This is a collection of other people's zines, games, and other creations about gay men, bisexual men in same-gender relationships, and men loving men (MLM).
This collection is part of my directory of other people's creations on itch.io, Curated Collections of LGBTQIA, where you can find more collections about other topics. I personally select and review each creation in them, even if they are different than my own views or experiences as a queer person myself.
Content: Rated R.
Medium: Zine. Full color. 18 pages, plus covers.
About: Reviews of dating simulation games. The zinester reflects on how people tend expect everything in that genre to be embarrassingly tacky and same-y, but it has much more variety, quality, and depth than most people would assume, and some can be very meaningful to the players in the emotions and opportunities for self-expression that they can welcome. The genre has beautiful love stories, silly comedies, and stories that are barely dating sims. Some involve sex, and some don't. Some are heteronormative, and some are queer.
Relevance to this collection: Some of the games that the zine describes and recommends feature relationships between men. These are Dream Daddy and Dr. Frank's Build-a-Boyfriend.
Content: Rated PG-13. Content warnings for artistic nudity, swear words, needles, fantasy body horror (for example, robot bodies), insects, and menstruation.
Medium: Zine. Full color.
Genre and subject: Nonfiction. Anthology. Poetry. Art. Comics.
About: An anthology of poems, comics, collages, paintings, illustrations, and other creative works by many transgender men and trans masculine nonbinary artists from around the world.
Queer themes: Transgender men. Trans masculine. Nonbinary. Drag. Name change. Hormone therapy (Testosterone). Dysphoria. Transition. Top surgery. Gay trans men.
Content: Rated PG. Firearms, blood, mines.
Medium: Comic.
About: A historical fiction ghost story romance. "In 1950s Vietnam, a lost soul comes to the aid of his lover's field under attack by American troops."
Vibe: This summary could have been for a very grim story, but it is not.
Content: Rated G. Noise: gentle instrumental background music begins to play when the game starts.
Medium: A computer game created with Bitsy. It can run in your web browser.
Genre and subject: Nonfiction. History.
About: Explore the tomb of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum. Look at the murals of these two men who lived in ancient Egypt. Decide for yourself whether you think they were lovers or best friends.
Content: Rated PG. Some excerpts are suggestive of sensuality, but nothing explicit.
Medium: Zine.
About: "A selection of excerpts from public domain and classic literature that are TOTALLY GAY, Y'ALL." These come from Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, the Bible, and more.
Content: Rated G. Friendly for all ages. Bright colors, glitch imagery, food, getting a tongue piercing.
Medium: Comic book. An 8 page mini zine. Full color. Designed for reading on screen.
About "two cat boys going on a date at the mall"
Vibe: Tons of fun.
Content: Rated G. Friendly for all ages.
Medium: Comic book. It reads from right to left.
Genre and subject: Fiction. Slice of life. Comedy. Romance.
About: "There's a man who keeps getting new names tattooed onto his arm... What the deal with him?"
Queer themes: Transgender men. Men loving men. Bisexual. Coming out. Transition.
Vibe: Sweet, cute, romantic.
Content: Rated R. "The game features an optional sexually explicit section, which requires the player鈥檚 consent before moving forward, and can be skipped in its entirety. The Abridged PDF removes this scene as well."
Medium: "a digital comic with light choose-your-own adventure mechanics". More than 130 full color comic book pages.
About: "... an award-winning interactive graphic novel telling the story of ... two men, with two polar opposite sexualities, working together toward one mutually fulfilling relationship."
Queer themes: Polyamory. Gray-asexuality. Men loving men.
Vibe: "gentle, optimistic, and optionally erotic".
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Zine. 8 pages, with covers.
Genre and subject: Fan art created using collages of official or crew art of the characters.
About: This has a full-color scrapbook page about these four fictional characters who are queer in their canon, or at least according to their creators. Kieran Valentine from Monster High. Osana Najmi from Komi Can't Communicate. Luz Noceda from The Owl House. Bridget from Guilty Gear.
Vibe: Celebratory.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Zine. Comic book.
About: "The short story of two friends who fall in love with their respective crushes, and support each other along the way. (and it's queer!) Approx 12 pages, but full of the fuzzy feelings of first love"
Queer themes: Women loving women. Men loving men. Friendships between queer people.
Vibe: Tender.
Medium: Zine. Versions for reading on screen or for print.
Genre and subject: Nonfiction. History.
About "sailor-loving-sailors' tattoos during the Age of Sail, is 16 quarter-pages long (including covers)."
Content: Rated R.
Medium: Poetry zine.
About: A zine of poems about the etymology behind queer words.
Content: Rated PG-13.
Medium: A computer game created in Bitsy. It runs in your browser.
Accessibility: There is no audio, so it's friendly to Deaf/HoH players. The light pastel color scheme would be difficult for people with low vision or sensitive to eye strain.
Duration: About fifteen minutes to play the whole game.
Story: You are a ghost. Your human boyfriend has a human boyfriend. You like being in a polyamorous relationship, but you feel jealous, so you're talking with your therapist about it.
