Tales of the Closet

From 1987 to 1993, Ivan Velez Jr. wrote and drew all nine issues of Tales of the Closet for the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a pioneering comic series that centered on the lives of LGBTQ+ youth in New York City. Blending gritty realism with superhero and fantasy elements, the series gave voice to a marginalized community during the height of the AIDS crisis, making it a landmark in socially conscious, independent comics.