Ari North is a queer cartoonist who believes an entertaining story should also be full of diversity and inclusion. As a writer, an artist, and a musician, she wrote, drew, and composed the music for Always Human, a complete romance/sci-fi webcomic about two queer girls navigating maturity and finding happiness. She's currently working on a second webcomic, Aerial Magic, which is about the everyday lives of the witches who work at a broomstick repair shop. She lives in Australia with her husband.
A young woman debates taking her dream job, though it would mean
separating from her girlfriend, in the graphic
novel Love and Gravity.
Sunati and Austen are students in a future, spacefaring,
Earth-based society. They're also falling in love with each
other. Facing school difficulties caused in part by a condition
that prevents body modifications, Austen considers
changing her course of study, but she doesn't want to feel like
she's giving up. Meanwhile, Sunati is confronted with a
different choice: whether or not to accept an exciting job offer
that would require a year-long stay on Saturn's moon
Enceladus. Though these seem like insurmountable problems, there
just may be solutions.
Though it takes place in striking settings featuring advanced
technology (there are space elevators and deep-space
colonization) the story is intimate-grounded in emotions,
relationships, and life decisions. Sunati and Austen
navigate universal questions about love, career, family, and
happiness with wisdom.
The book's cast is diverse; Austen's parents have a boyfriend, and
a variety of skin and hair colors are on display.
Rendered in beautiful pastels, the art shows manga and anime
influences, but with its own stylish storytelling tweaks.
A "soft focus" appearance to the backgrounds gives the book a
pleasing, dreamy quality, while the captions and word
balloons, which are color-coded for each character, allow for easy
narrative flow.
Love and Gravity is a sweet, futuristic graphic novel in which
young women make hard, adult choices in their lives.-- "Foreward
Reviews"
Healthy relationships and healthy conversations unfold in a sweet
slice-of-life story, the second in a series that launched on
Webtoon.
Possessing much of the same charm of the first book, this sequel,
set in a futuristic world where people can modify their appearances
using technology called mods, introduces readers to new challenges
in the lives of Sunati and Austen. A good portion of the book is
focused on friendship, specifically Rae and Sunati's. It starts
with a flashback to 10 years earlier, when Sunati first came to
Kaku City and felt scared by how overwhelming everything was-until
she found Rae, suddenly had a friend, and wasn't alone anymore. The
story returns to the present, when the two young women work
together. Sunati has an exciting new job opportunity, but she isn't
the only one: Rae gets her dream job, but it means she'll be moving
far away. Conflicted-wanting what's best for her friend but also
not wanting her to go-Sunati finds solace in girlfriend Austen.
Ultimately, the two best friends work it out. The book includes a
positive mention of therapy and a frank conversation about sex,
consent, and waiting until you feel ready. These elements reflect a
theme throughout this charming work: cultivating satisfying
relationships through open, honest communication. The art is mainly
in tones of blue and pink, executed in a fluid, dreamy,
watercolor-painting style.
Heartwarming.-- "Kirkus Reviews"
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