Let's talk about Biphobia (Transphobia, Homophobia, and Bigotry)
Pride Month is about celebrating the Queer community. But let's also take this opportunity to address the bigotry queer people face that makes Pride necessary.
Hello Lifeline Comics Readers.
We generally try to keep our newsletter positive. But this week, we have to touch on some more serious and hurtful topics.
Firstly, we’re explaining why we decided to do a third volume of Bi Visibility — specifically diving into the uptick biphobia we’ve seen as of late and talking about why we felt it necessary to revisit the very first anthology we ever published with a new volume.
We’ll also talk about our experiences are five different Pride Festivals so far (which unfortunately includes recounting one instance of our getting harassed by a pair of homophobic/transphobic attendees).
It’s not all doom-and-gloom though. We’ll also announce a signing event at East Side Mags tomorrow, talk about our positive experiences at recent Prides, concerts, plays, and other events, and share our thoughts on recent releases Toy Story 5, Backrooms, and The Boys Season 5.
Let’s dive in!
Why We Made Another Bi Visibility
Kat: Every June we launch a LGBTQIA+ driven anthology to celebrate Pride Month, and this time around we went back to the title where it all began - Bi Visibility. Bi Visibility was our first ever comic book anthology and our first LGBTQIA+ driven title. As a bisexual creator, I just felt like there wasn’t enough representation for the B in LGBTQIa+ and wanted to make a series celebrating an identity that can sometimes feel invisible.
How did we market our new volume, Bi Bi Bi, differently from our other volumes? First - let’s talk about the name. We thought it would be really fun to lean into the obvious “Bye Bye Bye” pun and have a visual focusing on boy and girl bands.
I already knew I wanted to do a celebrity-inspired story, so it was pretty easy to lean into pop music, especially because I’ve seen a lot of the bisexual commentary coming from that scene.
This was also the first volume of Bi Visibility where we invited pitches from specific people from the LGBTQIA+ comics community in addition to our open submissions. This is how we were able to get voices like: Chris Cantwell, Heather Antos, Jarrett Melendez and so many more other wonderful creators.
The Importance of Queer Anthologies
Phil: We publish a lot of different anthologies at Lifeline Comics — ranging across a multitude of different tones and topics. But it has become an annual tradition for us to publish a Queer Identity-based Anthology every June for Pride Month.
Last year, we crowdfunded Aces & Aros: An Asexual & Aromantic Comic Anthology in June. And the year before, we had Transphoria: A Trans & Nonbinary Comic Anthology.
It almost feels like a cliche to say that we need celebrations of Queer Sexualities and Identities like these. But it is the truth in every sense of the way.
Homophobia, Transphobia, Biphobia, and every other kind of bigotry is very much out there. We’ll talk specifically about instances of bigotry that we, personally, have faced recently throughout this newsletter (including biphobic Kickstarter messages we’ll discuss in this section and harassment we faced at Baltimore Pride last weekend in a later section).
The only way to combat bigotry is to take up space. Queer people deserve to exist. We deserve to exist. And our stories deserve to be told.
We Had More To Say
Phil: Three volumes into Bi Visibility, we have only just scratched the surface of the multitude of things there are to say about bisexuality. And the same is true of our other anthologies (Aces & Aros and Transphoria).
It’s impossible to capture all of the nuance of these identities in a single book. So we’re proud to be able to put out multiple volumes to tell all the different kinds of stories we can about Queer identity.
We’re truly inspired by the creativity each of our contributors bring to our anthologies — consistently delivering unique and nuanced stories that give each anthology its own identity and perspective wholly its own.
The Importance of Bi Representation
Kat: The real reason why we wanted to make a third volume of Bi Visibility is because the landscape has changed so much since we published the first volume. I’ve honestly seen more biphobia in the last year than I have since I first came out as bisexual.
