![Comic panels showing a calm scene, a hand showered in light, people striking, the visible text reads 'the light doesn't come all at once [...] until we start a fire'.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/n83t80i6/production/4ee373f76976431d27343f0a3994f783dba8b137-1080x1080.png?auto=format&fit=max&q=75&rect=0,0,1080,1080&w=1080)
Starting a movement: queer comics, community, and activism
23 July 2026
Come together for this free evening talk at Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. Join our panel as they reflect on the vital role of queer comic storytelling in building community and shaping activism today.
LGBTQIA+ comics have long been tied to social activism, with a history of navigating censorship, times of polarisation and social and political challenge. At this time when the hard-won rights of marginalised communities are at risk around the world, how can creators look to the past for their own creative work and advocacy today? What role do queer comics play in 2026, both for individuals and communities?
Reflecting on the work of queer comic creators from the past, our panel will explore queer comics and their inherent tie to social and political activism. They will discuss why it is so important to remember the work of queer creators from the past, how we do this and what we can learn for creating purpose-led work today. The panel will focus on DIY and low-tech ways of working, and how this can be instrumental in creating change, in small and big ways.
Bringing together speakers Rachael House, Holly Casio and Seena Shamsavari, in dialogue with Dr Margaret Galvan, this conversation invites you to remember the power that lies in the act of creating, coming together and supporting representation and visibility in sequential storytelling.
This conversation accompanies Queer As Comics, on display in our Coal Stores Gallery from 5th June until 4th October 2026.
Margaret Galvan (she/her) is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Florida. Her research examines how visual culture operates within social movements and includes an award-winning first book, In Visible Archives: Queer and Feminist Visual Culture in the 1980s (2023). She is writing a second book about how communities of LGBTQ+ cartoonists in the 1980s-1990s innovated comics, which has been supported by fellowships from the Stanford Humanities Center and Andy Warhol Foundation.
Rachael House (she/her) is a multidisciplinary Fine Artist. She has been making zines since the 1990s, with subjects including queer politics with an emphasis on Bi+ lives, fat stuff, feminism, aging, sobriety, raging against the far right and the minutiae of everyday life. She has work in public and private collections- in 2023 the V&A commissioned a tiled panel, Welcome Trans Queer Non-Binary Aliens. In 2024 Welcome Collections purchased sketchbooks containing drawings for her book, Resistance Sustenance Protection. Recent publications include The Short Story of Queer Art, Dawn Hoskin (Laurence King), Crafted With Pride, (edited by Daniel Fountain (Intellect.), Menopause A Comic Treatment, (Penn State University Press), The Art Of Feminism (Tate). Rachael is co-founder, with Jo David, of Space Station Sixty-Five.
Holly Casio (they/them) makes queer zines and DIY comics about pop culture, fandoms, anti-fascism, libraries, and Bruce Springsteen. Holly Casio’s autobio comic series Cool Schmool(opens in new window) documents the everyday from trade union battles, playing punk gigs, friendship breakdowns, and fighting fascists. Holly Casio is also a zine librarian and developed zine collections at Invia’s Stuart Hall Library, and Tate Britain. They co-founded the UK and Ireland Zine Librarians network, and co-founded the Queer Zine Library(opens in new window). Find Holly online at @hollycasio(opens in new window) and www.coolschmool.com.(opens in new window)
Seena Shamsavari (he/him) is an artist, comics creator, lecturer, DJ, and T-shirt designer. He created the queer zine Concerned Müthers and the autobiographical comic BoyCrazyBoy in the 90s, and more recently the comics Art Fag and Atash and the Man-Gods of the Homoverse. His work has appeared in various comics anthologies including QU33R, No Straight Lines, The Comics Reader, The Book of Boy Trouble Volumes 1 and 2, and Publish You. He completed his PhD on Queer Male Alternative Comics at Kings College in 2015 and teaches Cultural Studies at London College of Fashion.
Join in person at Quentin Blake Centre, or online via livestream. Please select ‘online ticket’ at checkout to join the talk remotely.
If purchasing an online ticket, please note that you will receive a booking confirmation upon purchase. You will receive a follow up email with a link to join the livestream ahead of the event.
Please feel free to get in touch with us at events@qbcentre.org.uk with any questions.
We want our events to be inclusive and accessible. If you have any accessibility requests or questions, please email events@qbcentre.org.uk or phone 020 4524 2657.
You can find out more about Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration’s facilities and accessibility here: Accessing the Centre.(opens in new window)
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