SDCC 2021: Queer Horror Panel Was Full of Truth About Otherness and Owning Our Stories

Melis Noah Amber

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panelists at SDCC 2021 Queer Horror

The Queer Horror panel at SDCC 2021 was about horror, yes. Discussions ranged from unintentional gender euphoria in horror, intersectionality and otherness in the genre and the joy of the controlled fear on roller coasters. 

But, a recurring idea echoed by all panelists was: Can we tell queer (and BIPOC) stories without suffering being a central theme? What stuck out to me most was the following statement:

SDCC Queer Horror Quote. Text over blue background: Sure, white people and cis and straight people not hating us is great, but have you tried having so much community power that it doesn’t matter if they hate you? - Joamette Gil 

This, my friends, is the essence of Queer Magic. If I were to distill what queer magic means to me into one tiny vial of an anecdote, it’d be this. Everyone is the hero of their own story, so surely we too deserve to be. On that note, I’ve dropped work by all the Queer Horror panelists, and work they recommend, below. 

RELATED: Check out all of our SDCC 2021 content!

About the Queer Horror panelists:

  • Michael Varrati (Moderator)
    • Filmmaker 
    • Selected works: The Boulet Brothers’ DRAGULA: Search for the World’s First Drag Supermonster, History of Fright
  • Drusilla Adeline
    • Graphic designer/Podcast producer
    • Selected Works: Designs for Criterion/ Dead for Filth podcast 
  • Terry Blas
    • Writer/Illustrator
    • Selected Works: Dead Weight: Murder at Camp Bloom, Hotel Dare
  • Trinidad Escobar
    • Author/Cartoonist/Poet
    • Selected Works: Arrive In My Hands, Of Sea And Venom
  • Joamette Gil
    • Cartoonist
    • Selected Works: Power and Magic: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology, Power & Magic Press
  • Steenz
    • Cartoonist/Editor
    • Selected Works: Heart of the City, Rolled & Told

(Some) of the works they recommend:

  • Goosebumps(book series by RL Stine)
  • Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde (film)
  • Fear Street (film series)
  • Freaky (film)
  • Yellow Jessamine(novel by Caitlin Starling)
  • The Secret Skin (novel by Wendy N. Wagner)
  • Murder Death Koreatown (film)
  • The Cross Roads at Midnight (novel by Abby Howard)
  • Rhapsodie (comic by Maddi Gonzalez) 
  • Host (film)
  • Queer vampire fanfics
  • The Hunger (film)
  • Count Dracula’s Great Love (film)
  • My Best Friend is a Vampire (film)
  • Home Sick Pilots (graphic novel by Dan Watters)
  • Horrorstör(novel by Grady Hendrix) 
  • I Want to Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die(manga by Umi Shiina)
  • Knives and Skin (film)

Watch the full panel here: 

 

https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/queer-tested-teacher-approved-nonbinary-characters/

 

 

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