The Legend of Bold Riley
You guys, this comic is the best thing ever!
Alright, first I have to admit to some personal biases here. I love fairy tales/legends, I love comics, I love lesbians, and I love reading about and seeing non-western settings. The Legend of Bold Riley has it all, so there was a pretty low chance that I wasn’t going to like it. (Unless it was stupid objectifying cheesecake like the Grimm Fairy Tales comic.)
(*sigh*)
But The Legend of Bold Riley is in a completely different league than that junk. It tells the story of a wandering princess in search of adventure, and boy does she find it!
Riley fights against demon women, monstrous goat eaters, and giant snakes in the form of men. She deals with gods and mischievous ghosts, and a series of lovers all in a setting strongly reminiscent of India.
Look, Riley isn’t just cool; she’s amazing. She can fight, she’s very clever, she can be sassy but also knows when to be respectful, and you can’t help but root for her and turn the page to see what she’ll do next.
This book goes through a few art styles, but Bold Riley looks great in every one. She looks heroic and she looks human. It so refreshing to have a female main character that isn’t at all hyper-sexualized. There’s even a scene where Riley is completely, visibly naked and it’s still no big deal. You’re still more interested in what’s happening in the story than any potential T+A.
This comic seems to be somewhat limited in its availability, but you can order it here: http://northwestpress.com/shop/the-legend-of-bold-riley/
Trust me, it’s worth every cent. Plus, maybe if it sells enough, we can hope for a second volume! Get on this, folks!
Queer Stuff in the World: Lawrence Poirier
For those of you who don’t know For Better or for Worse is a popular Canadian newspaper comic strip that’s been around for several decades. (It also runs in many American papers.) This isn’t that uncommon, as newspapers are notorious for holding on to popular strips for decades at a time, but what’s interesting about FBofW is that it’s one of the few daily strips that has an aging cast. (Or used to anyway. The strip was going to retire and wrapped up all the storylines, but then instead just restarted and is apparently not aging people anymore. Whatever.) Because of this the reader got to know characters as they grew up and developed. One of FBofW’s most famous storylines was when the character Lawrence Poirier grew up and came out as a gay man.
Lynn Johnston, the strip’s creator, got a lot of flak at the time, but she held to her guns and told a very sensitive portrayal of a young man who’s scared to talk to his friends and family about his newly discovered orientation, but decides that he has to be honest. He could have become a token gay, but Johnston portrayed him as a full human being. And that’s what millions of readers got to see on their comics page. (Though the strips were pulled from some papers.) I especially like this particular strip. Lawrence has just been kicked out of his home after coming out to his parents and his friend, Mike, has come to find him. From the dialogue in the first few panels this could have been a dark strip leading to a storyline of self-loathing on Lawrence’s part. Instead, nope! It’s just doughnuts! We may be in the midst of his Big Coming-Out Story, but that doesn’t mean that coming out is everything in his life. The dude’s still allowed to have belly-aches, and that’s awesome!
(This entire storyline is available on the official For Better or for Worse website.)
I’m a girl, I like girls and guys and everybody in between, and I also enjoy giving plants strange looks.
“But isn’t he homosexual?”
“Yes—but my whole life doesn’t revolve around being gay, y’know…”
From the Bob the Angry Flower archive.
Alex voiced her desire to have this on the blog, so I’m posting it. I have to say that I’m especially amused by their partners’ faces in the third panels.
-Owen
