The Backstagers

Odds are that you've heard some pretty good things about a whole host of recent comics from Boom Studios, but for whatever reason you might not have got around to checking them out just yet. Well the publisher just made it a whole lot easier to sample the best of its wares with a line-wide sale on Comixology offering 50% off all Boom titles until Monday.

Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh & Carey Pietsch's Lumberjanes and James Tynion IV & Rian Sygh's The Backstagers are two of the most popular all-ages comics on the stands right now and both have proven to big books for Boom Studios' all-ages imprint Boom Box. Next month, Boom Box will release New York Comic Con exclusive variants for each title and we have an exclusive first look at both covers.

Brooklyn-based comics convention Flame Con hosted some of the industry's most prominent and prolific creators this year, such as comics writer James Tynion IV. In just over four years, he's written on Batman, Constantine: The Hellblazer, Talon, and several series at Boom Studios. He currently writes Detective Comics, The Woods, and his new queer-inclusive Boom series The Backstagers with Rian Sygh. In the first of a series of interviews from Flame Con, Comics Alliance got the chance to sit down with Tynion to talk about queer comics, Boom Studios, and... world domination?

LGBTQ representation in comic books is important, and it’s something we’ve talked about --- and will continue to talk about --- at ComicsAlliance at length. But what doesn’t get said enough is that LGBTQ representation is especially important in all-ages and young adult comic books. Representation at such a young age can be legitimately life-changing for children, and while certain publishers are making tremendous strides in the right direction, others are missing the boat completely.