Is Cosmoknights the queer, feminist sci-fi comic we’ve been waiting for?

Cover of Cosmoknights

American publisher IDW is about to launch new LGBTI feminist comic – and it’s going to be available for free.

‘For this ragtag band of space gays, liberation means beating the patriarchy at its own game,’ reads the tagline for Cosmoknights.

It will debut on 9 March as a serialized webcomic. The latest project of Top Shelf Productions, an imprint of IDW, will then be available for purchase as a full-color graphic novel this fall.

Expect lesbian romance and fighting the patriarchy with mechsuits and punching. All in a medieval yet futuristic setting, mixing Japanese manga influences with feminist resistance.

Challenging the gender norms in a futuristic setting

The plot kicks off with the most classic, anti-feminist intro of all times. Mechanic Pan finds herself involved in the feud between two off-world gladiators fighting over the hand of a princess – Tara, who happens to be Pan’s best friend. But there’s a twist.

Illustrator and creator Hannah Temple, who identifies as queer, explained the project in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

‘I first came up with Cosmoknights back in 2016 while wrestling with issues in my own life around gender, sexuality, marriage and the culture I was raised in,’ she said.

She furthermore added: ‘I wanted to explore that tension with the neo-medieval setting of Cosmoknights, where technology is advanced but gender roles are bound by these archaic rituals of jousting and costumes and prizes of “winning” someone’s “hand” in marriage.’

The comic is about lesbian romance

If you’re thinking The Handmaid’s Tale with robots, however, you might want to think twice.

Temple assured she wanted to ‘steer clear of doom and gloom’. Her project is ‘a fun sci-fi comic about friendship, romance and kicking ass,’ she said.

Specifically, LGBTI romance. Cosmoknights is ‘a story about queer women fighting tooth-and-nail for their independence,’ the author explained.

Preview images of the comic are already available online and people’s reactions have been incredibly positive.

‘One thing that is especially important to me is positive representation of butch lesbians, something that can be difficult to find,’ Temple also said.

‘In that sense, my characters have really resonated with people, even just as designs. I can’t wait to see the reaction when they start talking and doing things.’

Temple is also the illustrator of the 80s inspired comic Jam and the Holograms. She is also currently working on a comic adaptation of Netflix’s show GLOW.

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