No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics [Hardcover]

Justin Hall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 6, 2012

Collecting the world's greatest LGBT comics under one cover.

Queer cartooning encompasses some of the best and most interesting comics of the last four decades, with creators tackling complex issues of identity and a changing society with intelligence, humor, and imagination. This book celebrates this vibrant artistic underground by gathering together a collection of excellent stories that can be enjoyed by all.

No Straight Lines showcases major names such as Alison Bechdel (whose book Fun Home was named Time Magazine’s 2006 Book of the Year), Howard Cruse (whose groundbreaking Stuck Rubber Baby is now back in print), and Ralf Koenig (one of Europe’s most popular cartoonists), as well as high-profile, cross-over creators who have dabbled in LGBT cartooning, like legendary NYC artist David Wojnarowicz and media darling and advice columnist Dan Savage. No Straight Lines also spotlights many talented creators who never made it out of the queer comics ghetto, but produced amazing work that deserves wider attention.

Until recently, queer cartooning existed in a parallel universe to the rest of comics, appearing only in gay newspapers and gay bookstores and not in comic book stores, mainstream bookstores or newspapers. The insular nature of the world of queer cartooning, however, created a fascinating artistic scene. LGBT comics have been an uncensored, internal conversation within the queer community, and thus provide a unique window into the hopes, fears, and fantasies of queer people for the last four decades.

These comics have forged their aesthetics from the influences of underground comix, gay erotic art, punk zines, and the biting commentaries of drag queens, bull dykes, and other marginalized queers. They have analyzed their own communities, and their relationship with the broader society. They are smart, funny, and profound. No Straight Lines will be heralded by people interested in comics history, and people invested in LGBT culture will embrace it as a unique and invaluable collection.

Color and black-and-white comics throughout

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Justin Hall is an award-winning cartoonist and sits on the board of Prism Comics, a non-profit supporting LGBT comics. He teaches comics at the California College of Art.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics (August 6, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1606995065
• ISBN-13: 978-1606995068
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #426,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MariNaomi is the author and illustrator of the graphic memoir Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22 (Harper Perennial). She is a regular contributor to TheRumpus.net (Smoke In Your Eyes) and sfbay.ca (Frisco al Fresco), and a Sister Spit alumni (2011).

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Well done! August 20, 2012

By S. Noell

Format:Hardcover

I could not put down Justin Hall's collection of LGBTQ comics until I had read it cover to cover. As someone who is somewhat familiar with the queer comics scene, but not an expert by any means (i.e., I keep up with a few writers/artists from the 80s-present), it was enlightening to read a collection of comics made by a diverse list of creators that was organized chronologically by era (moving from comics you had to order out of the back of a magazine or buy from a specialty bookstore to national recognition and the instant access available with webcomics) and hit upon major themes/issues within the LGBTQ communities (coming out, the AIDS epidemic, gender reassignment surgery, etc.) while also mixing in a lot of slice of life comics. Overall, it is a very well-rounded, balanced collection and I am already recommending it to all of my friends as well as my library. :)

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Long overdue, this is a must-have August 21, 2012

By rndkr

Format:Hardcover

I'm in this book, so yes, I am biased, but hear me out anyway.

In 1989 Robert Triptow published Gay Comics, a trade paperback with New American Library that featured Triptow along with Tim Barela, Alison Bechdel, Jennifer Camper, Howard Cruse, Gerard Donelan, Kurt Erichsen, Roberta Gregory, Jeffrey Krell, and all the other major LGBT cartoonists from the underground comic book series Gay Comix as well as the gay and lesbian newsweeklies of the day, etc. Gay Comics was an excellent book, one I'd read and reread many times. It also won the Lambda Literary Award for Humor. But let's face facts, as the book had been published over 20 years ago and was long out of print, and as the queer comics scene had grown and changed by leaps and bounds since, an update was badly needed. Obviously one of our own had to step up to the plate to accomplish this and that someone turned out to be the estimable Justin Hall, a fine cartoonist in his own right as well as a teacher of the art of cartooning at the California College of the Arts. Hall grew concerned that much of this older work especially was in danger of being lost to the ravages of time unless it were archived; he also wanted to highlight the panoply of truly world-class queer cartoonists who've been in our midst all along, many of whom to this day do not get the recognition they deserve. In his introduction he states his 3 main criteria for selecting work, in descending order of importance: artistic merit, historical import, and representational.

Naturally for a fanboy like me, much of this work is quite familiar and a joy to see again, including some of my all-time favorites: Burton Clarke's "Cy Ross and the Snow Queen Syndrome," Sina's lovely, whimsical tone poem "Cigarettes," Robert Triptow's classic "I Know You Are But What Am I" (now in color!), Howard Cruse's brilliant "Billy Goes Out" (one of his real career highlights), a selection of Jerry Mills's "Poppers" strips (when is someone going to finally release a collection of this great cartoonist's work?), and the hilarious "My Darling Deadly Dyke" by Lee Marrs.

There is also great work here that I'd never seen before (Joyce Farmer's "Slice of Life") and some tremendously talented creators I'd never even heard of (namely, Nazario and Fabrice Neaud). So happily I still have other worlds to explore in this not-as-small-as-I- thought niche of the larger alt-comics niche.

Anyone who edited this book would have switched some things around, picked different stories by some of the artists here, or tossed some artists in favor of others. That much is a given; I certainly would have done some things differently. But Hall did an overall superlative job with a mammoth, very difficult task. And to my mind he could not have chosen better, non-Fun Home or "Dykes to Watch Out For" short pieces by Alison Bechdel than "My Own Private Michigan Hell" and her pointed, too-true "Oppressed Minority Cartoonist," nor funnier, loopier stories to represent Ed Luce's Wuvable Oaf and co. than "Worst Dates" or "Straight Street" starring Oaf's buddy, Smusherrr. Other cartoonists I felt were perfectly represented in No Straight Lines include Craig Bostick, Michael Fahy, Edie Fake, Andy Hartzell, David Kelly, Kris Dresen, Erika Moen (her "So Much Pussy" is one of the true laugh out loud moments of the book), Roxxie, and Joey Alison Sayers. And these are just the ones off the top of my head.

Let's hope this collection isn't simply an endpoint but more a harbinger of more such books to come and for more work and better visibility for non-straight type alt-comics creators. Only time will tell. Some readers and publishers still feel that gay subject matter is not something that non-gays can be interested in or relate to, to which I say nonsense: good storytelling is universal. This book gets the full five stars from me, no question.

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome compilation May 2, 2013

By Francine

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a unique piece of work and an essential guide for those who are interested in queer studies within the comics genre!