About the comic:
This anthology was a bit different from most others we’ve been in, as we needed to pick a theme provided by the editors and use interviews to form that into a story. The theme we chose was “Dads”.

 

All characters in this comic are fictional and their stories are only inspired by interviews that were given to us by the editors. We were not given any information about the interviewees.

 

“These comics are created by queer artists for queer audiences and with the intent for queer self-expression and representation. Social science researchers spoke to diverse members of LGBTQ+ communities to explore their beliefs about and experiences of compassion.” – Phillip Joy

 

“Working from interviews was a very different starting point than how we typically create comics, and we really wanted to make sure that we stayed true to the stories that were passed on to us. Having a theme of compassion and seeing the interview responses connected with something that both of us experienced as queer people. Though it is certainly and thankfully not the case for everyone, but a common theme in the interviews was the way queer people try and connect with their homophobic parents. When we consider parent/child relationships a lot of time is spent on the parent’s unconditional love for their child, but a recurring theme in the stories of queer people is the continued desire to reconnect and love parents who are dismissive or antagonistic to their child’s sexuality. We hope that this comic expresses to the reader how much queer people love their parents, and the compassion they have where they try and connect however they can, even when those relationships hurt.” – M. Parker