11 comics to read during Lesbian Visibility Week

It’s Lesbian Visibility Week! As a very visible lesbian, I wanted to give some recommendations (thanks, staff!) for sapphic books to check out this week. Of course, lesbians are visible all year around, but I wanted to highlight some of my (and the Beat staff’s) favorite sapphic comics. 

Read on!

Snotgirl by Brian Lee O’Malley and Leslie Hung

Snotgirl is a satire, a murder mystery, and a meditation on loneliness and identity disguised in avocado toast and co-ord outfits. For the uninitiated, Snotgirl follows Lottie Person, a green-haired fashion blogger, slick as a magazine cover and twice as hollow. However, beneath the lacquered selfies and weaponized outfits is a chronically allergic soul, both literally and figuratively leaking. When she meets Caroline at a coffee shop, her world begins to be turned upside down.

Her new friend Caroline might be a hallucination, a femme fatale, or the love of Lottie’s life—who knows? As the issues go on, though, the truth about her becomes increasingly clear. Or does it? 

If You’ll Have Me by Eunnie

Eunnie‘s If You’ll Have Me is a heartfelt, beautifully illustrated sapphic romance graphic novel. It centers around two college students, Momo and PG, who are complete opposites. Momo is shy, anxious, and a hopeless romantic, while PG is confident, outgoing, and guarded due to past heartbreak.

The book shines in its portrayal of queer love, the emotional complexities of young adulthood, and the importance of communication and healing. It’s a cozy, slow-burn romance with lots of sweet, slice-of-life moments and a strong focus on personal growth and friendship.

Datura Magazine by multiple authors

In the shadowed garden of contemporary comics, Datura Magazine blooms—a queer, josei-inspired anthology that invites readers to inhale its intoxicating fragrance, knowing well the risks of its thorns.

Each issue unfolds like a dreamscape, where speculative and realist narratives intertwine, challenging perceptions of love, identity, and societal norms. The stories, crafted by a diverse array of creators, delve into the complexities of queer existence, offering glimpses into worlds both familiar and fantastical.

Influenca by Jade LFT Peters

In a world where the zombie apocalypse has become a recurring event—this being the seventh iteration—Dodie and Beatriz find themselves ensconced in their bunker, not merely as survivors but as the inadvertent pioneers of a new societal role: the ‘influenca.’ These professional zombie hunters document their lives online, blending the macabre with the mundane, perilous, and performative.

The storytelling is a tapestry woven from interviews, social media snippets, and nostalgic reflections, offering a multifaceted glimpse into a day at the end of the world. It’s a world where the extraordinary has become ordinary, and the apocalypse is just another backdrop for personal growth and connection. Also one of the main characters is a butch, which is rare even in queer representation (grumble, grumble.)

Hourglass by Barbara Mazzi

In Mazzi’s Hourglass, time is both currency and curse. The Hourglass stands as a monolithic testament to humanity’s pursuit of immortality. This perfect machine grants eternal youth to the privileged while its creators toil unseen within its gears.

Martel, a beneficiary of this system, begins questioning the value of her endless existence. Her encounters with Twenty, an assembly worker ensnared in the machine’s inner workings, awaken a longing for genuine connection. Their clandestine relationship becomes a quiet rebellion against a society that commodifies time and suppresses emotion.

Mazzi’s artwork, inspired by Art Deco elegance and steampunk intricacy, mirrors the story’s tension between opulence and oppression. The narrative unfolds with a lyrical cadence, exploring themes of love, class disparity, and the human cost of utopia.

CosmoKnights by Hannah Templar

In the neon-lit corridors of the cosmos Templar’s CosmoKnights inhabits, where medieval jousts are reimagined with mech suits and the prize is a princess’s hand, the main character, Pan, lives in a world that is both vast and confining. A mechanic’s daughter on a backwater planet, her life is a series of small routines—until she aids her best friend, Princess Tara, in a daring escape from her patriarchal fate.

