Content Warnings: transphobia, racism

Along with some amendments from the previous episode, we chat a little bit about problematic authors and what do we do about it after the fact!

Books Mentioned:

Real Queer America by Samantha Leigh Allen
Original Plumbing 2009-2019 compilation
Love After the End by Joshua Whitehead
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt
X-Factor (2020) Vol.1 by Leah Williams + David Baldeon
Sleepless Vol. 2 by Sarah Vaughn + Leila Del Duca
Royals Vol. 1, 2 by Al Ewing
Traplines by Eden Robinson
Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson
Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

You can reach us at:
River Instagram: @huckleberry.comics
Wake Instagram: @notaclevernamer
Show email: [email protected]

Content Warnings: passing mentions of racism, homophobia and transphobia, mentions of stigma against sex workers.

Here's food for thought: what makes you pick up a book? Is it genre alone? What draws you in? Conversely, what makes you put down a book while reading? What tropes do you avoid? This week, we talk a little bit about our own personal preferences!

Buy Wake's Book: https://www.wildstarpress.com/product-page/iris

Books Mentioned:

Misery by Steven King
How to be Anti Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Kiss Number 8 by Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T Crenshaw
Sleepless by Sarah Vaughn and Leila Del Duca
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki
My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame
Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Things in Jars by Jess Kidd
Twilight by Smeyer
Saga by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples
Runaways by Rainbow Rowell and Kris Anka
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
The Martian by Andy Weir
Pride of Chanur by C.J Cherryh
The Monster Ball by A Bunch Of Clowns

You can reach us at:

River Instagram: @huckleberry.comics
Wake Instagram: @notaclevernamer
Show email: [email protected]

Content Warnings: mentions of enslavement, racism, transphobia, violence, death.

This Week, we are talking about The Deep by Rivers Solomon, as well as other Science Fiction Fantasy books with queer themes by Black authors! This episode was supposed to come out last week at the tail end of Black History Month, but life happens, sometimes!

Books Mentioned:
If it was easy, they'd call the whole damn thing a honeymoon: Living with and loving the TV addicted, sex-obsessed, not so handy man you married (2011) by Jenna McCarthy
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Bread and Wine: An Erotic Tale of New York by Samuel R. Delany
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gómez
The Wicker King by K. Ancrum
The Weight of Stars by K. Ancrum
Darling by K. Ancrum
Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson
Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson
Prey of Gods by Nick Drayden
Temper by Nick Drayden
Escaping Exodus by Nick Drayden
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
Gender Outlaws by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman
Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger

You can reach us at:
River Instagram: @huckleberry.comics
Wake Instagram: @notaclevernamer
Show email: [email protected]

Content Warnings: abortion, death, homophobia, racism

Happy Black History month continued! Today, we are talking about Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, some of the themes of the book, and how Baldwin's life paralleled the fiction he created!

Books Mentioned:
Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin
Comics for Choice: Whit Taylor, Hazel Newlevant, Ø.K. Fox
Burgers in Blackface: Anti-Black Restaurants Then and Now (2019)
Marbles, Ellen Forney
Outlaw Marriages, Rodger Streitmatter
Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from 1890's to Present (2011), Robin R. Means Coleman
The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle
Through the Woods, Emily Carroll
Mouthful of Birds, Samanta Schweblin
Bones of the Coast, Cloudscape Anthology

Peek at Next Week: The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Comics for Choice (link: [http://comicsforchoice.com/](http://comicsforchoice.com/))
Victor LaValle's website: [http://www.victorlavalle.com](http://www.victorlavalle.com/)

You can reach us at:
River Instagram: @huckleberry.comics
Wake Instagram: @notaclevernamer
Show email: [email protected]

No content warnings this week!

Happy Black History Month! This week, we are going to be looking at comics and graphic novels by queer Black authors.

