Keeping It Unreal

This book is an example of the kind of academic writing I love. Aesthetically, the author'a prose is well put together, dense with satisfying word choices and packed with references to all sorts of creative works.
There are also well-selected extracts from comics which augment the points made in the prose.
Comics are celebrated as a space for imagining different worlds, and acknowledging the brilliance of black, queer characters in our own world.
Having seen Brian Stelfreeze discuss how he created art to honour the work of Ta-Nehisi Coates for Black Panther, and having participated in discussions at ComicCons about Queer representation in comics, I appreciate these important strands being brought together.
There are artists and authors creating this important work and it's only right someone should take stock of what is being created, and theorising on its significance.
The analysis is clearly situated within the political context of post-Obama backlash, during Trump's presidency surrounded by 'latter-day Nazis'.
Comics are presented as a 'survival guide', a way to find 'happiness and justice'.
And in a way, haven't they always fulfilled this role for some of us?
Keeping it Unreal contains Scott's suggestions and celebrations of comics that can play a part in the survival and the justice-seeking of of those of us who aren't always represented in mainstream comics.

Review copy supplied by NetGalley

This was such a great read but it is dense and more of an academic lense than every day reading. The information and context it provides adds perspective to both commonly known and rather unknown characters throughout comic history and how marginalized identities have survived and sometimes thrived between the pages.