Years later, Pan’s encounter with Cass and Bee, a pair of off-world gladiators with their own subversive agenda, reignites her dormant defiance. These women don’t fight to claim princesses—they fight to free them. Drawn into their orbit, Pan embarks on a journey that challenges her perceptions of heroism, love, and rebellion.

Templer’s narrative is a kaleidoscope of vibrant hues and emotional depth, where each panel pulses with the tension between tradition and transformation. The story doesn’t just critique oppressive systems—it offers a vision of resistance fueled by camaraderie and queer joy.

Laura Deen Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero O’Connell

This modern queer classic centers on Frederica “Freddy” Riley, a 17-year-old high school student in Berkeley, California, who is entangled in a tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship with the charismatic and popular Laura Dean. Despite Laura’s repeated breakups and emotional unavailability, Freddy finds herself drawn back into the relationship, struggling to let go of someone who doesn’t treat her well.

The novel delves into toxic relationships, self-worth, and the significance of supportive friendships. It portrays the challenges of navigating young love and recognizing and breaking free from unhealthy patterns. Notably, the story addresses these issues without focusing on external conflicts like homophobia, instead highlighting universal experiences of love and self-discovery.

Heathen by Natasha Alterici

Heathen by Natasha Alterici is a bold and visually striking graphic novel that reimagines Norse mythology through a feminist and queer lens. The story follows Aydis, a young Viking warrior who is exiled from her village after being caught kissing another woman. Branded a “heathen,” she embarks on a quest to challenge the patriarchal gods and liberate women from their oppressive rule.​

The narrative weaves together themes of self-discovery, resistance, and empowerment, all set against a backdrop of richly rendered Norse landscapes. Alterici’s artwork, characterized by its expressive lines and muted color palette, enhances the mythic and emotional depth of the story.

Of Thunder and Lightning by Kimberly Wang

If you know what the term “Blood Knight” means, you will love Kimberly Wang‘s Of Thunder and Lightning. In a world where pop media converges with military might, two idol-supersoldiers, Magni and Dimo, are engineered to wage an endless war on behalf of their corporate nations. Their battles, broadcast for mass consumption, are as much about spectacle as they are about supremacy.

Wang’s debut graphic novel unfolds in a striking two-tone palette, juxtaposing the starkness of a dystopian landscape with the nuanced emotions of its protagonists. The narrative delves into themes of identity, agency, and the human cost of perpetual warfare, challenging readers to discern authenticity within manufactured realities.

How Do We Relationship? By Tamifull

In How Do We Relationship?, Tamifull paints a tender, at times turbulent, portrait of young love between two women learning what it means to be themselves and grow beside someone else.

Miwa, reserved and unsure, and Saeko, bold and breezy, come together more from a shared curiosity than certainty. What begins as an experiment in connection—an agreement between two college students to try their hand at dating—unfolds into a rich, complicated dance of identity, emotion, and self-discovery. Like any story worth telling, theirs is marked by missteps and milestones, moments of doubt and clarity, all drawn with a patient hand and a quiet reverence for the intricacies of human hearts trying to align. Tamifull’s work captures the messiness of queer dating in the 21s century without giving into trashiness. 

She Loves to Look, She Loves to Eat by Sakaomi Yuzaki

In She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Sakaomi Yuzaki invites us into the quiet, sunlit spaces of daily life, where something as simple as a shared meal becomes the start of something profound. Yuki, who finds solace in cooking, prepares meals with care and heart, though she often eats alone—until Totoko, her neighbor with a generous appetite and an even bigger spirit, enters the frame. What unfolds between them isn’t just a routine of food and friendship, but a slow-blooming intimacy—one built on small kindnesses and silent understandings.

Yuzaki’s storytelling is deliberate and warm, treating queerness not as spectacle but as truth. It casts a gentle light on the courage to choose companionship, especially in a world that often misunderstands it.