LOVE NOT FOUND is a story about a young woman living in a time where touching has become outdated. She has recently moved to a new planet and finds that touching might not be such a bad idea. Now she is on a quest to find someone who wants to do things the old fashioned way!
Note from Love in Panels: Love Not Found is currently updated 3x/week with one print/PDF volume available. Patreon supporters get access to bonus content, as well.
LOVE NOT FOUND, by Gina Biggs, is a sci-fi romance set in a time when touching has become taboo. Main character Abeille (yes, that's French for "bee") is looking for something more than a pre-programmed session with a computer, so she sets out to find someone to "experiment" with.
LOVE NOT FOUND is beautiful. The setting is Monotropa, a planet advertised as "A Nature Lover's Paradise," so Biggs has populated it with interesting plants, dryads, and tropical weather patterns. I'm an avid gardener, so I'm surely biased, but the fact that several of the central characters are botanists is fresh and interesting. The color and costume choices are sweet and fun, and reflect the flower-ful setting in which the story takes place. Characters of all gender expressions often have flowers in their hair and wear clothes shaped like or inspired by plants. Much of the comic is in shades of pink, white, and brown, with pops of yellow, green, and (rarely) blue. It's an unabashedly feminine pallette that doesn't feel childish, but rather playful.
The characters are diverse and engaging, with only one recent addition I don't much care for. Abeille is from a planet called Pasque, which seems to be mostly a permafrost-type biome. We initially don't know much about her family, background, or reasons for emigrating to Monotropa, other than that she wants to plant a garden in memory of her sister. She works in the cafeteria of a company that engineers plants to resist the bugs on the planet. She appears to be white, with pink hair and dark pink eyes.
Miel (French for honey, yep) works as a "logger" at that same company. His job is to log details about various species, including growth and transplant results. If he was from Earth, we would say that his mothers are of South-Asian and African descent. (They're such a fun couple and when you meet them you'll "aww.") Miel is more reserved than Abeille, and their awkward flirting is sweet and feels honest.
Ivy (Abeille's best friend) and her partner, Holly, have an interesting secondary storyline. They're co-researchers at the aforementioned company, choosing to live together out of convenience and efficiency. None of that messy "romance" stuff. Their relationship evolves as Ivy sees Abeille's attitudes changing and begins to want something more for herself as well. Ivy eventually meets Aster, a nonbinary therapist who uses the pronouns Zie and Zer and isn't afraid of touch. Biggs has grown the comic to include many more secondary characters, like Clove, Abeille's coworker who has a speech impediment, and Botan, the foxy head gardener who falls for him.
LOVE NOT FOUND may be adorable, but it also touches on concepts of fidelity, intimacy, grief, taboos, societal and familial expectations, ecology, and the ways in which technology both connects and isolates us. It's worth a look for fans of sci-fi romance, gardening, and/or nuanced exploration of physical intimacy in relationships.
A note on the rating: This might be categorized as PG-13 by the movie world, but I've given it an R rating because a) I've read some of the NSFW bonus content and b) even though it's not visually explicit, there's a lot of talk (and some subtle depictions) of computer generated orgasms.
Gabe and Booker are just two normal college guys, sharing an apartment and failing spectacularly at love. But one day, a talking golf ball named Hal lands in their lives and offers them magical powers...and despite it being a terrible idea, Gabe signs up immediately! Now he must don the admittedly flattering dress of a Magical and fight for love and justice, while Booker, blinded by the sparkles, wants nothing to do with any of this. For fans of Cute High Earth Defense Club Love and Magical Girls-Slash-Dudes, this snarky comedy by Eurika Yusin Gho (eyugho) will blow a little magic up your skirt. Please note: Magical How? is recommended for readers aged 16+ due to crude language and adult topics.
Elizabeth Watson is a young woman trapped between ideals that she can never reach.
Too traditional to take part of her adventurer family lineage and too poor and obscure to be a true society lady, Elizabeth’s fortunes may change for the better with the introduction of famed industrialist Mr. Lovelace in her life. She is soon pulled into his world of industry and conspiracy- where violence is the norm, sky pirates roam the skies and a woman with wings made of brass and steel hunts in the night.
Maiden of the Machine is a Gothic Adventure comic and updates weekly on Mondays and Thursdays. Maiden of the Machine is recommended for PG13/YA level readers for violence, depictions of emotional abuse, and sexual situations.
Maiden of the Machine is a story about a pair of down-on-their-luck sisters seeking adventure. The elder sister (Abhaya, known as Abigail to her cousins) seeks it to make ends meet. The younger sister, Elizabeth (known alternately as Eliza, Lizzy or Bette), finds her curiosity and sense of wonder stoked by a chance meeting with Mr. Lovelace during one of their jobs. (I am also now suspecting that the titulary Maiden of the Machine is neither of the Watson women, but in fact a character who is revealed only about ¾ of the way through.)
The series has been going on for about two years now, and readers should know that the romance doesn’t start until about two years in, but once it starts, it is definitely there! The characterization of the two female leads (both women of color!) is strong, and I have a good sense of how they’ll react to various situations. Despite setbacks, each finds ways to push ahead. The quasi-Victorian setting will also be quite familiar to many, as there is talk of estates, marriages, allowances, and plenty of social awkwardness around “proper” modes of interaction.
