Galaxy the Prettiest Star-a Trans Story Told Through a Sci-Fi Lens
This month Fanboys is celebrating Pride Month! Which means I’ll be bringing you stories and blogs highlighting different creators and pop culture figures who are helping pave the way for the future of our LGBTQ+ community! Today I’m focused on Jadzia Axelrod and Jess Taylor, creators of a new YA graphic novel from DC Comics. That novel: Galaxy the Prettiest Star. The Comics Beat recently interviewed them about their new book and I’m excited to share some highlights from that conversation. You can read the entire interview over on their website: www.comicsbeat.com.
A quick synopsis taken from DC’s website: “It takes strength to live as your true self, and one alien princess disguised as a human boy is about to test her power. A vibrant story about gender identity, romance, and shining as bright as the stars.” Written by Jadzia Axelrod and illustrated by Jess Taylor.
I feel like it was very smart for Axelrod to tell a trans story through the eyes of science fiction. A lot of LGBTQ+ people feel alienated from society and I’m sure the metaphor was not lost on her.
A lot of transmasc people have contacted me saying how much this resonated, and that gives me a lot of joy. We’re not bogged down in the nuances of Taylor’s gender and we don’t have transmasc people saying, “Well, I can’t relate to this. It’s about growing boobs.” I’ve had cis people comment to me about how much it resonated and how much it reminded them of their own personal struggles with their identity and being seen as something other than who they felt they are.
That was definitely something I wanted to do is make that as open a metaphor as possible for people but where all these other stories who have died to do similar things have fallen short, is those characters aren’t actually trans. Is that it’s all the metaphor. What I wanted to do was have something where a character was metaphorically trans and also actually trans and that’s a hard needle to thread.
That was something that was very important to me is to have these characters work in metaphor so that the largest audience people can see it, but also be true to a very small audience that would find the falsehood immediately. We know our own. We know when something is being told about us that we did not have involvement within because we’ve seen that time and time again.
Jadzia Axelrod speaking to Comicsbeat.com
And also, can we talk about the art? Jess Taylor (Critical Roll: Tales of Exandria Vol. 1, D&D and Stranger Things-Dark Horse Comics) has such a unique and distinct look. It reminds me of Lore Olympus-the popular Webtoon comic, but I’ll let Taylor explain their inspiration in their own words:
When it comes to the artwork, I had a lot of influences. There was a particular kind of acting style that I wanted to shine through in the story. My roots as a child were very much in Manga. My entire childhood was spent locked in a Borders next to the graphic novel section with the TOKYOPOP, and I would just sit in the corner reading whatever Manga I could get my hands on. I feel like I’ve definitely referenced that in the way that there’s a very subtle– I say subtle, it’s not subtle at all. I’m not subtle. I don’t do subtle, but the characters change when they experience very extreme emotions.
Other than that, I really wanted to reference a lot of Bowie’s color palettes from the ’70s. I feel like I turned them up to 11, just because that’s who I am. If I’m not working with a fluorescent, I’m not happy. In the ’70s and the Ziggy Stardust era, there were just so many wonderful outfits and color palettes and scenarios that Bowie had put together in each of his albums that were just an absolute delight to go through and dig through.
Jess Taylor speaking to Comicsbeat.com
What I love most about what they said during the interview was just how so unapologetically trans and queer this book needed to be. When talking about making the book Axelrod said, “With every project I do, especially work for hire stuff, I have a line in the sand where I say, ‘Everything behind this line is important.’ With Galaxy, I said, ‘I’m not going to change any of the queer stuff. That’s my line.'” To which DC gave her no push back.
One thing that was really important to me writing it was that it be unapologetically queer and unapologetically trans and to not have any qualifiers with that. To not present being trans as negative, but also not to present being trans as neutral. To not show it as something that it’s just like being cis because it’s not.
I wanted to show being trans is beautiful. I wanted to show being queer is beautiful and how queer love is transformative. We don’t get to see trans being beautiful. We see beautiful trans people.
Jadzia Axelrod speaking to Comicsbeat.com
Galaxy: the Prettiest Star is very shameless story. There is no shame at all attached to it in any measure. The characters are allowed to feel the whole gamut of emotions that they want to feel. Never once are they told that they shouldn’t, or that it’s wrong. It was such a wonderful thing to read the first time I ever read it, and it was such a wonderful thing to illustrate and know that the message behind Galaxy is to just unapologetically be yourself because you shouldn’t be ashamed of any facet of yourself.
Jess Taylor speaking to Comicsbeat.com
To wit I have nothing to add except, go out and find this book in bookstores and local comic shops everywhere! Happy Pride Month!
