Looking for queer love stories? From YA sapphic romance to gay love anthologies and non-binary erotica, here are 12 LGBT comics that focus on love, romance and relationships perfect for valentines day.
We've included the queer representation along with the recommended reading age for each graphic novel to help you pick the perfect book for you.
Young Men In Love - Joe Glass & Matt Miner
Queer Rep: Queer Men, Trans Men
Reading age: 14+
An original graphic novel anthology of queer male romances by a host of amazing queer male (cis/trans) creators. Haphazard pirates, wayward ghosts, dashing knights, rampaging kaiju (and down-to-earth regular joes!) are all assembled here to amaze and delight you in a wildly unique anthology celebrating love between men, from an astounding array of comics creators who know exactly how it feels. Young Men in Love is a heartwarming, uplifting, and vibrant return to the glory days of romance comics!
Coming Back- Jessi Zabarsky
Queer Rep: Queer Women
Reading Age: 12+
A beautiful graphic novel fantasy romance that follows two young women who have to go on their own separate adventures to discover the truth about themselves and about each other.
Preet is magic. Valissa is not. Everyone in their village has magic in their bones, and Preet is the strongest of them all. Without any power of her own, how can Valissa ever be worthy of Preet's love? When their home is attacked, Valissa has a chance to prove herself, but that means leaving Preet behind. On her own for the first time Preet breaks the village's most sacred laws, and is rejected from the only home she's ever known and sent into a new world.
Divided by different paths, insecurities, and distance, will Valissa and Preet be able to find their way back to each other?
Check Please! - Ngozi Ukazu
Queer Rep: Queer Men
Reading age: 10+
Eric Bittle is a former Georgia junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and amateur patissier. But as accomplished as he is, nothing could prepare him for his freshman year of playing hockey at the prestigious Samwell University in Samwell, Massachusetts.
It's nothing like co-ed club hockey back in the South! For one? There's checking. Second, there is Jack - his very attractive but moody captain.
Check, Please!: # Hockey is the first in a hilarious and stirring two-volume coming-of-age story about hockey, bros, and trying to find yourself during the best four years of your life.
On A Sunbeam - Tillie Walden
Queer Rep: Non-Binary & Genderqueer, Queer Women
Reading age: 12+
Throughout the deepest reaches of space, a crew rebuilds beautiful and broken-down structures, painstakingly putting the past together.
As new member Mia gets to know her team, the story flashes back to her pivotal year in boarding school, where she fell in love with a mysterious new student. Soon, though, Mia reveals her true purpose for joining their ship—to track down her long-lost love.
An inventive world, a breathtaking love story, and stunning art come together in this new work by award-winning artist Tillie Walden.
Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator - Leighton Gray & Vernon Shaw
Queer Rep: Queer Men
Reading age: 16+
Oni Press presents Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator, a comics series based on the acclaimed Game Grumps visual novel video game!
Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator invites the player to Maple Bay, where they play as a single Dad new to town and eager to romance other hot Dads. The comic series tells five standalone stories, each focused on different Maple Bay Dads, their kids, and their relationships with one another. Dive into entirely new stories featuring the backstories and adventures of your favorite Dads, told by game co-creators Leighton Gray and Vernon Shaw, along with the comic industry's top indie talent.
Hello, Melancholic! - Yayoi Ohsawa
Queer Rep: Queer Women
Reading age: 13+
A coming-of-age yuri manga series about playing music and falling in love with abandon! Asano Minato is a tall but stooping first-year high school student. Though she’s an awesome trombone player, she does everything she can to fade into the background. Despite her best efforts, however, Minato catches the attention of her bubbly and charismatic upperclasswoman Hibiki, who wants Minato to join the band she’s forming at school and won’t take no for an answer! Will Minato be able to let go of the past and play in a band again? Can polar opposites harmonize through music?
