Kate Leth has long been one of my favorite comics creators; she’s contributed to titles like Bravest Warriors and Adventure Time, and I know her best from her work on Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat!, where she helped revive a classic hero with a body positive, super-diverse flair. Leth has also worked on TV shows like Craig of the Creek and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls. Most importantly (to me!), Leth has been creating the comic strip Valley Ghouls for over 150 installments.
Valley Ghouls is a largely autobiographical comic strip about Leth and her fiancé, Cohen, as they navigate their daily life in LA. The characters might be named after Leth and her partner, but the art of the comic imagines them represented by a bat and ghost, respectively. Other friends and characters in the strip also get an animal persona, which lends a magical realism feel to the whole project. It’s also really cute. The pair deal with myriad issues, like the realities of living as queer people in a crappy world, falling in love, and playing lots of Pokémon.
Part of what’s so endearing about Valley Ghouls is that it’s an extremely vulnerable project, full of all those feelings and discussions that people don’t seem comfortable sharing, things that need work to say. For example, in a recent strip “Plug and Play,” Leth describes the frustrations of feeling at odds with one’s body and wishing you could change it to fit your gender identification. While this is a serious topic, Leth lends some brevity with the comment, “Mr. Potato Head body WHEN?” This strip in particular gives voice to an issue a lot of people struggle with, but it also--through its humor--shows that it’s perfectly okay to laugh at these moments and voice one’s frustration. People need to see positive representations of nonbinary, transgender, and other queer people, and Valley Ghouls provides that representation in a way that makes them seem ordinary--because they should be!
While representation is important and needed, Valley Ghouls’s most striking quality is the caring, fun, tender relationship between Kate and Cohen. Cohen is depicted as the tireless cheerleader, always ready to pump Kate up, and Kate brings a vulnerable honesty that most comics--or even people in real life--aren’t willing to show to others. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see shades of my own relationship in Kate and Cohen’s, especially in terms of the doubt Kate feels about her own body (in comparison to others’). These are feelings that perhaps everyone feels. I’m seeing that more and more as I continue researching the body positivity movement and how bodies are represented in literature, and I stand by it. We all feel crappy about our bods sometimes, and that’s ok! However, I think that seeing someone walk through these feelings and rationalize them out is helpful to others. It helps everyone feel less alone, less awkward in their own skin. We learn from each others’ experiences, after all. On more than one occasion (probably about once a week), Todd will turn to me and say, look this is us. Or I’ll text him a strip of Valley Ghouls and say, it me. There’s something different for everyone to see in this sweet comic.
In a field dominated by men (and let’s be honest--white men), Leth provides an important, smart, and funny voice for all those who don’t feel represented by the status quo of comics. Or maybe, for people who do! What I’m saying is that Valley Ghouls is deeply fun, funny, and spirited, and I always have fun reading it, as I’ve enjoyed all Leth’s work.
You can support Kate Leth at her Patreon, here, where she has three tiers of support you can choose (including one with NSFW content--ooh la la!). You can learn more about Leth on her official website, here!
