The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1943: Head #2, September 2002

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Been a while since I needed a jump...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1839: 2 Hot Girls on a Hot Summer Night #2, 1991

A different kind of hard time?

(Sorry. I sometimes think I should forego humour altogether. I've been telling Dad jokes since I was 13.)

I currently revamping my filing system, trying to condense the collection a bit, do some upkeep on bags that are falling apart. I'm putting sequential comics into the same bag, as I frackin' hate spending money on filing materials. Now I should be set for at least the next little while. As I've been going through my storage collections of Marvel and DC, I've been finding cool little runs of characters that I didn't really know I had. I think once I'm done with the filing, I'm going to pull out a couple of neat little superhero runs just to get some of that older, stored away stuff back into the project. But until that point, I've got to find something else to read now that Hard Time is done. I'd set aside a stack of comics, but that was a couple of months ago, and my tastes are mercurial. As I say, these older runs of superhero stuff are kind of calling to me, but I also feel like I haven't really been paying much attention to the indie stuff for a while. If only I had another 34 years in which to read all of these things.

And so I opened up the drawer of sex comics and found this one. I will say that I really and truly appreciate the clarity of the title. There's very little wiggle room as to what we're about to see in the comic. I suppose it could simply be about two overheated women on a warm night, and in a sense it is, but if you walked into a comic shop, in the mood for a story about two attractive ladies on a warm night and the shenanigans they pursue, this comic would scratch that itch.
It's not a bad comic by any stretch of the imagination. That said, it doesn't stretch the imagination that much, and is fairly standard fare for the Eros line. There's a really, really terrible attempt at capturing the cockney accent, so bad in fact that it really reduces the enjoyment of the comic. I couldn't quite figure out what the "2 hot girls" were saying sometimes. Thank goodness for the visual accompaniment.

No idea what we'll read tomorrow. Which, to be honest, is kind of exciting. I do like lining up a bunch of comics to read, but sometimes it's also nice to be totally Zen about it and just find the thing that speaks to you on a particular day.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1549 - 1551: Liaisons Delicieuses #3 - 6, January, May, June 1991

I'm going to catch up on this series by reviewing the last three issues, which are actually a single, odd story. The first issue is the reverse of most erotica, in that the women start off naked and finish dressed in elaborate ball gowns by the end of the issue. In the subsequent issues, we follow each of the women, one in black, one in white, as they wander through a hall full of sculptures, all nude men, of course.

As each woman picks a statue, and begins to writhe all over it, the statue...responds...and the woman sets to. The interesting thing is that, by the end of the final issue, both women have climaxed but, in the process, have also become stone, attached forever to the statue she chose.

They were responsible for a few deaths, so don't feel too bad for them.

The final view is of the mansion, now in darkness within and without.

Forg, or Richard Forgues, doesn't show up much more in the GCD. I often wonder if there are writers and artists for whom there is only one story, or a couple, and then they're done. Perhaps there are people who have only a few stories to tell, rather than the cornucopias of our professional storytellers.

Or perhaps he's just moved on to a venue that hasn't been covered by the GCD. Regardless, I love this series, and I'm happy for it to be out in the world to enjoy. These last three were really the best ones, mainly because there was no murder, but also because they were weird, and sexy, and beautiful, which is a winning combination.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1548: Liaisons Delicieuses #3, January 1991

Honestly completely lost now. Three people arrive at the mansion in a helicopter, fight the butler, pleasure the women, and then are blown out of the sky by them with an old school cannonball-firing cannon. Oh, and one of the three people, dressed in the same garb as the weird 17th Century looking guys, disrobes and turns out to be a statuesque Black woman.

There's actually not even that much sex in this issue. I am so confused.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1547: Liaisons Delicieuses #2, December 1990

As if you couldn't tell, today's story was about a particularly vicious pillow fight. Well, "vicious," I suppose.

I can't for the life of me figure out the men in this series. They seem to be there simply to have sex with the two ladies and then get killed. Seriously. I'm not entirely certain what kind of a statement this is making, but I'm certainly enjoying trying to figure it out.

Nothing else to say for today. I'm not feeling particularly chatty, I'm afraid.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1546: Liaisons Delicieuses #1, November 1990

This series has long been one of my favourites. The art is simple and striking, the setting ambiguous (there are cars and duels to the death with swords, and strangely 17th century-looking dudes), and the sex fantastic. I honestly have no idea what's going on, who these ladies are, and really why any of this is happening. But that's not really the point, I suppose. The point is the sex.

I found out this morning, while researching Forg (the creator) a bit that he's from Montreal, so this is technically a Canadian comic. And, yes, for anyone reading from around the world, we really do have the best sex here in Canada. Because it is so. Fucking. Cold. for so long every year.