Nether Realms - Tab Kimpton
Queer Rep: Non-Binary & Genderqueer
Reading age: 18+ (Explicit)
From the PRISM and Lambda Award nominated publisher of Nectar & Ambrosia, comes Nether Realms: a Sci-Fi Non-Binary Erotic Comics Anthology. Our theme is star-hot sex that explodes beyond our Earthling understanding of body, gender, and self-identity. 15 strange, sexy tales from far across the universe, where each comic has at least one character who goes beyond the gender binary or explores gender in an interesting way. Freed from the tethers of the nethers, or delving into them deeper than ever before, let’s hyper jump into Future Fucking, hand in [robotic] hand. Our mission? To boldly bang where no thems have boinged before. *MATURE READERS ONLY*
Henry & Glenn Forever + Ever - Tom Neely
Queer Rep: Queer Men
Reading age: 18+
A punk rock romance: Two men. Two myths. One legend.
The greatest love story ever told has finally been released in graphic novel form, featuring 20 short stories about the domestic life of "Henry" and "Glenn" and sometimes their neighbors "Daryl" and "John." Glenn deals with issues with his mother while Henry, "a loud guy with a good work ethic," shows his darker side and indifference to a fan as he drinks black coffee and bonds with Glenn over their distaste for their own bands. These are two men who truly suffer best together.
This book collects four serialized comics, adds even more never-before-published pages than previous collective edition, and will have a spiffy hardcover.
The Girl From The Sea - Molly Knox Ostertag
Queer Rep: Queer Women
Reading age: 12+
Fifteen-year-old Morgan has a secret: She can't wait to escape the perfect little island where she lives. She's desperate to finish high school and escape her sad divorced mom, her volatile little brother, and worst of all, her great group of friends...who don't understand Morgan at all. Because really, Morgan's biggest secret is that she has a lot of secrets, including the one about wanting to kiss another girl.
Then one night, Morgan is saved from drowning by a mysterious girl named Keltie. The two become friends and suddenly life on the island doesn't seem so stifling anymore.
But Keltie has some secrets of her own. And as the girls start to fall in love, everything they're each trying to hide will find its way to the surface...whether Morgan is ready or not.
Bloom - Kevin Panetta
Queer Rep: Queer Men
Reading age: 14+
A sweet, monochromatic graphic novel about baking, music and young gay love. Now that high school is over, Ari is dying to move to the big city with his ultra-hip band—if he can just persuade his dad to let him quit his job at their struggling family bakery. Though he loved working there as a kid, Ari cannot fathom a life wasting away over rising dough and hot ovens. But while interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easygoing guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they become closer over batches of bread, love is ready to bloom . . . that is, if Ari doesn’t ruin everything.
Cheer Up! Love And Pom Poms - Crystal Fraiser
Queer Rep: Queer Women, Trans Women
Reading age: 10+
A sweet, queer teen romance perfect for fans of Fence and Check, Please!
Annie is a smart, antisocial lesbian starting her senior year of high school who’s under pressure to join the cheerleader squad to make friends and round out her college applications. Her former friend BeeBee is a people-pleaser—a trans girl who must keep her parents happy with her grades and social life to keep their support of her transition. Through the rigors of squad training and amped-up social pressures (not to mention microaggressions and other queer youth problems), the two girls rekindle a friendship they thought they’d lost and discover there may be other, sweeter feelings springing up between them.
Marry Me a Little - Rob Kirby
Queer Rep: Queer Men
Reading age: 16+
Marriage doesn’t define a relationship. Unless you want it to.
Rob Kirby recounts his experience of marrying his longtime partner, John, just after same-sex marriage was legalized in Minnesota in 2013. Marry Me a Little is a personal story about Rob’s ambivalence toward the institution of marriage, his loving relationship with John, and the life that they share together. With humor, candor, and a near-whimsical drawing style, Rob relates how he and John navigated this changing landscape, how they planned and celebrated their wedding, and how they and others in the LGBTQ+ community are now facing the very real possibility of setbacks to marriage equality.
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