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: Yellow Hearts
Creators: Format: Webcomic
Color: Color
Romanceiness: Romantic Elements
Heat: PG13
Tags: queer fantasy adventure
Creators: Format: Webcomic
Color: Color
Romanceiness: Romantic Elements
Heat: PG13
Tags: queer fantasy adventure
Where to Buy or Read:
Synopsis from the Creator:
Three kids make an ill-advised (but well-intentioned) deal with a demon in the woods one day. Twenty years later, Levi, Rowan, and Alder meet again to find out their past has caught up to them. But a lot changes in twenty years, and they aren’t as innocent as they used to be.
In the vein of Nimona and Dragon Age, this character-driven comic by Keezy Young is a queer, modern take on the fantastical. Prepare for an adventure with your new found family.
Love In Panels' Review:
Yellow Hearts is a comic about three people who met first, briefly, as children, and accidentally made a deal with a demon. Now, as adults, the demon has drawn all three of them back together, so that it may repay it’s debt to them. As children, they seem to have given it permission to have friends, to mimic humanity, and now the demon wishes to repay them with a single wish.
The story picks up in earnest years later, when coincidence again brings them all back to the same city where the tale started. We’re able now to see who they’ve grown up into, how the demonic pact (and subsequent flight) event affected them, and even how it affected the demon they made a bargain with. The three main characters come from distinctly different walks of life - a noble city guard and self-styled coward (Alder), a grifter (Levi), and a necromancer of some sort (Rowan). As the story progresses, each of them seems to be grappling with their past. It’s vague, but there’s enough detail that I’m confident the author has a definite direction. Alder and Levi are also in the beginning stages of a attraction to one another, despite the fact that queer identities seem to be frowned upon in this world.
The three (or four) main characters share a bond in that they’re genuinely good people in a world that doesn’t make room for them. I believe this bond will carry them forward to eventually triumph, though the main enemy right now seems to be their own fear of the unknown. Demons are not to be bargained with, but they made a deal with one, in good faith, before they even knew it was a demon. There's enough doubt in the world's religious texts that I don’t think the demon is evil.
The artwork is mostly thin lines with flat colors, but it does a great job pulling the reader in and conveying the emotion of the characters. Individual pages are made up of similar hues and tones, in a way that reminds me of the artwork of Bill Waterson (of Calvin & Hobbes), surprisingly enough. It is certainly less cartoonish, but the palettes evoke the sense of adventure in a prehistoric T-Rex or Spaceman Spiff comic.
Fans of fantasy comics will enjoy this one. We're looking forward to reading it as the story develops.
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.