I made a whole post about it when Fletcher’s album came out last year that I’d like to re-quote because this real-life incident was the very reason I wanted to write my short and center this volume around pop music:
In the wake of Jo Jo Siwa’s new relationship (which is a hell of a lot more controversially complicated), Fletcher releases a new song “Boy” during the height of Pride Month.
As a bisexual creator, who has been a fan of Fletcher since the beginning of her career, I have A LOT of feelings about this song. The reason I created Bi Visibility in the first place is because as a bisexual person you can sometimes feel invisible. You always feel like you have to prove your bisexuality, and there’s nothing you can do to feel like it’s enough. And through making that anthology I found out a lot of other bisexual people felt the same. So I truly feel for Fletcher! The amount of biphobia I’ve seen this year is astounding, and I’m saddened by some of the things I’ve seen because of this song.
First, let’s talk about the elephant in the room - was it right that Fletcher released this song during Pride Month? If you listen to the song, and not the headline, I say an astounding yes. This song isn’t about the boy. It’s about her relationship with her queerness? Her questions about her sexuality, and what that means for her career and her relationship with her queer fans. It’s truly a song where she’s talking directly to her audience. Not the boy.
“And I know it’s not what you wanted to hear
And it wasn’t on your bingo card this year
Well, it wasn’t on mine”And I understand the criticisms. “Well, she profited on being sapphic”. “Now she’s only going to talk about boys. I can’t relate to that.” But guess what, in the same breath she was talking about the girl who broke her heart, she has mentioned relationships with men.
Here’s an excerpt from “Girl of My Dreams” from her last album.
“Number one was a boy, and he had the greenest eyes
Like a forest, but I knew that I was lost
Round two in the city, she was crazy, but she made it so pretty
Left me emptier than lonely in New YorkAnd three, she was an angel, yeah she could’ve been the one
But forever only made a couple trips around the sun
Now singing the sad girl songs is overdone”Fletcher hasn’t changed. She’s not betraying you. She has always been bi and/or pan. She’s still queer. Those past songs and relationships are still valid. She just so happens to be dating a man now.
Her whole last album was about how broken a past relationship had left her, that she was looking for self-love. As a fan and fellow queer person, I’m just happy that it seems like she’s finding her peace.
A song about bisexuality and/or pansexuality is just as valid as any other queer song released during Pride Month.
Being completely transparent, we’ve even gotten messages from our own Kickstarter community saying they wouldn’t support this book specifically because it is bi even though they liked our other titles, which probably was the most disheartening to read as a bisexual creator.
To me this was a really important book to make, and from the bottom of my heart I appreciate the people who support or validate it.
Our Recent Pride Events (the good…and the bad)
We’ve had a super busy few weeks filled with different Pride Festival events.
This unfortunately included our first time having to deal with harassment from a truly hateful individual at a Pride event.
Delaware Pride
Kat: Phil and I should have taken more pictures at this one. This was our first time in Delaware, and it brought such a fun community vibe. It was a mid-tier profit show, and it was a great benefit that we had never visited this area because we came across a lot of new fans.
Phil: Our first Pride of the year was a fun trip to a new place for us! We sold a lot of Slice of Life and Love at Second Bite, in particular, at this show! Next time, we’ll make sure to take more photos 😅
Philly Pride
Phil: Our third year in a row at Philly Pride was a big success and tons of fun! We were set up in a new location compared to previous years — in a park rather than on city streets — which we think was a major improvement!
We met two different queer couples at this Pride who saw themselves in the characters in our books, which was a lot of fun!
Julius, Marianne, and I always have a blast in Philly!
Jersey Pride (Asbury Park)
Kat: It’s a tradition that Phil, Marianne, and Julius go to Philly, while Dan and I go to Asbury Park for Jersey Pride. It’s seriously one of our favorite events! Asbury Park is already a very gay friendly town, so they truly go all out for their pride.
