In both sci-fi and fantasy and comics there is a long history of allegorical and implied queerness—using the trappings of genre to code characters and themes as queer while keeping them superficially straight enough to not make waves, or queering them in ways tied to their general otherness (like gender-flexible shapeshifters or gay aliens from single-sex species). Queer representation is better now than it was in even the recent past, but we want more. We want to see people like us as heroes—slaying dragons, piloting spaceships, getting into trouble, and saving the day—without having to read their queerness from between the lines. We want to see beautifully crafted stories in the mediums and genres we love, that reflect and celebrate our own experiences of gender and sexuality. So we’ve decided to do it ourselves. We’re assembling, crowdfunding, and publishing an anthology of the comics we want to read: science fiction and fantasy exploring and showcasing queer characters, themes, and relationships, from a broad spectrum of world-class creators. Beyond is a black-and-white comic anthology of 18 original science fiction and fantasy comics. The first volume was successfully crowdfunded through Kickstarter and completed in 2015, and the second volume: post-apocalypse and urban fantasy edition is taking shape in 2016. -Sfé Monster, Editor
(Volume 2 reached funding today, 5/11/17!)
When Chris joins the staff at her local record store, she’s surprised to find out that her co-workers share a secret: they’re all members of a secret fight club that take on the patriarchy and fight crime!
Starry-eyed Chris has just started the dream job every outcast kid in town wants: working at Vinyl Mayhem. It's as rad as she imagined; her boss is BOSS, her co-workers spend their time arguing over music, pushing against the patriarchy, and endlessly trying to form a band. When Rosie Riot, the staff's favorite singer, mysteriously vanishes the night before her band’s show, Chris discovers her co-workers are doing more than just sorting vinyl . . . Her local indie record store is also a front for a teen girl vigilante fight club!
Follow writer Carly Usdin (director of Suicide Kale) and artist Nina Vakueva (Lilith’s World) into Heavy Vinyl, where they deliver a rock and roll tale of intrigue and boundless friendship.
LOVE NOT FOUND is a story about a young woman living in a time where touching has become outdated. She has recently moved to a new planet and finds that touching might not be such a bad idea. Now she is on a quest to find someone who wants to do things the old fashioned way!
Note from Love in Panels: Love Not Found is currently updated 3x/week with one print/PDF volume available. Patreon supporters get access to bonus content, as well.
LOVE NOT FOUND, by Gina Biggs, is a sci-fi romance set in a time when touching has become taboo. Main character Abeille (yes, that's French for "bee") is looking for something more than a pre-programmed session with a computer, so she sets out to find someone to "experiment" with.
LOVE NOT FOUND is beautiful. The setting is Monotropa, a planet advertised as "A Nature Lover's Paradise," so Biggs has populated it with interesting plants, dryads, and tropical weather patterns. I'm an avid gardener, so I'm surely biased, but the fact that several of the central characters are botanists is fresh and interesting. The color and costume choices are sweet and fun, and reflect the flower-ful setting in which the story takes place. Characters of all gender expressions often have flowers in their hair and wear clothes shaped like or inspired by plants. Much of the comic is in shades of pink, white, and brown, with pops of yellow, green, and (rarely) blue. It's an unabashedly feminine pallette that doesn't feel childish, but rather playful.
The characters are diverse and engaging, with only one recent addition I don't much care for. Abeille is from a planet called Pasque, which seems to be mostly a permafrost-type biome. We initially don't know much about her family, background, or reasons for emigrating to Monotropa, other than that she wants to plant a garden in memory of her sister. She works in the cafeteria of a company that engineers plants to resist the bugs on the planet. She appears to be white, with pink hair and dark pink eyes.
Miel (French for honey, yep) works as a "logger" at that same company. His job is to log details about various species, including growth and transplant results. If he was from Earth, we would say that his mothers are of South-Asian and African descent. (They're such a fun couple and when you meet them you'll "aww.") Miel is more reserved than Abeille, and their awkward flirting is sweet and feels honest.
Ivy (Abeille's best friend) and her partner, Holly, have an interesting secondary storyline. They're co-researchers at the aforementioned company, choosing to live together out of convenience and efficiency. None of that messy "romance" stuff. Their relationship evolves as Ivy sees Abeille's attitudes changing and begins to want something more for herself as well. Ivy eventually meets Aster, a nonbinary therapist who uses the pronouns Zie and Zer and isn't afraid of touch. Biggs has grown the comic to include many more secondary characters, like Clove, Abeille's coworker who has a speech impediment, and Botan, the foxy head gardener who falls for him.
LOVE NOT FOUND may be adorable, but it also touches on concepts of fidelity, intimacy, grief, taboos, societal and familial expectations, ecology, and the ways in which technology both connects and isolates us. It's worth a look for fans of sci-fi romance, gardening, and/or nuanced exploration of physical intimacy in relationships.
A note on the rating: This might be categorized as PG-13 by the movie world, but I've given it an R rating because a) I've read some of the NSFW bonus content and b) even though it's not visually explicit, there's a lot of talk (and some subtle depictions) of computer generated orgasms.