Book of the Month: Boy Island

by Cassie Ash, Quentin Blake Centre team

23 July 2024

This month we’ve been reading Leo Fox's upcoming comic, Boy Island — a modern transgender fable that hits the shelves this August.

Content warning: this book contains strong language and depictions of transphobia, some of which is alluded to in this post.

Leo Fox is an artist and cartoonist based in London. For nearly a year, he posted his comic, Boy Island, panel by panel on his Instagram, working on it as he went along. This August, it will be available to buy both digitally as a PDF and as a deluxe embossed hardcover published by Silver Sprocket.

Illustration of a character standing in an ocean bewteen two island. The character has no top on and blue shorts. In the bottom corners are two other characters, one has webbed wings and a warning symbol on their chest. The other has butterfly wings.

This comic is set in a place that has been split in two by a powerful entity called Fairy, who won a battle against their enemy, Jounce. Fairy and Jounce were created as antitheses of each other, with Jounce describing their differences:

"I am illogical and filthy. He (Fairy) is procedurally clean. I am slimey and twitchy. He is robotic and smooth. Where I go, he will scorch the earth with bleach and pesticides. Where he goes, I will spit on the earth and scatter weeds."

Fairy ruled that all the boys live on one island and all the girls on the other. In between the two islands is a huge ocean. People who were neither a girl or a boy were forced to choose a side or take to the ocean.

Illustration of two characters. One character flies above the other character, he has webbed wings and a warning symbol on their chest. The other below it, has butterfly wings and a sword under one of their feet.

Leo imagines the reader as Lucille, and Lucille has a secret. Despite living on Girl Island, Lucille is a boy and has been for a very long time. Lucille decides to leave home and begin the journey to Boy Island. This graphic novel builds a world where you become part of the story as Lucille.

Illustration of a character named Lucille across four comic panels.

“Poor Lucille. You are in the elbow of your life, the place where it bends. What will you do?”

After selling a memory to pay for the ferry trip across the ocean, the journey is difficult. As Lucille, you encounter interesting characters, dangerous waters, challenging dreams and realisations while trying to reach Boy Island.

An illustration of a person with a covering over their head with spikes on it. They have a hole in their head with smoke coming out from it. They appear to be standing on a beach with the sea behind them. The sky is pink.

From the artist behind Prokaryote Season and My Body Unspooling, Boy Island is a modern transgender fable of belonging and acceptance, presented in Leo Fox's signature striking comic style with a memorable, bold colour palette.

An illustration of one tall character leaning over and looking down upon a shorter character. The taller characters is long and smooth with yellow eyes and butterfly wings. The shorter character is a person with a covering over their head with spikes on it.

Gosh Comics are having a launch party for Leo Fox’s Boy Island, join them on Friday 23 August (19:00 – 21:00 ).

Pre-order your copy of Boy Island.