It's also a very slow burn mystery - there have been plenty of breadcrumbs dropped so far, but I’ve yet to have an “aha!” moment or feel like I know where the leads go. The fourth main character, Jules, has some kind of ulterior motive, and it may be sinister, but I honestly don’t have enough information to know whether or not I’m guessing correctly. I love the artwork and the Watson women, but I need more connections between the dots for the plot to really hook me. There are recurring motifs (of a dragonfly and of the Lovelace logo) that appear to be in conflict with each other, but the nature of the conflict is unclear, which robs one of the big reveals of a lot of it’s power.
Overall, I’m interested to see where this goes. If you enjoy strong characters and the near-Steampunk setting, I’d encourage you to give it a shot.
Andy and Jeff both needed an outlet for their stress, and separately happened upon a local martial arts studio that seemed to do the trick. But there was more than just forms and punching to be found there . . . unexpected romance.
At 31 pages, this comic is simply too short. I wanted more. The two characters are attending karate classes for stress-relief and fight their "distracting" attraction to each other. One even goes so far as to switch classes to avoid the other. Naturally, that doesn't work. We're left with a sweet, sexy "happy-for-now" (as opposed to the "happily-ever-after") and I want a full length graphic novel. Please?
It's Robin Hood like you've never seen him before, based on scholarly and historical speculation about what's really behind the outlaw's legend.
13th century England. Robert Godwinson, former lover of King Richard, lives with his band of Merry Men in Sherwood Forest, away from the watchful eye of Prince John, who has outlawed homosexuality. Though isolated, the men live in peace—that is, until a stranger enters their camp seeking aid for a nearby town besieged by the Sheriff of Nottingham. Robert—nicknamed Robin—is reluctant to help, but equally eager to get rid of this perplexing stranger... and to put his formidable bow-and-arrow to use. It's Robin Hood like you've never seen him before, based on scholarly speculation about what's really behind the outlaw's legend.
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From Vol. 1:
Physicist Dr. Christine Ocampo is on a mission to discover distant worlds, encounter exotic civilizations, seek out strange species, and, well, get busy with them. Space exploration is expensive business, but science calls and porn pays.
A STORY ABOUT SCIENTISTS HAVING SEX WITH ALIENS FOR THE GLORY OF MANKIND—AND MONEY.
In the near future, space travel is ludicrously expensive and largely ignored. Enter Christine Ocampo, inventor of the Star Shot teleportation device with a big idea: She'll travel to new worlds, engage—intimately—with local aliens, and film her exploits for a jaded earth populace trying to find something new on the internet. Now, Chris and her merry band of scientist-cum-pornstars explore the universe, each other, and the complexities of sex in MONEY SHOT!
A story of love and demons, family and witchcraft.
Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers’ bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town.
One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any town home.
Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help. Their latent feelings are rekindled against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.
(Available in English or Spanish)
After running away from home, Syrma has spent her entire life hiding in the forest, under a hard workout. So when she discovers that she is the victim of a curse that will end her life in a short time, she intends to change her fate. She has two options: surrender and die, or rebel and take over. For her there is only one possible solution: defeat the goddess who sentenced her along with all her family. And time is running out.
But she won’t be alone. Along with the dragon Menkar, her bodyguard, an also cursed sidhe witch and a banished treacherous god, she will seek the way to survive and change her fate.
Pick it up at your Local Comic Book Shop!
(You can also get it on Comixology)
From the first issue:
A NEW ONGOING SERIES from Lumberjanes creator GRACE ELLIS and talented newcomer SHAE BEAGLE that tells a story of monsters, romance, and magical hijinks! The first arc also includes an additional short story with artist KATE LETH! Fantasy creatures are living typical, unremarkable lives alongside humans, and barista Julie strives to be the most unremarkable of all. Normal job, normal almost-girlfriend, normal...werewolf transformations that happen when she gets upset? Yikes! But all bets are off when she and her centaur best friend Chet find themselves in the middle of a magical conspiracy. Will Julie and Chet be able to save their friends? Is Julie's dogged determination to be normal a lost cause? Who's going to watch the coffee shop while our heroes are out saving the world?? These questions and more will be answered in MOONSTRUCK, coming July 19 from Image Comics.
Issue 1 was a delightful exercise in world-building, with character introductions and little bits of plot underscored by various creatures and magical happenings in the background.
Our main characters appear to be a writer/barista werewolf and her centaur BFF and fellow barista. Julie, the wolfy one, is at the beginning of a relationship and, though we haven't yet met the lady of her affection, I'm already shipping them. Chet, a punny centaur with an ambiguous gender identity, appears to be crushing hard on a minotaur who comes in for coffee regularly.
There's also a book-within-a-book, which is total catnip for me. It's as if the creators sat down, said "what are the best things in the world? coffee? books? magic?" and then put them all in one comic.
The art is fittingly adorable and the storyline (so far) is a mix of humor, pathos, and warm fuzzies.
I'm already signed up for more.
Moth Girl is a slice of life lgbt comic about love through metamorphosis, solidarity through change, and the benefit of being a moth when everyone wants you to be a butterfly.