Dancing on the Volcano
English
Gender Queer
Comic - Non-Fiction
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Then e created Gender Queer. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fan fiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: It is a useful and touching guide on gender identity.
Invisible Differences
Comic - Non-Fiction
Marguerite's a shy twentysomething working hard to keep up appearances in her "normal" adult life. But something's been off for a while: everyday noise assaults her senses, constant coworker chatter works her nerves, and her clueless boyfriend makes her feel like she's imagining it all. After a failed road trip ends in disaster, Marguerite finally searches for answers: Why is she so sensitive to everything? Why can't she just make small talk? Why does she feel like she isn't enough? A miraculous thing happens: Marguerite is diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, embarking her on a three-year journey of acceptance and self-love. Finally living by her own rules, she asks the real question: Why doesn't the world understand autistic people?
Algeria Is Beautiful like America
Comic - Non-Fiction
Olivia had always heard stories about Algeria from her maternal grandmother, a Black Foot (a "Pied-Noir," the French term for Christian and Jewish settlers of French Algeria who emigrated to France after the Algerian War of Independence). After her grandmother's death, Olivia found some of her grandmother's journals and letters describing her homeland. Now, ten years later, she resolves to travel to Algeria and experience the country for herself; she arrives alone, with her grandmother's postcards and letters in tow, and a single phone number in her pocket of an Algerian, Djaffar, who will act as her guide.
Proxy Mom
Comic - Non-Fiction
Marietta and Chuck, madly in love, are expecting a baby. But childbirth marks the end of the fairy tale. Zoe's birth didn't go as Marietta imagined, and the maternal instinct is slow to manifest itself. While she no longer recognizes her body, Marietta feels herself losing her footing in the face of this vulnerable baby for whom she is now responsible. Will she manage to feel like a mother? To love her baby? To stop thinking that a proxy mom would do better than her? A humorful but realist viewpoint on a problem experienced by a significant number of new mothers, with an insight on how to overcome it.\n\nSOPHIE ADRIANSEN was born in 1982, lives in Bretagne, France. She works full- time as a writer since 2010, having studied storytelling at the Femis movie school (Paris). She is the au...
Petrograd
Comic - Non-Fiction
The year is 1916. The fate of millions of people hangs in the balance, and in Russia’s capital city of Petrograd, corruption rules the day and conspiracy rules the night. But to British intelligence officer Cleary, the Petrograd post is all drunken nights, bleary-eyed mornings, and the occasional report back to London. However, when rumors circulate that the tsarina’s most trusted advisor is counseling the tsar to make peace with Germany, Cleary–to his horror–is tasked with ending t...
Fights
Comic - Non-Fiction
Propelled into a world filled with uncertainty and desperation, young Joel is pushed toward using violence to solve his problems by everything and everyone around him. But fighting doesn’t always yield the best results for a confused and sensitive kid who yearns for a better, more fulfilling life than the one he was born into, as Joel learns in a series of brutal conflicts that eventually lead him to question everything he has learned about what it truly means to fight for one’s life.
My Life in Transition
Comic - Non-Fiction
My Life in Transition is a story that’s not often told about trans lives: what happens beyond the early days of transition. Both deeply personal and widely relatable, this collection illustrates six months of Julia's life as an out trans woman—about the beauty and pain of love and heartbreak, struggling to find support from bio family and the importance of chosen family, moments of dysphoria and misgendering, learning to lean on friends in times of need, and finding peace in the fact that life keeps moving forward.After the nerve-wracking, anxiety-ridden early transition period has ended and the hormones have done their thing, this book shows how you can be trans and simply exist in society.
Turning Japanese
Comic - Non-Fiction
Mari, a mixed-race Japanese American, has for many years felt disconnected from the culture of her mother. Immersed in the pan-asian diaspora of San Jose, Mari searches for cultural and romantic connections. It doesn't take long for Mari to find new loves, and a new job—at a hostess bar for Japanese expats, in a bid to learn the Japanese language and culture.
Turning Japanese: Expanded Edition includes all new story pages that bring fresh insight and a new resolution to this classic of comics memoir for our times.
No Ivy League
Comic - Non-Fiction
Homeschooled, affluent, and sheltered, 17-year-old Hazel takes a summer job clearing ivy from the forest in Portland, Oregon, the only plan is to earn some extra cash to put toward concert tickets. Hazel soon finds that working side by side with at-risk teens leaves no room for comforting illusions of equality and understanding that was her reality up till now. This uncomfortable and compelling memoir is an important story of a teen's awakening to the racial insularity of the upper class, the power of white privilege, and the hidden history of segregation in Portland.
A Quick & Easy Guide
Comic - Non-Fiction
In this quick and easy guide to queer and trans identities, cartoonists Mady G and Jules Zuckerberg guide you through the basics of the LGBTQ+ world! Covering essential topics like sexuality, gender identity, coming out, and navigating relationships, this guide explains the spectrum of human experience through informative comics, interviews, worksheets, and imaginative examples. A great starting point for anyone curious about queer and trans life, and helpful for those already on their own journeys!