In 2014, Maia Kobabe—who uses e/em/eir pronouns—thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Then e created Gender Queer. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fan fiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: It is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere. This special annotated edition calls on voices from academic and creative communities to further shed light on the creation of Kobabe’s work—from exploring the technicalities of comic creation to highlighting personal anecdotes from a host of writers and artists discussing their own experiences growing up queer. Featuring commentary from designer and animator Phoebe Kobabe (The ABCs of Identities), cartoonist Ashley R. Guillory, Dr. Sandra Cox (associate professor of English at Southwest Missouri State University), Matthew Noe (Lead Collection & Knowledge Management Librarian at Harvard Medical School), author Hal Schrieve (Fawn’s Blood), and many more, this beautiful hardcover edition promises to be a wonderful educational tool for years to come.
