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Space Battle Lunchtime Vol. 1 - I was genuinely disappointed to only have the first volume in this collection, because it’s Iron Chef Space, where Peony is a last-minute replacement pick from Earth who has to compete in an outer-space cooking show against various aliens, including a taciturn cute lesbialien who I’m certain she’ll end up with. It’s delightful.
…Then I bought all three volumes in trade direct from Oni Press, because I liked this enough I wanted to read the whole thing. The first two volumes are a complete adorable story and the third is a sequel space-baking murder-mystery. It’s great.
Dodge City Vol. 1 - Dodgeball is serious business as a new kid joins the underdog team. There’s a lot going on here—probably too much, honestly, between the untranslated interactions in Spanish, the deaf kid who communicates by tablet and might end up dating the protagonist, and the family dynamics that aren’t really explored; all wrapped up in a teen sports movie premise.
Fence Vol. 1 - Meanwhile, this is a fencing comic for people who like Yuri on Ice. Pretty boys form deep rivalries over their relative skill at epee fencing and then end up as roommates at a private school. I see exactly what they’re doing and I’m just not interested.
Mooncakes - A young adult witch who lives with her grandmothers reunites with a childhood werewolf friend and starts a relationship, just as a weird horse-demon starts causing trouble nearby. A mix of slice-of-life fantasy, coming-of-age queer romance and horror-overtones YA action-fantasy; with an undercurrent about coming-out trauma and abusive family situations. It felt a little overloaded—like it was trying to do too many things at once—but it wasn’t bad; and I appreciated that it was a complete standalone story.
Mamo - On the other hand, while this is also about queer witches and generational trauma, it has stronger pacing and stronger character beats and comes together really well. It also creates and holds a more whimsical tone despite the subject matter. “Mamo” is the late witch of the town, and her granddaughter comes back to settle her affairs and deal with the mess she left behind, and finds a new friend in the local girl who needs her help with said mess. This is recommended.
Be Gay, Do Comics - A collection of assorted short comics from The Nib; most have a political bent (which, honestly, is going to happen because conservatives have so strongly politicized existing while queer), some are silly, some are genuinely informative. I was entertained by the collection as a whole, but nothing leaps out as particularly the best.
Camp Spirit - A teenaged girl has to get a summer job, and ends up at a sleep-away camp that may hide a terrifying secret…or the camp chief might just be kinda nuts. Features fairly realistic insane small children and terrible/wonderful summer camp memories. (This takes place in 1994; I have to wonder how much of the grumpy protagonist and her love of Nirvana are autobiographical. I hope the love story is based on real life; I hope the demons in the woods weren’t.)
Spectacle Vol. 1 – I don’t love the art style, but the story comes out pretty interesting: Twin sisters are working at a circus, one as a fortune teller and one as a knife thrower. When the knife thrower ends up with a collection of knives embedded in her back, her sister discovers she can talk to ghosts…which will hopefully be helpful to solving the murder, but is also critically necessary to solve both the mundane and supernatural mysteries that plague the circus. (There are at least four volumes of this, and I’m pretty sure I don’t like it enough to hunt them down, especially when I’ve already figured out that the dead sister was romancing the bearded lady, and that’s probably the reason somebody killed her.)
Killer Queens - “They put the sass in assassin!” In a crazy sci-fi space adventure, a pair of queer ex-assassins attempt to go straight (Hah!) but end up running afoul of a space monkey and his hench-otters and then crashing into a planetary rebellion. It’s cute, but it’s not really as clever as it needs to be to justify itself. If you like goofy zap-gun pulp sci-fi and want all the usual tropes but with queer people, here you go.
The Short While – A queer spec-fic epic that goes into great exploratory detail about a dystopian future, including the years following the fall of “the Administration,” a new religion called “The Dance,” and various technological changes. Like all good spec-fic, these are really musings on capitalism, the corruptive nature of power, human nature and the like. But that’s all backdrop and supporting information to the romance of Colin and Paolo and their lives before, during and after their short while together. (I think this greatly discounts the human ability to desensitize to violence and I don’t think the details of the society and the technologies stay 100% consistent across the full work, but that’s also not the focus of it.) This was also interesting while I was musing on the nature of different queer subcultures, because it speculates on a number of them while, as far as I can tell, not including a single straight person in the entire story.
Cosmoknights - There’s a thesis to be written about the abundance of anti-princess queer comics. In this space fantasy, the primary form of entertainment is sci-fi gundam armor jousting, where the winner gets the hand of the local princess to wed or to hand off to their sponsor. We follow the story of Pan, a commoner from a backwater world who makes friends with her local princess and eventually helps her escape before she can be “won.” Years later, Pan falls in with Cass and Bee; Cass is a princess who took the unprecedented step of putting on armor and winning herself, and now pretends to be a knight named Bull to win and free other princesses. While the first volume is a complete story, this clearly has legs to explore the group’s attempts to dismantle the entire jousting system and to find out what happened to Pan’s friend. (And yes, all of the characters are definitely lesbians.)
