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 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 - The Weekly Graphic Novel: Week 32 - That Kind of Girl, 1999

When I had my comic store, I used to contend that if you came in and spent a bit of time talking to me, I could 100% find a comic that you would enjoy. Bear in mind, this was 15 years ago, when there was still a lot, or a lot more, rhetoric around comics not actually being "real" reading.

I still stick to this, but I've further refined my contention such that, if I know a person really well, I'll be able to find a comic of any genre that that person would enjoy. Today's comic, a rather lovely and remarkable erotic story, is just such a work. I read this, and immediately knew that this was just the kind of naughty story that my wife would enjoy. I gave it to her, and I was right.

When I've done weeks of reading erotic comics, I try to distinguish between the erotic and the pornographic. I recently bought a large collection of Eros, Eurotica, and such, enough to fill up a shelf in my library, and there's a wide range of titles that straddle that line, as well as a whole bunch that fall on either side. And I think both have their place, though I have less trouble with the pornographic, which I equate with the exploitative (not necessarily in a denigrating manner, but in a less-exploratory manner than erotica) when presented as comics. Exploitative live action porn always runs the risk of being damaging to those involved if the exploitation is done out of negative emotion rather than positive emotion.

Anyway, Molly Kiely is not exploiting anyone. All the characters in this story have agency, have choice, and exercise that choice to have excellent, excellent sex. Perhaps the difference between erotica and porn is that erotica conveys a greater sense of sex positivity in contrast to porn's exploitation. I'll have to think about this a bit more.

Which won't be hard (pun intended), as I have the aforementioned shelf of dirty comics now! Expect a few more over the coming (again, pun intended) weeks.

Onward!