The second weekend in May, I attended the Toronto Comic Arts Festival for the third time. For those who are unfamiliar, TCAF is one of the largest alternative comics festivals in the world. Each year over 20,000 people attend to buy and sell graphic novels, mini-comics, and zines. TCAF is also, in my opinion, one of the most incidentally queer events I’ve ever gone to.
There were several panels focusing on Queer representation in comics, and many more where queer creators were involved, including myself. The question arose a few times: What is it about comics that attracts so many queer people?
The evidence was all around me. Even in the few years I had attended since 2015 I had seen a palpable rise in the number of queer creators present and spotlighted in what is essentially a crucible for the indie comics scene as a whole...