Queercore is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifically society's disapproval of the LGBT community. Queercore expresses itself in a DIY style through magazines, music, writing and film.
Real Life is an American webcomic drawn and authored by Maelyn Dean. It began on November 15, 1999, and is still updated, after breaks from December 10, 2015, to September 10, 2018, and again from July 16, 2019, to June 15, 2020, and most recently, from December 6, 2022 to present. The comic is loosely based around the lives of fictionalized versions of Dean and her friends, including verbatim conversations, as well as fictional aspects including time travel and mecha combat. Characters regularly break the fourth wall. Real Life focuses on humor related to video games and science fiction, and references internet memes.
Mitch Andrew Clem is an American cartoonist best known for his web comics Nothing Nice To Say, San Antonio Rock City, and My Stupid Life.
Springman Records is an independent record label founded in 1998 by Avi Ehrlich that was run out of his parents' garage in Cupertino, California, until late 2005, when Ehrlich moved the label to Sacramento. The label's official slogan is "Friendly Punks" though many other styles of music appear on the label, such as indie rock, rockabilly, ska, folk music, pop punk, and hardcore.
British small press comics, once known as stripzines, are comic books self-published by amateur cartoonists and comic book creators, usually in short print runs, in the UK. They're comparable to similar movements internationally, such as American minicomics and Japanese doujinshi. A "small press comic" is essentially a zine composed predominantly of comic strips. The term emerged in the early 1980s to distinguish them from zines about comics. Notable artists who have had their start in British small press comics include Eddie Campbell, Paul Grist, Rian Hughes, Jamie Hewlett, Alan Martin, Philip Bond and Andi Watson.
Rachel Nabors is an American cartoonist, artist, and graphic novelist, best known for their serialized comic, Rachel the Great, as well as their two graphic novels, 18 Revolutions and Crow Princess.
Liz Prince is an American comics creator, noted for her sketchbook-style autobiographical comics. Prince initially started publishing on her own on the internet and later became a published author with Top Shelf Comics. She currently lives in Maine.
Homocore was an American anarcho-punk zine created by Tom Jennings and Deke Nihilson, and published in San Francisco from 1988 to 1991. One of the first queer zines, Homocore was directed toward the hardcore punk youth of the gay underground. The publication has been noted for popularizing the queercore movement on the United States west coast.
Koren Shadmi is an American-Israeli illustrator and cartoonist.
Francisco Martínez Roca aka Paco Roca is a Spanish strip cartoonist with experience in graphic novels and advertisement illustrations.
Sarah Shay Mirk (she/they) is an author, zinester, and journalist based in Portland, Oregon, in the United States.
Katherine Fajardo is an American cartoonist and author. She is known for her book cover illustrations and comics that focus on Latino culture and self-acceptance. Her debut middle grade graphic novel Miss Quinces, which is a National Indie Bestseller, was the first Graphix title to be simultaneously published in English and Spanish.
No Straight Lines is an anthology of queer comics covering a 40-year period from the late 1960s to the late 2000s. It was edited by Justin Hall and published by Fantagraphics Books on August 1, 2012.
MariNaomi is an American graphic artist and cartoonist who often publishes autobiographical comics and is also well-known for creating three online databases of underrepresented cartoonists.
Lawrence Lindell is an American cartoonist, speaker, and musician. He has written autobiographical comics including From Truth With Truth and Couldn’t Afford Therapy, So I Made This. His work covers mental health issues, blackness, and queerness. He lives in the Bay Area, California. Lindell is open about living with bipolar depression and PTSD. These are two of the main themes of his work. He has a forthcoming middle-grade graphic novel called 'Buckle Up' coming out in 2024 with Random House Graphic. He has a forthcoming graphic novel called 'Blackward' coming out in 2023 with Drawn and Quarterly.
Ben Passmore is an American comics artist and political cartoonist.
Mattie Lubchansky is a cartoonist and illustrator from the United States, who specializes in satirical comics about American politics. Lubchansky is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns since 2017.
Hazel Newlevant is an American cartoonist and editor known for creating and editing comics about queer history, bisexuality, polyamory, and reproductive rights. Raised in Portland, Oregon, Newlevant lives in Queens, New York.
Michelle Rau is an American cartoonist, writer, and artist known for publishing her cartoon zine, Lana's World. She was an active contributor in the alternative publishing, queer zine, and comics landscape of the 1980s and 1990s.
Pinky & Pepper Forever is a graphic novel created by Eddy Atoms. It debuted at the 2018 Toronto Comic Arts Festival before being widely released on May 30, 2018. Pinky & Pepper Forever follows anthropomorphic dog girlfriends Pinky Cooper and Pepper Parson after the former commits suicide in a performance art piece, after which both of them go to hell. The graphic novel is based on the discontinued Pinkie Cooper and the Jet Set Pets toyline that ran in the early-mid 2010s. Pinky & Pepper Forever was widely praised for its writing, art, and themes.
