeria is not all that different from many places around the world. After the publication of this book, I’ve been shocked by a handful of people here in the United States who have come up to me and said things along the lines of, ‘Well, we’ve moved on from that. Same-sex marriage is now legal in the United States, so what’s the point writing that book?’ I look at the people making the statement and I can just smell the privilege wafting out of them like perfume. And, I think to myself: this is the problem with privilege. When we live in our own privileged little bubble, it is convenient to pretend that all is well with the world, that everyone enjoys the same privileges that we do. We conveniently forget that there are others, sometimes our very own next-door neighbors, who suffer in ways that we do not. I think the novel is a testament to this: a reminder that just because we perceive ourselves free does not mean that everyone is indeed free.”

1. Girl Sex 101, by Allison Moon and K.D. Diamond

Girl Sex 101 is the ultimate roadmap to girl-on-girl sex. It’s friendly, trans- and genderqueer-inclusive, depicts all sorts of bodies, is sex positive and is the number one sex book to read right now. As quoted in “9 Sex-Life-Changing Tips From ‘Girl Sex 101,’” Moon writes:

“The thing to remember is that you’re allowed to seek and have the sex you want. You are allowed to choose your partners, choose to be celibate, choose to be slutty, choose to be monogamous, and choose to have sex solo or in groups. You get to have consensual sex when you want, as often as you want, with whomever you want. That is your right as a human in this world.”

Honorable Mentions, In The Order That Made Their Covers Look Most Aesthetically Pleasing In The Below Graphic

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl: A Memoir, by Carrie Brownstein

Queer Brown Voices: Personal Narratives of Latina/o LGBT Activism, edited by Uriel Quesada, Letitia Gomez and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz

God Help The Child: A Novel, by Toni Morrison

SuperMutant Magic Academy, by Jillian Tamaki

The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters

Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson

The Gap of Time: The Winter’s Tale Retold, by Jeanette Winterson

Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings, by Shirley Jackson

The First Bad Man: A Novel, by Miranda July

Kicking Off Trans Awareness Week, the Trans Stories of the Past Year, Recapped

It’s Trans Awareness Week, the week leading up to Trans Day of Remembrance on November 20th. When we say that Autostraddle is website primarily for queer women, we want to be 100% clear that that includes queer trans women and that it’s important to honor trans women year-round, not just in obituaries. So all week long we’re going to be spotlighting articles by and about trans women, with a special focus on trans women of color. We hope you’ll love reading everything as much as we’ve loved writing and editing it.

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It’s November 14, and the first day of Trans Awareness Week. Awareness, at its most basic level, is just knowing what is happening in the world of trans people, or in our case, mostly specifically trans women. So to start the week off, I’m going to take a look back at some of the trans news, coverage and stories that we’ve featured in the past year.

Not every trans story from the past year is going to be featured here, there are tons of trans women and I’m just one person. The point of this list is just to provide a cursory glance at the lives of trans people and the trans coverage we’ve had here on Autostraddle in the past year, so please forgive me if I miss a few things.

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November

30th – Amazon Prime’s Emmy winning show about a transgender woman, Transparent, hired Our Lady J as its first trans staff writer.

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December

5th – Just two short weeks after Trans Day of Rememberance 2014, another Black trans woman was murdered. Her name was Deshawnda Sanchez.

12th – With issue #37, Batgirl undid the good faith they had built with trans fans. The comic had featured Alysia Yeoh, one of the first trans characters in  mainstream comics, but in this issue they relied on tired transmisogynistic stereotypes with their villain and even had Batgirl herself shout out “you’re a man” when she pulled off the villain’s wig. The creative team was quick to apologize, though, reached out to trans women to figure out how they could do better, and even changed the issue for the trade paperback. Way to step up.

19th – New York State decided to start including trans healthcare in their state Medicaid coverage.

22nd – A group of trans women of color were featured on the cover of Candy Magazine, and reminded us that living as a TWOC is a radical act. Some of the trans women featured include Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, Geena Rocero, Isis King, Juliana Huxtable and Gisele and Carmen Xtravaganza.

30th – 17 year old trans girl Leelah Alcorn committed suicide, sparking a national conversation about how dangerous so-called reparative therapy is for trans youth.

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January

6th – Trans Lifeline, a suicide for and staffed by trans people, is here to help you out.

7th – If you want to read about a badass trans blacksmith, you can read Willow Zietman talk about her life.

8th – B. Binaohan ruminated on listening to living trans women and #JusticeForLeelahAlcorn.

9th – Papi Edwards, a Black trans woman, was murdered in Louisville, Kentucky.

13th – We wrote about Witchy, a webcomic about Asian witches who get magic from their hair. And it co-stars a teenage trans witch of color.

13th – Incarcerated trans woman LeslieAnn Manning sued New York State after being raped in prison.

14th – Madeleine Flores talked about her new comic Help Us! Great Warrior, which features a TWOC as a co-star.

17th – Lamia Beard became the second Black trans woman murdered in just eight days when she was killed in Norfolk, Virginia.

26th – For the third time in less than three weeks, a Black trans woman was murdered. This time it’s Ty Underwood in Tyler, Texas.

29th – We interviewed Londyn Smith de Richelieu about appearing on Love Thy Sister.

31st – Yazmin Vash Payne, from Los Angeles, became the fourth trans woman of color murdered in the US in January.

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February

1st – Just one day after Yazmin Vash Payne was murdered, another TWOC, Taja Gabrielle DeJesus, was murdered in San Francisco.

3rd – I asked if Image comics, with at least four trans women characters, is doing trans women’s representation better than anyone else.

10th – Penny Proud was murdered in New Orleans, becoming at least the 6th trans woman murdered this year.

12th – Bryn Mawr widened its admission guidelines to allow trans women.

16th – Kristina Gomez Reinwald was murdered in Miami. At this point, a trans woman of color is being murdered about once a week in the US.

17th – Sera from Angela: Asgard’s Assassin and later, 1602: Witchhunter Angela and Angela: Queen of Hel is the closest thing we have to a trans superhero at this point.

21st – HUD told homeless shelters to stop discriminating against trans people.

22nd – Sumaya Dalmar, a Somali-Canadian trans woman, was murdered in Toronto.

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March

1st – Charges against Monica Jones, a Black trans woman, were finally dropped after she was initially convicted of “manifesting prostitution,” a crime many trans advocates referred to as “walking while trans.”

7th – Keyshia Blige, a Black trans woman, was murdered in Aurora, Illinois.

8th – Wellesley College opened its doors to trans women.

10th – Mari watched the movie Boy Meets Girl, about a bisexual trans women played by a trans woman actor, and liked it a lot.

13th – Trans teenager Jazz Jennings starred in a commercial and got her own reality show on TLC.

17th – As a transgender lesbian, I take up two letters in LGBT and I don’t want to have to choose a side.

18th – Raquel Willis talked about the “tragic” humanity of Black trans women.

23rd – In Boise, Idaho, DW Trantham, a transgender girl, stood up to angry and transmisogynistic parents who withdrew their daughter from school because DW was allowed to use the girl’s bathroom.

30th – Mya Hall, a Black trans woman with a history of mental illness, was shot by NSA security when she drives into a security checkpoint.

31st – Here are 18 songs by trans artists and bands with trans musicians in them.

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April

2nd – The 2015 Trans 100 was announced and I talked to the women on the list about how we can all support trans women.

7th – As capitalizing on the stories of trans women started becoming a media trend, a bunch of TV shows about and starring trans women were announced.

8th – Discovery Life aired a trans docuseries called New Girls on the Block about a group of trans women living in Kansas City.

25th – In an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC, Caitlyn Jenner came out as a trans woman, making her the most famous trans person in the US. Caitlyn Jenner’s coming out is probably the biggest trans news story of the year alongside the terrifying and tragic record number of reported murders of trans women, almost all of whom have been trans women of color.

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May

4th – Janet Mock was absolutely amazing on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday.

4th – Smith College, a women’s college, will start accepting trans women.

15th – In a very unsurprising article, Audrey writes about how trans women prisoners suffer most from failures to stop prison rape.

