LGBTQ+ Artists Innovating Comics and Building Community in the 1980s-1990s

FAIN: FEL-303013-25

Margaret Alice Galvan
University of Florida (Gainesville, FL 32611-0001)

Research and writing resulting in a book on the comic formats innovated by LQBTQ+ cartoonists in the 1980s and 1990s.

My second book project, Comics in Movement, examines how LGBTQ+ cartoonists innovated comics through grassroots formats in the 1980s-90s. While these cartoonists documented LGBTQ+ life and activism in a moment when the community was facing government neglect of the HIV/AIDS crisis and disregard for their civil liberties, their comics have been largely forgotten. Based on archival research, each chapter focuses on different grassroots publishing formats and shows how cartoonists wielded these neglected forms to develop their comics and build community. By making available comics that have been buried for decades, this project excavates stories of vibrant queer communities to inspire a new generation at a time when LGBTQ+ people face renewed threats.