ABSTRACT
Over the last three decades, comics have received growing critical attention, not least in the emergence of comics studies. However, despite the fact that various theoretical frameworks have been applied to comics, queer theory has not been used extensively to analyse comics at large (with the exception of extensive coverage of Alison Bechdel’s work), and almost not at all to analyse speculative comics. This chapter addresses this research gap and scrutinises how queerness and characters of queer identity are constructed and deconstructed in speculative comics. It starts by establishing the key theoretical concepts related to the umbrella category of ‘speculative fiction’ and the medium of comics as well as queerness and queer identities. The chapter then uses examples from comics history to illustrate and contextualise diverse visions of queerness in speculative comics. This allows for the development of features that can be considered as distinctively queer, enabling the tracing of the borders of the non(hetero)normative discourse. The final section examines the performativity of queerness and the (de)constructions of queer identity in selected speculative comics, taking into consideration the storyline, world-building, and formal aspects of the style.
