What to Read After Heartstopper Volume 6: LGBTQ+ Graphic Novels for the Post-Series Void

Heartstopper Volume 6 is out in the UK. The final chapter of Nick and Charlie’s story arrived July 2, 2026 (July 7 in Canada/USA), and if you’re here, you’ve probably already read it. Maybe in one sitting. Maybe with snacks you forgot to eat.

The series ends exactly as you’d hope from Alice Oseman: not with drama, but with warmth. Nick and Charlie are no longer the hesitant boys we met in that school hallway. They’re facing university applications, long-distance possibilities, and the continued reality of managing mental health — and somehow, Oseman makes all of that feel like a gift rather than a goodbye.

The epilogue gives the whole gang their moment: Darcy and Tara travelling through Switzerland, Tao surprising Elle in Berlin, Charlie visiting Nick in Leeds and dancing in a gay club, no longer teenagers but genuinely young adults. It’s a lot. In the best possible way.

So what do you do now?

The Netflix film Heartstopper Forever is still coming, which helps. Oseman has confirmed the movie won’t follow Volume 6 exactly. It blends the events of the final graphic novel with the Nick and Charlie novella and takes a slightly different path to the ending. Even once you’ve read the book, there will still be surprises in the film. So there’s still something to hold onto.

But in the meantime, here are the LGBTQ+ graphic novels and series worth picking up when you’re not quite ready to leave this world behind.

Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

Originally a webcomic from 2013, Check, Please! is a sports comic about friendship, teamwork, baking, and a slow-burn romance that pays off beautifully. Eric “Bitty” Bittle is a former figure skating champion, vlogger, and talented amateur baker entering his freshman year of college hockey. He develops a crush on his moody but attractive team captain, Jack Zimmerman, and the whole thing unfolds through Bitty’s vlog-style updates in a way that feels completely fresh. If the sports-to-romance pipeline of Nick and Charlie appealed to you, this is the natural next read. Two volumes, easy to binge in a day.

Bloom by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau

If you’re looking for something that captures the softness and yearning of Nick and Charlie, Bloom is the one. Ari is just about done with rising dough and hot ovens, but then he meets Hector, a carefree guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they spend more time together, summer love starts brewing. Of all the Heartstopper-adjacent graphic novels, this one most faithfully reproduces that specific blushing, fumbling, slow-burn feeling. Standalone. Perfect if you don’t want to commit to another series right away.

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

Skilfully blending three colours to depict the worlds of the past, the present, and fairytales, The Magic Fish follows Tien Phong, a second-generation Vietnamese-American teenager who helps his mother learn English through fairy tales while struggling to tell her about his sexuality. It’s quieter and more literary than Heartstopper, but if Nick’s coming-out scene to his mother wrecked you, this book will finish the job. One of the most beautiful graphic novels of the last decade, full stop.

Fence by C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad

Fence follows Nicholas, an aspiring fencer and the illegitimate son of a retired champion, who earns a spot at a prestigious private school and immediately finds himself caught in a fierce rivalry with Seiji Katayama. The series blends coming-of-age with tender explorations of friendship and love, with a lot more competitive friction than Heartstopper. Where Heartstopper is soft and certain, Fence is tense and competitive — enemies-to-lovers with bruised egos and real stakes. If you want something with more friction, this is your series.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell

This one is for readers who want something with a little more bite. Frederica “Freddy” Riley is stuck in an on-again, off-again relationship with the eponymous Laura Dean, and the book is really about the way we stay in situations that aren’t good for us, and what it takes to finally choose ourselves. Rosemary Valero-O’Connell’s art is stunning. Mariko Tamaki is one of the best queer comics writers working today, and this book earns its emotional gut-punch.

Nimona by N.D. Stevenson

Less romance, more everything else. Nimona is a shapeshifting sidekick who teams up with a villain in a world that blurs medieval fantasy with science fiction, and the whole thing is secretly a story about identity, queerness, and what it means to be seen as a monster. It’s funny and weird and then, completely without warning, devastating. There’s a Netflix animated film adaptation worth watching after too, and it’s one of the rare adaptations that fully honours what makes the source material special.

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

Not a romance, not a feel-good read in the conventional sense. Gender Queer is a graphic memoir tracing the author’s journey towards understanding their gender identity and asexuality, written with a personal and introspective honesty that is genuinely rare. Where the other books on this list centre around queer romance, this one is about the interior work of figuring out who you are in a world that doesn’t always have language for it. A meaningful companion to Heartstopper’s gentler explorations of identity and self-discovery, and one of the most important queer graphic novels published in years.

The shelf after Heartstopper is actually rich. There are years of queer graphic novels and series that deserve the same devotion, the same late-night binge reads, the same specific attachment you felt for Nick and Charlie. The series may be over on the page. But the genre it helped bring to a whole new audience is genuinely just getting started.