18th – ABC Family’s show Becoming Us isn’t exactly the transgender reality show we hoped it would be.

18th – After a whole month(!) without any reported murders of trans women in the US, London Chanel was murdered in Philadelphia.

30th – Mercedes Williamson, from Rocky Creek, Alabama, became the second trans woman murdered this month and at least the 10th this year.

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June

1st – While we were up at A-Camp, Caitlyn Jenner made her debut on the cover of Vanity Fair.

1st – A crack team of A-Camp staffers put together this list of 16 ways to make queer women’s spaces more friendly to trans women.

8th – Barnard College, a women’s college in New York City, announced that it will start accepting trans women!

8th – Luna Merbruja and Lexi Adsit talked to us about their TWOC storytelling revolution, Brouhaha.

12th – Caitlyn Jenner is a Pretty Big Deal on the internet, here’s what we said about how we’re going to cover her.

21st – Mari talked about how she rebuilt her relationship with her father after coming out for Autostraddle Plus.

22 – The Autostraddle staff watched the Netflix series Sense8, co-starring Jamie Clayton, a trans woman, and co-created by Lana Wachowski, another trans woman. We had very mixed feelings on it.

23rd – Jasmine Collins, a Black trans woman, is murdered in Kansas City, Missouri.

29th – US Immigration officials released a memo saying that they plan on improving their placement and treatment of trans immigrants in their detention centers, but the fight for justice for these immigrants isn’t over.

30th – The Girl Scouts of Western Washington turned down a $100,000 donation because it was given on the condition that they exclude trans girls.

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July

6th – Maddie showed you how to talk to your parents about being better trans allies if you’re cis.

13th – I watched Tangerine, a film starring two trans women of color, and liked it a lot.

14th – Ashton O’Hara was murdered in Detroit. His (reports say he identifies as a trans woman and used he/him pronouns) murder is the beginning of the second huge wave of murders of TWOC in America this year.

15th – Caitlyn Jenner is awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2015 ESPY awards.

16th- Porcelain, a character in Gail Simone’s Secret Six, is shown to be genderfluid.

21st – One week after Ashton O’Hara is murdered, India Clarke was murdered in Tampa, Florida. Just over halfway through the year, more trans women had been murdered than we know were murdered in 2014.

23rd – K.C. Haggard was murdered in Fresno.

29th – Shade Schuler was murdered in Dallas, making her the third trans woman murdered in nine days.

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August

6th – Lexi Adsit writes a terrific list of 24 actions needed to help trans women of color survive in a time when more are being murdered than ever before.

8th – Amber Monroe was the second Black trans woman murdered in Detroit in less than a month.

10th – Miss Major absolutely shuts down that horrible Stonewall movie’s version of one of the first major events of America’s LGBTQ history.

11th – Kicking off a week where three trans women of color are found murdered, Kandis Capri was killed in Phoenix.

13th – The body of Elisha Walker was discovered in Smithfield, North Carolina. She went missing late last year.

15th – Tamara Dominguez was the second trans woman of color murdered in Kansas City, Missouri this year. Four trans women of color have been found murdered in the first half of August.

19th – The director of About Ray, a new movie starring Elle Fanning as a young transgender boy, seems to not quite understand what a trans boy is.

20th – The White House hired its first openly trans staffer, Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, who will serve as Outreach and Recruitment Director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel.

26th – Issue #17 of Lumberjanes came out, where Jo, one of the main characters, talks about being a transgender girl. This is one of the best comic issues of the year and makes Jo the first transgender girl of color to star in a popular all-ages comic.

26th – Morgan Collado wrote about her experience watching Tangerine and how it seems like the only time trans women of color get to have our stories told is when we’re experiencing trauma.

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September

4th – The White House announced that it would start requiring insurers to cover transgender healthcare.

8th – I interviewed Jen Richards, Angelica Ross and Laura Zak about their upcoming webseries Her Story, about two trans women (played by Richards and Ross) who enter into new relationships, one with a man, one with a woman. It looks really amazing!

22nd – Gabby Bellot wrote this terrific essay about how to write about trans women.

24th – Maddie wrote about the mistreatment of queer and trans immigrants in “GBT pods.”

24th – Beth interviewed Blacksmith Willow Zietman about her awesome metalwork business.

29th – I interviewed Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst, two producers from Transparent, about their terrific docuseries This is Me.

30th – Law and Order aired its attempt at a Very Special Trans Episode. I, and other trans people, were not very pleased.

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October

6th – Keisha Jenkins, a Black trans woman, was murdered in Philadelphia. She was at least the 20th trans woman murdered this year and the 2nd murdered in Philadelphia.

8th – Presidential Candidate Hilary Clinton met with activists including Cherno Biko and discussed the murders of trans women of color, which she called a “national crisis.”

8th – California became the first US state to officially ban the use of “trans panic” defenses in court.

11th – Diane Rodriguez, a trans activist from Ecuador, announced that her boyfriend, Fernando Machado, is pregnant with her child. Congratulations!

13th – Argentinean trans activist Diana Sacayán was found murdered in her apartment in Buenos Aires. She worked with LGBT rights groups like Movimento Antidiscriminatorio de Liberación and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.

13th – CJ Bruce wrote about how Ch4’s docuseries “Girls to Men” mistreated, mislead and misused them.

15th – Samantha Azzarano, a former Walmart sales associate in New Jersey, sued her manager and the company for harassment. After she came out as trans, Sheena Wyckoff, the manager, started calling her trans slurs, yelling at her and writing her up without reason.

15th – Kroger, the nation’s largest supermarket chain, announced that it will provide full health benefits to trans employees starting in January 2016.

15th – Zella Ziona, a Black trans woman, was murdered in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She’s at least the 21st trans woman to be murdered in the US this year. According to police reports, she was murdered because she “began acting flamboyantly” and “greatly embarrassed” one of her friends in front of his peers.

19th – I tried to make a list of the 10 Best Cities for Trans Women and found out that no such list exists.

21st – Lee Daniels is creating a new show for Fox called Star that’s about a hip-hop girl group with four female leads. One of those leads will be an Afro-Latina trans woman, and the casting call is specifically looking for trans actors. This will be the first time a trans woman of color will be a lead character on a prime-time network show.

22nd – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he would extend the New York State Human Rights Law to protect trans people.

24th – Bestselling YA author James Dawson came out as a trans woman.

24th – Reina Gossett talked with Grace Dunham about transphobia, activism, empathy and violence.

27th – Drew wrote about her experiences trying to find self-love and embracing her natural hair as a Black trans woman.

28th – Legendary trans activist Sylvia Rivera became the first trans person to have a portrait in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

30th – How to Get Away With Murder had maybe the best Very Special Trans Episode ever.

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November

1st – Anry Fuentes, a trans girl in California, made her school’s varsity cheerleading squad after being kicked out of her home by her mom.

1st – MTV’s show Faking It announced that they were looking for trans actors for the upcoming 3rd season.

2nd – The Office of Civil Rights releases a report saying that a school in Illinois violated a trans girl’s Title IX rights when it refused her access to girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms.

3rd – Voters in Houston showed their transmisogynistic side when they voted down the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, which would have protected not only LGBTQ people, but also other protected classes like race and sex. HERO failed to pass largely because of commercials targeting trans women, claiming that the law would allow men to enter women’s bathrooms where they could assault bathroom users. Men going into women’s bathrooms and assaulting people would, of course, still be illegal, and trans women aren’t men, nor are there widespread (or really any) reports of trans women assaulting people in bathrooms, but this vote showed that transmisogyny is indeed a successful political strategy.

4th – Tangerine and Drunktown’s Finest, two movies starring trans women of color (Drunktown’s Finest was also written and directed by one) are available to watch online!

5th – Janet Mock marries Aaron Tredwell in what was probably one of the most beautiful weddings ever.

9th – The Out 100 honored trans women including Caitlyn Jenner, Candis Cayne, Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez of Tangerine, Hari Nef, Juliana Huxtable, Bamby Salcedo, Breanna Sinclairé, Jennicet Gutiérrez, Andreja Pejic and Jen Richards.

