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 …
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.
