Be gay, do comics! Queer history, memoir, and satire from The Nib

Review by Booklist Review

Viewpoints from around the world, art ranging from sketchy and abstract to cartoonishly whimsical to realistic, and topics covering the intensely personal as well as the historical and political all leap off the page of this anthology. Originally a Kickstarter project by online journalism, nonfiction, and satire site The Nib, this volume contains comics from over 30 contributors sharing their struggles, joys, and wit. Some entries have prior viral popularity, such Maia Kobabe's comic about navigating a folk dancing class while using gender-neutral pronouns, while others are original to this publication. Many stories explore the intersections of queer identity with race, religion, and ethnicity, or share lesser-known pieces of queer history and culture. From the story of a gay Prussian officer who was instrumental in the American Revolution to a discussion of embryo donation to lessons about precolonial Indigenous nonbinary identities to a joke about the zodiac signs as queer haircuts, this book covers a lot of ground and reaches out to make space for everyone under the queer umbrella.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Culled from the webcomics site The Nib, this bright LGBTQ anthology features an international roster of millennial and Gen-Z contributors, offering fresh takes on gender, politics, historical LGBTQ heroes, and more. Highlights include memoir pieces by Breena Nuñez on attempting (fruitlessly) to explain their nonbinary gender identity to a clueless therapist, Dylan Edwards on identifying as asexual, Robyn Jordan revealing her experience with embryo donors, JB Brager reminiscing about connecting with other mid-aughts queer teens on LiveJournal, and Alexis Sudgen unpacking her history of gender identity with breast dysphoria. Each artist effectively uses humor to lighten sometimes weighty subject matter. Meanwhile, other pieces examine facets of the queer umbrella: Sam Wallman probes the conservative gay movement with unexpected empathy, while Max Dlabick pays tribute to Gilbert Baker, who pioneered the use of the rainbow flag to celebrate the LGBTQ community. A few less successful comics don't transfer as well from web to page, especially those that favor the didactic over the narrative. But the cartooning is solid across the board. This is an overall invigorating sampler of the current queer cartooning scene and a celebration of the sheer breadth and diversity of experiences it reflects. (Aug.)

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 8 Up--Cartoonist Bors has compiled an incisive queer anthology, drawing on content from the Nib, a webcomic site that focuses on sociopolitical satire and nonfiction. More than 30 indie LGBTQ cartoonists and artists share their experiences navigating homophobia, gender identity, and the politics of sex. JB Brager remembers exploring their burgeoning identity alongside other queer teens on the early-aughts website LiveJournal, Breena Nuñez unpacks the difficulties of explaining being nonbinary to their myopic therapist, and Bianca Xunise and Sage Coffey ponder invisibility in media representation in a piece that feels like a cartoon depiction of a podcast episode. Other selections consider the queer experience from a historical viewpoint. Hazel Newlevant's exposé of queer uprisings before the Stonewall Riots explores how trans teens organized to fight discrimination in their communities, and Max Dlabick highlights the origins and evolution of the rainbow flag. "The Response," a segment from the Nib featuring the voices of six trans contributors, looks at the unique experience of transitioning. Artists define the word transition as they interpret it, and share how that definition impacted their personal journey. Jason Michaels and Mady G coauthor a piece that asks what it means to be "queer enough," shining a light on pansexual identity and its perception within the queer community, while Alex Graudins's musing on birth control and the asexual experience reminds readers that birth control functions as a key component of health care, regardless of a person's sexual orientation and expression. While most comics center the American perspective, the anthology takes care to include global experiences in Trinidad Escobar's call to decolonize queerness in the Philippines and Rosa Colón Guerra's examination of how Puerto Rico's federal and local civil rights laws affect the island's queer community. The artwork is as diverse in expression as each artist's personal experiences--some pages glow with vibrant, full-spectrum illustrations, while others rely on muted tones to project their deeply honest insecurities. VERDICT This celebration of queer voices in comics is a must for all libraries.--Elise Martinez, Racine, WI

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

An illustrated anthology takes readers through queer history and identity. As the introduction declares, the accessibility of comics as a medium (both for readers and creators) allows marginalized stories to flourish. This claim manifests throughout the anthology as memoir, satire, and educational comics from 40 diverse creators fill its colorful pages. The contributors embody a variety of identities, from ethnic and national background to voices who are intersex, asexual, and otherwise representative of the spectrum of queer identities. The comics themselves vary wildly too, in illustration style, theme, and length. While one satirical comic denounces the capitalist co-opting of gay iconography, another presents a joke about a gender reveal party that ruptures the cosmos. Graphic memoirs recall personal instances of both struggle and joy. Some authors also expand upon important events and figures in queer history, from an account of the gay, Jewish Nazi-resistance fighter Gad Beck to the Lavender Scare targeting queer federal employees in the 1950s. These educational moments inform without ever being didactic or dry. The art ranges from the adorably cartoony style of "How Do You Translate Non-Binary?" by Breena Nuñez to the gritty crosshatches of "Sometimes I Call Myself Queer. Sometimes I Feel Like a Liar." by Nero O'Reilly. Many entries stand out as truly great works of art, and the collection as a whole will entice readers to savor and explore it again and again. An utterly delightful and expansive collection of queer voices and truths. (Graphic anthology. 16-adult) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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