14th – The Bring Your Own Body exhibit ends in New York City. In this exhibit, trans artists showed their work alongside a selection of archival documents exploring the history of trans people’s lived experiences.

New York Comic Con 2015 PHOTOS: Everything Relevant to Your Queer Lady Nerd Interests

This year’s New York Comic Con was held October 8-11 in the Javits Center, New York City. It is the largest pop culture convention on the East Coast, and similar to last year, it contained a wealth of programming and exhibits relevant to all your queer lady nerd interests. Let’s take a look!

Tuesday, October 6

sHeroes: An Exhibition of Women Comic Book Artists Gallery Opening

Kicking off New York Super week (the broader festival that NYCC falls within), La Casa Azul hosted sHeroes: An Exhibition of Women Comic Book Artists on Tuesday.

“We started doing these panel discussions when we realized how important they are for the community, the marginalized community, who aren’t used to seeing us,” explained panel moderator Regine L. Sawyer. “When I say ‘us,’ we’re talking women, and particularly women of color. They didn’t know their children could make a living [making comics]. Whether it was a small living or a large living, that’s debatable, but it was a living. … We won’t stop. We’re not going anywhere.” 

Micheline Hess: “I’m seeing more artists of color do work for the larger and more mainstream comic companies. I hate using that as kind of a gage, but it is interesting. Ultimately, I mean, it’s hard to say whether they’re doing it because it’s a decision based on really needing that voice, or something to kind of mollify the comic book buying community that feels underrepresented. I think time will kind of tell with that.”

Alice Meichi Li: “It’s kind of become my mission to put my life experiences, my unique experiences and my unique view of the world, out there. That Storm piece was for Muddy Colors, which is an illustration blog. The art director asked a bunch of women illustrators to take a famous female character in comics or sci fi or fantasy and redesign it from a less objectified, more feminist stance. And you know, Storm wasn’t particularly objectified or anything, but I always had a problem with how her hair was always so long and straight. And her features, most people drew them pretty Caucasian. She was like a Caucasian woman with brown skin, for the most part. So I thought, I really wanted to see Storm in a fro hawk!”

Sara Woolley: “I wouldn’t have had the bravery [to enter the comics industry] if I didn’t have the support network I do. I have the amazing people of NYC Drink n’ Draw, some of whom are in the room. I have the amazing people of Women in Comics, all of whom are supporting each other and furthering each other’s artistic vision. I mean, I don’t know another community where I walked in and everyone is like: yes. Make your work. Do better. Make more. How can I help support you? That has been my experience in comics, and that’s made me want to keep making comics.”

Following the panel discussion, a reception was held upstairs in the bookstore. sHeroes will be on display at La Casa Azul through November 22.

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Wednesday, October 7

New York Super Week Food

For a limited time on Wednesday, Barcade Chelsea was serving NYCC’s official beer: Brooklyn Brewery’s first West Coast IPA, Defender Beer. I had a pint and it was caramel-y and delicious.

I also went to Eataly to check out their Comic Con special. It was… just regular gelato, really. But it helped tide me over.

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Thursday, October 8

Javits Center / Cosplayers / New York TimesOUT Presents LGBT in Comics

First day of the Con! I missed most of it because I had work, but I could see the convention center from my window.

When I ran over after work, the costumes were amazing, as always.

The first panel I attended this year was New York TimesOUT Presents LGBT in Comics. I was most excited to see Babs Tarr, the artist currently on Batgirl.

Speaking on community feedback following Batgirl‘s incident with transmisogynistic tropes, Babs said, “It was really positive. I think people really responded to our apology, especially when we had a chance to change the dialogue [in later print and digital editions of the comic] to make it more clear on what we wanted that character to be. It was really well received, and we’re really thankful for everyone being understanding and giving us that chance to grow and listen and do better.

Jennie Wood: “Flutter is actually a very personal story, minus the bells and whistles of shapeshifting, because I obviously can’t do that, those sci-fi elements. I grew up in a small Southern town and I wasn’t even out to myself yet. After school I would work in a movie theater, and all my male cousins would bring their girlfriends to the movies. And while they were in the movie theater making out, I was making popcorn and imagining what it would be like to be a guy so that I could bring a girl to the movies. Because if I was a girl — in that world, in that small town — a girl bringing her girlfriend to the movies didn’t exist. And that’s how Flutter was born.”

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Friday, October 9

Push Boundaries Forward: Gender, Diversity and Representation in Comic Books / Cosplayers / Camp Out with Lumberjanes!

I was at work again most of Friday, but I did get to the convention center for two pretty great panels at the end of the day.

Jeremy Whitley: “I think people tend to misunderstand the advice of ‘write what you know.’ People tend to interpret that as ‘work only from your own experience and your perspective.’ And that’s stupid. What ‘write what you know’ means is don’t write things uninformed. Don’t go into a story and just shoot from the hip. Like, you wouldn’t do that if you were writing a story about World War II. If it is more difficult for you to talk to a person of color than it is to research World War II, then you’re doing something wrong. … Honestly, diversity isn’t hard. You just can’t be lazy about it.”

Marjorie Liu: “Speaking as a person of color… when we write ourselves — if I write Asian American characters — I bear the burden of somehow having to write perfect Asian American characters. Because there are so few representations out there already, and so many of them malign us in really horrible ways. There is this added pressure to create, like, the perfect Chinese American girl, instead of just telling a story. It’s a really difficult burden to process, because in a way, being authentic means being imperfect.”

Shannon Watters: “That’s the dirty little secret, guys. You know, we focus a lot on the direct market. We focus a lot on superheroes, etc. But YA comics in the mass market — that’s bookstores — the amount of people that have bought, say, our very talented moderator’s book is four times the amount of basically the entire direct market’s readership. Hmm. So guess what, like, these [girls and women] are already the majority of comics readers. It’s true! This illusion that we’ve just showed up is a fallacy. We have to change the narrative in a big way.”

Also, there was a marriage proposal on stage at the Lumberjanes panel, and it was just the most adorable thing:

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Saturday, October 10

Cosplayers / Artist’s Alley / Women in Geek Media – The Sequel! / Secret Identities – Creating Transgender Characters in Comic Books

Saturday was my first full day of the Con. My friend Christine and I spent several hours loitering in the main entrance, people watching. We were not disappointed.

Jamie Broadnax: “I was the minority: I liked Fantastic Four. It was a decent film to me. You know, it really wasn’t as bad as everyone was making it out to be. But anyway, I got a lot of guys on Twitter that said “Oh, you liked it?” People assumed that I liked it because of Johnny Storm being Black. And it’s just like, really? Really dude? So I channeled my frustration, rather than just going back and forth on Twitter, by writing an article on it. … I really thought that it was a great way to, again, channel your frustration in a way that’s positive and that helps build you either as a writer or as a content creator. I think that that’s really important, rather than to go down that rabbit hole and just get frustrated and let someone steal your joy.”

Tara Madison Avery on what mainstream publishers can do to improve trans representation: “If we’re specifically talking about superhero books, give [trans characters] something to do. I mean, you’ve got to have something better than Batgirl’s roommate. Have them get involved in important parts of the story. If it’s about fighting crime, have them fight crime. If it’s about saving the world, have them out there staring down whoever it is this month that’s ready to blow the earth up. You know? Give them something important to do, rather than, ‘oh, I’m here, and I’m a character that checks off the social consciousness box this month.’ That’s the only way they’ll get popular. Superhero readership respects characters that kick butt. That’s one of the great pleasures of superhero comics, watching these impossibly powered people kick butt. So that’s what we need, I would suppose, if we’re talking about the big three.”

