There’s a Rad New Coalition of Queer & POC Bay Area Cartoonists

The world of comic books and cartoonists is far too often associated with geeky straight white dudes like this:

Ok, I guess in this case he’s technically yellow, but in the world of The Simpsons, that stands in for white.

Once you step away from mainstream pop culture though you realize there are cartoonists of every ethnicity, gender, and sexual preference. And there have been decades of underground comic books representing those communities.

Luckily, some of these often overlooked cartoonists are finally getting the praise they deserve. The new Hulu show Woke is based on the K Chronicles by former SF resident Keith Knight. That said, there’s still a long way to go. That’s why this new Kickstarter is so exciting.

The BAYlies is a new magazine featuring 22 Bay Area cartoonists of color and Queer cartoonists, and this new Kickstarter is to fund the cartoonists’ payments and the production of the magazine. What makes this extra special though is that all the proceeds made from the magazine go straight to The BAYlies Art Grant which will be used to fund additional Queer cartoonists and cartoonists of color here in the Bay Area. They were able to award 11 $100 grants in September.

Illustration by Fred Nolan who is featured in The BAYlies

According to the email sent to me about the project is that

It’s exciting because we have different generations of Cartoonists involved. Cartoonists like Jaime Crespo, who is also the cover artist, Fred Noland and Justin Hall, along with newer but “notable” cartoonists such as Maia Kobabe, Trinidad Escobar, Breena Nuñez and newcomers such as Ivy Rose and Queenlioncomics.

You can learn more and see what the comics look like by going to the Kickstarter right here.