Archie Bongiovanni, the comics artist behind the award-winning hit A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns, explores queerness in the shockingly frank and funny graphic novel Mimosa.
Best friends and chosen family Chris, Elise, Jo, and Alex work hard to keep themselves afloat. Their regular brunches hold them together even as the rest of their lives threaten to fall apart. In an effort to avoid being the oldest gays at the party, the crew decides to put on a new queer event called Grind—specifically for homos in their dirty 30s.
Grind is a welcome distraction from their real problems: after a messy divorce, Chris adjusts to being a single parent while struggling to reconnect to their queer community. Elise is caught between feelings for her boss and the career of her dreams. Jo tries to navigate the murky boundaries of being a supportive friend and taking care of her own needs. And Alex is guarding a secret that might change his friendships forever. While navigating exes at work, physical and mental exhaustion, and drinking way, way too much on weekdays, this chosen family proves that being messy doesn’t always go away with age.
Praise
“Chris, Jo, Elise, and Alex bonded over being the only queer waiters at a restaurant, but their friendship long outlasted their stint at the job. Ten years on, the crew—now in their mid and late thirties—face a whole slew of new challenges: parenting, vying for promotions, balancing partying and work, being judged by baby gays at the club, and scariest of all, drifting apart. Fans of Bongiovanni’s Grease Bats will enjoy the familiar flavors of a messy, horny, queer and trans friend squad but paired with a more nuanced slice-of-life narrative. These characters are trying to stay true to themselves, invest in their communities, get laid, and support each other.”Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer
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“Mimosa is a delightful, messy, passionate, frustrating, and loving glimpse into the way our found families both nourish and force our growth. It overflows with familiarity for anyone who is lucky enough to live a life surrounded by queer people, and it speaks with compassion about the ebb and flow of the relationships that sand us down into ourselves.”Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, illustrator of Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me
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