Long Island Pride
Kat: This is the first time we’ve stopped by Long Island Pride, and this time around my weather man twin brother, Alex Calamia, was hosting the event. So we had to take a stop during our Pride tour.
It was interesting to see so many new faces even though we’ve done plenty of New York events. So you shouldn’t write off a pride just because you’ve done the state’s larger events.
We saw some cool shirts and merch.
I even got to meet the New York Islanders’ Mascot.
Baltimore Pride (and some unfortunate harassment/bigotry)
Phil: Our first year at Baltimore Pride was filled with highs and lows (Trigger Warning: the lowest point of which was us getting harassed by a pair of Homophobes/Transphobes; if you don’t want to hear about that, maybe skip this section).
Baltimore was a two-day Pride event. Saturday was really fantastic for us. Near constant-traffic and mostly-positive interactions. Sunday brought less attendees than Saturday (presumably because Saturday was also the Pride Block Party and Parade), but still had a solid flow of people.
There was some organizational chaos for this Pride (everyone was in the wrong spot and there was some miscommunication about what would be provided by the event organizers) and a few scares (including a fire in a nearby area and some drunken fights causing confusion by the main stage). But overall, vibes were good for the event until Sunday afternoon.
Unfortunately, the last leg of the Pride brought a first for us: in a homophobic and transphobic streamer harassing us (and others) for about twenty minutes. He approached with a mic and camera to “interview” us (which is not uncommon at Prides and Cons). At first, it seemed like innocuous questions about our comics. But it quickly turned to hateful leading questions about Queer and Trans people.
Your typical ignorant rhetoric was thrown out (which I’m not interested in repeating) as he recorded our booth and told us what was “wrong” with our books and with us. It was a pretty hurtful experience. The slow realization of his intentions, the regret at giving him any attention or information about ourselves in the first place, the way he tried to “GOTCHA” us by pointing out our Mature books (…even though we obviously only sell Mature books to adults…), and his refusal to leave us alone as he continued to harass us and our customers.
It was a real vibe-killer and a reminder of exactly why Pride is as necessary as it is, with all of the hate and ignorance in the world right now.
On the positive side, our neighbors jumped in to help us deal with the harassment, literally blocking the recording as much as possible and helping us get security’s attention. And when the harassers moved on to bothering other folks at the Pride (both attendees and other vendors), we did our part in getting security involved ASAP. They couldn’t legally boot the harassers from a public space, but everyone tried to do their part to keep these hateful individuals at bay.
We do a lot of Pride events, but this was definitely the most negative experience we’ve had at one to date. As much as it is a dark stain on the day, it’s also an important reminder of why LGBTQIA+ representation is critical and why we make the books that we do.
And on the more positive/uplifting side, it is also a confirmation of just how much the queer community will rally to protect one another. I truly couldn’t imagine having to deal with the harassment alone, and I’m thankful that there were good people around us who jumped in to help in the face of hate.
LGBTQ+ Comic Signing! (…formerly Witching Season premiere party)
We’re had been planning a Premiere Party/Signing for our Witch Horror Comic Anthology: Witching Season at East Side Mags comic shop in Montclair, New Jersey this Saturday, June 20th from 3-6pm EST.
Unfortunately, it’s looking like the books won’t arrive in time for the event. Not to be deterred, we’re still planning to appear at the store during those hours for signings of our other comics!
All three Editors (Kat Calamia, Phil Falco, Michele Abounader) of Witching Season will be in attendance. And we’re talking with several of our contributors/collaborators to see if they’re still be able to make it without Witching Season (Heather Antos, Jadzia Axelrod, Abbey Frisco) will be present to sign various comics!
We’ll be sure to post a Project Update on the Witching Season Kickstarter tonight or tomorrow morning to let you all know whether the books arrive in time.
6 DAYS LEFT: Get our Pride 2026 Sabrina Carpenter Lenticular Cover on Kickstarter!
Exclusively at our Pride Fest events in 2026, we’re selling a Sabrina Carpenter “Man’s Best Friend” homage Lenticular Cover for our Mature (18+) Sapphic comic: Nightmare in Wonderland #1!