This is night one of six. Strap in (on?) and hold tight.

(The comic is wordless, so I can't post any lines from it!)

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.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1204: Small Favors #3, June 2001

As I was thinking on what to say about this comic, I surfed over to a bookseller website and was about to order the recently released collection of the series from Oni Press. Then I thought I should probably see if any of my local stores have it first, but the impulse does help me with what I want to say:

I love this comic.

This is, hands down, one of the best adult comics I've read. It's funny, it's cute, it's erotic, and it's totally, totally about sex being fun.

The set-up is that Nibbil is a tiny Jiminy Cricket-style conscience, sent to prevent Annie from masturbating too much. Instead they fall in love and have lots of really hot gay sex.

Colleen Coover's art is just wonderful. Her command of figure and expression is on display up there on the cover, but the sense of narrative contained within is just astounding. I've read adult comics where I've become bored by the sex scene almost from the first panel. Standard poses, quotes, etc. But Ms. Coover draws one particular encounter out over a fair number of pages, and turns the sex into the narrative that, very often, sex is. It's not all pouty lips and heaving sighs, but also giggles at silly things the other says, or stopping for a drink of water. It's sex as a story, rather than as part of a story, and thus has all the trappings of a story.

Here's the other thing about this comic: how can one possibly resist something that calls itself a "girly porno comic book"? Simply not possible.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1184: Lust #5, August 1997

Back to some of the naughtier comics in the collection. More after the jump.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1060: Head #1, March 2002 (Eek! It's a Naughty Week! Day 3)

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The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1059: Playbear #1, June 1995 (Eek! It's a Naughty Week! Day 2)

While I do file this comic in my adult section of the collection, it's actually pretty tame for an Eros comic. There's plenty of heaving bosoms bared, but no lower genitalia, and definitely no sex. It really is "good girl entertainment," in that it's more about the tease than the act. Felix's art is fantastic - I find this in many European imports (I think this is a European import). There is a definite attention paid to the bodies on these pages, both human and robotic teddy bear. And while I do appreciate close attention to one's draftsmanship, I also can't help but think that the reason so many artists, male artists, are so good at drawing women is that they've been raised to see women purely as aesthetic visual phenomena, rather than as, y'know, people. A lot of the time the characters in European erotica, specifically the women, move like they're runway models rather than human beings in three dimensional space. This is a marked difference from much of the erotic manga I've read, where characters might be able to do impossible things in the bedroom, but outside of that magical zone they're governed by the same laws of physics as the rest of us. Even on panel of a woman tripping while wearing a ridiculous high heel would demonstrate some awareness of the person as person, rather than as reflection of the male gaze.

Huh. Things got Feminist-y there. Wasn't expecting that. I think what it is is that in many erotic/porn comics, we at least see the women in the stories enjoying themselves (well, in the comics I have in my collection, at least). But here the women are literally there simply to provide set dressing. I'd never deny the allure of a beautiful person. Beauty fills an aesthetic need that we all have. But the problem, as I'm sure I've mentioned in this project before, is when someone is reduced to the level of solely aesthetic object.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1058: Saucy Little Tart, February 1997 (Eek! It's a Naughty Week! Day 1)

I read one of Molly Kiely's graphic novels a while back for the project, and I was pretty positive about her particular brand of erotica. It's fun and happy, and deals not just with the bodies of sex but the emotions of sex as well. And today's comic is no exception. In fact, it goes even further into sex positivity and inclusivity. As far as I can tell, this series is the story of twin sisters, one of whom is a professional dominatrix and one of whom is queer. That's actually about all I know about them. Oh, and they like to have sex. Not, I'm assuming, with each other, but definitely with other people.

What's really lovely about this comic is that there's some excellent gender queering. You've got a sub male, a lesbian who lets herself experiment, and an object of desire who turns out to be something quite different than expected. And there's no hate or shock or derision, just people enjoying each others' intimate company.

Sounds nice.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project Friday Magazine 3: Hardcore Dard #1, September 1998

The GCD only catalogues publications that have a particular percentage of their content classed as comics (the definition of which is, y'know, complicated). I'm a little more lax about these things. As a result, though, there's no page on the GCD to link to for Hardcore Dard, so instead I've linked to a site that provides scans of every page of the publication. It's worth a look. The magazine (and my apologies for missing last week) only contains two two-page strips, the rest of the mag being devoted to some really excellent erotic portraits. Dard's style is really quite lovely, though there's definitely something of the 80s (and the early 80s at that) lurking in all the pictures. It could be the cheesy mustaches on the men, or the fact that none of the women are bare down there.

