June is here, and that means Pride Month! Looking for a way to celebrate LGBTQ+ people that incorporates our favorite medium, comics? Enter Comics Beat’s Pride 2025 reading list! Here is a cavalcade of titles to slake your thirst for queer comics. Did we include your favorite? Be sure and let us know in the comment section or over on our Bluesky page.
The Chromatic Fantasy ⸺ This anachronistic fantasy romance between two trans dandy highwaymen is the definition of timeless. Surely a life of crime is better than the real job you’d never get anyways. The only thing that could spoil the moment is the demon they made a deal with coming to collect. The vibe is immaculate. The attitude, everything. HA captures the disappointing listlessness of fitting in, draped in fine harlequin silks, thieves cloaks, a domino mask, a sly grin. ⸺ AOK
Food School ⸺ Solid piece of graphic medicine about a nonbinary person’s experience in an outpatient program for eating disorder recovery. Jade Armstrong does a great job balancing documenting the science and telling Olive’s story with real heart. It’s a funny comic, tremendous manga vibes, volcanic bowel movements, and it’s about a person first and a health issue second. Realer than real. ⸺ AOK
Good Person Trouble ⸺ An animal fable. The court is cooked to begin with, but the fox and the hound are both living on a page you won’t find written in their books. How much disingenuous BS is a person supposed to take before they break? Noëlle Kröger steps ups for the defense, dreamily absurd and critically blistering in equal measure. ⸺ AOK
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me ⸺ The ultimate in on-again / off-again stressful teenage vibes, this 2019 coming-of-age OGN is a modern classic. With gorgeous, tender artwork from Rosemary Valero-O’Connell and resonant dialogue from Mariko Tamaki, Laura Dean is a beautiful story of queer becoming. ⸺ AKS
On A Sunbeam ⸺ This is the story of a talented burnout and a secret princess whose love was so strong it spanned the galaxy. Will the working class, spacefaring restoration crew (the art in this comic is sublime) she joined up with illegally sneak her over a cosmic border to be with the queen of her heart? You’re goddamn right they will. A surreal mix of architecture, adventure, and star-crossed lovers crossing the stars. Tillie Walden is a legend and here’s why. ⸺ AOK
Portrait Of A Body ⸺ Julie Delporte’s capacity to pull together the simple and the complex is a defining feature of her work. With a gentle and uncluttered visual style, she commits to exploring thematic depths with a sincere intricacy. In Portrait Of A Body, Delporte generously shares with us her continuing journeys with trauma, healing, identity, and the discovery of authentic desire. ⸺ AKS
Ash’s Cabin ⸺ Jen Wang, the Eisner Award-winning creator of The Prince and the Dressmaker, delivered her most emotional work to-date in 2024. Ash’s Cabin explores grief, identity, and communing with nature. It’s a fierce and tender story about how far someone will go to discover who they genuinely are, especially in the wake of tragedy. ⸺ OK
Putty Pygmalion ⸺ Lonnie Garcia’s comic is about building a boyfriend in the basement and trapping him there. Actually, the real horror movie aspect of this comic is having a terrible, selfish roommate who wants to get with you and not having anywhere else you can go. What sets this comic apart from most is that the scenes are all photographed dollhouse rooms, with the characters drawn by hand and put in the panels like cel animation. ⸺ AOK
Roaming ⸺ A marvelously mature, nuanced, effortless graphic novel from Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, one that deserves every award and bit of praise it’s been given. When two friends doing a little NYC exploration trip unexpectedly turns into a three friend trip, an unlikely, mismatched romance blossoms. Come for the yearning and hand holding, stay for the magnificent, sweeping minimalist page layouts. ⸺ AOK
Sad Girl Space Lizard ⸺ Lizard girl mecha-pilot smut comics, need I say more. I will. Iggy Craig’s enemies-to-friends lesbian romance, with the injured ace pilot Right and back-up screw-up co-pilot Left suddenly put in charge, is also about coming to terms with artistic burnout, not being able to use your dominant hand to draw, and finding the bliss in coming back to the medium that broke you. ⸺ AOK (Seconded by OK)
Space Battle Lunchtime ⸺ An all-ages version of the previous recommendation, Sad Girl Space Lizard. And yes, by all-ages, I mean adults will love Natalie Riess‘s trilogy of graphic novels about an Earth-based chef who’s whisked off to space to compete in an intergalactic cooking competition, too. Amid life-risking cooking competitions for fame and glory, the OGN’s protagonist manages to find love in a hopeless place. ⸺ OK
Soft ⸺ Half comics, half diary, a toxic yuri modernization of an Irish lesbian vampire story predating Dracula. Jane Mai’s comic is very very indie: sad, cute, full of shockingly earnest moments of personal exploration and revelation, utterly unlike anything available off the spinner rack. Deceptively simple, emotionally resonant, gourmet emo. ⸺ AOK
Stone Fruit ⸺ In this 2021 debut graphic novel by Lee Lai, Bron and Ray are a queer couple who each have unresolved issues to work through with their respective families. But when they split with one another, they’ll both have to face their baggage… and themselves. Beautifully rendered and emotionally evocative, there’s no wonder why this excellent comic has received so many accolades since its publication. ⸺ AJK
Thieves ⸺ Okay, so they meet at a party. She was hiding in a closet, stealing stuff, when she gets caught by the hostess, who it turns out is her secret crush, and it turns out stole the thing she was stealing from someone else. So let’s go on a date, well lots of dates, but on each one we’ll go to a house party and covertly return something you took. What. Could. Possibly. Go. Wrong. Lucie Bryon knocks it out of the park. ⸺ AOK
Trans History: From Ancient Times to the Present Day ⸺ In this nonfiction graphic novel by Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett, the creators survey the history of trans people. Beginning in Ancient Egypt and running all the way up to the present day, this informative and interesting book is a powerful reminded that gender is more complicated than certain executive orders might lead an ignorant person to believe. ⸺ AJK
Witchy ⸺ Ariel Ries’ debut work and webcomic Witchy is everything I want out of a fantasy book but seldom get: an interesting power system (magic strength based on hair), a focus on non-European culture (in this case Southeast Asian culture), and a love and understanding for the maintenance of cultural practices. Unabashedly queer, unrepentantly anti-imperialist, and excellently drawn. With only two books out currently, I am hooked and waiting with baited breath for its return. ⸺ EBH
Come back next week for The Beat’s Pride 2025 Manga Reading List!
Keep up with all of The Beat’s Pride 2025 coverage by clicking here.
