Being a creator in the comics industry is difficult. When handling the characters in a Marvel or DC title this is even harder. How do you make everyone happy when you are handling the things that they have loved for decades? You can probably imagine that handling the pressure of satisfying rabid comic book fans is even more difficult when you consider that you will be attacked regardless of the quality of your work just because of who you are.
LGBTQ+ creators are showing up more and more in the comic book industry, and with them, great inclusive stories. Heroes Con was this weekend, and with it, a wonderful panel about being an LGBTQ+ creator. Tamra Bonvillain (She, hers), Naomi Franquiz (She, hers), Emmett Helen (They, them), and Josh Trujillo (Him, his) all sat down and talked about making comic books more inclusive for everyone and the importance of queer characters.
An increasing narrative in comic books is that queer characters are somehow being forced on readers. Throughout the history of comic books, many characters have been debatably queer, but readers didn’t have anyone to truly identify with. Nowadays, more characters are beginning to come out of the closet (Wonder Woman, Iceman). What’s even more remarkable is the number of original characters that are established as queer from the beginning. More importantly, these characters are intersectional, representing a variety of identities.
“So much of comics is a power fantasy, and that’s cool, but my power fantasy is: What if growing up queer isn’t terrifying,” says Josh Trujillo, writer of Dodge City. For most of these creators, it isn’t about pushing an agenda but creating worlds that reflect their own. Comic books are historically white and very straight, which doesn’t represent the actual world around us. Queer creators give us the opportunity to see characters that actually look like real-life people.
Naomi Franquiz, the artist of Misfit City, was given a vague description of the characters of Misfit City and was given the opportunity to mold them herself. “Like Josh, I wanted to take the chance to draw characters that look like the friends I had growing up. I wanted to normalize what should be normal.”
These characters and stories aren’t forced diversity, they are simply natural to these creators and most readers. Of course, these characters don’t click with everyone, and that presents its own challenges to creators. Naomi Franquiz grew up in North Florida in a predominantly black and Latino school, so diverse people is the norm for her. “That to me is normal. People who have so much blowback against that and say that’s us trying to force representation into their faces. I’m like, where did you grow up in where this is forcing?”
Tamra Bonvillain is a colorist with a quickly growing profile. She has added life to Doom Patrol, Wayward, Captain Marvel, and many other popular series. With that fame comes the inevitable onslaught of internet trolls. How does one stay sane under so much pressure? “First, I just block them,” she says. “At first you have a natural inclination to fight back, but after a while, you wonder ‘Why am I talking to this person at all’ ” Most of the creators agree that its best to just block incoming negativity. “I very liberally block people now, Bonvillain states.
Bonvillain isn’t a fan of just “Not reading the comments, because that leaves out a lot of incoming positivity. “Every now and again you check the comments and there is someone so sweet,” comments Franquiz. She noted that no one owes all of their time to their commenters, and it can be exhausting going through negativity for actual fans. She says it’s best to just not engage and debate with those who are against her. “They never actually want to debate, they just want to exhaust you,” Emmet Helen (Oh Joy Sex Toy, Rick&Morty) says as they join in.
Despite how scary it can all be, all of this is worth it for these creators. Emmet Helen was diagnosed with autism as an adult and notes that there aren’t any resources for adults. They wrote a piece about it on Oh Joy Sex Toy and hasn’t received a single bit of negative feedback for it. “Even though doing this kind of work can be scary and intimidating, you can hang onto those precious little moments.”
The creators have noted how great comic books are for inclusivity. “In comics, the teams are small, the distribution is small, and most people who read comics are weirdos,” jokes Emmett Helen. Everything is just a bit more flexible with comic books because of how small everything is. This is now a fantastic time for new readers to go into comics after getting into the exciting movies that the publishers are releasing. All of the creators agree that they would rather see new characters get created rather than existing characters come out as queer. “They can’t really be authentic and bold with [characters coming out] because there are so much money and readership at stake,” says Helen.
Fortunately, readers and creators are getting to see more and more queer characters show up in the pages of stories, and it is making comics better. Despite the backlash, it is clear that these creators have a positive impact on the quality of life for not only the industry but for the readers who are tired of what comic books used to be.
