PRIDE MONTH 2024! For the last couple of years here at Broken Frontier we have been adding to our year-round commitment to our LGBTQIA community with a dedicated month of queer comics coverage for Pride. For Pride Month 2024 we are once again committed to giving you at least one review or feature every single weekday of posting. Pride at BF has become one of the most popular of our “event” series of coverage and we’re hoping that this year will be our biggest yet.
Pride Month is, of course, about celebration but it’s important as well to recognise the immense challenges our LGBTQIA communities are facing in 2024. Hard fought for rights like gay marriage and equal representation under the law are being attacked and eroded as right-wing populism once more exerts its sinister influence. The so-called “culture wars” continue to be stoked by malicious elements in the media and politics in a bid to other and alienate the marginalised. And, in particular, the unconscionable and vicious attacks on the rights of trans folk just to exist have become unrelenting in recent years.
Within our own scene it is so vital that those of us can make sure our voices are heard in the pursuit of allyship. There must be no hiding place for homophobia in comics. No blind eye turned to the transphobia that still permeates areas of comics commentary. And no platforming of anyone associated in any way with the hate groups that have sprung up to whine and mewl about diversity and inclusivity in the medium. Speaking up will continue to be part of our ethos as both a comics culture web-magazine and a small group of activists for the form, as outlined in our most recent mission statement here.
So what can you expect from us in June? Lots of queer comics reviews, starting with a double bill today. In this regard we’ll be adopting the slightly different approach we do every year for Pride. There will be the regular run of reviews of recent work but, in this age of digital availability, we’ll also be giving some time to important projects of years past that we may have missed the first time around. Look for coverage that may be autobio, graphic memoir, graphic biography, queer history, genre fiction, creator commentaries and much, much more. And we might even relax our normal distancing from the worlds of super-heroes and licensed properties to give as full a picture of Pride publishing as we can.
Don’t forget our dedicated resources lists for LGBTQIA comics and a dedicated one for trans and non-binary stories can be found on our Resource Lists page here on the site. It’s going to be an incredible month of awesome comics material so get ready! A huge thanks as well to the rest of the BF team. Although much of the material posted will have my byline on it this will truly have been a team effort. Without the prolific output of Lindsay, Ellie and Lydia in recent weeks I would never have been able to find the space to step back from normal reviewing duties and devote so much of my time to our Pride coverage.
It just remains to be said to anyone within our LGBTQIA audience at Broken Frontier who is feeling overwhelmed by the challenging times we live in that wherever you are placed within the comics community – creators, readers, organisers, facilitators, activists, whatever – please, please remember that you are loved and we are here to share your stories.
Always and forever.
Happy Pride Month everyone!
Andy Oliver
Broken Frontier Editor-in-Chief
June 2024
Read our Pride 2024 articles all in one place here
Check out our LGBTQIA and Trans and Non-Binary Resource Lists here
