No one would dare ask a white man how important it is to assert and celebrate their Whiteness into their writing.” It’s who I am, and if I have a chance to tell a story, you had better believe I’m going to book tons of marginalized people in the forefront,” but further illuminates: “the fact that this question is even being asked shows that there’s a problem. When asked how important is it for her to assert-and celebrate-her Blackness in her work, Franklin acknowledges that “being Black is extremely important, just as important as me being queer and disabled. Historically, the comic industry has been dominated by cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied white men, and once those of us who do persist get past the gatekeepers, women and people of color are held to different standards than the dominant creators. And a same-sex romance published on the most heteronormative day of the year might be a comics industry first.įranklin has described her story as the Black Mirror episode “San Junipero” meets Moonlight, and those references are apt not only for its subject matter, but for her approach to visual storytelling, which is effortlessly cinematic and full of flourishes. Five months later at NYCC, Image Comics announced that it had acquired Bingo Love and was going to publish it on Valentine’s Day, which seemed only appropriate for this disarmingly beautiful love story. While the campaign was still underway, Franklin became the recipient of the 2017 Prism Comics Queer Press Grant.

Launched with a Kickstarter campaign, this graphic novella was funded in only five days and closed at almost three times its original goal.

In 2015, she started the hashtag #BlackComicsMonth in an effort to make readers more aware of Black creators, and in early 2017 announced her own comic, Bingo Love. If you don’t know, now you know: Tee Franklin is a queer, Black, disabled woman who works in the comics industry as an advocate for both the LGBTQIA and disabled communities.

Tee franklin bingo love