And for just a few more days, folks who won’t be attending any of the Pride Events we’ll be at can grab the exclusive cover via this limited-time Kickstarter!
We’re already funded and closing in on a free art print Stretch Goal!
Note that a SPICY TOPLESS version of the Lenticular is also available via this campaign (and is EXCLUSIVE to the Kickstarter; it won’t even be at our Pride events)!
Free “RESIST” Bi Sticker for supporting both Bi Visibility and Civil Disobedience!
Lifeline Comics and A Wave Blue World are teaming up with Bi Visibility: Bi Bi Bi and Civil Disobedience being LIVE at the same time!
Support both live campaigns at a Physical Pledge Level (having some rewards shipped to you) gets you a FREE Bi “Resist” Sticker with your package!
Civil Disobedience is a 150+ page anthology that not only features 16 stories about resistance, but includes useful guides and practical resources for getting involved, staying safe, and making a difference!
What else have we been up to?
Event outside of all the Pride Festivals, we’ve been running around to all sorts of different events these last few weeks!
World Cup NYC Jerseys
Phil: NYC Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, announced a limited-edition 1,500 run of FIFA World Cup Jerseys would be sold at the City Store on the morning of June 12th. We love ourselves some exclusive items, so, at my sister Marianne’s suggestion, we lined up at 6:30 in the morning to get ourselves some Jerseys!
It was a really fun event with a lot of comradery in the line waiting for the store to open. The Mayor’s office provided fun “NYC Passports” to those waiting in line suggesting activities to do in each borough of New York City.
The line was CRAZY! Over 2,000 people showed up for the 1,500 Jerseys that were available. We were around the ~260th place in line, and just barely made it in time to get the most popular of the three color options for the Jerseys (the red-and-blue option that is sometimes advertised as the “Knicks” Jersey and sometimes is not).
What’s even cooler is that Mayor Zohran Mamdani himself was present at the City Store behind the counter selling the Jerseys! I (Phil) just missed seeing him, but Kat, Julius, and Marianne all got to catch a glimpse before he headed out.
It was a really great community event that we were happy to be a part of! And we got some limited-edition swag out of it!
Kesha: The Freedom Tour
Kat: Back to Long Island for a concert at Jones Beach! Kesha has become one of my favorite artists over the years. I especially enjoyed her more ballad inspired Gag Order.
The Freedom Tour is all about Kesha taking back her music, which led her to singing a lot more of her older pop songs. It was interesting to see a mix of autotune performances with her more raw vocals when singing songs from her Rainbow era.
Overall, it was a fun night that was an important usher to a new era of Kesha.
Seeing Heathers: The Musical (Again)
Phil: How many times have I talked about Heathers: The Musical in this newsletter? I’ve honestly lost track. Probably at least three or four other times. What can I say? It’s my favorite musical.
Julius’ and my friend, Jeff, had never seen the show and was eager to do so. And it definitely doesn’t take much to convince me to make my way to New World Stages to catch the show.
I was happy to see that the majority of the cast has changed since I last saw this production almost a year ago. It made for a different experience than my last viewing of the show.
And while the whole cast was great, I give particular compliments to Isabella Esler as Veronica. Possibly the best Veronica actor I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live (I unfortunately didn’t get to see the original production feature Barrett Wilbert-Weed live). She captures all of the nuances of Veronica’s character to a T. Not surprising since Esler previously played another Winona Ryder-inspired role as Lydia in Beetlejuice: The Musical. She gets the vibe right for both roles!
I also had the pleasure of seeing Lisa Ann Walter (who you may know from The Parent Trap and Abbott Elementary) as Miss Fleming in her limited-time run on the show. It’s really fun stunt casting that the show leans into — giving her HUGE applause when she first comes on stage and even selling merch specifically for her time on the show.
