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Rob Kirby, David Kelly, Rick Worley, Justin Hall, Jon Macy, Steve MacIsaac, Craig Bostick, Jennifer Camper, Tyler Cohen, Howard Cruse, Diane DiMassa, Kris Dresen, Dylan “NDR” Edwards, Michael Fahy, Edie Fake, Nicole J. Georges, Terrance Griep, Andy Hartzell, Ed Luce, MariNaomi, Carrie McNinch, Annie Murphy, L. Nichols, Jose-Luis Olivares, Eric Orner, Carlo Quispe, Marian Runk, Christine Smith, Sina Sparrow, Sasha Steinberg, Ivan Velez, Jr., Amanda Verwey, Eric Kostiuk Williams,
QU33R
by: Rob Kirby, David Kelly, Rick Worley, Justin Hall, Jon Macy, Steve MacIsaac, Craig Bostick, Jennifer Camper, Tyler Cohen, Howard Cruse, Diane DiMassa, Kris Dresen, Dylan “NDR” Edwards, Michael Fahy, Edie Fake, Nicole J. Georges, Terrance Griep, Andy Hartzell, Ed Luce, MariNaomi, Carrie McNinch, Annie Murphy, L. Nichols, Jose-Luis Olivares, Eric Orner, Carlo Quispe, Marian Runk, Christine Smith, Sina Sparrow, Sasha Steinberg, Ivan Velez, Jr., Amanda Verwey, Eric Kostiuk Williams,QU33R, from editor Rob Kirby, features great new comics from 33 contributors—legends and new faces alike. Winner of the 2014 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Anthology!
$9.99 – $39.99
Winner of the 2014 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Anthology!
QU33R, from editor Rob Kirby, features 241 pages of new comics from 33 contributors—legends and new faces alike.
In 2012, Justin Hall edited a book called No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, that took readers on a journey from the beginnings of LGBT comics history to the present day. QU33R is an all-new project featuring queer comics legends as well as new talents that picks up where No Straight Lines left off. We’ve set down our history, now QU33R shines a light on our future!
QU33R had its genesis in an all-color queer comic zine called THREE, which featured three stories by three creators or teams per issue. Rob Kirby published three installments of THREE annually from 2010 to 2012, and the series did well, garnering not only an Ignatz nomination for Outstanding Anthology or Collection but also earning Rob the Prism Comics Queer Press Grant in 2011.
Producing the anthology was immensely gratifying, but featuring just three comics and publishing only once per year meant a lot of cartoonists weren’t getting the exposure they deserved. The publishing opportunities for queer cartoonists and queer subject matter are still limited, even today, and Rob longed for a wider distribution than he was able to manage on his own. He approached Northwest Press about doing a bigger compendium of all-new work.
While THREE was happening, Justin Hall was preparing his book No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, which Fantagraphics published in the summer of 2012. No Straight Lines traced the history of queer comics from their humble beginnings in the late 60’s/early 70’s all the way up to the present. The book was a whopping, award-winning success. Rob got to thinking that a follow-up volume—a sort-of-sequel focusing on all new work—would seal the deal, informing the world at large that we are still here, still queer, and still producing fresh and innovative work. He wanted to include not only several queer comics veterans, but also some fresh new faces and a few folks who haven’t necessarily belonged to the orthodox “queer comics scene” but have been doing non-heteronormative work all along.
QU33R features over 240 pages of new comics from a cross-generational lineup of award-winning LGBTQ cartoonists.
ISBN: 9781938720369
Publisher: Northwest Press
Publish Date: 2013
Page Count: 264
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The Completely Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green $9.99 – $24.99
Eric Orner’s groundbreaking comic strip, “The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green”, debuted in 1990 and appeared in papers in a hundred cities across the US, Canada and the UK. Now, for the first time, every subversive, laugh-out-loud funny, and occasionally surreal episode from the gay everyman’s 15 years in print is in one deluxe collection. Includes behind-the-scenes stories from the author, bonus strips, and a foreword by New York Times bestselling author David Ebershoff.
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The Lavender Menace: Tales of Queer Villainy! $3.99 – $9.99
Thirteen short stories of terror, mayhem, and destruction which offer something highly unique in a genre that demands certain characters be only heroes or victims… gay villains! Prose collection with an introduction by Lambda Literary Award winning editor Tom Cardamone.
Cover by Joe Phillips.
