It's Only Forever: Labyrinth: Volume 17 (Pop Classics)

A wild, intimate, and political deep dive into Jim Henson’s 1986 classic starring David Bowie and its cast of lovable, gender-defying goblins.

In the 40 years since Labyrinth’s release, Jim Henson’s cult classic starring a menagerie of goblin puppets, the conversation about it has only grown louder. Fans are still holding viewing parties and masquerade balls, and creating memes inspired by David Bowie’s sardonic and sexy goblin king, numerous Etsy crafts, and even a Japanese video game. But what makes the film so enduring, beyond its technical mastery and clever script, is how it presents childhood as something dangerous, heroic, and even queer.

It's Only Forever explores Labyrinth as an ’80s time capsule that both reflects and challenges its era, offering its young audience an alternative to conservatism and soulless economics, at a time when U.S. president Ronald Reagan ignored the HIV/AIDS crisis, pushing queerness further into the shadows. As Sarah, played by a teenaged Jennifer Connelly, faces down the king and his destructive whims, she exclaims, “You have no power over me,” and in that moment she is everyone who has ever felt marginalized, who has instead turned to the goblins over social and political toxicity every single time.

From the costuming to the twisting plot, this classic example of 1980s fantasy shows us that the magic and comfort of childhood never need to be discarded as we are forced to enter a world that may very well seek to destroy us. Instead, Labyrinth reveals a universal and beautiful truth: that our strength comes from what we have always known ourselves to be — beastly, loving, and wildly joyful.

Jes Battis is a queer autistic writer and teacher, and the author of The Winter Knight, the Occult Special Investigator series, and the Parallel Parks series (as Bailey Cunningham). Their work has been shortlisted for a Saskatchewan Book Award and a Sunburst Award, as well as the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize. The Winter Knight was featured in the Canada Reads 2024 competition and won both an Independent Publisher's Award and an Indie Foreword Award. Battis teaches queer and trans studies, medieval literature, and representations of disability/neurodiversity in pop culture at the University of Regina. They live in Regina and spend time with family in Vancouver.