**Sources:**
Prism Comics: [https://www.prismcomics.org/about/](https://www.prismcomics.org/about/)
Color Bloq: [https://www.colorbloq.org](https://www.colorbloq.org/)
FIYAH: [https://www.fiyahlitmag.com](https://www.fiyahlitmag.com/)
Danny Lore: [https://dannylore.com](https://dannylore.com/)
Tee Franklin: @MizTeeFranklin
Vita Ayala: @definitelyvita
Vita Ayala Interview: [https://www.cbr.com/vita-ayala-interview-keep-comics-fun-shatter-barriers/](https://www.cbr.com/vita-ayala-interview-keep-comics-fun-shatter-barriers/)
Queer Comics Database: [http://queercomicsdatabase.com](http://queercomicsdatabase.com/)

**Books Mentioned:**
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir (Kai Chen Thom)
Comics: A Global History (1968 to Present) (Alexander Danner + Dan Mazur)
Bingo Love (Tee Franklin + Jenn St-Onge)
Jook Joint (Tee Franklin + Alitha Martinez)
Love is Love Anthology (Various)
The Last Exorcist (Danny Lore)
The Moon and Other Beasts I Keep With Me (Danny Lore)
A Phoenix Must Burn (Danny Lore)
The Wilds (Vita Ayala + Emily Pearson)
Submerged (Vita Ayala + Lisa Sterle)
Quarter Killer (Vita Ayala + Danny Lore + Jamie Jones)
The Prince and the Dressmaker (Jen Wang)
Saga (Brian K Vaughn + Fiona Staples)
The Witch Boy (Molly Ostertag)
The Four Story Mistake (Elizabeth Enright)

You can reach us at:
River Instagram: @huckleberry.comics
Wake Instagram: @notaclevernamer
Show email: [email protected]

Hi all! There was a weird audio echo we couldn't get rid of. Hope that it doesn't bug you too much. We are getting fancy microphones soon so hopefully this problem will go away soon!

Content Warnings: Suicide and death.

Under the sea or out of the closet? This week, we are talking about Hans Christian Andersen and *The Little Mermaid!*

Books Mentioned:
Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett
Grit by Silas Denver Melvin
Fairy Tales Told For Children by Hans Christian Andersen
Outlaw Marriages by Rodger Streitmatter
Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom
Genderqueer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

You can reach us at:
River Instagram: @huckleberry.comics
Wake Instagram: @notaclevernamer
Show email: [email protected]

What says "POW", "WHACK", and "ZAP"? What features flamboyantly dressed men having fantastical adventures? What has blood and guts? What thrives on horror, thrilling romances, and daring fight scenes? If you answered "classic comics", you would be right! ... Or would you?

In this week's episode, we dive into the history of the Comics Code Authority and how its iron grip of censorship shook the world of North American comics. Oh, and did we mention that gay characters were censored under this act, too? Because they were.

Trigger Warnings for this episode:

Mentions of sex and violence, homophobia

Books Mentioned:

Tinker Belles and Evil Queens by Sean P. Griffin

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody

Seduction of the Innocent: The Influence of Comics on Today's Youth by Fredric Wertham

Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon by Will Brooker

Monster Culture (Seven Theses) by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

Check Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller

[River's Book Kickstarter](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wildstarpress/the-curse-of-clan-blackwood)

Go ahead and give that a follow so you're alerted when the Kickstarter starts up!

You can reach us at:

River Instagram: @huckleberry.comics

Wake Instagram: @notaclevernamer

Show email: [email protected]

[The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen](http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_merma.html)

Trigger Warnings: suicide, death, mentions of transphobia

If you like memoirs, autobiographical comics, and feminism, this episode is for you! This week, we take a closer look at Alison Bechdel, author of Dykes to Watch out For, Fun Home, and Are You My Mother?, as well as founder of the Bechdel Test!

Books mentioned:

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin

Mary by Brea Grant and Yishan Li

Dykes to Watch Out for by Alison Bechel

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel

You can reach us at:

River Instagram: @huckleberry.comics

Wake Instagram: @notaclevernamer

Show email: [email protected]

SHOW NOTES:

Trigger warnings: discussions of (literary) rape, gore/graphic violence, the death of LGBTQ+ people.

What do video games, Shakespeare, Dante's Inferno, and anime cat girls all have in common? If you guessed "ancient historical homosexual romance", you would be correct!

Who better to start the show off with than the legend himself? This episode looks at the literary footprint of the famous Greek hero, from his debut in the Iliad to the modern retelling The Song of Achilles.

Books Mentioned:

Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichar

Young Avengers by Allan Heinberg (writer) + Jim Cheung (artist)

Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel

The Iliad by Homer

Plato's Symposium by Plato

The Sex Myth by Rachel Hills

Achilleis by Aeschylus

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Achilled by Statius

Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare

Homosexuality in Greek Myth by Bernard Sergent

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

You can reach us at:

River Instagram: @huckleberry.comics

Wake Instagram: @notaclevernamer

Show email: [email protected]