Aminder Dhaliwal

This was clever and super cute, and after Y: The Last Man I was hungry for a positive narrative about a world without men (although of course there's always Ammonite). Still, I wish I could have experienced it in serial form, because I think it loses some of its humor read in one sitting.

I'm ambivalent about how Dhaliwal handles the issue of trans folk - on one hand this is a silly fantasy story about being a woman in a binarist society, so obviously you should make it inclusive of trans women. On the other hand the story erases non-binary people and this bums me out. I think the correct solution is a mini-comic about Non-binary Nation, which is an island off the coast of Woman World (transportation between the two realms provided by the Femme Ferry).… (more)

A beautifully drawn, wonderfully written story with a wonderful cast of characters. A very important and well-written run of stories about discrimination, subtle racism, institutionalized racism, microaggressions, and just... many different kinds of prejudice.

The part that stood out to me most was the line "about the lack of [group] representation even in [group]-driven art", particularly in recent book-banning debates. Schools are trying to ban "Maus", an incredibly phenomenal novel about the Holocaust from the perspective of Jews, and others are arguing about how stories about Jews and the Holocaust are often more readily accepted when they are written by and star Gentiles. We can't even star in films that are purportedly about us (e.g., "Woman in Gold", a story about the the Nazis stealing from Jews and using art featuring us as a status symbol; the film starred Gentiles playing Jews). So that really hit home.

I also loved the queer rep. There were some really lovely queer storylines and different relationship dynamics. And I loved all the references to mythology, even down to naming the characters.

Overall, a really lovely graphic novel.… (more)