While Walter may not be a “Broadway” singer, she does a solid job with the vocals. And any swagger she lacks in the singing department, she more than makes up for in the comedy department. She nails every joke perfectly and even gets an extended ad-libbing segment in her “Shine a Light” number that had the whole audience rolling as she riffed on the NY Knicks and Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Really, really fun stuff.
Media
Let’s discuss some non-comics media!
Toy Story 5
Kat: I really didn’t think that Toy Story could redeem itself after it’s misstep of a fourth installment, but luckily Toy Story 5 gets things back on track.
Jessie’s five minute “When She Loved Me” montage has become one of Disney’s most iconic moments, but it’s really only a small fraction of Toy Story 2. This newest sequel expands on those five minutes and gives even more meaning to it. It has the high adventure of your favorite Toy Story movies, but much more importantly it brings back the emotional pull that Pixar had become famous for WITH TOY STORY.
I was especially surprised by it’s nuanced commentary on technology. The film could have easily just made “technology” the villain, but Toy Story 5 does a good job at showing how toys/imagination can work hand in hard with the future of kids’ entertainment.
This theme ties in very well with its commentary on friendship, a story beat that really soars. The past Toy Stories have focused so much on the toys instead of the hardships kids can go through. How do you make friends when all children do is stare at screens? Shaping relationships is hard enough as it is, but kids these days have so many more hurdles to jump through because they have all of the world’s information at their fingertips. It brings a level a of realism to something both adults and kids can relate to in 2026!
Toy Story 5 beautifully explores the triumphs and the missteps that come along with finding yourself and the people you want in your life. With both Hoppers and a successful Toy Story sequel, it really feels like Disney is getting back on track.
Phil: Toy Story 5 is a great return-to-form for the franchise after the (in my opinion) less-than-stellar fourth installment.
Positioning Jessie as our lead this time around and anchoring on her recurring feelings of abandonment (one of the most iconic and heartbreaking moments in the series) was a strong choice that gave the film a rock-solid emotional core as it also played with its themes of technological dependence and difficulty finding connection and friendship.
Every Toy Story film before this focused more on the individual experience of playing with toys. They were about children connecting with their toys for solo play, growing up, and eventually moving on from their toys and their childhood. Toy Story 5 sets itself (and its commentary on toys/play/childhood) apart by focusing on the difficulty that Bonnie (and newcomer Blaze) have connecting with other kids their age. There were several heartbreakingly familiar scenes about having to grow up too soon and pressure to change who you are to fit in that really helped to make our lead kids’ journeys in this movie feel distinct from the other Toy Story films.
The “Tech”/”Devices” commentary was more nuanced than I expected it to be from the trailers. I thought the focus on “outdated” technology and the relatively shorter time tech spends with kids than toys was an interesting angle to focus on. And the new tech characters introduced (particularly Lilypad and Smarty Pants) were a lot of fun.
I’ve seen some critique of the film as it relies too heavily on our pre-existing emotional investment in Jessie’s Toy Story 2 origin story and fails to generate its own emotional core. And while I can see why one might make this argument, I would disagree since Jessie’s story is both expanded upon from Toy Story 2 in this new film and because it didn’t feel like a cheap insert for audience sympathy points. Jessie’s story and themes are heavily connected to the new themes of Toy Story 5. And the heavier focus on Jessie and her trauma feel earned as the toys face obsolescence.
Did Woody really need to come back for this film? …No, he didn’t. Aside for adding some “balding” jokes, Woody didn’t contribute much to the film and probably could have been left out of this one entirely. But then, whose icy heart doesn’t melt seeing Woody and Buzz bicker with one another again after all these years?