Barbalien – Jeff Lemire writes a Martian Manhunter story, except “Mark Markz” is gay and become politically active during the AIDS crisis. I was skeptical going in because Lemire often has real trouble getting to the point instead of just being weird; but it’s pretty decent and hangs together as a complete story with a very important climactic point: Sometimes violence is necessary for justice.
The Fifth Beatle - A biographic piece about Brian Epstein, the manager who pushed the Beatles to fame and fortune while he struggled under Britain’s strict anti-homosexuality laws and also (or probably because of them) developed a crippling drug addiction. Interesting, but a little too caricatured for my taste.
The Love Bunglers - Another Love and Rockets sequel/side-story, though I’ll admit I’m not clear on whether they’re supposed to all connect up or whether they’re standalone stories with the same characters (like Archie stories). This one has some serious mood dissonance, as it keeps the “mugging for the camera” goofy art but also includes a flashback to child abuse and several serious assaults. It has a soap opera feel and doesn’t feel like it resolves the various emotional arcs, it just flashes forward and ends.
The Backstagers - A story about the band of misfits at an all-boys school who make up the theater crew, with the added bonus that the backstage is an eldritch labyrinth and a stage crew from years before disappeared into it forever. Clearly written by someone who loves theater and hates actors. Cute concept, middling execution.
Enigma has a horror, Vertigo-style thing going, but the art is painful. Eighty Days has a “age of exploration” vibe to it but couldn’t hold my attention. Wuvable Oaf had some potential as a slice-of-life comic about a giant, hairy man constantly covered in cats, but I couldn’t get into it. The Complete Wimmin's Comix is a compilation of the 70s underground comic anthologies created by the Wimmen’s Comix Collective. They are not For me. Boys Run the Riot 1 is clearly a boy’s love manga, as is 10 Dance 1; and neither appealed to me. Similarly, Massive is taglined “Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It,” which seems like a fun book for manga fans, but I’m not into it.
This bundle also included an assortment of comics I already had from other collections: Wynd Book One: Flight of the Prince, Tea Dragon Society, Kim Reaper Vol. 1, Wet Moon V1, Lumberjanes Vol. 1, Princess Princess Ever After and the Q&E Guide to Queer and Trans IDs. (You absolutely should read Lumberjanes if you haven’t already.)
Overall: Space Battle Lunchtime is delightful. Mamo and Camp Spirit were also standouts. I don’t know if I’d necessarily recommend The Short While, but I found it really interesting.
…Then I bought all three volumes in trade direct from Oni Press, because I liked this enough I wanted to read the whole thing. The first two volumes are a complete adorable story and the third is a sequel space-baking murder-mystery. It’s great.
Dodge City Vol. 1 - Dodgeball is serious business as a new kid joins the underdog team. There’s a lot going on here—probably too much, honestly, between the untranslated interactions in Spanish, the deaf kid who communicates by tablet and might end up dating the protagonist, and the family dynamics that aren’t really explored; all wrapped up in a teen sports movie premise.
Fence Vol. 1 - Meanwhile, this is a fencing comic for people who like Yuri on Ice. Pretty boys form deep rivalries over their relative skill at epee fencing and then end up as roommates at a private school. I see exactly what they’re doing and I’m just not interested.
Mooncakes - A young adult witch who lives with her grandmothers reunites with a childhood werewolf friend and starts a relationship, just as a weird horse-demon starts causing trouble nearby. A mix of slice-of-life fantasy, coming-of-age queer romance and horror-overtones YA action-fantasy; with an undercurrent about coming-out trauma and abusive family situations. It felt a little overloaded—like it was trying to do too many things at once—but it wasn’t bad; and I appreciated that it was a complete standalone story.
Mamo - On the other hand, while this is also about queer witches and generational trauma, it has stronger pacing and stronger character beats and comes together really well. It also creates and holds a more whimsical tone despite the subject matter. “Mamo” is the late witch of the town, and her granddaughter comes back to settle her affairs and deal with the mess she left behind, and finds a new friend in the local girl who needs her help with said mess. This is recommended.
Be Gay, Do Comics - A collection of assorted short comics from The Nib; most have a political bent (which, honestly, is going to happen because conservatives have so strongly politicized existing while queer), some are silly, some are genuinely informative. I was entertained by the collection as a whole, but nothing leaps out as particularly the best.
Camp Spirit - A teenaged girl has to get a summer job, and ends up at a sleep-away camp that may hide a terrifying secret…or the camp chief might just be kinda nuts. Features fairly realistic insane small children and terrible/wonderful summer camp memories. (This takes place in 1994; I have to wonder how much of the grumpy protagonist and her love of Nirvana are autobiographical. I hope the love story is based on real life; I hope the demons in the woods weren’t.)
