Archie Bongiovanni, the comics artist behind the award-winning hit A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns , explores queerness in the shockingly frank and funny graphic novel Mimosa .
Best friends and chosen family Chris, Elise, Jo, and Alex work hard to keep themselves afloat. Their regular brunches hold them together even as the rest of their lives threaten to fall apart. In an effort to avoid being the oldest gays at the party, the crew decides to put on a new queer event called Grind—specifically for homos in their dirty 30s.
Grind is a welcome distraction from their real after a messy divorce, Chris adjusts to being a single parent while struggling to reconnect to their queer community. Elise is caught between feelings for her boss and the career of her dreams. Jo tries to navigate the murky boundaries of being a supportive friend and taking care of her own needs. And Alex is guarding a secret that might change his friendships forever. While navigating exes at work, physical and mental exhaustion, and drinking way, way too much on weekdays, this chosen family proves that being messy doesn’t always go away with age.
Bro, half this friend group is unstable and I would never be able to be around them for very long. They’re messy people.
Now, that said? You know a story is good when you enjoy it despite not liking the characters at first. The characters are meant to be unlikable. Because they’re messy.
Firstly: fuck Alex. He is… terrible. He manipulates people financially without realizing he’s doing it. When you first meet him, you’re like, oh. He’s got the energy. Okay. Great ideas. Everyone sure does care for one another, helping him buy groceries and pay his rent… and then you get to him telling everyone he’s got a trust fund that kicked in a few years ago. Literally pages after he asked Jo— who works multiple jobs to keep up with her financial demands— to spot him some cash.
Bro.
And I think I feel the most for Jo. She works multiple jobs, one being a music camp teacher and another being a sex worker who does stage performances. Everyone talks over her, no one checks in on her, and it fucking sucks when you see how hard things got for her. Alex had hired her for a performance at the adults only party and Jo, at first intending to go on, spots her students in the crowd. She suddenly has to grapple with the fear and lingering shame of having turned to sex work, and the risk of putting her body on display in front of those underage students of hers. She runs in tears. And no one seems to really… care.
Jo, though, I feel has the best turnaround as well. She said her piece to Alex, she drifted away from the group to focus on herself, and found herself someone that is willing to make her an actual priority.
I don’t like Chris. I don’t like Chris because I don’t like cheaters. Chris always seems to be overwhelmed, trying to get people to focus on them, always magnifying their problems… but Chris is by far the most redeemable one, looking at their mistakes and trying to correct them.
Finally, Elise. She’s aight.
A good read for a drama that reflects the queer crowd pretty accurately.
