Louis is an eleventh-grader, struggling with his sexuality, when he meets Daniel, and it turns his geeky life upside down. GQutie (pronounced gee-cutie!) is an autobiographical comic detailing one genderqueer artist’s thoughts, discoveries, and encounters when it comes to their gender and everything connected to it (which is a lot of things, it turns out). This queer memoir tells the story of Kabi, a woman who decided against attending university, and spent her early twenties in a haze of depression, drifting through jobs at stores and bakeries and, when she finds the energy to do so, she writes manga. Both of these books are gorgeously, intimately drawn and written with such a raw, stripped-bare kind of intensity.

For those unaware, GLAAD is an American monitoring organisation, founded in 1985 as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation – although now known solely by the acronym, so as not to exclude bi, trans, and other queer people – to combat homophobia in reporting and to lobby for better representation in media. Since 1989, the GLAAD Media Awards have celebrated excellence in LGBTQ+ broadcasting and publishing, initially focussing entirely on TV but in recent years encompassing more varied creative outlets. A funny comic about the experience of the author as a nonbinary person navigating gender expectations. Three kids make an ill-advised (but well-intentioned) deal with a demon in the woods one day. Twenty years later, Levi, Rowan, and Alder meet again to find out their past has caught up to them. But a lot changes in twenty years, and they aren’t as innocent as they used to be.You’ve already talked to Tillie, but one of the other books I was going to recommend before I saw the other recommendations — I’ll still recommend it! On a Sunbeam is gorgeous! I love Tillie Walden’s work. Spinning is another book of hers that I really, really enjoyed. I just have an incredible love for the way she populates fantastical and science fiction universes. On a Sunbeam has this really lovely combination of being an exploration of relationships between young people, in ways that could be described as slice of life, but the setting is done in a way that really takes you to a different place. I love that about her work. It’s pretty accessible — it’s a webcomic that’s been collected into a full volume. Linette Moore, The Prisoner of Shiverstone This is the story of a queer teenager who made a few bad decisions and has found themselves in a world very far from Queens. Corinth, a young bi woman, was just trying to clean up the beach. She never expected to meet a mermaid and become friends.

A comic by Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat writer Kate Leth to talk about fun things like feminism, bisexuality, being young, and terrible comic stuff. When openly asexual Anwar Sardar gets dragged to a kink night by his (soon to be ex) best mate, JD; he is surprised to make friends with Chris Slate, a middle aged transvestite with a penchant for Dr Who. Convinced they’ll never meet again Anwar puts him out of his mind, but the awkwardly charming man keeps turning up in his life.Hien Pham is a recent arrival to comics who’s writing and drawing warm and compelling personal work about queer life, from the digital graphic novel It Will Be Hard to various online and anthology shorts. He’s a frequent contributor to Oh Joy Sex Toy, where he publishes extremely personal comics: NSFW explorations of fatphobia and self-acceptance and exploring his own body and sexuality, alongside SFW vignettes about mental health and friendship and navigating relationship grief. What do you look for in a queer indie comic? Whether or not his death was suicide hangs over the book while Bechdel attempts to piece together her fractured relationship with him, her own queerness, her success, and even her relationship with her psychiatrist.