Runaways by Marvel

Runaways is another of the superhero comics published by Marvel. It revolves around the 7 or 8 main characters, who are all children of a group of supervillains called The Pride. Most of the children have special powers of one sort or another. Same old, same old as far as superhero comics go, really. Fighting, rushing about, bad teenage decisions etc. I'll admit right now I am not a big fan of superhero comics published by the big comic companies but other people may be, so you'll probably know yourselves if this is your kind of thing or not.

The current lesbian characters in the comic are Karolina - who is an alien (and also gay) and her gender-morphing alien boy/girlfriend, Xavin (whose 'default' is male but who morphs into female form to woo Karolina, who isn't overly bothered by this as long as Xavin doesn't try to kiss her in his 'male' form).


Picture above shows Nico and Karolina having one of their flirtyish moments from issue 25. Click image for a bigger version.

However, there's also a lot of flirty subtext behaviour between Karolina and one of the other (human but superhero powered) runaways, Nico (who is a goth witch with a big staff) - but a lot of the chemistry between Karolina and Nico seems to come and go, depending on who is currently writing it (as Marvel adopts different writers and artists).
Personally, I find this rather annoying, as some writers clearly ignore certain aspects and characters (in fact Karolina got written out of it for a good few months at one point by conveniently being kidnapped back to her home planet) and then it will all change and the flirting will come back, so sometimes it lacks consistency. But do bear in mind this is Marvel and a superhero comic about children so you're unlikely to ever see anything more juicy than a kiss anyway - even with Joss Whedon currently writing for it.
Sometimes I wonder why I buy it at all (I think this is largely because I have HUGE problems with the character of Xavin) but other times there are some sweet one or two panel moments in between all the routine bad guy bashing.

* Runaways is currently by Joss Whedon and Michael Ryan and is published by Marvel.
You can see the official Runaways website here: www.marvel.com/universe/Runaways

- Purchase vol 1, Pride and Joy from UK Amazon
- Purchase vol 1, Pride and Joy from US Amazon

Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore

Shall we start with one of the big ones?



Strangers In Paradise by Terry Moore is possible one of the best known comics with lesbian plots. Not only does it have gay themes, it features those themes around the main characters.
Although it's emotionally centred around the three main characters and their interactions: Katchoo, Francine and David, in a rather nail biting torturous way, it still has an awful lot of plot.


(Above picture shows secondary characters Casey and Tambi in the final issue). Click image for bigger version.

The series finished last month - the last ever Strangers In Paradise comic was published (the cover picture is one of the three collectable covers for the final ever issue) and although that means no more new comics for those of us who have been collecting the individual comics, it does mean that at least all of you are are new to the series can just go straight out, purchase the entire back catalogue and devour it uninterrupted.
There are many different versions of collected volumes out there, so it might be worth having a browse through what's available in the shops/Amazon etc before you purchase one.

* Strangers In Paradise by Terry Moore is published by Abstract Studio.
You can see the official website here: www.strangersinparadise.com/

- purchase the collected issues Vol 1 in pocket book form from UK Amazon
- purchase the collected issues Vol 1 in pocket book form from US Amazon

Introduction

I am SO fed up with all the comic lists, podcasts and review sites generally only being geared towards things that are superhero based, with only gay male or heterosexual orientated content.
FED UP, I tell you!
And I figured if I'd had enough, then there are probably other girls out there who like things that aren't already being looked at by the sorts of places there are already on the internet. Maybe you like different characters and plots to what men/gay men/reviewers seem to like, or maybe you have grown tired of the same old stuff and fancy a change. I thought I'd start pointing out the lesbian content in things I spot on my tours of the comic shops, TV listings and other places and plonk it all somewhere where interested parties can take a look at it and pick up some suggestions for their next shopping trips/mail orders.

So obviously, because I have been thinking about this for a good while now, I have a list of the most obvious slash media there is but if you know of something and you fancy suggesting it, then please do. If it's already on my list of things to mention then there's no harm done but if it's not, then that only adds to the list, which is all good. I don't claim to be a regular poster, and I do tend to lose interest in things periodically but this list isn't going to be definitive, merely a work in progress for people to dip in and out of when the mood takes them.

So anyway, I hope this helps to fill a gap somewhere and doesn't sound too wanky and opinionated because I can't stand all those smug twats who think they know it all about everything. I'm so not bothered about stuff, I just like to read and watch lesbian content.

Oh, I may chuck in some Yaoi too, since there's a lot of anti-yaoi atmosphere on comic forums etc and sometimes I pick that up too, since there's very little yuri content readily available, so I'll label that when it pops up. Generally I'd like to just keep this a wishy washy liberal place, so if that's not your thing then I'd recommend you don't bother reading anymore of this blog.