| Imagine opening your Sunday paper and flipping past stories on the legalization of gay marriage to find a comics page where stories of transgender teens and lusty lesbian pirates share the page with Peanuts and For Better or For Worse. Well, maybe someday. But for the foreseeable future, webcomics are the place to find popular art that speaks to and from the queer experience.
The term webcomic is a broad one that can describe any type of graphic storytelling delivered via webpage, as opposed to publication in a magazine, newspaper, comic book, or graphic novel form. Since the earliest days of the internet, people have made their comic and cartoon work available online, and in recent years the growing availability and affordability of drawing tablets, scanners and well as developments in web publishing applications have allowed even those with less technical savvy to become webcomic artists.
There are literally tens of thousands of webcomics available on hosting sites like SmackJeeves.com, ModernTales.com and personal websites. The vast majority of stories deal with the same topics people have come to expect from comic strips and books--action/adventure, fantasy and science fiction, and goofy humor, or some combination of all of those, all geared toward a straight male reader. But the egalitarian nature of the internet has also made it possible for artists with less traditional stories to tell to find an enthusiastic and appreciative audience.
While all types of webcomics have been expanding, comics featuring lesbian and bisexual women remain in the minority. At OnlineComics.net, a webcomic index listing a total of 5,096 comics, only 110 fall under the category of gay/lesbian, with the majority of those being stories by and about gay men. ComicGenesis, a site that hosts 7,895 comics, only lists 53 as gay/lesbian themed. Although comics for queer women are still a small niche within the wider webcomic community, the ones that rise to the top of the existing pack are some of the most exciting reading you can find online.
YU+ME by Megan Gedris tells the story Fiona, an awkward high school girl, made an outcast by her classmates, harassed by her stepmother, and struggling with her mad crush on the extremely cute new girl next door. Gedris has developed a distinctive style for her comic that alternates between lush, detailed, anime-style drawings of her characters and quick, more cartoonish sketches, using the difference to convey shifts in tone and emotional states.
Gedris, only 20 years old, makes no money from YU+ME, but obviously devotes a significant of time and talent to the comic. For her, it's more of a labor of love for queer women. “ I knew lesbian webcomics were few and I thought the webcomic audience really…deserved something better than crappy pencil sketches and bad layouts. So I really [make] sure to keep that I mind through the whole process,” she said in an interview.
Other lesbian webcomics may have less design skill behind them, but no less enthusiasm. Boobs Ahoy!, a newer webcomic created by Chloe Matthews and Lynn McKeown, depicts the swashbuckling adventures of Wilhelm and Clover, two lesbian pirates on the hunt for women and treasure and…more women.
As the title indicates, Boobs Ahoy! is full of silly, sexy fun; its opening page warns it might not be suitable for those under 18. With all the nudity and sexual content, Matthews has said that one of her main concerns about putting the comic online was that the wrong audience would find it, and enjoy it for the wrong reasons. “I'd hate the idea that I had a part in something that only objectified lesbians,” Matthews said. But as often happens on the internet, the audience has turned out to do an excellent job of self-selecting. Matthews continued, “I think the best comment we ever received was from a lesbian thanking us for doing something different than the image that lesbians are only known to bring a U-HAUL to the second date and settle down with cats, lesbians like meaningless sex too!”
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