Sunday, October 11

The Block & Show Floor / Cosplayers / Culturally Queer: The Explosion of LGBTQ Representation in Mainstream Comics & Pop Culture

Jennifer Camper: “I think what’s interesting is that the mainstream is catching up, and they’re still a little bit behind. But when I show some of my old cartoons that to most queers are kind of dated, to a straight audience, they’re fresh and new and exciting because they haven’t really thought of these ideas as much as the queer community has. For diversity to happen in any culture, you need three things. You need creatives who are diverse. You need an audience who is willing to accept diverse stories and demand diverse stories. And you need people in power to promote diverse stories. And that’s only really started happening in the last, say, 20 years — and in the last five years in greater and greater degrees. We still have a long way to go, but when we look back, we’ve come a long way.”

Anne Ishii: “I think what’s happening now, which kind of blows my mind, is that I come from a generation that believes, for better or worse, that sex was the crux of all of this. Like, you identified by your sexual orientation. You identified by what turned you on, or didn’t turn you on, what was appropriate or inappropriate. And now I feel like that’s completely out of the equation when we talk about identity, whether it’s gender identity, or how we live, our lifestyle. I’m astonished to discover, even with our products, it’s not necessarily about the sexual content. It’s about the lifestyle. So like, for a lot of streetwear marketers, I know this is already sort of a passé concept, lifestyle marketing, lifestyle brands. But that’s where queer identity I feel is going. Where it’s no longer about what you do in bed that’s important, but what you do in the kitchen. … This also expands the age, because if we’re talking about true sexual minorities who don’t have intercourse in that way, it’s really young people and really old people. You know, you mentioned queer content in Steven’s Universe. I think that’s really the next frontier, is how do we expand it so that we’re talking about it from a non-sexual point of view.”

Phil Jimenez: “I knew that I was different from the people around me from the time that I was very young. And what that meant was that I made choices based on that understanding of difference. I interacted with people, I pursued a career, I had exchanges with family and friends — it completely transformed my set of aspirations. And so I’m just so happy to hear that validated. So many of my choices were shaped by that notion of otherness. I suspect that many of us in this room made choices based on that sense. I’m very interested in telling stories about what it’s like to navigate the world as an other. That’s what ‘queer’ means to me.”

2015 Autostraddle Comic and Sequential Art Awards: Winners Include Lumberjanes, Strong Female Protagonist, Bitch Planet

I’ve said it time and time again, but representation matters, both in the comics themselves and in the people who make them. So when comics feature diverse, complicated and fascinating female characters who we want to root for and love, and who we can see ourselves in, it helps us to reach for our dreams and see ourselves as the heroes of our own stories. Perhaps more importantly, representation behind the scenes matters, so when we celebrate the accomplishments of the women and non-binary folks who are making great comics, we’re saying thank you, not only for sharing your art and your stories with us, but also for giving us, to borrow a phrase from Laverne Cox, possibility models and for showing us that comics aren’t just a boys’ club, or a straight person’s club, or a white person’s club, or a cis person’s club. That’s what these awards are — a deep and profound thank you to all of the people who make us glad that we didn’t listen when we were told that girls don’t read comics.

Thank you to the thousands of comic fans who voted for the comics and creators they feel best represent queer women and feminist themes. We’re going to keep on making sure the ASCAs get bigger and better every year, and we need your help to do that.

I also want to once again congratulate all of the nominees this year. Whittling down the list of comics and creators to a small enough number to be able to make this poll was hard enough, and for everyone who voted, picking winners from among those very worthy nominees was an even harder task. All of the comics and creators nominated deserve recognition and your support and money.

If you need a reminder, the goal of the Autostraddle Comic and Sequential Art Awards is to recognize and celebrate webcomics, graphic zines, comic books, graphic novels and other forms of sequential art, and the women who make them, that come out each year that feature both excellence in the art form and excellence in representation for girls and women (especially queer girls and women) and feminist themes. That being said, here are your winners!

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Favorite All-Ages Comic

Lumberjanes by Shannon Watters, Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke A. Allen and Carolyn Nowak

For voters, this was a no-brainer, and it makes sense. From its very first issue, Lumberjanes has been consistently delivering a diverse, complex and fun team of girls going off on adventures and being not only great friends, but also their own heroes. This book tells all girls that they deserve to have friends, do anything they put their minds to and be whomever they want to be. Plus, it’s simply one of the most consistently fun, funny and exciting comics out there.

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Favorite Big Two Book

Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazawa and Adrian Alphona

Even with the recent rise in mainstream titles featuring and aimed at women, Ms. Marvel stood out. This book has by far one of the best takes on a teen superhero I’ve ever seen, and it continues to tell a superhero story that you won’t find anywhere else in mainstream comics. It allows teen girls, Muslims, and girls of color (and people who are two or all three of those things) a chance to finally see someone like them as a hero. This is the second year in a row that Kamala Khan has taken home this award.

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Favorite Indie Book

Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro and Robert Wilson IV

This new series came out like a cannonball, completely changing the way women are portrayed in comics. Each issue not only features amazing art, writing and characters, but a powerful message about the way women, and particularly women who belong to marginalized groups are treated by the patriarchy, and more importantly, how they fight back against the patriarchy.

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Favorite Single Issue

Lumberjanes #17 by Shannon Watters, Noelle Stevenson and Brooke A. Allen

Not only was this issue an exciting, nail-biting and emotional page-turner of a finale to the latest Lumberjanes storyline, but it also gave us one of the most touching, and most important, moments in comics in recent years. Jo, one of the Lumberjanes talks to Scouting Lad Barney about being a trans girl and how she couldn’t let others tell her who she is; she was always meant to be a Lumberjane.

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Favorite Webcomic – Serial

Strong Female Protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag

In an incredibly strong category (aren’t they all, though?), Strong Female Protagonist was able fly to the top. Although it’s been around since 2012, this comic has never been better than it was this year. The art (seriously, I love this art), the writing, the characterization and the themes all reached new highs as the comic continued to explore the implications of superpowers on morality, relationships and young adulthood, all while having one of the best and most complicated super-powered women in all of comics.

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Favorite Webcomic – Episodic

Rock and Riot by Chelsey Furedi

Rock and Riot only just debuted this spring, but it’s already making a name for itself and garnering a large and passionate fan base. It’s delightfully cute and filled to the brim with diverse queer characters. Whether your favorite characters are Connie and Carla, Gene and Clyde or Rolly and Ace, we can all agree that this comic has some of the best teen romances on the internet.

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Favorite Graphic Novel/Book

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Stevenson’s book, which was recently longlisted for a National Book Award and is based on her award-winning webcomic of the same name, is a perfect example of how books for young people don’t have to be simple, happy or overly feel-good. The title character of the book is a shape-shifting girl who is literally a murderer and a monster and it’s hard to say that there’s a “happy ending,” but the book definitely challenges you to think about how you view science and magic, good guys and bad guys and girls and monsters.

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Favorite Writer

Kelly Sue DeConnick

The beloved writer recently ended her legendary run on Captain Marvel, a comic that got many women back into comic shops after years of feeling like it wasn’t a safe space for them. Not content with just resting on her laurels, DeConnick started writing the groundbreaking and revolutionary new series Bitch Planet. There’s no one in comics who can make you fall in love with a character the way DeConnick, no one who can inspire you the way DeConnick can and no one who can break your heart the way DeConnick can. No matter what book she’s writing, DeConnick is always writing some of the most interesting, most real and most wonderful female characters in all of comics, and above all, her writing is always encouraging readers to reach new heights and be the stars we were always meant to be.

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Favorite Artist

Fiona Staples

Saga continues to be one of the best comics in the world, and a big part of that is because it’s without a doubt one of the most beautiful comics of all time. Each new character, spaceship, weapon and world is a wonder to behold and familiar faces never get boring to look at. Even as the number of extremely talented and really amazing women artists in comics is growing, it’s no surprise at all that Staples takes home this award for the second year in a row.

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Favorite Colorist

Valerie Halla

This was the closest category overall, with less than 150 votes separating first place from fifth, but in the end, the award goes to Halla, for her gorgeous work on the popular and critically acclaimed webcomic Octopus Pie by Meredith Gran. Halla’s colors turn Gran’s already terrific comic into a warm bath of colors that lets you swim through from panel to panel. Halla also has her own, equally beautifully colored webcomic called Portside Stories.

