A queer non-profit organization dedicates itself to bringing awareness to LGBTQIA comic creators, characters, and comics in a field lacking sufficient representation for the LGBTQIA community.
There were very few queer artists and representatives at LA Comic Con last weekend, but Prism Comics is one booth that shined light on the queer community in comics.
Starting in 2003, Prism Comics is a non-profit organization that prides itself on helping queer creators promote their work when most other publishers and places wouldn’t.
“We make it possible for creators to have a presence,” said Tara Avery, board member of Prism Comics and comic book creator herself.
When the organization started 20 years ago, Prism mainly worked with gay and lesbian comic creators who created works that varied in all different types of genres from superhero to erotica. Now the company focuses a lot more on trans and nonbinary creators in their work.
When Prism Comics started it was just a traveling booth at multiple conventions. Prism Comic went to different conventions to help queer creators get their work out and reach fans.
Now, after 20 years, the organization has hosted their own convention for the past two years in West Hollywood named Q-Con where artists and creators can showcase their own work.
One creator that was showcasing their work with Prism Comics during LA Comic Con was the comic creator and illustrator, A.C. Esguerra.
A.C. started to professionally create comics in 2015 with their first novel “80 Days”. They were mostly self-publishing until meeting Prism Comics at WonderCon around the same year.
A year later they were one of the recipients of the organizations 2016 queer press grants, which is a grant for queer writers to help them continue their work.
“I try to get involved with Prism whenever I can,” said Esguerra.
Queer representation is seen a lot more in comics and media nowadays than it was just a few years ago, but that doesn’t mean that the representation is well thought out. The lack of diversity in writers and creators can cause queer representation to be shallow or stereotypical.
For instance, in 2003 one of. D.C.’s spin-off comics featured an issue of Superman becoming attracted to men when he is around pink kryptonite. This was seen as something comedic for DC fans to laugh at- many did not see this as a problem.
Queer representation by queer people is important and when trying to find queer representation, especially in comics, there are very few.
Thanks to the work of Prism Comics, Esguerra and many other creators like them have been able to get their work off the ground and build an audience in a time where queer representation is needed in the media.