Franklin deals with this by giving us most of the important information in montage. The comic is after all trying to cram in a lifetime of information about Hazel and Mari. Tee Franklin’s writing is clumsy and feels rushed. Joy San’s colors equally serve the mood of the book, with bright, primary colors characteristic of these kinds of queer comics, which are often directed at young women.īut even the cutest illustrations can’t save a book that has so many issues with storytelling. All of the book’s personality comes from St-Onge’s character designs and cartoonish emotions, since otherwise the characters spend most of the book just talking. To be clear, Jen St-Onge does an admirable job with the art on this comic. From there, they must deal with the consequences of their relationship, what it means for their families, and how they’re going to spend the rest of their lives. Sixty years and lots of children and grandchildren later, they run into each other by accident, at a bingo hall, and immediately reconnect, with those feelings from their childhood love just as strong. After four years, she finally learns they’re reciprocated, but their families force them apart by demanding they marry men. Hazel harbors what she thinks are unrequited feelings for Mari.

They’re instantly inseparable, the kinds of best friends that can finish each other’s sentences. The story follows Hazel and Mari, two girls who meet as teenagers in 1963 while attending a bingo night at their church with their grandmothers.

But despite her admirable intentions and Jen St-Onge’s adorable art, the graphic novel stumbles due to poor pacing, shoddy characterizations, and a confusing lack of focus. Franklin has set out on a laudable mission, to show young queer folks that their love stories don’t have to end in death and loneliness and secrecy, but that there are queer people out there who live the love stories everyone wants to have. So it’s refreshing to see a book like Bingo Love, in which Tee Franklin attempts to give us what most media representations of queer people refuse: a happy ending.

This is largely because non-queer people are making most of the media that represents us–which means we’re not really represented in it at all. We get the love stories that end in tragedy. Queer people don’t usually get to see themselves live happily ever after in most media.

Bingolove