Noelle Stevenson is the Eisner-award winning creator of such wonderful comics as Lumberjanes and Nimona, who later served as creator and executive producer for Netflix's celebrated She-ra reboot. In March 2020, Stevenson also released a memoir titled The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir in Pictures, which combined personal essays and graphic narratives.
Later in 2020—and following an earlier breast reduction surgery—Stevenson decided to have top surgery. And they've written a new, free, 35-page autobiographical comic titled "The Weight of Them," explaining how they reached their decision to get the surgery.
It's a short read, but it displays all of Stevenson's incredible talent for seemingly-simple graphic narratives that relate an overwhelming depth of unique experience and emotion. She grapples with pronouns; finding comfort in femininity through fame; and then how quarantine made them reconsider that relationship, when there was no one else outside of their home to perform a sense of gender for.
It's a moving, powerful story that really communicates the experience of queer identity and gender non-conformity, even if it's not something you've dealt with or thought about before.
"The Weight of Them" is available as a pay-what-you-want download via Gumroads; while you can get it for free, any proceeds will be donated to BIPOC transition fundraisers.
The Weight Of Them [Noelle Stevenson / Gumroad]
