In the present political climate, a constant target for politicians when they look for support and degradation is the LGBTQ community. They rarely look to represent the actual issues affecting this demographic and rarely do they enact any laws which would support them. This brings me to the fact, that even in the 21^st century, much of this community still seems taboo, to the public. There are usually a variety of questions that come with encountering someone from this community, mostly of curiosity and not out of actual understanding.

This lack of understanding is even crazier knowing that there were shows like The L Word back in 2004 and the recently renewed Transparent on Amazon, which highlights these lifestyles, and show the world the struggles they got through daily. In the recently released Thor: Ragnarok, Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, plays a bisexual bounty hunter, which has been downplayed by most of social media. Within the comics medium, there have been a handful of characters which represents this spectrum, but rarely do they are given justice, the most prominent, being Midnighter, at DC. Elizabeth Beier’s The Big Book Of Bisexual Trials and Errors offers a thorough examination of what the term “bisexual “means through her experiences.

In the opening pages, we meet Elizabeth, as a struggling adolescent, struggling of finding who she is and eventually how the identity also shaped her sexuality. She realizes and mostly lives as a lesbian, as she finds herself mostly attracted to women, which is until she meets a man, by the name of James. At this very moment, the way she feels about her sexuality, as with all of us, is connected to her self-confidence, the way she feels about her body, realizing her own self-worth but eventually coming to some semblance of acceptance of feeling she could be loved and loving herself. By book’s end, she feels just like everyone else, a work in progress, but one that feels “confident and complete”.

Overall, a compendium full of heartbreaks, self-discoveries and truly a lesson in learning how to be building one’s self confidence. The stories by Beier are funny, sad, beautiful, and intriguing. The art by Beier could be museum paintings, as each panel seems to be given much care. Altogether, you will feel for Beier’s journey in this memoir, as the journey to “you” has never been told so eloquently.

Story: Elizabeth Beier Art: Elizabeth Beier
Story: 10 Art: 10 Overall: 10 Recommendation: Buy

Northwest Press provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review