Be Gay, Do Comics

caracabe reviewed Be Gay, Do Comics by Matt Bors

Don’t read this book if you don’t want to feel things

No rating

With my old eyes, I had to resort to aids to my vision (cell phone camera zoom, magnifying glass) to read parts of this book, either because the lettering was too small or because there wasn’t enough contrast between the text and the background. That’s not a criticism, except perhaps of time itself. The book repaid the effort.

These comics generally fall into three categories: personal, informative, and satirical. The satire is hit or miss, as satire tends to be, sometimes too on-the-nose. The informative pieces are all interesting, whether about history, biography, culture, or medicine. Among the personal narratives, some speak to me directly, making me feel seen and affirmed, and making me cry or laugh or do both at once. Those that don’t affect me with such immediacy, I appreciate for offering me a start at understanding the experiences of people who aren’t like me. They are also …

With my old eyes, I had to resort to aids to my vision (cell phone camera zoom, magnifying glass) to read parts of this book, either because the lettering was too small or because there wasn’t enough contrast between the text and the background. That’s not a criticism, except perhaps of time itself. The book repaid the effort.

These comics generally fall into three categories: personal, informative, and satirical. The satire is hit or miss, as satire tends to be, sometimes too on-the-nose. The informative pieces are all interesting, whether about history, biography, culture, or medicine. Among the personal narratives, some speak to me directly, making me feel seen and affirmed, and making me cry or laugh or do both at once. Those that don’t affect me with such immediacy, I appreciate for offering me a start at understanding the experiences of people who aren’t like me. They are also moving.

WardenRed reviewed Be Gay, Do Comics by Matt Bors

None

4 stars

For some reason, the first time I heard about this anthology I assumed it would be a collection of fiction—short stories in comic form. Instead, it's a collection of snippets from queer history across cultures and snapshots of personal queer experiences. It was great to sample so many art styles under one cover.

A lot of the historical/cultural pieces were educational for me. I knew about most of those things in broad strokes, but the authors delved into a lot of interesting details. The more "diary" style comics were often super relatable, especially the ones trying to make sense of gender and the ones focused on the ace experience.

While pretty much all of the art was pleasant to look at and made me want to look up more comic books by all these artists, about 20-25% were hard to read. Not because anything was wrong with the prose, but …

For some reason, the first time I heard about this anthology I assumed it would be a collection of fiction—short stories in comic form. Instead, it's a collection of snippets from queer history across cultures and snapshots of personal queer experiences. It was great to sample so many art styles under one cover.

A lot of the historical/cultural pieces were educational for me. I knew about most of those things in broad strokes, but the authors delved into a lot of interesting details. The more "diary" style comics were often super relatable, especially the ones trying to make sense of gender and the ones focused on the ace experience.

While pretty much all of the art was pleasant to look at and made me want to look up more comic books by all these artists, about 20-25% were hard to read. Not because anything was wrong with the prose, but because of the fonts that made my dyslexic little brain shrivel up. :D I fear that because of that, I may have skimmed past some quality storytelling I would have enjoyed otherwise. That's the sole reason I'm not giving this book 5 stars.