Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction

Its quirky, its light and its fun. The idea that these two people can use sex as a means to stop time and rob banks... its something different if nothing else.

Its bad day reading at its finest. Something to come home to and have a laugh to and smile. With bright colours and simpler artwork you can't help but enjoy it. The old school letters to the editor about adult topics are also quality entertainment in their own right.

Having read the first seven 'episodes' so far, individual ratings range between two and four stars from five, over all I would give the series a three.

Deathmatch - Paul Jenkins

There was something oddly satisfying about this three part graphic novel series. The parallels and similarities between these brand new characters and the familiar characters of the DC and Marvel worlds it almost seem as though picking up an old favorite: the Superman and Batman's of the world that have become - now that I am an adult - the reading equivalent of the tatty old favorite sweater that will never be parted with, no matter how many holes it gathers, because wearing that sweater has come to mean home and comfort and safety.

But despite any such feelings, these are not those characters. They are not constrained by the continuities of universes that the Superman's and Batman's and Spidermen all come out of. 

That juxtaposition, I think, is what was most satisfying about these books. The art work was fantastic, the colours brilliant and the story solid, gripping and engaging.  And the best bit, as the reader, you were actually allowed to enjoy all that because your not fighting to learn a whole new mythos or find empathy for new characters because that part of your brain is pulling on that tatty sweater and finding itself at home in the familiar.

Definitely an easy and worth while read. Four out of five stars.

Lost Girls - Alan Moore

“My dear, beautiful and imaginative things can be destroyed. Beauty and imagination cannot.”
Lost Girls, volume three

Sex in books is always an interesting topic - even more so in comic books. Where does one draw the line between art and erotica; between story telling and pornography. Sex is such an important part of adult life and yet we, as a society, tiptoe around it as if it is some boogy man hiding in our closets, waiting to pounce when we least expect it.

The Lost Girls trilogy addressed this wonderfully, I think. 

Yes, its graphic; yes, its full of sex and lesbianism and masturbation and all those other things that we are not supposed to talk about - especially as women. But it serves its purpose, and it serves it exceptionally.

Now I'm not saying that every book should be packed cover to cover with sex, but as writing tool it can be very powerful, either as an aid to character and emotional development, or in this case, a thematic platform. The use of sex by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie to create such power and thought provoking contrasts was, in my opinion, truly inspired. Life and lust against the backdrop of the horrors and deaths of World War One told through the now grown up eyes of women so intrinsically linked with our childhoods - Wendy Darling, Dorothy Gale and Alice. Opposites that all fit together so perfectly to form the whole.

The only thing that let the series down for me was the artwork itself. The look was just ever so slightly off for me. But with such a thought provoking effect on me, I was willing to work around that. 

Three stars all up.