Heartwood: Non-binary Tales of Sylvan Fantasy

by Joamette Gil (Editor), Z. Akhmetova (Contributor), Chlove (Contributor)

HEARTWOOD: Non-binary Tales of Sylvan Fantasy is the first ever non-binary comics anthology, made entirely by cartoonists who identify as a non-binary gender!

Across time and cultures, humanity has spun tales about the forest: tales of caution, adventure, rites of passage, and discovery. Some of those stories persist as the folklore and fairy tales that delight our imaginations today, and the forest remains a symbol for facing the unknown and emerging transformed.

This anthology is for everyone who’s walked through the undergrowth, in the silence of nature, and longed for an adventure of their own to unfold. These stories of modern-day sylvan fantasy showcase some of the best non-binary cartoonists of our day, guiding characters like us into the woods and back again.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Queer, LGBT, Comics, Anthologies, Short Stories

282 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2019

About the author

Joamette is a queer Afrocuban illustrator, cartoonist, curator, podcaster, and publisher from the Miami diaspora.

Reviews

[Emily]

comics anthology centered around non-binary characters and ~*fairies*~ (or i guess more generally, supernatural stuff, frequently in the woods).

first off, this anthology book is very beautiful (physically). the hardcover has gilt edges (fancy!!!), and feels really thoughtfully put together. there are 22 stories (avg 12 pages each), and having read a few other comic anthologies recently, I feel I can say somewhat confidently that this is a well-curated collection of comics — the quality of comic craft is, generally, very high.

I do want to note that the "non-binary" label here is pretty loose (and largely implied). I don't think that's a bad thing (in fact I found it kind of neat, like "who's NB here? frankly, it could be anyone! and that's swell")! however, I do think that if some of these stories were read outside of the context of this anthology, the NB aspect might get lost.

I started listing out the stories I enjoyed most and ended up with a list that was over half of the stories in the book (and largely with comments like "I loved the style of this comic", repetitively, and then additionally comments about animals rendered in the comics), so uh, yeah! a very well-curated collection indeed.

I've tried to whittle down to my top... 6. in the order they are in the book:
-Blât (chlove): loved the critter designs and the general comedic sensibility, feels like it could be a nice set-up for a series
-The Beast in the Garden (Ver): THAT CAT(?)!!! loved the style of this. also: funny.
-Shepherd (Cori Walters): SHEEP. very short and lovely.
-This Far (Lee Lai): I'm repetitive af, but I loved the style of this as well. a quiet and intimate conversation, about... becoming a tree. (I do kind of question the mapping of "becoming a tree" to "transitioning". it's the type of thing that's interesting in fiction and potentially infuriating IRL)
-Morel Support (Ashanti Fortson): SO lovely. a good ol' family plant+mushroom adventure.
-The Lungs of Jeju (Sunmi): loose and specific (in the storytelling) and really, really lovely. kind of a quentin blake-like sensibility to illustration.

additional shout-out to "Dear Paloma" (Polly Guo), which was very weird and silly, in the best way.

bye

[Dax · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful collection of amazing works by many queer authors/artists/cartoonists. I rather enjoyed all of the creativity and the uniqueness of each tale. I appreciate the breakdown at the very back of the book of potential trigger warnings and it's call for self care. Whether these tales are windows or mirrors there is something for everyone, especially those who love the fantastical and representation.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aw, I really enjoyed this! My favorites were The Beast in the Garden, Love Letters, In the Branches, In the Soil, Shepherd, Morel Support, The Lungs of Jeju, and Shuvah (Return). It was a really nice collection of pretty black-and-white graphics, inclusive casts, and a wide variety of stories.

Rating: 3.5 stars!

[Sam Hertl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nonbinary Tales of Sylvan Fantasy. Wow. This is a collection of comics and each artist featured is nonbinary. The stories all have some element of the forest involved. It has been a heartwarming experience to read through this and I look forward to sharing it with my nonbinary loved ones.

