Pop culture guru David Ferguson is back with a look at what promises to be an essential read – the queer romance anthology ‘Young Men In Love’.

Reviewing an anthology is difficult as it is hard to fit in every individual story and every individual creator (so apologies in advance to creators I don’t mention) but I wanted to put a spotlight on this collection of queer romance.

I picked it up for several reasons. The title, the cover (by Kevin Wada) and the concept (all queer creators and stories) being chief amongst them. I also picked it up because of one of the editors involved, Joe Glass. Comic book fans amongst you may know him from his excellent queer superhero series, Pride. (Sidenote: check out the Pride collection released through Dark Horse).

Along with helping bring together a diverse group of talented creators, Joe also contributes an important story – ‘Love Yourself’ (art by Auguste Kanakis). The story covers the fetishisation of larger sized gay men. (The book does cover some serious topics but the overall tone is light-hearted and fun).

Probably one of the better known creators involved is Sina Grace, who rose to prominence writing Marvel’s Ice-man, after the character had come out. He is currently writing a creator-owned book called Ghosted in L.A. He both writes and draws his contribution to the anthology, ‘Thingaversary’, which is an interesting relationship story.

Another creator involved is one I discovered thanks to Twitter and his himbo Angel art – basically Angel from the X-men in various stages of undress. Look it up! Artist Josh Cornillon contributes to two stories: a superhero story called ‘My Personal Super Scout’ and a D&D style story called ‘A Bard’s Beloved’ (written by Jarrett Melendez). I love his art style whether the subject is sexy or not but if you like that kind of thing, check out his new book, Pool Boys.

I think I need to highlight two other stories. I really liked the book’s opener ‘Second Star To The Right’ by artist Jacoby Salcedo and writer Tate Brombal. The art brought me in but I ended really enjoying the Peter Pan inspired story about growing up. The next is ‘Another Name’, a Trans storyline by artist Ian Bisbal and writer Ned Barnett. Again the art brought me in but it is a very poignantly written story.

The book offers a diverse bunch of stories with a diverse bunch of art styles and I highly recommend it. I’m sure it will prove an important read for some people.

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