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Favorite Writer/Artist

Noelle Stevenson

Stevenson picks up a second award for her work on Nimona, this time for writing and illustrating it. Nimona perfectly shows off Stevenson’s wonderful combination of skills at writing and drawing scenes that are supposed to make you laugh, scenes that are supposed to make you feel and scenes that are supposed to make you afraid. She’s able to tell a joke about sharks just as effectively as she’s able to tell a story about a child being tortured. She’s able to evoke the feelings of a Romantic painting one minute and a classic cartoon the next. Above all, that’s what Stevenson does best, both in her art and in her writing — create balance where you wouldn’t expect it to be and use that balance to take the reader on journey through a brand new world.

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Favorite Queer Comic Character

Prill

This trans witch of color from Ariel Ries‘ spectacular webcomic Witchy is, in Ries’ own twitter words, “the perf example of my character writing style bc im like ‘hey check out this mean girl… syke she has feelings and you love her’.” She starts off seeming like she’s going to be a fun, but fairly one-dimensional bully to go up against our immensely likable protagonist, Nyneve, but as soon as she starts showing up in more panels, we see that there’s so much more to her. You see that while she’s still, in many ways, a classic Mean Girl, she’s also a good friend to those she wants to be friends with, a strong daughter who won’t let her parents tell her to be someone who she isn’t and a strong ally to someone who needs her help. By the time you’ve finished reading the comic as it exists today, it’s impossible to not be completely head-over-heels in love with her.

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Favorite Queer Comic Couple

Mal and Molly

Really, what’s better than a cute couple of queer girls in an all-ages comic? According to voters, who chose this pair from Lumberjanes, nothing. These two are one of the most adorable couples in comics and they finally got to go on a date, just the two of them, even if it did end up with them being chased by dinosaurs. Not only are they a great couple inside the comic, but they’re also opening the eyes of readers to a whole new world of possibilities. Thanks to Mal and Molly, queer girls in comic shops and bookstores and libraries are going to pick up issues of Lumberjanes and see themselves represented in a positive way, at a much earlier age than most of us could in the past. If that doesn’t warm your heart, I don’t know what will.

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Favorite Overall Comic

Lumberjanes by Shannon Watters, Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke A. Allen and Carolyn Nowak

Once again, Lumberjanes takes home the award! Lumberjanes represents much of the best of comics. It’s a perfect fit for readers of all ages, but it never panders or patronizes; it manages to teach good lessons about friendship, adventure and girl power without compromising it’s story or characters; it has a cast full of girls of color, girls who like girls and even a trans girl of color; and it never fails to make you sit on the edge of your seat, laugh out loud and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. This is the kind of comic a lot of us hoped for when we were young, and now it’s a real thing that we, and those younger then us, get to read and treasure. With Lumberjanes helping to lead the way into the future of a more inclusive and proudly diverse future of comics, the future is looking well written, wonderfully drawn, beautifully colored, sharply lettered and skillfully edited indeed.

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I hope that some of your favorites won! If not, make sure you look forward to next year’s awards, when the ASCAs will be even better!

In other big comic news, at this year’s Small Press Expo, women completely swept the Ignatz Awards, which celebrates small press and creator-owned comics and cartoons. How cool is that? Congratulations to all of the winners!

New Releases (September 23)

Princeless: Be Yourself #4 (Action Lab)

Adventure Time #44 (Boom!)

Over the Garden Wall #2 (Boom!)

Power Up! #3 (Boom!)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #19 (Dark Horse)

Batgirl #44 (DC)

Harley Quinn and Power Girl #4 (DC)

We are Robin #4 (DC)

Red Sonja #18 (Dynamite)

Black Widow Vol. 3 Last Days TPB (Marvel)

Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps #4 (Marvel)

Runaways #4 (Marvel)

True Believers Princess Leia #1 (Marvel)

True Believers Silk #1 (Marvel)

Years of Future Past #5 (Marvel)

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Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com.

Voting is Now Open For the 2nd Annual Autostraddle Comic and Sequential Art Awards!

Last year, on the one year anniversary of my comics column, I presented the very 1st Annual Autostraddle Comic and Sequential Art Awards, which had the express purpose of celebrating positive representation for queer women and feminist issues in comics, webcomics and graphic novels. This year I wanted to go one step further and allow you, the fans, to decide the winners. You’re the people who read these comics because when you do, you see yourself reflected back in them. You’re the ones who go every week to your local comic shop, who check at midnight for updates to your favorite webcomics and who make sure all of your friends know about your favorite comics, characters and creators.

A lot of us on the Autostraddle team read comics, and so a bunch of us nominated comics and creators in each category and then narrowed it down to these shortlists. Let me tell you, this was tough. There were so many amazing comics this year by incredibly talented women, featuring great female characters (both queer and otherwise) and focusing on some really great feminist messages.

Specifically, the goal of the Autostraddle Comic and Sequential Art Awards is to recognize and celebrate webcomics, graphic zines, comic books, graphic novels and other forms of sequential art that come out each year between September 1st of the previous year and August 31st of that year that feature both excellence in the art form and excellence in representation for girls and women (especially queer girls and women) and feminist themes. Women not only make up a huge number of talented writers, artists and other creative-types in the comics industry, but also a huge number of fans and readers of comics, and the ASCAs hope to highlight both of those groups.

Comic book shops, online forums and comment sections and depictions of heroes have long been places where women weren’t welcome. This is especially true for women of color, queer women, trans women, women with disabilities and other women who belong to oppressed groups. When writers and artists make comics that star girls and women who are diverse, who are well-written, who are the heroes of their own stories, they’re reminding readers that the sky isn’t the limit, the stars themselves are well within our reach.

With all that being said, I present to you the 2nd Annual ASCAs. There are five extremely deserving nominees in each category, I hope that your favorites are represented here. Some of the books and creators with the most nominations include Batgirl, DC Bombshells, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Witchy, SuperMutant Magic Academy, Bitch Planet and Lumberjanes.

Here’s a link to the actual poll where you can vote for your favorite queer and feminist comics and comic creators, but before that, here’s a look at the categories and shortlists.

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Favorite All-Ages Comic

1. Help Us! Great Warrior by Madeleine Flores (Boom Studios)
2. Gotham Academy by Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl (DC Comics)
3. Lumberjanes by Shannon Watters, Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke A. Allen and Carolyn Nowak (Boom Studios)
4. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North and Erica Henderson (Marvel)
5. Marceline Gone Adrift by Meredith Gran and Carey Pietsch (Boom Studios)

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Favorite Big Two Book (DC or Marvel)

1. Batgirl by Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher and Babs Tarr (DC)
2. Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazawa and Adrian Alphona (Marvel)
3. Captain Marvel by Kelly Sue DeConnick and David Lopez (Marvel)
4. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by North and Henderson (Marvel)
5. Gotham Academy by Cloonan, Fletcher and Kerschl (DC)

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Favorite Indie Book

1. Bitch Planet by DeConnick, Valentine De Landro and Robert Wilson IV (Image)
2. Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image)
3. Lumberjanes by Watters, Stevenson, Ellis, Allen and Nowak (Boom Studios)
4. Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (Image)
5. Marceline Gone Adrift by Gran and Pietsch

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Favorite Single Issue

1. “Bitch Planet #3: The Secret Origin of Penny Rolle” by DeConnick and Wilson IV (Image)
2. “DC Bombshells #1: United for Victory” by Marguerite Bennett and Marguerite Sauvage (DC)
3. “The Wicked + Divine #11” by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
4. “Ms. Marvel #16” by Wilson and Alphonsa
5. “Lumberjanes #17” by Watters, Stevenson and Allen

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Favorite Webcomic- Serial

1. Witchy by Ariel Ries
2. Strong Female Protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag
3. Agents of the Realm by Mildred Louis
4. As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman
5. Monster Pop! by Maya Kern

