Image Comics is set to publish writer Tee Franklin and artist Jenn St-Onge’s original graphic novel Bingo Love, the winner of the 2017 Queer Press Grant, which follows two Queer, Black women and the love between them that spans decades.
Hazel Johnson and Mari McCray are two young, Black girls who meet at church bingo in 1963 and eventually fall in love…but in this time period, their love was not accepted. Hazel and Mari are broken up by their families’ “shame” and go on to marry and have families of their own. Almost fifty years later—in the fever pitch of church bingo—Mari and Hazel are reunited and rediscover the love they have for each other, even though they both are still married.
“As a woman who was married once upon a time, I understand how it is to come out as a Queer woman to my family,” said Franklin. “Bingo Love was important for me to create for the youth, the LGBTQ youth needs to understand that happily-ever-after’s aren’t only for straight people. If Disney’s Carl and Ellie can grow old together, so can Mari and Hazel.”
Bingo Love is set for release just in time for Valentine’s Day 2018.