Vibe: Sad, lonely, anxious, grief, hope.
Content: Rated G, possibly, but I haven't played much of it.
Medium: A non-violent platformer computer game. It runs in your web browser.
About: "Do you ever wonder why in games the lifebar in made up of hearts? And what is love? Starring Rocco Billy and Jack Lumber / Complete both levels to get the ending ..."
Content: Rated PG-13. Before the game starts, you can choose whether you want to show nudity or not. The nudity is not sexual. The game-play is the same with or without the nudity option.
Medium: A simple little combat computer game. It runs in your web browser.
Genre and subject: History.
About: "The Sacred Band of Thebes was an elite group of 300 warriors, the best of the best. It was formed by 150 couples of lovers, because it was believed that they would fight more fiercely for one another.
In 338 b.C., during the Battle of Chaeronaea, the Sacred Band was utterly destroyed by Macedonian army. This is the doomed story of the last couple of thoose warriors, PHOIBOS and LEOKRATES."
Content: Rated G.
Medium: "A collection of 54 pixel flags from different parts of the world in .png format. With standalone .svg and Inkscape symbols." 16 pixels. Most of these are national flags, but it has a bunch of LGBT pride flags, including the bear flag.
Content: Rated R. Sexual content. Homophobia. HIV/AIDS. Some of the material shown is meant to be recognized as offensive or crude.
Medium: Slideshow. A collage of screenshots and magazine clippings.
Genre and subject: History. Media literacy. Media criticism.
About: "A visual essay on gay experience that draws from games, film and magazines."
Curator's notes: If you read this, please read it very carefully, noticing whether each page comes from fiction or real historical documents. The visual essay format may be confusing to readers who aren't already familiar with gay recent history and representation in media. The essay uses screenshots from video games and movies, mingled with real historical documents. Make sure you look at the caption that tells what the image comes from on each page.
Content: Rated R. References to sex and drugs.
Medium: Nonfiction. Personal zine. Full color.
About: Anecdotes of a few conversations from the zine author's personal experiences in gay culture.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Zine. Designed for reading on screen. Collage and poetry.
About: Gay frogs.
Vibe: Some of it is silly and some of it is a heavy mood.
Content: Rated R. Has some explicit sexual art. Internalized homophobia.
Medium: Zine. Illustrated.
Genre and subject: Nonfiction. Memoir.
About: A personal zine about discovering being gay and trans.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Zine. Full color. There is a version for reading on screen, and two versions for printing.
About: An introduction to what bisexuality is. It corrects common misconceptions, points out the perks of being bi, and gives a list of some bisexual men in current events, history, and fiction.
Vibe: Lighthearted, slightly silly humor, and very queer positive!
Medium: "580 flags, in 16 and 32 px format. This pack includes flags from Europe, Asia, Australia, nautical and LGBTQIA+."
Relevant flags: Bear, intersex inclusive progress rainbow, and rainbow.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Custom emoji for Twitch and Discord. Each one is an animal waving a pride flag. Cats, crows, dragons, frogs, pandas, and wolves.
Relevant flags: gay men, and rainbow.
Content: Rated PG.
Medium: A computer game that can run in your web browser. A short story in a visual novel style.
Duration: Each play through can be about five minutes. You have some meaningful choices. You have to play through it several times to reveal the whole story.
Story: Your friend asks you for advice about someone he likes.
Queer themes: Bisexual men. Self discovery. Homophobia. Being closeted.
Content: Rated PG-13, because although most of it would rated G, there is a chance that you might stumble into some fatherly advice about the importance of using condoms. Other content warnings: description of depression and anxiety.
Medium: A computer game that runs in your web browser.
Duration: Each play through is about ten minutes. Play through it several times, choosing different dialog options to see what they reveal.
Story: You haven't spoken to your dad much since you've been going to college. Now you're on a long car ride together. He cares about you, no matter what... right?
Representation: Gay men. Coming out.
Vibe: Awkward, defensive, tense, caring, sweet, anxious, wistful, dread, frustrated, nostalgic.
Content: Rated PG for swear words. Photosensitivity warning: rapidly shaking text.
Medium: An interactive story created with Twine.
Duration: About ten minutes. You can see everything in one play through.
Story: You are an angel and you are going on a date.
Vibe: Wistful.
Content: Rated R, 18+.
Medium: Book. Nonfiction. An illustrated memoir.
About a long-term relationship between three men within a plural system.
Content: Rated PG because it's all about flirting.
Medium: Tabletop role-playing game. For two partners to play, but it says you can adapt it for more if you're polyamorous.
Story: You and your partner are dragons. Use puns, treasure, and over-the-top sappy flirting to tell each other how much you love each other.
Queer themes: This is based on a comic about a gay dragon couple, so that's what it is by default. ("Bro" doesn't mean a literal brother.) The game says you can adapt it for other genders, if you prefer.
Vibe: goofy, playful, sincere, affectionate, and just celebrating that with no shame.
