Sometimes, it’s nice to read a story where the conflicts come from creepy plants, mad scientists, and spooky houses, but two girls still get to kiss and hold hands. At home, she has to deal with the weight of her family’s mysterious secrets. At school, she has to deal with relationships, both good and bad, between her and her peers. The book follows a young Pamela Isley as she deals with two sets of problems. Basically, I wanted to write a story where the queerness of the characters was not the conflict because being queer in real life already has so much of that. Poison Ivy: Thorns, by Kody Keplinger and Sara Kipin, manages to be both creepy and emotional. The story is less about them discovering these things and more about the connection they build in a very complicated, twisted situation. Poison Ivy: Thorns is a one-shot with a cover date of August, 2021. Alice knows she’s a lesbian, and Pamela knows she’s bisexual. She’s a loyal, funny goth girl who might be in over her head in this gothic story. I knew her love interest would be a new character and coming up with Alice was so much fun. Ivy is bisexual in the canon, and I had absolutely no intention of changing that, especially as a queer woman myself. Just in time for Pride Month, author Kody Keplinger (The DUFF) and artist Sara Kipin are reimagining DC Comics’ Poison Ivy in Poison Ivy: Thorns, a new young adult graphic novel promising romance with a gothic-horror twist. One thing I knew from the minute I made the pitch to tell a Poison Ivy story is that there would be a queer romance.

It seems to be the perfect time with Pride Month to get this story in the hands of readers who might be struggling with the same questions as Ivy. How exciting was it to give Pamela a new romantic partner in Alice and explore her sexuality/queerness? Related: Marvel's LGBTQ+ Characters Showcased in New Pride Special Preview

Poison ivy thorns graphic novel