Queer Graphic Novels
Queer graphic novels have found their way into the mainstream in recent years, from Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home in 2006 all the way to Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper, which became a major Netflix coming-of-age TV series in 2022. Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer won a Stonewall Honor in 2020, and became the most challenged book in the U.S. the following year. Tillie Walden is the creator of the sapphic science fiction work On a Sunbeam which was featured in both Publisher’s Weekly and The Washington Post best book lists for 2018. Nimona, now a major animated Netflix film, was made by author ND Stevenson, the youngest person ever to become a National Book Award Finalist. (Side note, ND Stevenson is also the showrunner for Netflix’s 2018 She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, a trailblazer in queer animation rep that absolutely changed my life.)
If you are interested in graphic novels, check out the Blough-Weis library’s graphic novel collection! It’s on the left when you walk inside, next to the leisure section. One of my favorite queer graphic novels—The Girl From the Sea—is part of the this collection, and I’ll talk about it more below.
About the Book
The Girl From the Sea is written and illustrated by Molly Knox Ostertag and colored by Maarta Laiho. The novel is about 15-year-old Morgan, who lives on an island with her younger brother Aiden and her mom, although a recent divorce has put a strain on their family dynamics. Morgan also has three high school friends—Serena, Jules, and Lizzie—who are cool and fun, but she’s never completely herself with them. And then there’s Morgan’s biggest secret: the fact that she likes girls. It’s okay, though, because Morgan has big plans. When she’s older, she’s going to move to the city, and finally ,she’ll be the person she’s always wanted to be.
That is, until a mysterious girl named Keltie saves Morgan from drowning one night. Keltie is a free spirit who isn’t afraid to speak her mind. She’s also a selkie— a seal transformed into a human girl after Morgan kissed her. But Keltie has a secret, too, and if she wants to save the rookery her family has called home for generations, she’s going to need Morgan to help her.
Review
This book is really just everything I love: it has mythological and fantastical elements, a teenage girl learning to find herself, and a blossoming sapphic romance. While queerness isn’t necessarily “normalized” in this novel, there isn’t any homophobia either. Mom is happy for Morgan once she comes out, even making a joke about coming out of the closet, which is just so adorable. And Serena is only angry about finding out Morgan and Keltie are girlfriends because she doesn’t like Keltie.
I really love the arc of Serena’s character overall. I was nervous that she was going to be a flat “popular girl” stereotype—that is, a mean, wealthy white girl who the main character eventually antagonizes—but that wasn’t the case at all. Serena’s frustrations with Morgan and Keltie are completely understandable (I mean, the boat Keltie hates belongs to Serena and her family, after all), although you can see Morgan’s side of the conflict as well. Their dynamic is really interesting. And, I was really happy when the girls made up in the end.
As for Keltie, her character is super well-done, and she is such a wonderful girlfriend for Morgan. In the back of the book, the author actually includes a section where she talks about contrasting the two girls:
“Unlike Morgan, [Keltie] expressed her big feelings in her face and body language… Morgan is a contrast to Keltie—she’s very put together, very neat and precise, someone who cares about being in control of situations. Something I really loved exploring was Morgan’s body language—the way she holds herself when she’s around her friends and family is very different than when she’s around Keltie… Contrary to Keltie, Morgan cares about clothes a LOT. It was fun looking up different outfits for her (thank you, Pinterest) and figuring our her low-key, carefully curated sense of style.”
Speaking of, the illustrations of this book are just so beautiful. The characters are very expressive, with evident nuances in their emotions. On page 93 for instance, we can see the softer side of Morgan when she is cuddling and kissing Keltie (this is fine, I’m totally not giggling and kicking my feet up in the air…). And on page 181, I really liked Serena’s expressions, this mix of confusion and anger about what to feel from Keltie. Keltie is her friend’s girlfriend, but she’s also pretty mean, and Morgan hasn’t been acting very nice lately, either. Overall, all of the characters feel complex and real.
With this being a queer work especially, I have to comment on how happy I was that there were open expressions of love between the girls. For decades, queer people have been told they have to suppress their identities, and many authors have been forced to censor queerness, squeeze it into a subtext, or eliminate it altogether. We’re seeing this now, for example, in animation—Molly Knox Ostertag was actually a writer for Disney’s animated series The Owl House, which was cancelled after just three seasons for reasons fans speculate had to do with the openly sapphic relationship of the main character. In light of this, it’s refreshing to know that people in the comic world are openly fighting for representation, and that there is hope for so many young queer girls to see themselves in media.
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