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Favorite Webcomic- Episodic

1. Oh Joy Sex Toy by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan
2. Rock and Riot by Chelsey Furedi
3. Emily Carroll’s online comics (“When the Darkness Presses,” “All Along the Wall” and “The Groom“)
4. Closetalkers by Jasika Nicole
5. Annie Mok’s work for Rookie (“The Delaney Comets,” “No, No, No: A Guide to Girling Wrong” and “Florals“)

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Favorite Graphic Novel/Book

1. SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki
2. Girl Sex 101 by Allison Moon and KD Diamond
3. Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
4. Baba Yaga’s Assistant by Marika McCoola and Emily Carroll
5. Dear Amanda by Cathy G. Johnson

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Favorite Writer

1. Kate Leth (Bravest Warriors, Fresh Romance, Power Up, etc.)
2. Marguerite Bennett (Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, 1602: Witch Hunter Angela, A-Force, DC Bombshells, etc.)
3. Kelly Sue DeConnick (Captain Marvel, Bitch Planet, Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps, etc.)
4. G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel, A-Force, etc.)
5. Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis and Noelle Stevenson (Lumberjanes)

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Favorite Artist

1. Babs Tarr (Batgirl)
2. Erica Henderson (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl)
3. Marguerite Sauvage (DC Bombshells, Thor Annual, Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman, etc.)
4. Fiona Staples (Saga, Archie)
5. Brooke A. Allen (Lumberjanes)

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Favorite Colorist

1. Trillian Gunn (Help Us! Great Warrior)
2. Valerie Halla (Octopus Pie)
3. Maarta Laiho (Lumberjanes)
4. Michele Assarasakorn (Gotham Academy)
5. Amanda Scurti (“School Spirit” from Fresh Romance)

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Favorite Writer/Artist

1. Ariel Ries (Witchy)
2. Jillian Tamaki (SuperMutant Magic Academy)
3. Noelle Stevenson (Nimona)
4. Emily Carroll (online work)
5. Annie Mok (work on Rookie)

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Favorite Queer Comic Character

1. Batwoman from DC Bombshells
2. Frankie/Oracle from Batgirl
3. Marsha from SuperMutant Magic Academy
4. Prill from Witchy
5. Jo, April, Mal, Molly and Ripley from Lumberjanes

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Favorite Queer Comic Couple

1. Mal and Molly from Lumberjanes
2. Kate Kane and Maggie Sawyer from DC Bombshells
3. Malie and Justine from “School Spirit” in Fresh Romance
4. Connie and Carla from Rock and Riot
5. Alysia Yeoh and Jo from Batgirl

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Favorite Overall Comic

1. Lumberjanes by Watters, Stevenson, Ellis, Allen and Nowak
2. Bitch Planet by DeConnick, De Landro and Wilson IV
3. Witchy by Ries
4. SuperMutant Magic Academy by Tamaki
5. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by North and Henderson

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Voting will be open until 11:59 pm PST on Saturday, September 19 so make sure you vote for all of your favorites!

New Releases (September 2)

Adventure Time: Eye Candy Mathematical Edition Vl. 2 HC (Boom)

Angel and Faith Season 10 #18 (Dark Horse)

Legend of Korra The Art of the Animated Series Vol. 4: Balance HC (Dark Horse)

DC Comics Bombshells #2 (DC)

Detective Comics #44 (DC)

Wonder Woman Vol. 6 Bones TPB (DC)

Wonder Woman Vol. 7 War-Torn HC (DC)

Swords of Sorrow: Miss Fury/Lady Rawhide Special #1 (Dynamite)

Jem and the Holograms #6 (IDW)

Mockingbird S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th Anniversary #1 (Marvel)

Silk #7 (Marvel)

Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde #3 (Marvel)

Thors #3 (Marvel)

True Believers Captain Marvel #1 (Marvel)

True Believers Spider-Gwen #1 (Marvel)

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Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com.

In Lumberjanes Issue #17, Jo Comes Out As Trans and It’s So Awesome

Something big happened in Lumberjanes Issue #17 today. Jo, one of the central characters — a girl of color with two dads, a girl who’s a kid genius, April’s bff, a deeply loyal but also sometimes insecure friend and an expert on what it means to be a Lumberjane — talked about how she’s also a trans girl. Let me say that again: one of the five main characters of a best-selling all-ages comic book that sold over 65,000 copies of its first trade in two months talked to one of her friends about being transgender on the page of the latest issue.

Back when I was a kid, we used to go to the library together as a family all the time. When I was around eleven years old, I started noticing the comic book/graphic novel section. Of course, I had been watching Batman the Animated Series and The Adventures of Superman, so when I went upstairs and found a section full of books of these heroes, my whole world changed.

My world changed even more when I realized that there were a good number of these books about women and girls. You see, when I was young I was desperate, and I mean desperate, to find ways that I could like the things I liked without people questioning my gender or sexuality. I could sit and read comics featuring Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Storm, Kitty Pryde and all my other favorites all day long. Since these were comic books, they were still very OK for a “boy” like me to read. So that’s what I would do. I would check out any comic book from the library that had awesome female characters. Or, if it still seemed too girly, even for a comic book, I would just read it there, a little afraid that if I brought it home, that might set off some alarms. But if I was just reading it there, nobody would think it was weird.

Right now, I’m imagining finding Lumberjanes at my local library. I’m imagining seeing this awesome, funny, beautifully illustrated, action-packed comic that I know eleven-year-old me would have flipped out over. I’m imagining waiting for the library to get each trade paperback in. Then, one day, they would get the book that has issue #17, and when I got to the page where Jo talks about how Barney reminds her of a younger version of herself, and how, no matter what other people thought, she was always meant to be a Lumberjane and never a Scouting Lad and I would have completely freaked out. I would have seen my thoughts written there on the page. “How do they know?” I would have thought, “how do they know what’s going on in my head?” My world would have started spinning around me, I would have got anime eyes the size of the moon; my heart would have pounded straight out of my chest. I would have started crying right there in the library until either my parents or some confused librarian came and found me there smiling with tears streaming down my cheeks.

I would have, from that moment, become obsessed with Jo. I would have seen someone like me who actually was living the kind of life that I dreamed of living. Honestly, I had zero idea that it was even possible to be trans when I was that age. I thought I just had these messed up thoughts and feelings that I would be stuck with for the rest of my life. But if I had seen Jo, I would have realized that I didn’t have to be sad anymore. I didn’t have to wish every day that I would die. I didn’t have to always feel uncomfortable about how I saw myself or how other people saw me.

This comic would have saved my life. Now, obviously, I’m still alive and I eventually came out. But just thinking that if I had seen Jo in this comic I could have had teenage years and a college experience that wasn’t defined by dysphoria, depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation. I know that there are other trans girls out there who are currently like I was. Now they’re going to see Jo and they’re going to learn it’s okay to be themselves.

That’s the thing about queer representation in all-ages media; it gives kids an opportunity to see themselves in ways that they’ve maybe never been able to see themselves before. It lets them know that they can be the hero, they can get the girl, they can be who they really are. That’s why it’s so vitally important. As co-writer Noelle Stevenson told me, having Jo be trans helps trans readers “to know that this is just one more way to be normal, and that you can be the protagonist and you can be loved while being yourself.” Lumberjanes co-creator and current co-writer Shannon Watters similarly told me that she sees the series as aspirational, especially for young readers.

Lumberjanes is the ideal, right? We write Lumberjanes like it’s somewhere we wish existed, all while hoping that maybe the mere fact of its existence in fiction might make it easier and better for some humans who live in the real world… We wanted this moment of Jo’s to be portrayed honestly and truthfully and positively, and to perhaps make the journey in this scary real world of ours slightly easier for a young person going through it there right now. Jo is someone with a loving family, a rock-solid best friend, and a group of close pals who are there for her no matter what. She is a Lumberjane. And I hope that seeing one’s self in her makes it slightly easier for someone out there to be okay with themselves and the scarier parts of being a queer kid.

One of the reasons many trans girls feel so hopeless is that they don’t see any examples of happy or successful trans girls and women. And then here’s Jo. Like Watters said, she’s surrounded by a brilliantly amazing, supportive and loving group of friends who don’t hold her at a distance because she’s trans. She’s completely accepted and supported for who she is. She’s going to give readers a chance to see a happy future for themselves, possibly for the first time.

