RETAILERS EMBRACE BINGO LOVE,
OVERWHELMING SUPPORT FOR LGBTQ TITLE SENDS IT BACK TO PRINT
BINGO LOVE—the original graphic novel created and written by Tee Franklin, with art by Jenn St-Onge, colors by Joy San, and cover art by Genevieve FT—is being rushed back to print by Image Comics to keep up with overwhelming support from fans and retailers.
Franklin first made waves when the title won the 2017 Queer Press Grant and raised almost $60k via Kickstarter and has gained traction in mainstream media for its progressive, LGBTQ-positive narrative. Support for the title has snowballed since, and its devoted fanbase has responded with massively escalating orders.
“The overwhelming support for Bingo Love has been so surreal,” said Franklin. “I never thought there would be this large of an audience that wanted to read about Queer, Black grandmothers! Thank you all for your support, and remember: Love is Love is Love is Love!”
Tee Franklin is a Black, Queer, disabled woman, known in the comics industry as a vocal person of color and advocate for the LGBTQ and disabled community. She is credited for starting the popular hashtag: #BlackComicsMonth, which aims to make comic book fans more aware of talented Black comic creators and their diverse comic book characters and superheroes that already exist in the industry.
BINGO LOVE is a story about two Queer, Black women and the love between them that spans decades. It explores the complications of coming out at an older age and how that decision affects their families’ lives.
Hazel Johnson and Mari McCray are two young, Black girls who meet at church bingo in 1963 and eventually fall in love…but in this time period, their love was not accepted. Hazel and Mari are broken up by their families’ “shame” and go on to marry and have families of their own. Almost 50 years later—in the fever pitch of church bingo—Mari and Hazel are reunited and rediscover the love they have for each other, even though they both are still married.
Advance praise for BINGO LOVE:
“Tee Franklin’s delivering a fresh, charming story of adolescent love with adorable, fluid art from Jenn St-Onge and Joy San. And if you care about representation, here’s a great opportunity to step up. The world needs more stories with African American girl heroes of all different kinds, and Bingo Love is leading the charge.” —Greg Pak
“Bingo Love is a dose of pure sweetness, about overcoming hardship
without relying on tragedy, with beautiful, bright art to boot!”
—Tini Howard, The Skeptics, Power Rangers: Pink
“Bingo Love is the young, tender love story that brown queer women have never been allowed to have.
This is the coming of age story that 10 and 15 year old baby-queer me needed.”
—Vita Ayala, Our Work Fills The Pews
BINGO LOVE will remain available for purchase across all digital platforms, including the Image Comics website (imagecomics.com), the official Image Comics iOS app, Comixology’s website (comixology.com), iOS, Android, and Google Play.
BINGO LOVE, 2nd printing (Diamond Code DEC170648, ISBN: 978-1-5343-0750-6) and will be available on Wednesday, March 14th.
ABOUT IMAGE COMICS:
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.
