Hello everyone!
I just spent the last three days at NYCC – NY Comic Convention. Initially, I went because of Womanthology, where I submitted a story into an all-women anthology with female lead characters. And on the very last day, I spent it chatting with artists and other creators – which is how I stumbled upon Geeks OUT! The men behind the booth all wore pink capes and seemed pretty enthused to be there. They didn’t have a lot of paraphernalia to take with me, but I kept their group in mind specifically for you guys when I left!
As an avid lover of visual media, and an increasing interest in comics, I’m always happy to see more focus on LGBT characters (and creators). As I wandered through the stands, looking at all the new releases (and some series I’d never read before!) I kept wondering if there were any black or lesbian characters (not even really addressing other ethnic characters or the other members of the sexuality spectrum). And usually – I come up drastically short.
So imagine my delight that there’s a group right here in New York who are invested in getting more LGBT together to talk about queer comics and their creators.
But it’s not just Geeks OUT that’s interested in this work, the website: Gay-Nerds also focuses on the LGBT geek community! Apparently they were at the Con, but I didn’t get the chance to see them there; very sad! However, their site is really awesome and even features a forum for people to hang out and chat online about various topics, not just geek culture stuff.
It’s always great to see people highlighting and showcasing more work of the marginalized communities. Our stories need to be told too, and it’s excellent to see more people participating in that!