Gaylord Phoenix

"Fake is a trans artist, and his graphic novel seamlessly bends gender, melding male quest narrative with female romance to create shimmering fantasies; the visual analog of shoegaze if shoegaze were queerer and more disturbing. From the moire-patterned cover to the mysterious stenciled speech bubbles, everything about Gaylord Phoenix is ravishing." - The Atlantic

"In her book Belonging: A Culture of Place, bell hooks writes about returning home to rural Kentucky after a long academic career in New York City. In one chapter she discusses porches, the ubiquitous womb-like structures attached to the front and back of any rural home, writing: "A perfect porch is a place where the soul can rest." In the same way, perfect comics can give openly and sincerely to the reader a place to rest their soul. This is Fake's most powerful talent and his work's best quality." - LA Review of Books

"Other more cryptic pieces require some work from readers to puzzle out, but that's just part of the fun of Fake's oeuvre: his comics maintain a playfully naughty mystery. (Appropriately, the book is dedicated in part to "the Queerdos out there.") Fake deconstructs gender and human anatomy, sex and desire, then puts them back together again, on his own messy, artful terms. This provocative graphic collection pushes boundaries, and then breaks them open." - Publishers Weekly

"The Evanston, Illinois, native, who now lives in the California High Desert just outside of Joshua Tree, has something of a double career. He is probably best known as a force in the alternative comics scene, with Gaylord Phoenix, his 2011 book about a nonbinary humanoid on a journey of self-discovery, winning the Ignatz Award for outstanding graphic novel... ...Even in the less direct works, however, Fake's overall intent seems clear: to conjure a vibrant space where freedom of gender expression can reign." - Art in America