The State of LGBTQ Comics: A Roundtable LIVE Tonight on GP Radio
June is Pride Month so we’re talking with some of our favorite LGBTQ comics critics about the current state of LGBTQ people in comics: on and off the page.
The latest episode of Graphic Policy Radio airs LIVE tonight at 10pm ET.
Our guests:
Desiree Rodriguez is a columnist and Editorial Assistant for Lion Forge Comics’ Catalyst Prime. Desiree also writes for The Nerds of Color and Women Write About Comics @boricuadesiree)
Logan Dalton writes about comics and TV shows for sites like Graphic Policy and Nerds on the Rocks. Once he interviewed a vampire. He lives in the south. @MidnighterBae
Véronique Emma Houxbois is a fiercely queer trans woman from the wilds of Canada, most recently spotted in the Pacific Northwest. Contributor at Comicosity, Women Write About Comics, and London Graphic Novel Network. Consultant on Bitch Planet. Published by DC/IDW in Love is Love with Alejandra Gutierrez. @EmmaHouxbois
Listen in when the show airs live tonight.
Reading Nothing Lasts Forever is like sitting across writer/artist Sina Grace at a table at one of the coffee shops in L.A. that he frequents and watching him slowly pull his still-beating heart out of his chest and show it to you with Jenny Lewis playing in the background. On that creepy, visceral note, this is Grace’s third graphic memoir after the very relatable ode to retail hell Not My Bag and the relationship/pop culture-driven Self-Obsessed. Nothing Lasts Forever is written and drawn like it’s a literal page in Grace’s sketch journal. It’s rough (The lettering is sometimes hard to make out in a digital copy.) , but it’s an unfiltered look at his relationship to Sina’s comics work, love life, the death of his grandmother, his battle with 
some happiness for a time and then became someone else’s toy. I feel similarly about the men and women that have come into my life. Sometimes, I’ll have vibes about someone I dated or kissed years ago, feel kind of wistful about it but then cherish the time we spent together. Sina Grace nails that exact emotion throughout Nothing Lasts Forever when he discusses and describes relationships.
The adult version of Iceman gets a solo series thanks to the talented team of writer Sina Grace (Self-Obsessed), artist Alessandro Vitti (Secret Warriors), and colorist Rachelle Rosenberg. It’s also the first Marvel comic to feature a queer male superhero as the protagonist in quite some time as
on Iceman #1. In keeping with the improvisational nature of Iceman’s powers, it looks like subzero jazz with plenty of speed lines during fight scenes before slowing down and being more expressive during serious scenes, like when Bobby sees his parents in the hospital. To go with his art, Rachelle Rosenberg uses a palette that Andre 3000 would describe as “cooler than being cool”, and you can feel the temperature drop when Iceman uses abilities. But there are subtle differences in how the ice looks like a more playful snowball/slushie feel when the Icemen are sparring in the Danger Room versus a harder/freeze you in carbonite color for when he surrounds the Purifier in a pointy ice cave.
The 28th annual GLAAD Media Awards were announced this past Saturday in Los Angeles, and The Woods won in the comic book category. Receiving credit were James Tynion IV, Michael Dialynas, Josan Gonzalez, Ed Dukeshire. The series is published by BOOM! Studios (with the latest issue out this week).
Last December, IDW Publishing, with support from DC Entertainment, created Love is Love, an anthology graphic novel that united the comic book community in support of the victims and families affected by the tragedy at Pulse nightclub. It has been announced that the graphic novel has raised more than $165,000 from digital and print sales. Through Equality Florida, the proceeds have been donated to the OneOrlando Fund to assist the victims and families impacted.
On June 12, 2016, a hateful man killed 49 people and wounded 53 at The Pulse, a gay club in Orlando, Florida. This was a terrible day for the LGBTQ community, and I was just plain sad. A couple weeks ago, I had celebrated getting a job and moving to a new city with a few friends at a couple gay clubs in my old home of Richmond, Virginia so a thought went through my head, “It could have been me.” Even though I am relatively privileged as a white cisgendered, relatively straight passing bisexual male, I had no queer friends in my new home to turn to and confide in after the events in Orlando. But what got me through was the queer comics and comics journalism community, and my Facebook inboxes and Twitter DM’s were filled with messages of hope and understanding. I may have felt alone in my current situation, but these beautiful people, many of whom I have never met in the flesh, got me through the tough days after the Pulse shooting.
Paul Dini‘s Harley and Ivy story is insanely adorable and nails their romantic relationship in a nutshell with each one making compromises for the each other. For example, Harley goes vegetarian while Ivy is subjected to a Three Stooges marathon. Bill Morrison‘s art is very similar to the style of Batman: Animated Series and peppered with all kinds of background details to add to the humor. Another funny story (Albeit darker than Harley and Ivy shenanigans.) that provided some great comic relief in the midst of the emotionally headier material of Love is Love was a Deathstroke one by Taran Killam where he switches out his arsenal of guns for karate after the Pulse shooting. Gallows humor is a great way to stave off pain.
