TICKETS $15

Doors 3:30 p.m.; Event 4 p.m.
Select Showtime to Purchase Tickets

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THE EXPERIENCE

Celebrate five decades of groundbreaking art and storytelling with Portland legend Rupert Kinnard! In conjunction with his 50-year retrospective at the Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts, we’re thrilled to present a screening of No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics.

This illuminating documentary traces the history of queer comics and the artists who reshaped representation on the page. Following the screening, Kinnard, creator of the first Black, queer superhero, will be onstage for an audience Q&A moderated by NWMOCA Board Chair Mike Rosen.

Rupert Kinnard will sign books after the Q&A. 

ON SCREEN: No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics

2021. Directed by Vivian Kleiman. Runtime: 1 hour 19 minutes.

A feature-length documentary film-in-progress chronicling the birth and development of LGBTQ comics through the eyes of several of its pioneers. The film was inspired by the Lambda award-winning book of the same name, and dives deeper into the personal stories at the heart of this unique underground artistic scene. Featuring Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), the recently departed Howard Cruse (Stuck Rubber Baby, Gay Comix), and others, this film aims to show how DIY queer cartoonists have represented, poked fun at, and celebrated LGBTQ lives and experiences in challenging, humorous, and profound ways.

ON STAGE: Rupert Kinnard & NWMOCA

Rupert Kinnard

Rupert Kinnard is an award-winning African American, gay, paraplegic artist, activist and is the creator of the political comic strip Cathartic Comics and the book B.B. and the Diva: A Collection of Cathartic Comics featuring The Brown Bomber and Diva Touché Flambé was published in 1992 by Alyson Publications. His recent book, Ooops…I Just Catharted! Fifty Years of Cathartic Comics was published by Stacked Deck Press in 2025.

Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts

NWMOCA is a dedicated group of individuals working to establish the Pacific Northwest’s first cartoon arts museum. They are passionate, diverse, and innovative thinkers who believe in the power of community and the cartoon arts!