It’s also just a beautiful book! The edges of the pages are gold & it’s a sturdy hardcover book. You can only order it directly from the publisher and I loved being able to purchase a copy of it from them! Special thanks to each nonbinary artist out there whose work was featured♥️

[Squirrel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have liked this anthology of comics short stories better if it had half as many contributors with stories twice as long. There are 22 stories in 270ish pages, and nearly all of them seemed rushed. Most of them felt like they could use more time to show us more about the characters.
The stories I liked best were the ones where the protagonist went into the woods and came out just a bit different. That is, stories like, "The Beast in the Garden," "This Far" and "Shuvah." Many of the others packed in too much plot in too few pages and I felt cut off from the characters.
And maybe what's at the core of my slight discontent with this anthology is that most of the nonbinary characters are incidentally nonbinary. Change a few words and they could be any other gender. This is likely the crotchety old genderqueer in me, but I am somewhat disappointed that nearly all of the nonbinary characters used they/them pronouns and not any other pronouns. I don't like how they/them has become the default as we slowly coalesce into what nonbinary "should" be. How could an anthology about nonbinary people and the woods *not* include a character that uses fae/faer/faerself?

[Lex Ophiuchus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Biggest Dog You’ve Ever Seen: 3/5
Blât the Hunter: 5/5
Ilaw: 3/5
Expand: 5/5
Breathe: 5/5
No Vacancy: 5/5
Stream of Consciousness: 4/5
Consonance: 3/5
The Beast in the Garden: 4/5
Love Letters: 5/5
Finding Alex: 3/5
The Flourishing Feast: 2/5
In the Branches, in the Soil: 4/5
Shepherd: 3/5
This Far: 5/5
Dear Paloma: 2/5
Unwanted: 3/5
New Leaves: 5/5
Morel Support: 5/5
Dive: 3/5
The Lungs of Jeju: 4/5
Shuvah (Return): 3/5

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved almost all of the art in these graphic short stories, but I can't say same for the stories. Some of the stories were cute and wholesome while others barely made any sense and constantly switched narrative tones despite being less than 10 pages long.

I do appreciate the diversity found in these stories though– not only of characters' identities, but of themes, settings, storytelling devices, and genres. Even though this was a pretty specific anthology (fantasies set in forests featuring non-binary characters) there was room for a lot of creativity and that showed in the breadth of the stories.

My favorites were
- "The Beast in the Garden" by Ver– teenage romance story, all the squealy feels and sarcastic humor
- "In the Branches, in the Soil" by SJ Miller– about loneliness and the way it drives us to change ourselves to please others
- "Dear Paloma" by Polly Guo– graphic novel version of a shit post, meme humor that comes with a surprisingly deep moral

Even though I can't praise the quality of every single on of these stories, I do highly recommend picking this up! We need more stories filled with representation, and especially give attention (and $$$) to the voices of marginalized creatives making beautiful work 💖

[Rasak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the comics are really nicely drawn and stories are nice too. Although it's funny that some of the stories have similar plots, like bags get stolen in the forest in at least 3 stories. It's also nice that the book has trigger warnings that is really great practice and I appreciate the effort, but as it's on the last page, I saw it only after reading everything. But only one story I personally found disturbing and not fitting with the rest of the book. Otherwise the book is an easy and nice read.

[Ser · Rating 5 out of 5]

After my first read through, I don't really feel like providing a detailed review, but it seems worth writing that I am so glad I bought this book. It is so full of such beautiful and diverse art and such beautiful and diverse non-binary characters, struggling and triumphing and simply being themselves. Sometimes I find it stunning just how much wealth we can put in each other's hands by publishing a book. This is one of those times.

[kaitlphere · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that an entire book was made of stories relating to non-binary identities and nature.

Not all of the stories hit for me but others brought me to tears. My favorite stories were New Leaves, Blat, Lungs of Jeju, Finding Alex, and This Far.

I found quite a few creators to follow thanks to this book.

[Jenna D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology is needed, and hopefully many will connect with the characters and stories, but, sadly, this was not the case for me. So many of the stories felt rushed and concluded suddenly. Regardless, l recommend Heartwood, since many voices deserve to, and should, be heard.

[S.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of short comics.

[Rachel Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely comic anthology! It's nice to see so many different art and story styles.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. Wonderful art, variety, and representation.

Highly highly recommend.

[Khai · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the stories in this comic anthology. Beautiful illustrations, strong nonbinary characters, enchanting tales, by nonbinary artists and authors - I love it and highly recommend it!

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good collection! A mix of fun and serious but just all around a stunning read. SO PRETTY!!!

