Detail from the cover of Charity & Sylvia by Tillie Walden, Drawn & Quarterly, 2026
Tillie Walden, Drawn & Quarterly
Queer-themed graphic novels often center their protagonists’ journeys toward self discovery and self acceptance. Tillie Walden’s exceptional new graphic novel Charity & Sylvia (Drawn & Quarterly) aims for a more elusive target. It is less about her characters’ understanding of themselves and more about how America in its most traditional conception came to accept a same sex couple as an organic part of the community. As such, this emotionally satisfying, matter of fact, straightforwardly drawn historical account turns out to be one of the most profound and subversive contributions to the genre.
Charity & Sylvia is a rich historical story set in rural Vermont in the 19th century, so steeped in local color that you can practically taste the maple syrup, full of the gritty details of premodern life (and death). It spans more than fifty years in the lives of two women, Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, who were in many ways typical of their times, but lived happily together as intimate partners in an era we do not think of as especially progressive, at a time when the culture barely had the vocabulary to discuss same-sex relationships.
Charity’s nephew, distinguished 19th century author William Cullen Bryant, first recounted the story of his two aunts and their extraordinary relationship in Letters of a Traveler (1850), where he described them as having taken “each other as companions for life” in a union “no less sacred to them than the tie of marriage.” The two have been subjects of study and fascination ever since.
Self-portrait of graphic novelist Tillie Walden, 2026
Art by Tillie Walden
Walden, at just 30 years of age, is already an accomplished graphic novelist with several award-winning books to her name. She lives with her wife and young son in a rural part of Vermont similar to where the story takes place. As the current Cartoonist Laureate of the state, she has been highly engaged in Vermont culture and history, and says her interest in this couple was kindled by Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup, director of Vermont Humanities, who encouraged her to tell their story.
Walden’s account depicts how the two women’s piety, industry (they were tailors, a valuable skill) and devotion to their community won over even those with concerns about the “sinful” nature of their relationship. It is also the story of two kindred spirits living their authentic lives and love despite their own doubts, at a time when there was no social validation for their behavior.
“I really connected with how they found acceptance,” said Walden in a phone interview earlier this month. “In 2026, when you realize you’re queer, whatever you are, or even if you're just exploring it, the name of the game is differentiating yourself, and then you find acceptance within your difference. What Charity and Sylvia did to find acceptance was examining what made them similar to their neighbors and what actually tethered them to their community. So yes, they were lesbians, but they were also very pious and deeply connected to their church community. They had a lot of the same political beliefs as their neighbors, and they felt very strongly about like small town, rural life. There was a lot of alignment.”
Walden, spent more than three years researching every scrap of information she could find in the archives: hundreds of handwritten letters, contemporary news sources, early works of fiction, biographies, visual references and interviews with descendants. She says she spent more time doing research than in writing and drawing the graphic novel. The result is 260 pages of richly-detailed, expressive drawings, mostly in regimented 12-panel grids that mirror the grinding rhythms of daily life in rural, 19th century America.
By providing such a convincing picture of life in traditional rural America, steeped in values of community, religion and family life, which nevertheless makes space for people like Charity and Silvia, Walden champions a traditionalism that is inclusive, not exclusive. It is an attractive and devastating contrast to a vision of the past that justifies oppression and erases the existence of anyone who threatens the narrow social vision.
“I read the Bible all the time for this project and a lot of what I came across was tolerance,” said Walden. “It made a lot of sense to me and made our modern situation more nonsensical than ever. I’d come out of working on this book and look at headlines and see what people were talking about in terms of traditional America and Christianity, and I just felt boggled.”
Charity and Sylvia is already a masterful graphic novel, weaving together true-to-life character relationships, historical detail, rich sense of place and moments of wit through Walden’s finely developed writing and visual storytelling style. Its gentle but powerful subversion of toxic mythologies at this fraught moment of our current-day culture elevates it to a classic, not just of queer-themed work, but of graphic novels produced in the past 20 years.
“Doing this as a graphic novel adds everything,” she said. “Every panel, every page, every letter is drawn by hand with a nib. The illustrative nature of a comic is unparalleled in its ability to transport people. What I loved about drawing this book was the details: every log, every hem, everything I could do to make it feel like a full world, a real place, to give a rich sense of how those women lived every day of their lives.”
Walden already has a strong body of work behind her, including her 2016 Eisner Award-winning memoir Spinning. She says she is taking a break after spending the first years of her young son’s life immersed in this project. “I’m going to watch my kid, help my wife [cartoonist Emma Hunsinger] so she can do her book. I’m exhausted! Maybe I’ll see you in five years.”
Page from Charity & Sylvia by Tillie Walden, Drawn & Quarterly 2026
Art by Tillie Walden
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