Some kids, like me when I was younger, don’t even realize being trans a thing that’s allowed, or even possible. If you’ve never seen it happen before, why should you believe you can do it? Stevenson told me that she hopes “this book can be a safe space for everyone, even if you don’t necessarily have one in real life. And to know that Lumberjanes has its doors wide open to every hardcore ladytype, whatever that means to you.” That’s exactly how I felt when I read this issue.

I can list off more than a dozen examples of cartoons and books and other things aimed at kids that I saw when I was eleven that had boys who dressed up like girls, or boys who magically turned into girls, or boys who switched bodies with girls. But every single one of those examples was played off as a joke. Or, worse, played off as something terrible or deceptive or even creepy. I had zero, exactly zero, examples of positive trans representation in all-ages-media when I was a kid. I couldn’t look anywhere and see kids who were like me. Thanks to Jo and the Lumberjanes team, eleven-year-old trans girls no longer have to say that.

How great is it going to be when 6th grade girls pick up issues of Lumberjanes and think for the first time, “I can have a cool haircut like Mal? I can be the hero of my own adventures? I don’t have to fit into one, narrow box? I can be strong like April? I can like science and math like Jo? I can HAVE A CRUSH ON A GIRL?” Or kids realizing they can be like Barney! And little closeted trans girls realizing they can be like Jo! And then those kids realizing that they can be and do all those things and still have a supporting and loving group of friends! That’s maybe my favorite thought in the world right now.

Since I first learned about Jo being trans, I do have to admit that representation has gotten a little better. Nomi was great on Sense8, Cole made a few more appearances on The Fosters, Jazz Jennings has her own TLC reality show, and of course, Caitlyn Jenner came out and got a show of her own. Still though, I don’t think any of that will have the same kind of direct effect on young trans girls that Lumberjanes will. Neither The Fosters, nor I am Jazz, nor especially anything Caitlyn Jenner does is specifically and explicitly aimed at kids and more specifically empowering said kids in the way that Lumberjanes is. When we see Jo, and we see her being embraced by her friends who have no doubt that she’s a girl, that she belongs with them and that she fits in, we’re seeing something radical.

Additionally, even when we’re seeing more and more representation for trans women, a lot of isn’t so great. You just have to look at Charlotte DiLaurentis from Pretty Little Liars, transmisogynistic jokes in nearly every comedy to come out this summer and continued jokes about Caitlyn Jenner. We still have a long, long way to go before trans people can look to the media and see themselves represented in a positive way. This is especially true for trans girls and women of color. So what makes this even more great is that Jo is a trans girl of color. There are huge numbers of trans people of color, yet most of the trans people we see in the media are still white.

Now to actually talk about the moment where Jo talks to Barney about being trans.

As a trans woman who actually was a Boy Scout, I totally get where Jo is coming from when she’s reluctant to have Barney, a Scouting Lad, join their group of Lumberjanes. I have zero love for the Boy Scouts. I had terrible experiences there and all my time there did was remind me that everyone else saw me as a boy and desperately wanted me to be a boy. Jo sees something similar. She sees Barney and is reminded of who she might have been. Or more importantly, who she might have had to be. Who she might have had to be if she didn’t have a choice, if she didn’t have support, if she didn’t have love. What she sees in Barney is more than just the misery of being forced to be someone she isn’t, it’s the misery of losing her family her friends and her community.

She also knows how hard it is when you know you’re really someone other than the person that people expect you or want you to be, and she knows the importance of friends. So when she sees someone in need, someone like her, she reaches out to him and shares a very vulnerable part of herself. It’s really heartwarming and delicate and, just, really, really wonderful. Here are two kids, one of them a confident trans girl, the other a kid who’s not sure where he fits in, and they’re able to be themselves and not feel alone.

The team wanted to make sure that they got this moment right, and they’ve really been putting a lot of effort and hard work into it. Stevenson said that she’s wanted to show this conversation ever since the comic introduced Barney.

No one in Lumberjanes is going to question Jo for who she is, and so Barney supplies tension. He represents something to her. But he’s not antagonistic either. He looks up to and admires her, but he’s at a different place in his journey to figuring himself out while Jo is very secure in who she is. It gives us an avenue to discuss it while still keeping it positive and showing that there are many different kinds of gender expression and identity.

Watters added that the team knew how important this moment was for trans readers. “It took me a long time to write because I’m a cis, white 30-something lesbian writing for a trans teenage girl of color and I wanted it to feel as true and natural as possible,” she said, “Noelle and I talked it out a lot as well as researching and interviewing a few friends before sitting down and actually doing it.” Stevenson added that issues #14-17 “were my last issues, and the ones closest to my heart,” and that she wanted to make sure she left the series on a high note.

Now, full disclosure: back in February, I got an email from Shannon Watters telling me about this storyline and asking if I’d be willing to look over these scripts and offer my opinion. You have no idea how hard it’s been to sit on this information for the past six months. I wanted to shout it from the rooftops. Instead, I read the scripts and silently screamed about how excited I was, especially when Issue #12 came out and showed a picture of young April and Jo, prompting a lot of fans to speculate on Jo’s trans status. One commenter on my review of that issue even said they were surprised I hadn’t mentioned the picture of the two of them. So, here I am, finally talking about it.

The moment where she actually talks to Barney about being trans is so sweet, and it’s done in a really great way. It’s not clinical or fake-sounding and it doesn’t bludgeon you over the head with what’s happening. It does it in a way that readers who are trans or queer or questioning or just struggling with feelings about their gender and who they are and where they belong will understand and will see themselves on the page, even if the word “transgender” isn’t there. Jo can see that Barney is struggling with his gender like she did earlier in her life and so she talks to him. But it’s also not the only thing she ever talks about. Watters told me that when writing this issue, they wanted the conversation to feel very natural and even subtle. “Jo being trans is an important part of who she is and who she has become, but it’s not her entire identity,” she said, “To write her character like it is would’ve been unfair to her and to the kids reading who need to see themselves in her the most. They’re badass athletes, and dreamy poets, and goofy pranksters, and trans.”

That’s another thing that makes Jo stand out so much as a trans character — she’s so three dimensional. Not only that, but she seems real, she seems like a real teenager and she seems like a real trans girl. According to Watters, this is because the idea to have Jo be trans wasn’t forced. “Jo’s trans identity was just another integral part of her character, and it developed very naturally — she was a leader, she was VERY passionate about being a Lumberjane, she was also trans,” she told me, “As soon as it came up in character discussions, we all went, ‘Oh yeah, of course Jo is trans.’ It was a very organic decision among the whole team.”

As overjoyed as I am, I do have to wonder, what does this mean for the upcoming Lumberjanes movie? Will Jo be trans in the movie? Will she be played by a trans girl? I hope so. Those may be lofty goals, but hey, five years ago I didn’t think there was a chance that there’d be a trans character like Jo in an all-ages comic. Now she’s here, she’s central to every issue and she’s holding up a mirror for every trans kid to see.

Watters, Stevenson and artist Brooke A. Allen really did something special in this issue, and co-creator Grace Ellis did something special when she co-created Jo and the world she lives in. I absolutely cannot wait to hear the first stories of trans kids who came out after reading Lumberjanes and finally seeing themselves represented in a positive way for the first time. Trans youth need to know that it’s possible for them to not only be themselves, but also be loved and supported after they do so. Trans youth need to know that they can be the heroes of their own stories. Trans youth need to know that the future is wide open with possibilities of adventure, excitement and friendship to the max. Jo is going to do that.

Drawn to Comics: Grootslang! Grootslang! Grootslang! (And Lumberjanes #16!)

A few weeks ago we learned that this will be Lumberjanes’ co-writer Noelle Stevenson’s final run as a writer on the book (at least for now) and boy howdy, did she decide to go out on a doozy. Lumberjanes #16 is the penultimate Stevenson Lumberjanes issue and it’s setting us up for quite the finale.