My only real criticism of the film is…Buzz Lightyear. Our main Buzz spends the entire film stuck in one of my least favorite plotlines in fiction — the “I need to work up the nerve to propose to my long-time partner” plot. This is always a hollow and annoying plot because there’s no dramatic tension. We all know the other character is going to say yes. And even if it’s the rare case where they won’t, so much time is wasted hemming-and-hawing to get up to the only interesting part at the end of the film. We need to throw this storyline out.
And outside of our main Buzz, the “Multi-Buzz” Army of Buzz Lightyears were also a low-point for the film. Far too much time was spent with them, and only really one scene was actually interesting.
My Buzz-related problems aside, Toy Story 5 is a worthy installment in a franchise that is known for its fantastic sequels. It may not quite reach the heights of Toy Story 3, but it earns its place among the stars nearly thirty years after the release of the first film.
The Boys (Season 5 - Final Season)
Phil: After seven years, Amazon’s The Boys finally reached its conclusion last month. And while I’ve been slowly making my way through the season, my social media feeds have been filled with mostly-negative takes on The Boys Season 5. I managed to avoid spoilers (for the most part) and tried to take the negativity with a grain of salt (the internet either loves something or hates something; no in between). And now having completed the season, I stand my ground that anyone claiming that The Boys Season 5 is “terrible”/”horrible”/”the worst thing on TV” is…reaching. That said, it also isn’t a perfect season.
Season 5 started off strong with a few episodes that really get things moving and have some great character moments (a big highlight being A-Train). But the middle stretch of episodes settled into a position of…spinning their wheels a bit. Homelander spent most of the season on just two tracks (“I need to find V1” and “I’m God”) while the eponymous Boys similarly spent the season on their own two tracks (“I need to find/make a virus” and “I need to make a power-removing blast”). Don’t get me wrong, there was some interesting content in the middle of the season — the “rage-inducing building” and the episode filled with vignettes from different characters both come to mind as standouts. But by-and-large, I thought Season 5 struggled a bit in its middle episodes.
Thankfully, the actual series finale manages to stick the landing well enough. The actual conclusion to the fight with Homelander is very satisfying (and is really the only way that Homelander’s arc could have ended). And the Hughey/Butcher relationship is carried out to its natural-but-satisfying conclusion as well. Even Ryan (Homelander’s bastard son) is incorporated effectively with some stand-out moments. Though I think Ryan has a bit too much of a high ground talking about how Butcher is a bad person when Ryan, himself, has done his share of bad things that are glossed over. But I digress.
The Gen V tie-ins to this season were pretty disappointing. I understand that not all The Boys viewers watched the spin-off show and I understand that the first instinct when incorporating characters from Gen V is that they can’t be too heavily involved in the plot. But when you spend the entire season chasing different McGuffins (a Supe Virus, a Power-up Drug, radioactive power-removing blasts), why not just lean into it and use the McGuffins that an entire spin-off series helped to set up? With the minimal inclusion we got, I can’t help but feel that both Gen V fans and folks completely unfamiliar with the spin-off were probably disappointed by the inclusion of those characters.
Kimiko’s dialogue was…a choice. The Girl/Kimiko is definitely one of the most-beloved characters in the series, so I’m honestly surprised that the show took such a big swing with her by not only giving her the ability to speak again (after she spent four seasons mute)…but by continuously giving her some of the most horrible dialogue in the series to date. I’m sure they were trying to be funny, but it really didn’t work for me and actually almost ruined one of my favorite characters on the show.
My biggest problem with the latter half of The Boys (not just Season 5, but also Seasons 3 and 4) is that I really miss Seasons 1-2 Starlight/Annie. In the first two seasons, it really felt like Annie was the lead of the series, or at least the co-lead. By the time the series reaches its conclusion, she feels more like a secondary character compared to Homelander, Butcher, and Hughie. A big part of this is the transformation of her character from hopeful hero to jaded pessimist. Her conversation with Marie in the finale about her “becoming Maeve” was a highlight, but I wish that conversation came a lot sooner so that we got to see more of the spunky and hopefully Annie that we loved in the first two seasons.
