Transgender Comics are Important!
Comics by transgender authors share vital experiences, dreams, wisdoms, and stories with others. Three important books that demonstrate this are: Super Late Bloomer: My Early Days in Transition by Julia Kaye, Enlightened Transsexual Comix by Sam Szabo, and Gaylord Phoenix by Edie Fake. While very different, these comics all share experiences and perspectives that resonate with trans and gender diverse readers.
Julia Kaye is one of Los Angeles’s leading transgender comic book artists and animators. Many of her comics focus on her experiences as a trans woman, including her collection Super Late Bloomer. This collection comprises comics documenting her daily life during her first year of public transition.
Super Late Bloomer reaches trans readers by sharing experiences that trans women, feminine people, and non-binary people can relate to, in poignant and funny ways. This representation is extremely important because the feelings and lived experiences of trans people are rarely explored within comics. By sharing these daily occurrences, Kaye helps us, as trans people, feel validated in our feelings, challenges, and triumphs. Julia also provides this relatability in her other collection, My Life in Transition, which also includes webcomics featured on her Tumblr (social media) page.
Sam Szabo is an important artist, zinester, and comic book creator. While she has created many different zines, one of her most popular published books is Enlightened Transsexual Comix. This graphic novel follows the Enlightened Transexual, a three-eyed, three-breasted, colorful, nude, trans-alien-like figure who humorously challenges capitalism, gender binaries, and a fixed notion of self. Enlightened Transsexual Comix combines a punk zine feel with meta humor (self-referential humor) drawn from sources such as alternative comics, psychedelia, academic theory, popular culture, and comic strips, creating a unique reading experience.
One fascinating element of this graphic novel is how Sbazo seems to have created avatars representing herself. Both the Enlightened Transexual and the Starbucks worker characters in the semi-autobiographical last story feel like they represent parts of Szabo. Despite one being more cosmic and idealized, and the other more grounded and realistic, both seem to reflect Szabo's feelings and experiences. These characters encourage us as trans and non-binary people to take journeys of self-discovery and reflect on how we can overcome obstacles by challenging norms and through artistic self-expression. Sbazo further explores these themes and her personal experiences in her autobiographical zine series Girl Hell.
Edie Fake’s book Gaylord Phoenix is radically different from Super Late Bloomer and Enlightened Transexual Comix. It tells an abstract, fantastical story about a humanoid figure transformed by the surreal world around them. Despite being abstract, it still covers clear topics like sex, identity, mental health, transformation, and violence. While presented abstractly, these themes still have a powerful impact because of how vital they are to many transgender people’s experiences.
Unlike most trans comics, Gaylord Phoenix is very non-linear. While things do "happen" in it, its story is more concerned with symbolism than presenting a straightforward narrative. It involves lots of surreal depictions of sex and violence, many times intertwining the two together as a form of physical and spiritual growth and change. These changes and journeys of self-discovery are important to many people, especially during many trans people’s transitions.
Gaylord Phoenix further emphasizes this non-linearity through Fake’s art style. Phoenix draws on abstract and surrealist art to create a place that feels "other" to our own world. Fake also uses tessellation (repeating patterns) to flesh out the story's surreal setting and enhance its emotional impact. This technique is also an important part of Fake’s other books, such as Memory Places, and within their art exhibits.
Trans comics are vital
Comics created by trans and non-binary comic authors help to disseminate their deeply personal experiences, imaginations, and feelings with others in unique ways. Through sharing these stories and dreams, trans comics provide us, as trans people, with vital lifelines and add essential stories and experiences to our communities’ narratives and histories!
