Comics fans may remember the broke back drama of 2012, the catalyst for Carolyn Cocca’s “Broke Back Test” surveying portrayals of women in mainstream comics published between 1993 & 2013. Cocca determined that a change in the depiction of female characters in familiar and popular series was measurable over the 10-year period she identified. By applying a version of Cocca’s test to a small sample this paper focuses on queer representation in the “small-scale production subfield” of independent or alternative comics, rather than large-scale powerhouse superhero imprints. Examined here are three questions of representation in early issues of Black Hammer, Rat Queens and Saga, contemporary graphic novels featuring an explicitly queer main character. Prompted by the distinctly alien otherness of same-sex-attracted alien Barbalien, I was curious if other popular graphic novels portrayed queer characters in ways that set them apart visually from heterosexual counterparts, how often queer characters appear in these stories, and if the queer characters perpetuated negative stereotypes of the LGBTQIA+ community. In Black Hammer, Barbalien is able to take on the appearance of a Caucasian male; however, his default appearance is explicitly non-human. Of the three titles examined, the depictions of Barbalien do seem to be the most distinctly othered, especially when compared against the mostly-human cast of characters with whom he interacts. Of the volumes examined, Rat Queens was determined to provide the most balanced depiction of queer characters, not relying heavily on negative stereotypes, over-sexualization, or visual othering, but instead providing a nuanced character whose sexual orientation is a part of who she is without being the defining characteristic. While the popularity of these stories demonstrate a demand for broader representation, further investigation among a larger sample size is necessary to deliberate what this means for the future of queer representation in graphic novels.
About the presenterRachel R Newbury
Rachel Newbury is a graduate student in English Literature at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is interested in gender representation & diverse experiences in story, with an emphasis on alternative literatures such as graphic novels, visual media & popular culture. She received a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Purdue University, a master’s degree in Library & Information Science from IUPUI Indianapolis and currently holds a faculty position at Clarion University of Pennsylvania Libraries.