The 40 Years of Comics Project - The Bi-Weekly Graphic Novel Number 79 - Eros Graphic Album 45: Submissive Suzanne, 2001

It's a pity to have to hide this cover, as I actually think it's my favourite part of the whole book.

I remember in my undergrad I did a philosophy course on aesthetics. A lot of the essays we read dealt with how we can quantify, or if we can quantify, beauty, or pleasure. What is it that we mean when we say something is beautiful, and is there a common, inherent quality of beauty in something that is beautiful?

So I try to keep an open mind when it comes to art, but I also recognize I'm not always going to like it. I didn't like the art in this comic. Or most of it. It just struck me as a bit stilted, though given the subject matter, maybe that's intentional. There are some interesting art pieces in the gallery section of the book, and the latter stories are by far superior to the earlier stuff, but I wonder why it is that the cover solicitation calls it a "legendary" series. To me, it was middling at best.

Perhaps, however, I'm overlooking the fact that this series originally came out in 1991 - the kink landscape was significantly different, and significantly less well known about 27 years ago. So perhaps, despite the art that I'm not big on, this is actually an important moment in kink comics.

I'll just go and add "kink comics" to the ridiculously long list of things I'm going to look into.

Onward...