7 Queer, Eisner-Nominated Comic Books and Graphic Novels You Should Read
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Photo-illustration by June Buck
The 2024 Eisner Award nominees for excellence in comic art and graphic novels have officially been released — and this year’s honorees include a bevy of LGBTQ+ creators and books that are just begging to take up space on your bookshelf.
Named for groundbreaking Jewish comics creator Will Eisner, the Eisner Awards are chosen annually by a panel of six judges and administered by San Diego Comic Con, where the ceremony has taken place since 1991. LGBTQ+ writers and artists have always been part of the comics industry, but recent years have brought a notable uptick in professional recognition for queer comic books and their creators.
This year’s list of nominees includes dozens of names and projects, and is stuffed to the gills with queer and trans talent, from full-length graphic novels and webcomics to scholarly texts and anthologies. We’ve rounded up seven of our picks that should go straight onto your to-read list, but there are plenty more nominated LGBTQ+ books and creators on the list to discover, so let your imagination (and library card) run wild and check out something new.
Roaming by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki
The Tamaki cousins, who spoke to Them about their latest graphic novel last year, are no stranger either to Eisner awards nor creating incredible comic art together. Roaming, the duo’s third collaborative graphic novel (also nominated for a Lambda Literary Award this year), follows a trio of college freshmen on their first adult trip to New York City and the messy, queer journeys of self-discovery that follow. Both creators are also individually nominated for Best Writer and Best penciller/Inker this year, following wins in 2018 and 2019 for Jillian Tamaki’s Boundless and Mariko Tamaki’s Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, respectively.
Walden became one of the youngest Eisner winners ever in 2018 when she won the Best Reality-Based Work trophy for her graphic memoir Spinning, which explored her traumatic teen years and early lesbian love in the grueling context of competitive figure skating. After winning a second trophy in 2020 for her graphic novel Are You Listening?, Walden is nominated once again this year for Best Writer/Artist for Clementine: Book Two, the second part of a trilogy set in The Walking Dead’s zombie apocalypse starring the titular bisexual character from Telltale Games’ TWD game series. The series’ first installment is also nominated for Best Publication for Teens.
As a big time webcomics enthusiast, I was personally delighted to see indie darling Matchmaker show up in this year’s Eisner noms alongside heavy hitters like Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus. Matchmaker follows a group of early-twenties queer friends as they attempt to find love, survive the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and finally beat Elden Ring. Fans of heartfelt slice-of-life comics like Azumanaga Daioh will want to pick this one up, especially if you need a crash course in zoomer humor; technically, the comic’s final chapter is specifically nominated, but publisher Silver Sprocket has collected the entire comic (plus new strips and art by Marshall) in its print edition.
Also published by Silver Sprocket, Cash’s Ignatz Award-winning limited series PeePeePooPoo — referencing everyone’s favorite human waste-themed internet meme — riffs on aesthetics from previous generations of underground cartoonists like Daniel Clowes, Charles Burns, and R. Crumb. The result is akin to a one-woman version of Harvey Pekar’s iconic anthology series American Splendor, with Cash serving as her own rotating cast of artists as she slips between genres and styles. For the discerning fan, Silver Sprocket also sells accompanying sets of sticker sheets; our readers may vibe with the “Clean Your Bong” set.
Wroten (who has also created original art for Them) released their over 450-page magnum opus last year to critical acclaim, exploring what it means to create art in an ever-more-isolating digital consumer culture. This is familiar ground for readers of Wroten’s past work like Cannonball, but their penchant for esotericism and dream narratives is on full display in Eden II, which pits two creators of an immersive online game against one another as the barriers between fiction and reality break down. Those who like their comics big, weird, and thoughtful should have plenty to chew on in this nominee for Best Graphic Album.
A Boy Named Rose by Gaëlle Geniller (transl. by Fabrice Sapolsky)
Originally published in French as Les Jardin, Paris, Geniller’s historic romance centers on the eponymous Rose, a genderfluid 19-year-old who longs to join his mother and found family onstage as a cabaret dancer. As Rose meets and falls in love with a man who patronizes Les Jardin, Geniller presents a loving look at queer romance and gender identity during a time period in Europe when society was prepared to discuss neither.
For those ultra-nerds who go beyond reading comics into academic theory about comics (e.g. myself), Halsall and Warren’s anthology — which is already confirmed as the winner for Best Academic/Scholarly Work — features essays by numerous scholars and critics ruminating on the medium and its queer possibilities. In addition to wide-ranging historical research and contemporary criticism, the tome also reproduces art by influential LGBTQ+ creators going back to the 1960s, including Alison Bechdel, iconic creator of Fun Home and Dykes to Watch Out For; Jennifer Camper, an underground lesbian cartoonist known for her work in series like Gay Comix and Real Girl; and Howard Cruse, author of the landmark civil rights comic Stuck Rubber Baby, who died in 2019.
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