Comics/ Graphic Novels-Genre
The popularity of graphic novels and comics is on the rise. It is another genre with a wide variety of subjects and varying degrees of popularity. As more tolerance for LGBTQ community has emerged in society, there has been more openness and acceptance in mainstream cartoons of these themes such as For Better or For Worse and The X-Men . Moreover, in the LGBTQ community, artists have been creating inclusive cartoons for many years that were published in such LGBTQ focused journals as The Advocate, Lavender Magazine or Christopher Street. Some Manga books contain LGBTQ content and will able to provide variety to the libraries LGBTQ collection.
A challenge for many libraries when building a comic or graphic novel collection with LGBTQ content will be about the content. Some of these works will be indeed be “graphic” and may contain images that could offend some library patrons. Librarians may struggle with the balance between collecting comics and graphic novels that will appeal to the LGBTQ community and at the same time avoiding charges of distributing pornography to minors or having to deal with censorship challenges from other library users.
DiMassa, Diane/ Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist
Hanson, Glen/ Chelsea Boys
Kinnard Rupert/ B.B. and the Diva
Kirby, Robert/ Curbside
Moore, Terry/ Complete Strangers in Paradise
Orner, Erick/ The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green
Unnatural Dykes To Watch Out For 6. Allison Bechdel. 1995. 142p. (Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender)
Book 6 from the long-running national serial and soap opera with a social conscious. Bechdel draws Mo and her friends together again working at the bookstore, falling in and out of love and commenting on the political events during the 1990’s. Comics are complete the way they were printed in the newspapers. Bechdel includes bonus cartoons in this book as well. Dialogue is quick and witty with many political references.
Fun Home. Allison Bechdel. 2006. 232. (Lesbian)
Bechdel consults her childhood journals to construct this memoir of growing up in small town Pennsylvania where her father was the town funeral director, high school English teacher and closeted gay man. Bechdel’s relationship with him is conducted mainly through their love of literature and the connection that they discover they have when she comes out to her family in college just before her father’s death. Thought provoking and reflective dialogue as the story flips back and forth from Bechdel’s youth, college relationships and adulthood.