[Fei · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork and stories! My kind of fairy tale

[Akiva ꙮ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't feeling the first third of the book, but the last 2/3 was generally better. IDK what that's about. Some of the standouts:

"Finding Alex" - surreal mysterious metaphorical adventures that change you. yay!
"Shepherd" - chill and philosophical, but doesn't try to cram too much in. (As opposed to "The Flourishing Feast" which I think was trying for something similar but turned out totally incomprehensible, and not in a way that made me want to reread more deeply.)
"This Far" - wow. wow. Need to find more from this artist.
"Dear Paloma" - alienating in its zaniness at the start, but then it comes together really nicely!
"The Lungs of Jeju" - I wasn't into the ending (felt like the artist ran out of ideas), but I liked the rest.
"Shuvah" - totally made me tear up.

[charlotte, · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rep: non-binary mcs, non-white characters

(3.5)

faves: no vacancy, streams of consciousness, the beast in the garden, love letters, in the branches in the soil & unwanted

[Tabor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful cover with some thoughtful stories. Overall, I found most of these stories inconsequential and wish they had explored more non-binary themes and narratives.

[Soobie is expired · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, I feel as if I should write my own trigger warning: unpopular opinion ahead. Proceed with caution.

I have one golden rule here on GR: write your review in the same language you've read the book in. There is only one exception and this review is going to be the second. Why? Well, because it's going to be unpopular by US standard.

Let's start.

Di solito mi piace dare un supporto ai creatori di antologie su Kickstarter. C'è sempre la possibilità di scoprir qualcosa di nuovo. Questa invece è stata una delusione totale. A partire dal fatto che non-binary significa solamente che ci si riferisce ai personaggi con il pronome they.

A parte Love Letters di Rii Abrego, le storie non mi sono piaciute. Nella maggior parte di loro non ho visto un senso logico. Alcune erano solo belle graficamente. Altre non erano niente.

La storia della tipa (o tipo), insomma dell'individuo che vuole trasformarsi in albero... É assurda. Capisco possa essere una rappresentazione figurata del percorso di transizione che una persona compie... Ma come fai a paragonare il cambio di genere alla trasformazione in un albero? Se cambi genere, la gente continua a parlare con te. Se diventi un albero, sei solo nella foresta e non parli (letteralmente) con nessuno. Son solo io che non ci vedo il nesso?

E poi c'è la storia dei trigger warnings alla fine. Ho l'abitudine di andare sempre a curiosare cosa c'è alla fine di un libro e qui c'era una lunghissima lista di argomenti giudicati "delicati", per mancanza di una parola migliore. Ogni storia - e dico ogni - ha un suo proprio trigger warning. Ho il sospetto che la curatrice abbia passato più tempo a cercare questi avvertimenti che altro. Badate bene, non ce l'ho con chi ha subito un trauma in passato... Ma sapete, se in una storia di 8-10 tavole mi spiegano per filo e per segno cosa succede, dov'è la sorpresa nel leggere la storia?

Ma son avvisi assurdi.
«Il personaggio principale fa fatica a trovare lavoro.» Giusta per me, questa.

«Perdita di capelli non naturale» Questa almeno mi ha fatto capire un dettaglio che non ero riuscita a riconoscere nei disegni.

«All'inizio della storia uno dei personaggi principali è una madre dispotica.»

«Uno dei personaggi principali perde i propri genitori a causa del diabete e l'altro viene trasformato fisicamente dall'ambiente (crepe nel corpo, rampicanti che ne escono fuori).» Succede sempre nella realtà, no? Che a un essere umano comincino a spuntare dei rampicanti...

«Il personaggio principale contempla in pace la propria mortalità.»

Sorry, maybe this was just the wrong book for me. But I'm sure I won't be recommending it.

[Marte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got an Ebook version of this book (mostly due to the shipping price to Europe), and although the book looks really good, I have some concerns. Idk why it's the case, but the ebook file for this is SO large! I've downloaded ebooks on my computer before, and this is the first time this has happened! (so if you're considering buying the ebook, beware)

The book itself was really good! I haven't got a lot of experience with short comics like this, so I felt like I wanted more for several of them. I know that part of those I wanted more of was just because I loved them, and the other part was because I felt it was incomplete. Overall, really good tho!
It's also so nice that since there are so many different authors/artists, the art-style is so different comic to comic. Everyone will find a comic style they can vibe with, or themes that they love! I also found that a couple of them, which I didn't expect to even like at the beginning, I ended up absolutely loooving!

