The Invisible Lesbian

The following piece is presented as part of Illustrated PEN: 2017 PEN World Voices Festival Edition, a special edition of the Illustrated PEN that highlights participants of next week’s PEN World Voices Festival. Illustrated PEN Guest Editor and Mutha Magazine Editor-in-Chief Meg Lemke introduces Sandrine Revel—a prolific French cartoonist and the winner of the prestigious Artémisia award, which recognizes female comics creators. Revel’s newest book is a graphic biography of the tortured genius Glenn Gould, released in translation by NBM. She’ll be discussing both books and her experiences as a queer, female cartoonist at the panel The Radical Act of Drawing a Life on May 6. 

Lemke writes: Revel’s wit is both light and incisive in La Lesbienne invisible, a comedic graphic novel about the trials of coming of age as a femme lesbian. Adapted from a one-woman show by Océanerosemarie, the book has not yet been published in print in the United States—herewith, an exclusive online excerpt from the e-book translation (available at Comixology). The petal-hued art is charming, but the power of the work as social commentary lies in the frank sexuality of the character, which belies the persistent stereotype of passive feminine desirability. Did I also mention it’s funny? The story plays with the conventions of blue humor in comics—so content warning, it gets a bit bawdy…

Sandrine Revel is a prolific French creator of graphic novels and children’s books. She just released Glenn Gould at NBM, which won her the French Artémisia award which recognizes female comics creators.

Note: The editor’s introduction was corrected to cite Océanrosemarie as the creator of the play La Lesbienne invisible.