From Moomin to Heartstopper: How comics have told real queer stories since the 1940s

It’s Nice That: What can you tell us, in short, about the tradition of queer comics, where early works emerged, and what the context and culture and reality was at the time for these artists?

Paul Gravett (PG): For a tradition to build you need pioneers. There were queer people making comics, but they could never express this openly in their work, because societies would not accept it, especially as comics were considered a medium mainly for children. Two of the first queers to come out through their comics after World War II worked from Finland. Under a pen-name Tom of Finland built his initial following through American physique magazines, while Tove Jansson slipped queer-coded references to her lesbian community and partner into her Moomin newspaper strips, serialised first in the London Evening News.

INT: Why was the comic format a powerful and expressive place for queer people? Why do comics lend themselves to queer themes?

PG: Comics have been a popular entertainment, but were often dismissed or despised in literary and artistic circles. But as a flexible, inventive medium, they offer many different ways to ‘show and tell’ in pictures and words. The sixties introduced new niche magazines for adult gays and lesbians which included comics, as well as a higher-priced, adults-only format of black-and-white underground comix. These liberated cartoonists from the constraints of children’s comics and let them break rules and taboos. New comix publishers sprang up but women artists were hardly included in this boys’ club. So the first solo American lesbian comix were self-published.

INT: How did the format progress over eras and decades?

PG: Comics change with print technologies, tastes and markets, of course. But there have also been transformations in the freedom of expression for creators of comics. From the start, comics could reflect aspects of their writers’ and artists’ personalities but usually disguised: Superman, for example, was partly a wish-fulfilment of his timid co-creators. The underground allowed first-person autobiography to take off in the early seventies, often dealing frankly with difficult experiences. And the graphic novel has offered a longer, complete book form, rather than a throwaway periodical, as their canvas.

INT: Was it difficult to unearth this work and collect it – has it received much attention before on a big stage? What was the process for gathering this work?

PG: Queer comics have had some exhibitions in the UK over the years, notably by our two greatest ‘veteran’ cartoonists Kate Charlesworth and David Shenton, but Queer as Comics brings together many queer cartoonists from here and abroad, several exhibiting for the first time. Archives, researchers and collectors also proved invaluable, here and in the USA, to dig deeper into how comics appeared in the early lesbian and gay press. Our Advisory Board, researchers and collectors were so supportive too.

INT: What does it mean for this work to be featured in this show at the new Quentin Blake Centre – the first major UK institution dedicated to the medium. What does it tell us about the mediums of illustration and comics, their scope, impact, importance, that they’re not just for kids…

PG: The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration is starting right out of the gate to show how significant and dynamic illustration and comics have always been and continue to be. Both mediums may have often been underappreciated in other museums and galleries, but here they can take centre stage full-time and prove their power, relevance and delight for everyone.

INT: What does the contemporary queer comics landscape look like now – is it still serving the communities the same way, how has it evolved and who are the main names in the scene?

PG: Queer as Comics ends by celebrating how our new millennium has seen queer comics multiply and diversify more than ever, from Alice Oseman’s phenomenal Heartstopper to so many fresh voices and visions from across the LGBTQIA+ communities. Whether as digital comics, handmade zines or graphic novels, Queer as Comics shows how the current global scene, from Britain to Cameroun and Lebanon, is thrillingly vibrant and interconnected.