While superhero stories often dominate conversations about comics, many of the best comics do not fall into this genre--and this is especially true of titles that showcase the experiences of LGBTQ+ characters. Superheroes are essentially power fantasies, but Pride covers a massive spectrum of experiences, some of which are empowering and others of which are rooted in very different outlooks.
This list of comics includes magical fantasies with queer protagonists, gut-wrenching horror stories where gay lovers look out for one another, and graphic memoirs of real people coming out, among many other types of stories. This is only a fraction of the wonderful books that should be showcased here, but everyone will be sure to find something that speaks to them from the books included here.
10 Lumberjanes Is An All-Ages LGBTQ+ Comic
Pride Month was designed to create a space for LGBTQ+ people of all backgrounds, all walks of life, and all ages. That is why the all-ages comic Lumberjanes is the perfect starting point for this list!
This comic was created by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters, and Brooklyn A. Allen, and follows a group of girls going on adventures at scout camp, where they encounter supernatural creatures. The book includes trans and non-binary characters, as well as kids who are the children of same-sex couples, making it an inclusive story for people of all ages.
9 Fun Home Is Alison Bechdel’s Graphic Memoir
Fun Home is the autobiographical comic of Alison Bechdel (famed creator of the Bechdel Test). The book deals with her struggles and journey of coming out, and her complicated relationship with her father, who was not straight, and who used it as an excuse for some inexcusable behavior.
The book can be very intense at points, but at its core is an intimate story of family and self-discovery, crafter with rich literary allusions and poignant observations about the time and place in which events occur, rooting it deeply within Bechdel’s personal experiences as a young lesbian from a small-town community.
8 The Wicked + the Divine Is A Masterwork With Diverse Representation
The Wicked + The Divine is one of those books that juggles so many plots and themes so well it can be difficult to know how to describe it. The basic premise is that every ninety years, the gods return to Earth and manifest in human hosts. For two years, these people are simultaneously worshipped and reviled, imbued with divine powers. Then they die.
This time, the divines have become rock gods and rap gods and pop music messiahs. Written by Kieron Gillen and drawn by Jamie McKelvie, this book is filled with rich complex characters, engaging plot twists, and art that captivates the soul. Its characters also include people whose identities are often brushed over with the “Q+” in LGBTQ+, including one of the most likeable and charismatic ace characters in modern fiction. There is also a polyfidelous non-monogamous throuple that engages in total power exchange and whose relationship is neither fetishized nor other. Straight, gay, bi, pan, and heteroflexible characters are all allowed to live and love and grow in this truly magical book.
7 Sunstone Is A Touching Romance
In recent years, much of Pride has been corporatized and sanitized as queer identities are accepted into the mainstream, but some members have continued to be marginalized—even as writers, YouTubers, and activists work to fight such stigmas.
Written and drawn by the great Stjepan Sejic, Sunstone is a story about two women who meet online, begin a fascinating dynamic, and grow to love one another deeply. Sunstone perfectly captures the small intimate moments that couples enjoy with an honesty that captures the full spectrum of the human experience.
6 Memetic’s Protagonist Tries To Save His Boyfriend From A Dangerous Meme
James Tynion IV and Eryk Donovan’s Memetic begins as a new meme of a cute sloth begins to spread, becoming an international phenomenon. However, the meme infects anyone who sees it, changing them.
The protagonist Aaron Sumner desperately tries to get ahold of his boyfriend Ryan to make sure that Ryan is okay. This is a horror story, but it is also a story about love, connection, and loneliness. It was nominated for the Glaad Award for Outstanding Comic Book in 2015, but was beaten by Rat Queens.
5 Rat Queens Is A Hilarious Fantasy Adventure
Inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, Rat Queens is about a group of girls who love to get drunk at the local tavern and get into brawls. One such bar fight gets them sentenced to carry out community service, whereupon they are sent on an adventure to fight goblins and trolls, eventually stumbling upon a dark plot involving shady cabals and eldritch gods that threaten all they hold dear.
Rat Queens was created by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch and it is side-splittingly irreverently funny. The characters include a hipster dwarf fighter who defies conventional gender roles, a mushroom-loving halfling rogue who falls hard for an elven femme, a witty rockabilly elf mage who dates people of multiple genders, and a trans orc barbarian who rejected her tribe’s problematic ways.
4 No Straight Lines Is A Queer Anthology
These days, major corporations make ads signaling their support of LGBTQ+ people while police departments post pictures of their presence at Pride events. It can be easy to forget that the entire modern Pride movement in the US began when queer patrons of the Stonewall Inn fought back against homophobic police brutality.
No Straight Lines is an anthology showcasing queer voices from times that they were still openly repressed. It reprints four decades of queer comics from some truly amazing creators and is a great reminder that sometimes merely existing in the world is a transgressive political act.
3 Bingo Love Is A Romance That Transcends Time
There are many intersections of identity. Gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability, and religion all encompass different aspects of one’s personal experience.
Bingo Love is a comic by Tee Franklin, Jenn St. Onge, and Joy San about two young Black girls who meet and develop feelings for one another in the 60s but whose relationship is crushed by their religious parents. Decades later, they meet again at bingo as older women, and despite having lives and families of their own, they are still very much in love. This is a book of love defying all obstacles, including the passage of time. NPR, Book Riot, Autostraddle, Newsweek, and Amazon Book Review all have praised Bingo Love as one of the greatest comics of 2018.
2 Heathen Is An All Ages Story About A Viking Shieldmaiden And A Valkyrie
Heathen is an all-ages adventure story and lesbian romance written and drawn by Natasha Alterici and lettered by Rachel Deering. It is also inspired by a classic tale.
One of the most popular stories from the Early Middle Ages is the romance of the Viking Sigurd and the Valkyrie Brynhild, recounted in the Old Norse tale Volsunga Saga and the Middle High German epic poem Nibelungelid. Richard Wagner later adapted it into his four-part opera Der Ring des Nibelungen—famed for producing the song “Ride of the Valkyries.” Now, Alterici has retold the tale once again, only Sigurd is a secondary character, and the romance is between Brynhild and the Viking shieldmaiden Aydis.
1 Gender Queer: A Memoir Is Maia Kobabe’s Autobiography
This book is a powerful coming-of-age and coming out story by Maia Kobabe, documenting eir journey from early childhood where e was raised in a rural home without indoor plumbing to eir life as an adult advocating for eir needs (including informing others of eir preferred pronouns as e/em/eir). Being both nonbinary and asexual, Maia struggled with the changes eir body underwent as e grew up, detailed here with an honest sense of vulnerability.
Gender Queer: A Memoir is an incredibly moving book and has dramatically touched the lives of many, especially young readers in their teens and twenties who are learning to understand their own gender identities. It was the winner of the 2020 ALA Alex Award and a 2020 Stonewall Books Award.