They're Putting Lesbians in the Comic Books Now
[Dumps a ton of WLW comic recs on your head]
Three days until I Unlocked the Villainess’s Romance Route!! comes out on Tapas Premium. Three days until I am only the fifth Premium novel in the Girl’s Love category, a fact that terrifies, annoys, and bolsters me (I did not write an entire essay on fandom misogyny to not recognise how the preference for BL persists in the webnovel/webcomic space, and so I’m honoured to be a part of the pushback).
Considering the circumstances, I’m legally obligated to recommended WLW comics.
As per usual, I read all of these for 110% free through library apps like Hoopla and Libby. Here’s my blog on other places to read books/comics free and legally.
Single volume | Anachronistic historical (carriages & Nintendo Switches at one) | Less about cheese, more about fashion
As my most recent WLW comic love, this goes right at the top of the list. It was just..it was so…guys, I don’t know, it was so precious. The perfect blend of all I want from my comic romances: art that’s both stunning and expressive, sharp comedic timing, and just the gooooeyest and most adorable ending that made me feel like human mush.
Our Countess Camembert’s father has died, and she refuses to marry a man in order to keep her money and her freedom. She disguises herself as a Count, and despite being told to lay low, can’t help making a spectacle of herself at Princess Brie’s no-fur gala…with the newly-invented faux-fur, gasp! The two then work together in fashion shows and parties to promote Brie’s very un-traditional agenda for her kingdom, putting Cam’s secret at risk.
Fair warning for a heaping pile of the misunderstanding trope considering we have a genderbender disguise on our hands. Vivid art style and the clear adoration for the characters makes that quibble worth it, though.
Single volume | D&D-esque high fantasy
Just a damn good time. Cursed woman on the run from a fantasy clergy takes refuge with a hot-tempered pirate captain. Cue all the seafaring goofiness of Our Flag Means Death, all the vast, swashbuckling goodness of Pirates of the Caribbean, plus its own spin on love and magic.
On every metric it was a hit for me, but the cast was definitely a highlight—super charming thanks to the expressive and quirky art (it reminded me of a more comedically-well-timed The Adventure Zone). You could tell the team had so much fun working with everyone, from the MCs to the background characters.
Single volume | Urban fantasy (Teen) | Cozy nature witches
We are all eaten one day, Joanna Manalo, you and me and all the world. Food for worms or food for birds, you will not get to choose.
In a complete tonal shift from the last two, Mamo is quiet, introspective, and real sad about it. Our witch, Orla, returns home, following the spectre of her controlling, manipulative grandmother, and reluctantly agrees to help Jo get rid of a ghost that’s taken up residence in her home. The ghost is Orla’s grandmother herself, still reaching out to trap her.
From the Women Write About Comics review: “directs a challenge toward the concept of “tradition” by showing how a conservative mindset can hurt people who don’t fit neatly into models established in the past.”
Ongoing series | Contemporary (Teen)
This one’s having a moment right now. Affectionately nicknamed the “green yuri manga,” [deep breath] The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All is a relatively chill teen romance with a heavy dose of (brief-ish) mistaken identity and classic 90s rock. The popular girl connects with the alt boy over their love of music, while the boy is actually her nerdy, unassuming (female) classmate.
I think it’s no wonder it’s caught on with “the youthhhhs.” It’s not that it’s nothing special, it’s just one of those stories that take a lot of common tropes and enact them with effortless perfection (plus the art is super cute). It’s a very sweet, slightly melancholic Teen staple, and, yes, it is adorable to see 2020’s kids acting like Nirvana and Green Day are underground bands that you’re a weirdo for listening to.
Potential hiatus; 4 volumes | Contemporary (Teen & Adult)
Don’t let the ultra-moe art fool you—I’m glad I didn’t. Yuri Espoir is in part about a teenage lesbian forced by her family to marry a man, and in part about the many, many romances she imagines women to be having around her.
We dip in and out of the lives of these side characters, essentially turning Yuri Espoir into an anthology of romance, comedy, tragedy, and even, once, a horror. Cutesy junior high girls, stressed-out salarywomen, anyone in between.
3 volumes | Contemporary (Adult)
I got out of school and failed. Just like everybody else.
Now that’s some mid-20’s ennui.
It’s a rare treat for manga to tackle adult characters and adult issues. After Hours follows a listless graduate who’s fallen out of love with her boyfriend and with her whole life. After a night at a dance club, she’s absorbed into a friend group of undeniably cool, “adult,” self-possessed DJs and club hoppers, and into the orbit of the intimidating woman at the center of it.
To me, this short series captured the feeling of not knowing who you are or where you’re going, and having to confront people who seem to have it all figured out. Even the ways they don’t have it figured out are cool and seem so far out of reach for you. BUT DON’T WORRY GIRL EVEN AWESOME PEOPLE CAN LOVE YOU AND YOU CAN LEARN TO LOVE YOURSE—
Single volume | Horror | Vampiresses & haunted houses | No, I don’t know why she’s a catgirl either
Carroll’s back with another minimalist, poetic comic book. There’s little more plot to describe than what’s in the title itself: we arrive at the castle and shit gets weirder, sexier, bloodier. Yeah, my dudes, this one’s heartbreak wrapped up in a fairy tale, like the best of Carroll’s horror works.
From The Comics Journal: We share the cat’s experience, both its seduction and its resistance, and we know without hesitation that we are watching an abuser and their victim, the signs of danger and the reasons we overlook them, the crimes and the all-too-common feeling of powerlessness when facing them.
Single volume | Horror | Mansions, taxidermy, guts, oh my
Oh, you’re back, black-and-red monochrome?
According to the rubes on Goodreads, this one’s apparently divisive—look, you either understand the haunted house horror told through the POV of the haunted house, detailing the cat-and-mouse game between a monstrous shut-in and her housekeeper or you don’t. I, personally, think its clever format and lovely art makes it worth trying out.
Like all the best horror, it’s best to approach this with as little information as possible. But I can’t help trying to sell it with this quote from The Comics Journal: “The book doesn’t straddle the line between fear and desire, it completely erases it. It’s violent and bloody and grim but, my goodness, it certainly lingers in the system.”
OKAY HAVE FUN READ THESE BOOKS AND ALSO MINE XOXOXOXO