Bluestocking Books

Some of my queer friends will be jealous that my professor asked Bluestocking Books to hold an event for us, which turned into a public event with Ivan Velez Jr., Jennifer Camper and Howard Cruse in a talk about their comics and graphic novels with queer content, some of the first in comic history. The bookstore began as a women’s book store that transitioned into a queer bookstore. With the transition, they moved from second wave feminism that supported privileged women to third wave feminism that is in more support of all gender identities.


Ivan Velez Jr. is the first mainstream writer who introduced gay, lesbian and trans characters into comics that were published through both DC comics and Marvel Comics and had some hilarious stories about his childhood and his entrance into the queer community.

Jennifer Camper is famous for her comics on the lesbian lifestyle, refuting heteronormativity and the nuclear family. Her comics are strong and opinionated, bringing the lesbian lifestyle to the attention of the reader, whether homo or heterosexual.

Finally, Howard Cruse described to us his coming out process during his comic career, from hiding his sexuality, to exploring it in underground comics, to finally coming out and recording his adventures on the night of the Stonewall Riots in the Village.

This event was extremely equally gendered exploring male and female experiences in an equally gendered audience, but the sexuality is a different story. The room held allies of the queer community and queer subject matter dominated the room, not only in the presentations and participants but also in the content of the book store. There were large sections of gay and lesbian focussed books, feminism and gender studies, art, and small sections of everything else as well as T-shirts, patches and buttons that focus towards freedom of identity. Yet the sexuality in the room was by content only. In comparison to public spaces there was no blatant sexuality and despite some adult subject matter, the sexuality did not ooze from people like you see in bars or even public parks.

To most people in the queer community, sexuality is something that is discussed like eating and sleeping are; its development has formed who we are through our explorations of our sexual identity. To heteronormative people sexuality can be a given, something so obvious like bodily functions it is not explored so closely. So in situations of queer content, sexuality is discussed frankly and in depth but not necessarily flaunted. This was a situation where the topic was about sexuality, but was not necessarily sexual, so while the room was mainly homosexual or allied, there was little sexuality in the group.