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RISE: Comics Against Bullying #1 $2.99 – $4.99
We all have a place where we belong. Featuring all-new stories from Howard Chaykin (American Flagg), Marc Guggenheim (Arrow), Chris Roberson & Dennis Culver (Edison Rex), Adam P. Knave (Amelia Cole), Jed Dougherty (World’s Finest), and many more! Proceeds benefit organizations including GLAAD, Prism Comics, and Stand For The Silent.
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The Legend of Bold Riley $9.99
Leia Weathington’s sword-and-sorcery epic The Legend of Bold Riley is illustrated by Leia and a host of talented artists.
“Who is Bold Riley?” you might ask. She has hunted the wildest game and dallied with countless beautiful girls, but still longs to know the world beyond the city walls. Princess Rilavashana SanParite, called Bold Riley, leaves behind her station and sets out to travel through distant lands and find forgotten ruins, fearsome enemies, inscrutable gods and tragic love.
She’s as capable with a sword as she is with her wits—man, does she carve things up when the need arises—and is a strong, beautiful, confident woman who doesn’t wear a bikini into battle. And she always gets the girl!
Created by Leia Weathington, with art by Weathington, Marco Aidala, Vanessa Gillings, Kelly McClellan, Konstantin Pogorelov and Jason Thompson. Cover artwork by Brinson Thieme. 232 pages. 7″x10″. Full-color with metallic ink cover.
Retailers! Download a Bold Riley Promotional Display that highlights the foreword by fan-favorite writer Jane Espenson and helps encourage customers to check out the book.
PREVIEWS:
You can download a 67-page preview of the book in PDF or EPUB (iPad-only) format right here on the site. The preview includes excerpts from four of the stories in the book, bonus artwork and more.Additionally, there’s a ZIP file of preview images available for use in reviews and articles. Download it here. (11MB ZIP file.)
INTERVIEWS:
Feature on Panel Patter by Rob McMonigal — “Ms. Weathington, working with a variety of other artists, has created a fantasy world ripe for exploration, with our guide being Bold Riley, a young woman with royal (but restless) blood. It’s great to see the ‘Uncharted Fantasy World’ idea given a new twist by having a protagonist that’s not only female, but queer as well.”
Feature on Portland Comic Books Examiner by Christian Lipski — “Author Leia Weathington is releasing Bold Riley, her first book, at the end of June, and spoke with the Portland Comic Books Examiner about her own journey.”
Interview on Portland Comics by Doug Dorr — “I worked with 5 other artists for Bold Riley and made the mistake at first of trying to really tightly control the visuals of the comic. That was something I learned to back off from pretty fast. If you are working with artists you probably decided to get into a collaboration with them for a reason. SO TRUST YOUR ARTIST! What I’ve started doing is making model sheets characters, objects and places that must look a certain way to maintain continuity in the story, after that I send photo references, script and descriptions of mood and setting and turn the artist loose to have fun with it.”
Interview on The Hathor Legacy by Maria Velazquez — “Like many creators I started writing the kind of story I always wanted to see. Like most women I was raised with fairy tales and the complex feelings that go with them. Sure they focus primarily on female leads, but those leads tend to be passive objects. The women are what things happen TO not people who make things happen themselves.”
Interview on Sequential Tart by Lee Atchison — “We like the anti-hero right now. And with reason. Things are shit, we’re all pretty jaded. How can you not be when at the click of a button you can see the latest string of atrocities played out before your eyes. I like the anti-hero, but somewhere amid all of the horror and the skepticism, I wanted to place a story about a hero who, while not beyond reproach, is good and wants to do good and tries her hardest.”
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Dash #3 $2.99 – $3.99
Zita Makara is out for blood and Dash is in her sights! Can he stop her before another life is lost? Is she really the monster she appears to be…or is someone else pulling the strings?
Sequential Tart –
“Most are explicitly about being queer, about what alternate lifestyles might entail, but there are a few that are about more general experiences viewed through a queer lens… It also covers how one queer’s experiences might differ from other queer’s—and how similar the lives of queer and straight people can be, as life and love can be beautiful and hard no matter what your orientation or gender identity. Those points all on their own would make reading the work worthwhile, offering insight to queer and straight audiences alike.” Read Wolfen Moondaughter’s review on Sequential Tart
Now Read This! –
“QU33R is a superb example of comics celebrating determination and difference: sensitive, evocative, romantic and humorously engaging ‘people stories’ which any open-minded fan can’t help but adore. There’s not much fighting but plenty of punch, and in an ideal world this book would be readily available in every school and library for any confused kid in need of inspiration, comfort, understanding, encouragement and hope.” Read Win Wiacek’s review on Now Read This!