We start with a flashback to a time when the Bear Woman was a young but still angry scout leader and Rosie and Abigail were a pair of cute, (seriously, I love the way Brooke A. Allen is drawing young Rosie) even younger Lumberjanes. The Lumberjanes organization was apparently a whole lot more strict and militant back then, and a lot more sepia too. We learn the tragic backstory behind Rosie and Abigail’s fall-out, as Abigail not only had Rosie’s back when she was getting in trouble, but also straight up saved her life only to have Rosie not step up and stand with her when she gets in trouble herself. Why can’t they just be brave and in love together forever!?!? We also learn that that same night Abigail became obsessed with a giant mythical creature called the Grootslang (which is totally real, by the way), which lives up on the mountain by camp and, according to Rosie and the Bear Woman, is way, way too powerful for Abigail, even with all of her dynamite.

So, now that we know why Abigail is the way she is, we’re not really any closer to stopping her (but in a way, that’s kind of not really the point, is it? I mean, who reads Lumberjanes comics just to see how the ‘Janes will stop the “bad guy?” It’s really more about friendship and girlhood and adventure and fun). We’re reminded of how important the relationships between the Lumberjanes are, when, for the first time in several issues, the girls of Roanoke Cabin are finally reunited with their beloved cabin leader Jen. The happy reunion is short-lived, though, as Rosie and the Bear Woman gallop (do bears gallop?) off up the mountain to try to stop Abigail from angering the Grootslang.

Rosie and BW leave Jen behind with the ‘Janes and Barney, trusting Jen to be her old self and follow all the rules and try to keep the kids safe and sound. But if that happened, this issue would be about four pages short of a full story. So they decide to “borrow” Abigail’s car and follow the tracks back to her house to look for a way to help. Mal tosses Jen the keys, only to find out that she never got her driver’s license (hey, no shame in that Jen, I don’t have a driver’s license either). That doesn’t stop her from trying though, and from having fun while doing it.

Back on top of Mt. Glory, Abigail has stuffed the Grootslang’s cave full to the brim with her dynamite and is ready and determined to put an end to what she sees as the deadly monster. She’s dead-set on taking this thing on, despite Rosie’s concerns for her safety and BW’s insistence that it doesn’t even care about them and she should just leave it alone. Then Boom Goes the Dynamite and really, Abigail accomplishes three things: she makes the Bear Woman run off, she buries the Lumberjanes in an avalanche of snow and finally, she angers a giant centipede with an elephant’s head.

Oh jeez, this issue was just jam packed full of action, wasn’t it? It’s really doing a great job of building up to a giant, super-dramatic, super-intense, super-incredible finale. Will Abigail and Rosie kiss and make up? Will the Lumberjanes escape from their snowy car tomb? Will Jo ever warm up to Barney? Will the Grootslang destroy all of them? We’ll find out all of this and more next month in Lumberjanes #17!

New Releases (July 22)

Archie vs. Sharknado #1 (Archie Comics)

Adventure Time #42 (Boom!)

Power Up #1 (Boom!)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #17 (Dark Horse)

Harley Quinn and Power Girl #2 (DC)

Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #12 (DC)

We Are Robin #2 (DC)

Wonder Woman #42 (DC)

Swords of Sorrow #3 (Dynamite)

Swords of Sorrow: Red Sonja/Jungle Girl #1 (Dynamite)

Baby-Sitters Club Vol. 1: Kristy’s Great Idea (Graphix)

Edward Scissorhands #10 (IDW)

Infinite Loop #4 (IDW)

All-New Hawkeye #4 (Marvel)

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Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com

Drawn to Comics: Lumberjanes, Other DtC Favs, Women and Queer Women Win Big at the Eisners!

Last Friday night was really, truly a great night for comics. That night was the night that the 27th Annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Award winners were announced and the trophies were awarded at a ceremony in San Diego at Comic-con. And so many great comics won! I think this is genuinely the first time I’ve seen the list of winners from a major award and not just been not-disappointed, but been genuinely happy. Let’s have three cheers for women, queer and otherwise, in comics!

https://twitter.com/Gingerhazing/status/619970875320725504

Okay, first we need to talk about the awards that made me happiest, which if you read this website, I don’t think you’ll be at all surprised to find out have to do with Lumberjanes. Lumberjanes is honestly the best, you guys. If you’re not reading it right now, please, I’m begging you, you need to start. It’s fun and funny and exciting and well written and it has great art and really, really great characters and is diverse and unlike anything else in mainstream comics today. Anyway, back to the actual news. The first award that Lumberjanes was up for was Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17), which was also the fist award that they won. Yay! Congratulations to Shannon Watters, Noelle Stevenson, Brooke A. Allen and our very own Grace Ellis!

YEAAAHH congrats to team LJ! @HrcneAubrey @PencilCat @gracecellis @Gingerhazing @shanito @WhitLeopard @DafnaDOOM pic.twitter.com/XjfxVIu22Y

— Bats Allen (BAA) (@BrooklynAAllen) July 11, 2015

The book was also nominated in the category Best New Series, which many saw as the most difficult category of the night. They were up against The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, Skottie Young’s Rocket Raccoon book from Marvel, and two titles I’ve talked about multiple times here at Drawn to Comics, Ms. Marvel and The Wicked and the Divine. Once again, Lumberjanes took home the prize.

The awards for Drawn to Comics favorites didn’t end there. Emily Carroll also took home two prizes, one (Best Short Story) for her delightfully beautiful and creepy online short “When Darkness Presses” and another (Best Graphic Album — Reprint) for her wonderful book of fables, Through the Woods. Carroll is one of my favorite writers and artists and she definitely deserves any and all awards that she gets. Jillian Tamaki, who I’m constantly praising, along with her cousin Mariko Tamaki, won Best Graphic Album — New for their book This One Summer. Another favorite, Fiona Staples, won Best Penciller/Inker for her art on Saga, which also very, very deservedly won the big award, Best Continuing Series. I was also really happy to see that Raina Telgemeier won for best Writer/Artist for her work on Sisters. I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t read any of her work yet, but have recently bought some to check it out, thanks to Kate Leth’s recommendation.

These books winning Eisners isn’t just exciting because I’m a fan of them, or we’re fans of them, it’s important because it’s showing that in a medium where women are so often told that we’re fake fans, or that books by us and about us don’t sell or even just aren’t good, women really came out on top. Not only that, but a lot of books by and for queer women came out on top. So many of the big awards, Best Writer/Artist, Best New Series, both of the Best Graphic Album categories, Best Penciller/Inker and half of Best Continuing Series, all went to women. Basically, women came to the 2015 Eisners and took over. They dominated. They changed the game. When you take a look specifically at the wins for Lumberjanes, though, that’s a really, really big freaking deal. Like, I dunno if you’ve noticed, but that’s a mainstream, best-selling all-ages comic book about a diverse group of girls by a group of women, and all of it’s really, really queer. A book like that never could have existed when I was a kid, and definitely never could have won two awards at the Eisners! That’s where we are today: a comic that would’ve been dismissed as too queer, too girly and too niche to be successful, or even maybe publishable, a few years ago, is now a multiple Eisner winner and is selling like hotcakes. Right on.

This year’s Eisner winners definitely mean something good for comics. It means a more open, welcoming and progressive comics community. It means a world where women and girls might no longer have to defend being fans of the comics that they love. It means a bright and wonderful future. For a complete list of this year’s winners, you can check out Comics Alliance (who also won an award for their comics journalism, congratulations!).

New Releases (July 15)

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake Card Wars #1 (Boom!)

Lumberjanes #16 (Boom!)

Steven Universe Vol. 1 TPB (Boom!)

Batman Harley Quinn TPB (DC)

Black Canary #2 (DC)

Harley Quinn #18 (DC)

Secret Six #4 (DC)

Supergirl Vol. 6 Crucible TPB (DC)

Red Sonja #1973 (Dynamite)

Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella/Jennifer Blood #3 (Dynamite)

Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps #2 (Marvel)

Hawkeye #22 (Marvel)

Siege #1 (Marvel)

Years of Future Past #3 (Marvel)

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Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com