(Also, Maeve should have come back for the finale.)
At the end of the day, Season 5 probably falls on the lower end of my The Boys season rankings. Seasons 1-2 were definitely the strong point of the series. But I think Season 5 is around the same caliber as Season 3-4. I can happily walk away from the show saying that every season, even when it isn’t perfect, is enjoyable and has plenty of iconic moments and characters.
Backrooms (2026)
Phil: Backrooms is a horror film that relies on the creepy and uncanny nature of “liminal spaces” (transitional spaces that, in popular culture, mostly refer to spaces typically full of people that are uncannily empty and/or feel like they have been constructed slightly “off”). Most daily internet users have probably seen their fair share of liminal space videos — I, myself, frequently get empty “play places” that are filling with water on my feed; bonus points when there’s a random monster in the shadows of the place.
If you find these sorts of liminal spaces unsettling, then Backrooms will make for a superbly creepy experience. The film does a fantastic job making the eponymous Backrooms an unsettling place, consistently delivering new rooms (and entities) with increasingly unsettling features. The device for entering the Backrooms (an invisible portal in a furniture store wall) is also quite fun.
Backrooms’ strength primarily lies in its aesthetic and in the creepiness factor. The characters, while not bad, aren’t the most memorable. And the themes that the film explores are interesting, but feel like they could have been pushed a bit further. There are also a lot of “quiet” scenes in the film that might have benefited from a more ensemble cast rather than seeing single characters wandering the Backrooms alone for so long.
If you’re a horror fan, Backrooms is worth seeing for its unique visuals alone. Even if the characters and themes don’t impress, the setting and suspense will more than keep you engaged.
Kat: Backrooms is a good movie that has the potential to be GREAT. You can’t help but be drawn by its minimalist approach with a yellow tinge that automatically gives audiences a reason to feel unsettled.
Kane Parsons is a young director who found his start on YouTube. A web series that blew up - inspired by a creepy pasta on Reddit and 4chan. It’s deep connection to the internet makes this film’s 90s backdrop feel even more uncanny. Visually - it’s a stunner, but the actual story could have used some tightening up.
There are some interesting themes about mental health that draw a large connection to the rooms themselves, but because the space is so vacant so is the story. The symbols within the rooms do not amount to enough. So when the characters monologue about their mental health it doesn’t hit as hard as it should.
But the film’s biggest detriment is its pacing! It uses A LOT of its time roaming the rooms, which really softens the intensity. There are some jump scare moments, but not enough for the amount of time in silence.
Backrooms is an unique movie with an even more interesting origin story. Parsons has potential as a director, and I’m even more interested in what his second feature will bring as he takes along the lessons he learned from Backrooms to his future projects.
Comics
Let’s discuss some comics we’ve enjoyed recently!
As usual, we’ll spotlight an Indie Book, a DC/Marvel book, a Webcomic, and a Live Kickstarter book!
Indie Comic: Crush Island Killer #1 (Space Between Entertainment)
Kat: Do you like Love Island…The Bachelorette…Bachelor’s in Paradise? Crush Island Killer is all of these in one! Amy Shand, Pat Shand, and Mau Mora do a great job at interrogating all the different “personalities” that you’d see on a reality show, and creating real drama/stakes for these stereotypes to go up against. If you enjoy reality television, the first issue of this book expertly sets up that world and gives just enough to show how this tale is going to have its own spin.
Marvel: Black Cat
Kat: G Willow Wilson does it AGAIN! Wilson returns to her stomping grounds at Marvel and this time brings Gleb Melnikov for the ride. In a comic landscape where it feels like superheroes are shackled to their past, Black Cat has crafted her own little corner in the Marvel universe.
Just like Wilson’s Poison Ivy run, Felicia isn’t so much a hero, but she isn’t exactly a villain either. This allows the book to “play” a lot more than other cape titles. In one issue Black Cat can be teaming up with MJ (Venom) to find a blooper tape, and then the next Punisher is hunting her down as she’s on the verge of death.
