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Queer life gets the comics treatment, courtesy of San Diego’s IDW Publishing

San Diego’s IDW partners with The Nib for the graphic-novel anthology ‘Be Gay, Do Comics!’

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San Diego’s IDW Publishing is the comic-book home of such pop-culture heroes as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe, Sonic the Hedgehog and the demon-fighting crew of Wynonna Earp. It is also a place where preconceived notions about comic books and graphic novels get zapped clean away.

In 2013, IDW published the first installment of “March,” the best-selling three-volume graphic-novel series chronicling the United States’ civil rights battle through the eyes of the late Rep. John Lewis. In 2018, IDW teamed with DC Comics to publish “Love Is Love,” a comic-book anthology to benefit the survivors of the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. In 2019, the publisher’s Top Shelf Productions imprint released “They Called Us Enemy,” actor George Takei’s graphic memoir recounting his family’s imprisonment in two internment camps during World War II.

And on Sept. 1, IDW teamed with The Nib — an online publication dedicated to political and non-fiction comics — to give us “Be Gay, Do Comics!” a graphic-novel anthology that explores queer life and history through the personal experiences of its LGBTQ+ cartoonists.

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The 250-page book features serious comics on underground heroes (“The Life of Gad Beck: Gay. Jewish. Nazi Fighter); wry comics about hairstyles (“Astrological Signs as Classic Queer Haircuts”); giddy comics about life-changing moments (“I Came Out Late in Life and That’s Okay”; “Queerativity!”); and enlightening comics about landmarks in LGBTQ history (“Queer Uprisings Before Stonewall,” “Freedom, Joy and Power: The History of the Rainbow Flag”).

The collection is funny, heartbreaking and deeply personal. And like the ground-breakers that came before it, “Be Gay, Do Comics!” is all about telling the untold stories that people need to hear. Ready or not. But mostly ready.

“We are really seeing an increased interest in engaging with stories that are different from what people may have experienced individually,” said Justin Eisinger, IDW’s editorial director for graphic novels and collections and a co-writer of Takei’s graphic memoir. “As much as that might sound like wishful thinking, when you look at the publishing sphere, the proof is in the pudding. People are reading books that challenge them and books that help widen their understanding of the world.”

For The Nib, “Be Gay, Do Comics!” was also part of a larger revolution.

Founded in 2013 by editorial cartoonist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Matt Bors, the Nib offers daily online non-fiction comics that explore and skewer politics, the COVID-19 crisis, gender-reveals gone wrong and pumpkin-spice madness. The Nib had not put out an anthology since 2015’s “Eat More Comics,” so when the editors started thinking about a good subject for a new one, they didn’t have to think for very long.

“The first idea for all of us was to do a queer anthology, because we have so many queer contributors, and a number of our editorial staff members are queer,” said Matt Lubchansky, a cartoonist and illustrator who is associate editor of the Nib and associate editor of “Be Gay, Do Comics!”

“Indie comics is one of the queerest places in media right now, so we thought a queer anthology would be a good fit for us. It was a very natural direction for us to be on.”

The anthology’s title is an homage to “Be Gay, Do Crime!,” a meme popularized by Io Ascarium of the ABO Comix collective, which sells comics made by LGBTQ+ prisoners. As Lubchansky says in the collection’s introduction, the phrase is a reminder that, “Queerness has always been transgressive, regardless of its legal status.” The anthology’s twist on that theme is also a tribute to the DIY world of indie-comics, where rules about how comics are supposed to look, what stories they are supposed to tell and who the artists are supposed to be are flouted in a million cheerfully anarchic ways.

In the world of The Nib and “Be Gay, Do Comics!,” no subject is off the drawing table. Not being queer in the Middle East or being gender nonconforming while folk dancing. Not panic over pronouns, confusion about gay conservatives or the massive misstep that was Nike’s pink triangle sneakers. The comics can say anything, and the cartoonists can be anyone.

And when readers embark on the “Be Gay, Do Comics!” adventure, they could end up in a better, happier place.

“Someone who thinks there are only two genders or that trans people are mentally ill is not going to read this book. But for someone who has queer people in their lives, this could put them on the road to where they need to be,” Lubchansky said.

“This is also for queer people to see themselves. We are getting a lot of love from libraries, which is really, really lovely, because it means that younger people can see there are so many different ways to be queer. There is a whole world out there for you.”

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