Young Men in Love: A Queer Romance Anthology
Edited by Joe Glass and Matt Miner
Published by A Blue Wave World

The Skinny: A sweet collection of short gay romance comics
A pair of pirates just looking for a bit of privacy, a pre-teen looking for his own identity, and a new couple still figuring out their boundaries are just some of the stories in this sweet, romantic anthology. Created by Queer writers and artists across the comics industry, this anthology of six-page pieces runs the gamut from the fantastic to the mundane and from the melancholic to the exuberantly joyful. There is a story here for everyone.
Young Men in Love is a book of stories that go on separate journies but arrive at the same place. Gay love and Queer relationships are more varried than you often see in media, particularly comics, and this book breaks the mold by telling personal, diverse stories that each have a life of their own. This book is as long on charm as the stories are short. There are low-stakes stories about first love, self discovery, and loneliness, and more fantastical stories about discovering your partner is a superhero or a couple falling into a virtual world while replacing a lamp. YMiL isn’t just about love but about acceptance and more importatnly, self-acceptance.
 Joe Glass tells a story which feels deeply personal. It follows a fat person as he deals with his body issues as a gay comics fan, coming up against not only the societal expectation that he should be ‘thin’ but also potential lovers that fetishize his weight. Dead End creator Hamish Steele tells a poignant story about loneliness, depression, and suicidal thoughts during the holidays. While not all the stories are so personal,, they all feel important. There is something deeply uncommercial about this collection.
 These aren’t love stories about the stereotypical gay characters you would see on a sitcom or in a romance novel written for the female gaze. YMiL is a book of our stories, for us, and that feels vital to me. If you want to see more diverse stories or find new, brilliant creators, writers and artists not on the radar of big-2 comics, you need this anthology.
Young Men in Love is available in print and digital editions from your local comics shop or the usual monopolistic book outlets. It is a deeply personal, highly original, and honest collection of stories that need to get out into the world. I give it my highest recommendation.