Black Cat is a fun series where it just feels like anything goes, and that’s when superhero comics are at their best!
Webcomic: The Recloseted Lesbian
“I tried coming out as a lesbian. My abusive, ultra-religious mother forced me back into the closet. Doing these little strips is one of my ways to cope.”
Phil: From Lithuanian artist, Obelis, comes an autobiographical series of LGBTQIA+ slice of life shorts about life as a queer person and the observations of our protagonist/author about the people and world around them.
The Recloseted Lesbian stands apart from the crowd because it oftentimes reads more like a diary than an ongoing series. It’s not beholden to one particular genre, covering everything from comical observations from our protagonist to a dissection/processing of childhood mistreatment of our protagonist at the hands of their mother (a prominent figure in the comic).
In addition to the myriad queer topics discussed and the vignettes of our protagonist’s life that we get to witness, Obelis also provides their unique perspective on other topics like social media, Americacentrism, hair/presentation, religion, etc.
The Recloseted Lesbian strikes the perfect balance of being a very easy read (typically an episode is only a handful of panels) but still packing meaning into its content and covering a wide variety of topics in interesting and unique ways. It’s a fantastic example of using the Webtoon/webcomic format to its fullest.
Read “The Recloseted Lesbian” on Webtoon!
Kickstarter: THE RUTH AVENUE RAIDERS | a HEY ARNOLD/RECESS inspired OGN
“When the best (and cockiest) elementary grade football team in the neighborhood is challenged to a match by interdimensional robots, they soon realize their gameplans no longer work and must learn how to overcome new obstacles and move out of their comfort zones – all before the street lights turn on.”
Phil: The Ruth Avenue Raiders absolutely nails the assignment is sets out to nail — feeling just like a cartoon I would have watched on Cartoon Network / Nickelodeon as a kid. A Sci-Fi Sports Action Adventure comic about an overconfident football team that goes up against interdimensional robots? Sign. Me. Up.
RAR sports a super fun cartoon style and original character design that feels both at home amongst other classic cartoon styles but still wholly unique to itself. The cast for the comic is also diverse in every regard, with all different types of kids depicted as members of this football team (different genders, races, and archetypes).
Each of the characters also has their own superlative, including the “Fastest”, “Strongest”, “Kindest”, and “Average-est” kids on Ruth Avenue.
And a super fun detail on the Kickstarter page reveals that each character is named after childhood friends of writer Damien Becton’s dad when he was growing up on his own Ruth Avenue in Akron, Ohio in the 1970’s!
Back “Ruth Avenue Raiders” here!
In Conclusion
Much as we try to keep our newsletter mostly positive, sometimes it’s important to talk about negative and harmful things. Despite the bigotry we sometimes see, we couldn’t be prouder of the content we put out and the LGBTQIA+ community as a whole.
If you haven’t already, we hope you’ll check out our live campaigns — Bi Visibility: Bi Bi Bi and PRIDE 2026 Exclusive Lenticular — before they end next week and the week following, respectively. And if you’re local to New Jersey, Washington DC, or NYC, we hope we’ll see you at one or more of our events over the coming weeks!
Subscribe above for biweekly updates on our future projects!
Buy Lifeline Comics on our Website!
Current Kickstarters:
Bi Visibility: Bi Bi Bi (Ends 7/02)
PRIDE 2026 Exclusive Lenticular (Ends 6/25)
Next Conventions/Prides:
East Side Mags Witching Season Premiere Party (Montclair, NJ) (6/20)
Capital Pride (Washington DC) (6/21)
NYC Pride (New York City, NY) (6/28)
Read our Webtoons for FREE:
Slice of Life [GL] (Anime Character x Closeted Cheerleader High School Romance)
Love at Second Bite [BL] (Vampire College Adventure/Romance)