May We Suggest? This post contains recommendations from a CPL librarian. To get your own customized recommendation, just fill out the May We Suggest form — you can expect results within 10 days. All suggestions can be found on the May We Suggest blog or by liking May We Suggest on facebook.

LGBTQIA+ Adult Graphic Novels

A collection of graphic novels featuring LGBTQIA+ characters and creators: light, dark, funny, sweet, introspective, nostalgic, triggering, romantic, artsy, revolutionary, representative. 

Generations by artist 1988- Flavia Biondi

Coming out as a young gay man in a provincial country town had led to ugly clashes with his conservative father, and the urban metropolis of Milan had been a welcome change from the stifling small town life of his childhood and the anger and bewilderment of some members of his family. But now, Matteo finds himself with little choice but to return home, with no money, no job, and an uncertain future, like so many other young people of his millennial generation. Afraid of encountering his estranged father, he instead takes refuge with his extended family, at a house shared by his grandmother, three aunts, and his very pregnant cousin. 

Bingo Love by Tee Franklin

When Hazel Johnson and Mari McCray met at church bingo in 1963, it was love at first sight. Forced apart by their families and society, Hazel and Mari both married young men and had families. Decades later, now in their mid-'60s, Hazel and Mari reunite again at a church bingo hall. Realizing their love for each other is still alive, what these grandmothers do next takes absolute strength and courage.

Forward by illustrator Lisa Maas

A moving and intimate LGBTQ graphic novel about two women, both of whom are trying to put the pieces of their lives back together.

Condo Heartbreak Disco by artist Eric Kostiuk Williams

Towers of steel and glass are decimating Toronto's neighbourhoods; replacing communities with condos. Can the city's primary purveyors of socially motivated revenge and personal guidance, Komio and The Willendorf Braid, save the city from condo hell, or are they too late to save this Hogtown from the twisted CEO?

Crossplay by illustrator Niki Smith

Close friends and new acquaintances at an anime convention confront their crushes, challenge their hang-ups, and question their once-comfortable identities in this erotic graphic novel about discovering who you're meant to truly be and who you're meant to love. 

Blue is having a hard time moving on. He's in love with his best friend. He's also dead. Luckily, Hamal can see ghosts, leaving Blue free to haunt him to his heart's content. But something eerie is happening in town, leaving the local afterlife unsettled, and when Blue realizes Hamal's strange ability may be putting him in danger, Blue has to find a way to protect him, even if it means...leaving him.

Gumballs by illustrator Erin Nations

Gumballs dispenses an array of bright, candy-colored short comics about Erin's gender transition, anecdotal tales of growing up as a triplet, and fictional stories of a socially inept lovestruck teenager named Tobias. The wide-ranging series is filled with single-page gag cartoons, visual diaries of everyday life, funny faux personal ads, and real-life horror stories from customers at his day job. 

Death threat by 1981- Vivek Shraya

In the fall of 2017, the acclaimed writer and musician Vivek Shraya began receiving vivid and disturbing transphobic hate mail from a stranger. Celebrated artist Ness Lee brings these letters and Shraya's responses to them to startling life in "Death Threat", a comic book that, by its existence, becomes a compelling act of resistance. 

Ariel Schrag, a critically-acclaimed memoirist and screenwriter, takes us on a painfully funny tour of her awkwardyears, from her childhood in Berkeley to her mid-twenties in Brooklyn, exploring what it means to connect to others when you don't yet know who you are--when you want to be "part of it" but the "it" changes daily. We meet hippie babysitters, mean girls, best friends, former friends, prom dates, girlfriends, sex ed students, and far too many LensCrafters sales associates. 

The lie and how we told it by 1989- Tommi Parrish

Parrish's emotionally loaded, painted graphic novel is is a visual tour de force, always in the service of the author's themes: navigating queer desire, masculinity, fear, and the ever-in-flux state of friendships.

Little stranger by 1980- Edie Fake

What's silly, scary and sexy? Edie Fake's comics forged an entire aesthetic of art and queer culture. 

Flem by artist 1985- Rebecca Rosen

Julia Maarten's a mess: she's running out of inheritance money, failing out of art school, and haunted by the ghost of her depressed mother. And then there's the compulsive nose-picking thing... When Julia meets a group of radical feminist performance artists in a Brussels squat, she's persuaded by their political perspective and enchanted by their counter-cultural lifestyle. But has she found her tribe... or lost her mind?

The pervert by artist Remy Boydell

A surprisingly honest and touching account of a trans girl surviving through sexwork in Seattle. With excerpts published in Eisner nominated anthology ISLAND, the full-color volume, drawn and painted by Remy Boydell is an unflinching debut graphic novel.