Top 10 Graphic Novels with LGBT and Queer Themes [Linwood’s Picks]

With 2020’s Pride month approaching the end of its first week, we asked our founder Linwood Storm to present his Top 10 Graphic Novels with LGBT and Queer themes that include creatively-illustrated stories and very well-written characters representative of the culture in engaging stories from various genres.

If any of our readers have recommendations that they would love for us to check out, feel free to comment below with titles and links to purchase them. Whether they are mainstream, independent, or projects that you are personally working on.

10. THE ALCOHOLIC

“This touching, compassionate, ultimately humorous story explores the heart of a failing writer who’s coming off a doomed romance and searching for hope. Unfortunately, the first place his search takes him is the bottom of a bottle as he careens from one off-kilter encounter to another in search of himself.”

9. THE PERVERT

A surprisingly honest and touching account of a trans girl surviving through sex work in Seattle. With excerpts published in the Eisner-nominated anthology ISLAND, the full-color volume, drawn and painted by Remy Boydell, is an unflinching debut graphic novel.

8. THE INVISIBLE LESBIAN

“Oceanerosemarie has been attracted to women since she was young. For some reason, no one believes she’s a lesbian, not even other lesbians. Is she too feminine? She does love women, but she also loves lipstick and pretty flowery dresses. Going from a women’s soccer club to the ultra-trendy nightclub “Le Pulp”, she explores and decodes the stereotypes associated with lesbians, and she doesn’t spare the heteros either!
A well-written, miles-away-from-the usual-clichés, funny and compelling graphic novel.”

7. VIRGIL

“Betrayed, beaten, and banished by his own, an outed cop fights his way across Jamaica to save his man and get revenge! Virgil thought he was safe on the police force, but his gun and his attitude can’t protect him from his own secret – he’s gay. For thirty years he’s had two lives. In the uniform, he’s the toughest on the street. Out of uniform, he’s a loving boyfriend. But when his own precinct turns on him, his worlds explodes. They put his name in the paper, raided his house, and took his lover. They left him bleeding in the ocean. They shouldn’t have left him alive. Virgil is the next era of exploitation, following in the steps of Shaft and Django Unchained. Hard-hitting crime noir gave a fresh face but the same busted knuckles.”

6. MOTOR CRUSH

“The team behind the critically-acclaimed revamp of Batgirl returns with an exciting sci-fi action-adventure series! By day, Domino Swift competes for fame & fortune in a worldwide motorcycle racing league. By night, she cracks heads of rival gangs in brutal bike wars to gain possession of a rare, valuable contraband: an engine-boosting “machine narcotic” known as Crush.”

5. THE FORGOTTEN QUEEN

“An ancient evil returns!

Long ago, the mighty generals of the Mongol Empire rode from Siberia to Carpathia and conquered all who stood in their way. Legends tell of a witch who walked with them, who could infect the hearts of any warriors in her midst with an unquenchable thirst for battle and bloodshed…a War-Monger. And now she is walking again.

From superstar-in-the-making Tini Howard (Assassinistas) and powerhouse artist Amilcar Pinna (Generation X) comes a brand-new saga of honor, love, and savagery that’s centuries in the making!”

4. BITCH PLANET

“In a future just a few years down the road in the wrong direction, a woman’s failure to comply with her patriarchal overlords will result in exile to the meanest penal planet in the galaxy. When the newest crop of fresh femmes arrive, can they work together to stay alive or will hidden agendas, crooked guards, and the deadliest sport on (or off!) Earth take them to their maker?”

3. MIDNIGHTER – THE COMPLETE WILDSTORM SERIES

“The Midnighter is the most dangerous man on the planet—able to plan a fight a million moves ahead, capable of killing ruthlessly, relentlessly and without remorse.
 
Fed up with his teammates in the Authority (including his husband, Apollo) and their lost mission of saving the world from itself, Midnighter strikes out on his own. Despite possessing superhuman abilities to see every move his opponents will make, Midnighter can’t see what’s ahead for himself. He’s blackmailed into assassinating Hitler before the start of World War II; he’s given a chance to find out about his past, before he became a superhuman killing machine; and he’s hunted by an assassin with unlimited means.
 
He’s the Midnighter, what soldiers dream of becoming—what children see when they first imagine what death is like.”

2. JUPITER’S CIRCLE

“In mid-century America, a team of young superheroes faces epic threats in public while battling personal demons behind closed doors.”

1. SCOTT PILGRIM

“The series is about Scott Pilgrim, a slacker and part-time musician who lives in Toronto, Ontario, and plays bass guitar in a band. He falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona Flowers, but must defeat her seven evil exes in order to date her.”

Linwood Storm

Linwood Storm is an American musician, executive producer, filmmaker, director, actor, publisher, voice-over artist and comic book writer from Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is currently the host of the ‘Black Grindhouse’ podcast and founder of GameCargo.

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