Spectacle Vol. 1 – I don’t love the art style, but the story comes out pretty interesting: Twin sisters are working at a circus, one as a fortune teller and one as a knife thrower. When the knife thrower ends up with a collection of knives embedded in her back, her sister discovers she can talk to ghosts…which will hopefully be helpful to solving the murder, but is also critically necessary to solve both the mundane and supernatural mysteries that plague the circus. (There are at least four volumes of this, and I’m pretty sure I don’t like it enough to hunt them down, especially when I’ve already figured out that the dead sister was romancing the bearded lady, and that’s probably the reason somebody killed her.)
Killer Queens - “They put the sass in assassin!” In a crazy sci-fi space adventure, a pair of queer ex-assassins attempt to go straight (Hah!) but end up running afoul of a space monkey and his hench-otters and then crashing into a planetary rebellion. It’s cute, but it’s not really as clever as it needs to be to justify itself. If you like goofy zap-gun pulp sci-fi and want all the usual tropes but with queer people, here you go.
The Short While – A queer spec-fic epic that goes into great exploratory detail about a dystopian future, including the years following the fall of “the Administration,” a new religion called “The Dance,” and various technological changes. Like all good spec-fic, these are really musings on capitalism, the corruptive nature of power, human nature and the like. But that’s all backdrop and supporting information to the romance of Colin and Paolo and their lives before, during and after their short while together. (I think this greatly discounts the human ability to desensitize to violence and I don’t think the details of the society and the technologies stay 100% consistent across the full work, but that’s also not the focus of it.) This was also interesting while I was musing on the nature of different queer subcultures, because it speculates on a number of them while, as far as I can tell, not including a single straight person in the entire story.
Cosmoknights - There’s a thesis to be written about the abundance of anti-princess queer comics. In this space fantasy, the primary form of entertainment is sci-fi gundam armor jousting, where the winner gets the hand of the local princess to wed or to hand off to their sponsor. We follow the story of Pan, a commoner from a backwater world who makes friends with her local princess and eventually helps her escape before she can be “won.” Years later, Pan falls in with Cass and Bee; Cass is a princess who took the unprecedented step of putting on armor and winning herself, and now pretends to be a knight named Bull to win and free other princesses. While the first volume is a complete story, this clearly has legs to explore the group’s attempts to dismantle the entire jousting system and to find out what happened to Pan’s friend. (And yes, all of the characters are definitely lesbians.)
Barbalien – Jeff Lemire writes a Martian Manhunter story, except “Mark Markz” is gay and become politically active during the AIDS crisis. I was skeptical going in because Lemire often has real trouble getting to the point instead of just being weird; but it’s pretty decent and hangs together as a complete story with a very important climactic point: Sometimes violence is necessary for justice.
The Fifth Beatle - A biographic piece about Brian Epstein, the manager who pushed the Beatles to fame and fortune while he struggled under Britain’s strict anti-homosexuality laws and also (or probably because of them) developed a crippling drug addiction. Interesting, but a little too caricatured for my taste.
The Love Bunglers - Another Love and Rockets sequel/side-story, though I’ll admit I’m not clear on whether they’re supposed to all connect up or whether they’re standalone stories with the same characters (like Archie stories). This one has some serious mood dissonance, as it keeps the “mugging for the camera” goofy art but also includes a flashback to child abuse and several serious assaults. It has a soap opera feel and doesn’t feel like it resolves the various emotional arcs, it just flashes forward and ends.
The Backstagers - A story about the band of misfits at an all-boys school who make up the theater crew, with the added bonus that the backstage is an eldritch labyrinth and a stage crew from years before disappeared into it forever. Clearly written by someone who loves theater and hates actors. Cute concept, middling execution.
Enigma has a horror, Vertigo-style thing going, but the art is painful. Eighty Days has a “age of exploration” vibe to it but couldn’t hold my attention. Wuvable Oaf had some potential as a slice-of-life comic about a giant, hairy man constantly covered in cats, but I couldn’t get into it. The Complete Wimmin's Comix is a compilation of the 70s underground comic anthologies created by the Wimmen’s Comix Collective. They are not For me. Boys Run the Riot 1 is clearly a boy’s love manga, as is 10 Dance 1; and neither appealed to me. Similarly, Massive is taglined “Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It,” which seems like a fun book for manga fans, but I’m not into it.
This bundle also included an assortment of comics I already had from other collections: Wynd Book One: Flight of the Prince, Tea Dragon Society, Kim Reaper Vol. 1, Wet Moon V1, Lumberjanes Vol. 1, Princess Princess Ever After and the Q&E Guide to Queer and Trans IDs. (You absolutely should read Lumberjanes if you haven’t already.)
Overall: Space Battle Lunchtime is delightful. Mamo and Camp Spirit were also standouts. I don’t know if I’d necessarily recommend The Short While, but I found it really interesting.
