Crystal Frasier is a writer and game designer whose work moves between comics, fiction, and collaborative role-playing worlds. She wrote Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms, illustrated by Val Wise, a queer young adult graphic novel about friendship, cheerleading, and two former friends finding their way back to each other.
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2 editions: Print · 2021 | eBook · 2021
Annie joins a cheerleading squad and reconnects with Bebe, a former friend. Their growing closeness unfolds alongside school demands, family expectations, and the challenge of learning to stand up for themselves.
Writer: Crystal Frasier · Illustrator: Val Wise · Letterer: Oscar O. Jupiter
Print · Simon and Schuster · 2021 · English
eBook · Simon and Schuster · 2021 · English
Frasier and Wise discuss the book’s origins, characters, and collaborative process.
United By Pop · August 30, 2021The premise sets an adventure in motion; its theme gives it emotional purpose. Frasier draws on Pathfinder: Empty Graves and Starfinder: Soldiers of Brass.
Before writing Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms, Crystal Frasier was making webcomics about transgender characters and contributing to role-playing games including Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons. Comics and games both give her room to build worlds with other people—a collaborative process she describes on her own website , where she talks about making space for different kinds of heroes.
The idea for Cheer Up began on a convention escalator, with Frasier imagining queer teenagers falling in love on a cheerleading squad. When Oni editor Ari Yarwood invited her to pitch young-adult slice-of-life stories, that idea found its opening. In an interview with United By Pop , Frasier recalls how it became a story about former friends finding their way back to one another.
With Val Wise illustrating and Oscar O. Jupiter lettering, Cheer Up follows Annie and Bebe as cheerleading brings them together again. Their growing closeness sits alongside the demands of school, family, and friendship. The book went on to win the 2021 Cybils Award for Young Adult Graphic Novels and become a 2022 Lambda Literary Award finalist in LGBTQ Comics.
“Queer cheer peers!”
“The most vital thing to me when designing a character is that they feel real.”
Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms · Young Adult Graphic Novels
Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms · Best Books of 2021 · Teens / Graphic Novels
Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms · LGBTQ Comics
Dabbene praises the nuance of the relationships and the way facial expressions and visual details convey emotional complexity.
Peter Dabbene · July / August 2021The committee highlights friendship, listening, allyship, and the joyful quality of the illustrations.
Award committee statement · 2021 award cycle