Young Men in Love is a new graphic novel anthology that explores diverse stories of queer male romance shown through the lens of many unique genres.
Stories of LGBTQ+ and queer folks are becoming more and more mainstream in the world of comics, and a new graphic novel Young Men in Love, published by independently owned A Wave Blue World, is set to debut in 2022 continuing the important and necessary representation of diverse identities in comics. Young Men in Love is a romance anthology that puts a queer twist on a whole bunch of iconic genres, with 20 individual stories featuring superheroes, pirates, aliens, ghosts, and adorable slice-of-life moments.
A Wave Blue World, founded by wife and husband team Wendy and Tyler Chin-Tanner in 2005, boasts an impressive collection of high-quality graphic novels which focus on, “Socially conscious storytelling and providing a platform for a multitude of creative voices.” An independent publisher like AWBW is incredibly important to support in our current day and age, with an unprecedented push by conservative agitators to ban inclusive and diverse books from schools, including other LGBTQ+ focused graphic novels. Young Men in Love’s line-up of romance stories brings together a huge group of masculine-identifying and non-binary writers and illustrators, who all identify as queer and have an interest in exploring how stories of love featuring queer cis and trans men can break through the genre-limiting barriers of the past.
Gizmodo was blessed with exclusive interviews with some of the creatives behind Young Men in Love, as well as a collection of comic pages from the gorgeously illustrated anthology. Below are the first pages of The Treasure Map to My Heart, an adorable pirate-filled adventure written by Oliver Gerlach with art by Daryl Toh, as well as Bright Idea, a Black Mirror-esque look at what technological capitalism will become in the near future written by Charles Pulliam-Moore with art by Dennis Yatras and Daryl Toh. In an interview with a co-editor of the anthology Joe Glass, who also wrote the story Love Yourself with art by Auguste Kanakis, Glass had this to say about the impact Young Men in Love could have:
“As a society, we seem to aim our fiction in such a binary fashion, with romance aimed at female audiences and male audiences having more action-oriented. It’s almost like we’re telling our young men—who grow into the adults of our society, of course—that romance is not for them, that they shouldn’t want or seek it. Young Men in Love, in that respect, is about challenging that by saying that yes, romance is for you too and look how it can be part of anything.”
Young Men in Love includes a wide array of stories and art from contemporary queer writers such as Sina Grace (Iceman, Ghosted in L.A.) and Anthony Oliveira (Marvel’s Voices: Pride, Empyre) alongside wildly talented artists like Hamish Steele (DeadEndia, Pantheon) and Nick Robles (Euthanauts, The Dreaming: Waking Hours). Additionally the entire anthology’s lettering, plus the beautiful logo, is done by Lucas Gattoni which provides a subtle connection between each of the unique stories contained within. Matt Miner, another co-editor of Young Men in Love and writer of What Do I Get? – with art by Ian McGinty and Bradley Clayton – provides the definitive take on why this anthology is so important for the queer male community:
“For so many queer men, we grew up without any positive representation in media, and were always the punchlines, and the punching bags. Young Men in Love is an important book because it shows young queer kids they’re not alone, and that love is possible for them.”
Young Men in Love promises to be an exciting, gorgeous, sexy look at queer cis and trans men’s romantic lives told through a diverse lens of different genres, which put a twist on classic romance stories and society’s ideas of what queer love can and should look like. The new anthology is sure to become an instant classic, alongside the whole host of other queer graphic novels that are making an indelible impact on the entire world of comics. Be sure to pick up the new graphic novel Young Men in Love, which provides an inclusive and fresh LGBTQ+ twist on classic genres, by A Wave New World, when it debuts on July 5th, 2022.
Source: Gizmodo, A Wave Blue World
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