Minority Monsters is an extremely cute, fun, accessible guide to sex, gender, and power. It may sound like I’m being flippant, but I mean nothing of the sort. Minority Monsters takes the reader through the fabled Alphabet Soup Land alongside our curious, well-intentioned guide— Frank Aura, the explorer— as he meets, observes, and interviews a wide variety of gender and sexuality non-conformers who are cast as a wide range of mythical beasts. From Sir Fabulous the bisexual unicorn (who is not invisible, thankyouverymuch) to Vlad the Vegan Vanilla Vampire, the text covers as full a spectrum of expressions of gender and sexual identity (and their various intersections) as one could hope to see in a comic. Each of the monsters is centered in their own right: Each is able to tell their own identity story and sometimes answer Frank Aura’s misguided questions— always with grace and often with humor.
Each entry is treated with extreme care, equally in their attention to detail in the visual register and in their content. The images feature bright colors, clean lines, and evocative character choices. Some of the monster-identity categories pose a challenge to popular conceptions of those categories – as with First Lady Bamfee, the Trans Feminine Banshee – while others express a simple symbolic resonance – as with Sir Fabulous himself – creating a text that effectively undercuts widely held assumptions that certain identities look or manifest in certain ways.
In addition to effective (and adorable) art and character choices, Minority Monsters pairs each individual with a full page of text devoted to expressing and debunking “Common Myths,” some of which are real myths that real people encounter in their lived experience, while others are silly “myths” created for the text. Overall, this is a friendly comic that was produced with the most golden of intentions: making the world a better place for people whose identities sit outside of the majority. Whether you’re into gender bending (or experience a bit of gender shrug) or kink and power-play, or you’re eager to understand the experiences of others in order to be a better ally, this text will make an excellent addition to your bookshelves.
Creative Team: Tab Kimpton (writer/illustrator)
Publisher: Discord Comics
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