One thing I will point out about Dard that makes his stand out amongst erotic illustrators, and especially amongst those who produce comics, is that his depictions of female genitalia are really fantastic. It's very easy in the simpler world of comics to depict the vagina as simply a slit, but Dard gives it all the character that a vagina deserves. I'm sure I picked up on this in one of the adult comics I've reviewed over the last couple of years, but it really is always a nice surprise to see an artist lavish that kind of attention on female anatomy.

Onward.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 199: Silky Whip #4, August 1998 (Eros Comix Hentai Week Day 6)

Nearing the end of the road here, and what a strange road it's been. I'll admit, I'm looking forward to returning to the Age of Apocalypse. Perhaps the reason that one doesn't see a lot of attention paid to erotic or pornographic comics is that it's very easy to become desensitized and bored with them. How much sex can one watch? (There's a dangerous question to ask if there ever was one!)

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 198: Super Taboo Extreme #3, February 2001 (Eros Comix Hentai Week Day 5)

A return to the world of Wolf Ogami's Super Taboo in Super Taboo Extreme. Ahead lie strange waters. You've been warned.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 197: Sexhibition #2, November 1995 (Eros Comix Hentai Week Day 4)

One of my favourite series of adult comics if Phil Foglio's Xxxenophile, collected into 6 volumes and filled with science fiction and fantasy stories where people have unrestrained, consensual, completely fun sex. Far too few erotic comics embrace this aspect of play in sexuality. Today's selection, Sexhibition, comes close.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 196: The Sex-Philes #1, December 1998 (Eros Comix Hentai Week Day 3)

Obviously trading on the popularity of the X-Files television series for this series. This one's interesting, perhaps my favourite of the ones I'm reviewing this week.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 195: Super Taboo #12, October 1996 (Eros Comix Hentai Week Day 2)

Continuing our journey into the darker crevices of my collection. Actually, scratch that. There's really no reason I should keep these in the dark. They're expressions of particular human emotions, just like any other story. It's just our Puritanical cultural mores that keep us from admitting that, by and large, we're a horny bunch.

 

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 194: Lust #9, December 1997 (Eros Comix Hentai Week Day 1)

 Let's take a break from "Age of Apocalypse," shall we? One can only take so much alterna-X-Men. We're about to jump into a particularly salacious corner of my comics collection. I'd mentioned in my post on Betty By The Hour that I have a fondness for adult comics, and over the years of collecting them, I've come across a subset that's both strange and titillating. In the late nineties, Fantagraphics published a line of erotic comics under the aegis of Eros Comix, and within that venture was the "Mangerotica" line. This week we're going to have a look at a few examples of this line. Be warned. These are pretty extreme. If you're offended by pornographic or erotic comics, I'd advise you to skip this week. I'm going to try to be as honest about these comics as I have been about all of the others I've read. Probably should include a "Too Much Information" warning. Anyway, after the break, we'll get going.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 149: Betty by the Hour #6, February 1996 (Two Weeks From The Dollar Bin - Day 13)

I've got a soft spot for erotic comics.

There's a joke there, but this is kind of a PG-13 blog, so I'll leave it.

This comic is beautiful. It screams its European origins from the rooftops, with lovely ladies and goofy-looking guys. The eponymous Betty is, even from the brief sampling in this single issue, a well-realized character, one portrayed as both comedic and tragic. There's a strip partway through the issue in which her son asks about his absent father, and Betty concocts a lovely romantic story of their meeting and parting even as the graphics depict a memory of having been raped in an alley. This is thoroughly emblematic of the notion, prevalent in European comics, I'd say, of erotica not simply being a venue for T&A, but also a place where one can explore the more dramatic and problematic facets of human beings as sexual creatures.

Of course, in this issue at least, the tragic comes out but once, and the comedic rules the show. But even then, there are moments where the punchline of a strip can also be construed from an intellectual standpoint. Betty sees the success of a former prostitute who has written her true-to-life memoirs, and the punchline of the story is that she begins to write her own (it's slightly more amusing in print). But the reason for her decision is that she hears of all the terrible things this author suffered, and how successful her book is. There's a critique there, of the desire for sensationalized accounts of truly horrible suffering that seems to pervade our society. And further, we can assume that Betty decides to write because she's suffered similar things herself. So while there is that odd trope of the gorgeous female and the cartoony male, Trillo, Maicas, and Bernet are actually putting some substance into their comedy.

If you can track it down, this one's just slightly below Phil Foglio's Xxxenophile series and Michael Manning's Cathexis for me as far as stellar examples of erotic comics go.

See you tomorrow.

(Should it be a hard spot for erotic comics? Naw. Too obvious.)