Transfixed is a trans and genderqueer erotic comics anthology that collects over 200 pages of brand-new stories, all exploring the fantastical worlds of fairy tales!
Title: Fearful Hunter
Creators: Format: EBook Print
Color: Black and White
Romanceiness: Definitely a Romance
Heat: NSFW
Tags: gay fantasy
Creators: Format: EBook Print
Color: Black and White
Romanceiness: Definitely a Romance
Heat: NSFW
Tags: gay fantasy
Where to Buy or Read:
Synopsis from the Creator:
Oisin, a shy young druid, lives in a ferocious world of sacred sexuality and erotic elder gods. When he falls for Byron, a simple wolf who only mates for life, their love threatens the plans of those who desire a forbidden power. Do the star-crossed lovers stand a chance when lascivious Druid masters and savage elder gods threaten their fragile new relationship?
Love In Panels' Review:
FEARFUL HUNTER is a fascinating mix of druid lore, punk/youth culture, and werewolves. The plot is summarized elsewhere, so I won't go into it too much. I will say that the author's intro definitely informed my reading of the story, giving it an allegorical bent that I might have missed otherwise.
If you read reviews of the store elsewhere, you'll probably see that it contains a lot of sex and nudity. The druids walk around naked most of the time, with the exception of any time they go into "town." They commune with their "allies," or nature spirits, through sex. The central couple, a young druid and werewolf, also have rather a lot of sex. If I interpret it correctly, they're young men in their first relationship. The sex doesn't seem out of place, is what I'm saying.
As for the art, Macy's pages with abstract or magical imagery are far more evocative than those in between. The art isn't in a style I usually seek out, so my appreciation of the book is much more skewed toward the plot.
Overall, I'm glad I read it. I probably won't be re-reading FEARFUL HUNTER, but if you've ever wanted to know if a druid will choose love with a werewolf over fulfilling his initiation rites... give it a try.
I've been a big fan of First Second since I started reading getting really into comics, so I'm thrilled to read this piece of news.
Faith Erin Hicks pairs a socially awkward hockey girl with an outgoing, confident drama boy in her latest YA graphic novel. Alix loves hockey, but her teammates... not so much. Team Captain Lindsay is a bully and none of the other girls stand up for Alix for fear of Lindsay turning on them next. Classic toxic high school behavior. One day something in Alix flips and she punches Lindsay. She's horrified by her behavior and, most of all, the fact that she didn't seem to be in control of herself at all.
The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich is almost exactly what the cover suggests: a whimsical queer romance with lots of cheese.
While everyone else was busy theorizing about Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens, Josh Trujillo and Levi Hastings were captivated by the story of Baron von Steuben, a Prussian military strategist--and kind of a con man, tbh--who played a pivotal role in the American Revolutionary War. Washington's Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron von Steuben is the expansion of Trujillo's much shorter comic at The Nib and is a much more thorough biography supplemented with author commentary, historical context and the inclusion of other figures of the time.
Thanks to Shop Your Shelves, I finally read Life of Melody, by Mari Costa. It's everything I hoped it would be.
Way back in 2018, I wrote a post about Merfolk in Romance and included what was then a webtoon publishing on Tapas, The Sea in You. Five years later--dang, I've been at this for a while--Iron Circus is publishing it in all its sapphic underwater glory! This full-color book is out in March, 2023.
When folks come to me looking for high quality erotic comics (this is more frequent than you might think), I almost always point them toward Iron Circus Comics' Smut Peddler series. These are giant collections of just-long-enough comics full of consent and joy, pining and hope, diverse bodies and identities and more. They're often weird, unique or thought-provoking. In all, they're good smutty fun.
Money Shot is a classic case of an entertaining premise falling apart after the first few issues. Without doing any research, I suspect that the creative team had planned out one arc and then the series was successful enough that they got more issues and just flailed about for a while. All that said, the first trade is very funny and appropriately porny.
Sigh. Chef's Kiss is pretty to look at (art below) but it's really shallowly developed. The opening scenes consist of Ben moving in with three roommates shortly after graduating from college. He applies to and interviews for lots of writing and editing jobs before stumbling upon a job opening at a nearby vegetarian restaurant. Thus begins a drawn out plot in which Ben has to cook three existing dishes and develop one new one for the restaurant and get approval of the chef's pig, Watson.