Also, we need more GREAT rep like this! The rep is so good, very varied and comes so natural. It's definitely clear that it's non-binary tales told from non-binary authors, because it's just amaze. It also shows how easy it is to write stuff in a gender neutral way! Would literally recommend this to anyone.

Honorable mentions of the comics that I absolutely LOVED:
Blât the hunter, Expand, Streams of Consciousness, The Beast in the garden, Dear Paloma (I hated the beginning, but was literally scream laughing by the end) and Dive.

[daelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really lovely anthology, and serves as a good introduction to its 22 comics' artists and writers. It was cool to see recurring themes rooted in the forest setting spread across so many different identities and art styles, and it made my heart swell to see characters like Cori Walters', resting at the base of a tree with their shirt open, showing top surgery scars (169).

Within the structure of the anthology my favorite comics were ones that felt like short stories vs. ones that felt more like I was being dropped into the chapter of a larger project. Juliette GMM López's more prosey and illustrative comic was maybe my favorite (140-151).

Given the amount of care that was obviously put into curating and compiling this anthology (visible not just through the stories themselves but also the creator and content warning sections), I did find myself yearning for some kind of introduction to weave everything together more explicitly (there are just a couple sentences on the back about forest storytelling) but it doesn't feel absolutely essential as the comics do speak for themselves.

[xo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice! The tone and themes of the stories were more unified in this anthology than in a lot of other ones I've read, which made for a very smooth one-sitting reading experience. Super short fiction along these lines doesn't really do it for me, so I wasn't totally in love - that's always how I feel about anthologies, I think. I enjoyed it, it's pretty, and there's a really nice variety of stories.
On the whole it was a little more cutesy than really suits my taste. I wasn't expecting it to be so much about children, and most (but not all) of the stories seemed like they were aimed at children. I'm not a fan of most kid's stuff lately, so it didn't really click, but I'm glad it exists. I'm sure a lot of people would love it!

[Andie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This delightful, laid-back anthology is a visual treat with its varied art styles and consciousness of gender and cultural diversity. Power and Magic Press always does a great job of getting lots of different perspectives in their anthologies, and the characters—and monsters— in this anthology range from Jewish and First Nations to Korean and Latinx. Whether exploring gender or ignoring it, each story offers characters with neutral pronouns, some dealing with personal crises or helping others with theirs. This book is a treat for anyone needing a break from the aggressively gendered media that dominates the shelves.

[laura (bookies & cookies) · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I personally am not a fan of anthologies written by different authors and artists (I just feel like the stories either don't get enough time for the set-up or the conclusion), I think this book is incredibly valuable. Some stories are very direct that a character is a non-binary or uses they/them pronouns, or is in the LGBTQ+ community, while others are more subtle, or I suppose, it need not be said; it's already understood.

A small pet peeve is that the artists listed in the back are listed in alphabetical order, rather than the order of the stories, so it was difficult to find the authors you were interested in, without a lot of page turning.

[Rachel Rauch · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was well done and gorgeous (at least most of them), but quite of these were way too short to set up a concrete conflict and a resolution. And some felt part of a bigger story that we never saw. They were also kind of loose with the meaning of Sylvan because one of them had nothing to do with a woods and only a few of them dealt with the fay (which I had been expecting more of that going into it). That being said, there were two standouts I felt - No Vacancy, Shuvah (Return), and Morel Support. I'd still recommend this book to anyone who likes dark, wooded, fantasy but I think that some better exemplified the theme of the anthology than others.

[Natalie Weizenbaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard, when creating an anthology curated around identity, to avoid all the stories repeating the most archetypal articulations of that identity. It's something I've seen many anthologies fall prey to. But Heartwood doesn't at all—every comic has its own thing to say and its own way of integrating that with the sylvan aesthetic, producing an absolutely wonderful work of art that functions as a whole and well as a collection.

[Sistermagpie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really love collection of short stories by all different authors and artists. They're often quiet but stay with you in the best of ways. If I had to pick a favorite that spoke most to me, it would probably be "This Far" with "Return" coming in second, but that probably depends on mood. It's nice to read one at a time and live with it for a bit before going onto the next one, because each one has its own heart.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

This anthology was fantastic! By far my favorite from Power & Magic. Something about it just really worked for me. I think it’s because of the “sylvan” aspect of it.

There were very few comics here I didn’t enjoy that much. The majority of them were great. I even went on a mini follow spree of some of the artists I liked the most.

Overall, the different stories and the different critters in the comics stole my heart.