“Whenever I start a project, I always try to have a conversation with the editors to say, ‘I want to see body diversity, I want to see people on a range, and I also love having representation of disability.’ I feel it’s really important—it’s just as important as having queerness on the page for me. Because it’s a part of our lives and creating media about everyday people that doesn’t include that just doesn’t make sense to me,” Jasmine Walls, co-creator of Brooms, Vixen: NYC, and more, told BoC in a recent interview. (Catch Episode 192: It’s all about the small joys featuring Jasmine Walls to hear her speak about disability and so much more!)
As disabled critics and creators ourselves, we couldn’t agree with her sentiment more. Disability is a part of the human experience and disabled people, disabled characters, disabled storylines belong in comics and pop culture.
In that vein, we are absolutely delighted to bring you a list of comics addressing disability, curated by the incredible team behind unSEEN/unHEARD: Disability & Neurodivergence, currently fundraising on kickstarter!
The Jellyfish by Boum – This graphic novel centers on a person who begins to see a jellyfish floating in their eye. A minor annoyance at first, things turn serious when the jellyfish begin to multiply. This is a gripping tale of what it’s like to come to terms with encroaching blindness.
Hawkeye: My Life as A Weapon by Matt Fraction (W), David Aja (A), and others – This run on Hawkeye depicts how Clint deals with hearing loss and deafness, while still having all the action you would expect from a comic about an Avenger. It also includes depictions of ASL and visual explanations of what it is like to lose your hearing.
Parenthesis by Elodie Durand – This graphic memoir explores the author’s experience with tumor-related epilepsy. The seizures and memory gaps cause Elodie to reexamine her life in the face of such a traumatic struggle.
Montress by Marjorie Liu (W), Sana Takeda (A), and others – Set in a matriarchal world, Maika Halfwolf has a mystical connection with a monster. She is also an amputee. Monstress has a captivating fantasy setting and a compelling story.
Sensory, Life on the Spectrum by Bex Ollerton (Curator/Editor) and others – This anthology dives deep into the experiences of Autistic people. If you wish to know more about the daily lives of Autistic people and what they go through, this book is a great place to start.
C.K. Carpenter, Aubrey Lyn Jeppson, and Ringo Award nominee Anas Abdulhak are the editors on unSEEN/unHEARD: Disability & Neurodivergence, a 64-page, 12-story, multi-genre anthology centered on what it’s like to live with a disability or be neurodivergent. It consists of romance, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and slice of life stories and is live on Kickstarter until October 18. Find out more at unseenunheardcomic.com.
We’ll be back in November with another newsletter and another bit of the lovely b*tches you can’t get anywhere else, so stick around.
— S.E. and Monika
P.S. LOL we will definitely not be sending these bi-weekly…maybe monthly-ish? IDK, we’ll figure it out together!
P.P.S. Let us know if you’re enjoying these newsletters and what else you’d like to see!