Comics Worth Reading –
“This is a substantial work, well-suited for the shelves of anyone interested in the topic. Even beyond the subject matter, the collection of cartooning styles displayed here is eye-opening.” Read Johanna Draper Carlson’s review on Comics Worth Reading
Thirteen Minutes –
“Perhaps Howard Cruse’s reappropriated Dagwood Bumstead riff is an emblematic entry. There’s a certain aspirational nonchalance there to coming out as a young gay man, a matter-of-fact blurt-out from a closeted lesbian housewife. The people are just there, just living, and the future is wide-open, as indicated by so many of the inconclusive endings found in the entries. Kudos to Rob Kirby for the well-curated selections, along with achieving a rare narrative and aesthetic cohesion of all the themes and styles. Grade A-.” Read Justin Giampaoli’s review on Thirteen Minutes
Comic Book Resources –
“QU33R is the sort of comics anthology that we need more of. Kirby’s assembled a great deal of unique comics voices for this book, and the end result is a real joy to read. This isn’t just a book of good LGBT comics, it’s a book of good comics, period. QU33R is well worth your time and money.” Read Greg McElhatton’s review on Comic Book Resources
National Post –
“Memory and melancholy both show up in spades in QU33R, a smart survey of queer comics from the growing Seattle press. The tendency here is towards a certain degree of autobiography, calling back to the heyday of highly personal art comics of the ’80s and ’90s.” Read David Berry’s review in the National Post
Lambda Literary –
“All in all a superb collection, one I want on every graphic novel e-reader, and, as a librarian, in every library, personal and public, including my own.” Read Cathy Camper’s review on Lambda Literary
Optical Sloth –
“Damn, now that’s how you put together a fantastic anthology.” Read the review on Optical Sloth
Okazu –
“If you have ever asked yourself something along the lines of ‘what do LGBTQ comics in America look like?’ you’ll definitely want to pick up QU33R.” Read Erica Friedman’s review on Okazu
Lavender Magazine –
“This full-color collection by queer publisher Northwest Press covers the entire spectrum of the rainbow, young love, old love, no love – drama in the past and present, and through all the rainbow’s angstroms of gender, sex, race and class, happiness and despair. These stories will bear you along on a fresh tide of QU33R life heading into your future.” Read E.B. Boatner’s capsule review in Lavender Magazine
Whit Taylor –
“ In the case of QU33R, an anthology edited by Robert Kirby, all I can say are positive things. Why? Because the individual stories are quite strong and Kirby’s editing makes for a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Kirby has been editing anthologies for a while, and it’s quite clear to me that he’s very skilled at it. QU33R however, is a big leap forward for him for several reasons. First, visually it’s quite arresting and clever, for instance using a rainbow header that spans the book. The feel of the book is nice and the jacket is colorfully covered with individual faces exploring multiple identities. Second and more importantly though, Kirby has an editing style that does not stifle individual artists from exploring their visions, but one that allows for their pieces to complement each other.” Read the whole review on Whit Taylor’s Comics
The Bay Area Reporter –
“Contributors include such well-known gay comics artists as Eric Orner and Justin Hall, as well as a lot of newcomers unknown, at least to Out There. Territory covered runs the gamut, from the expected—coming-out tales, melodramatic love affairs—to the unexpected.” Read Roberto Friedman’s whole review in Out There in the Bay Area Reporter
Broken Frontier –
“Overall, this is an excellently curated and designed collection of cartooning that will sit happily alongside the Best American Comics series and Ivan Brunetti’s Graphic Fiction volumes.” Read Tom Murphy’s whole review on Broken Frontier
Comics Grinder –
“QU33R is a significant comics anthology collecting the work of 33 cartoonists exploring queer themes that was recently published by Northwest Press. What you find here is a wide variety of styles and insights.” Read Harry Chamberlain’s whole review on Comics Grinder
Gay People’s Chronicle –
“The conceit of Three is that Kirby gets three great comic creators to contribute stories to each volume. At times he went a little crazy and put more than three creators in, but that is what one calls creative liberties. This follows his history of anthologizing and contributing, like his early Strange Looking Exile and Boy Trouble, the latter with David Kelly. Now, however, Kirby has gone completely crazy, cramming 33 creators into his newest book, QU33R, out now on Northwest Press, the home of everything gay in comicdom.” Read Anthony Glassman’s whole review in the Gay People’s Chronicle
The Comics Journal –
“QU33R unquestionably succeeds as a wide-ranging survey of queer cartoonists at this point in time.” Read Rob Clough’s whole review in the The Comics Journal