We went over some nice sex comics, where everyone is happy, and I hope you found something to enjoy. This time, it’s Halloween month—and at Halloween, sex gets different. All sorts of sex-and-horror analysis is out there for you to find (or write! Wanna write something like that for us?), but right here right now we’re just going to recommend some stories that tell an edifying narrative without blinking away the fact that some sex just is not up to scratch. We do strange things to each other, don’t we? Be warned, NSFW images are below the cut.
Miss Don’t Touch Me, Hubert & Kerascoet
Parisienne maid & virgin Blanche is forced to work as an “English method” dominatrix in an expensive 1930s brothel, whilst attempting to solve a murder and gain control of her life. Blanche is required to wear a sexy prude outfit, hold a riding crop, and punish men. No quarter given. These are powerful men, movers and shakers, who come to the brothel to get their rocks off being scolded by a young, thin, “pure” woman. Blanche is incredibly good at her job, because she hates these men. Through a quirk of fate she comes to rely upon expression of certain honesties to keep a roof over her head, healthcare available to her, and to allow access to the people she needs to investigate. Nevertheless: Blanche is trapped, her life is not her own, her virginity has become her marketable quality, and manipulation comes from all directions. This comic is superbly composed, complex…the dance it leads you on is subtle as you like. Do not miss the clever, clever summations in the final pages to each of this story’s two volumes. Golden cartooning.
— Claire
Megahex, Simon Hanselmann
Megg and Mogg are friends, roommates, cat guardian/pet, and sex partners. Their relationship is largely unhealthy and destructive, but they’re not all bad. Mogg has a thing for giving Megg rimjobs, but she isn’t into it. One night Mogg violates this boundary and claims he misinterpreted Megg’s limits, which may or may not be true. Their relationship gets into a lot of issues most codependent couples grapple with, sans the long-winded conversations about how to solve them. They lack the self-awareness for such talks to happen.
— Romona Williams
Catwoman: The Game Judd Winick, Guillem March
I partially defended the Catwoman/Batman sex controversy of her New 52 series because I accepted this as a bad relationship. A Selina that is out of control and for whom sex and violence is her immediate outlet, and a Bruce who wants to save her, but whose penis keeps getting in the way. I hate how March drew the gratuitous imagery because it took so much away from the potential exploration of Selina’s emotional baggage. That said, the overall reboot of Selina, taking her from the lady her previous fans knew and loved, to this angry, angry, angry, violent, reckless, angry younger version that Batman is compelled to save from herself? I’ll pass.
— Wendy Browne
My New York Diary and Dirty Plotte, Julie Doucet
Julie Doucet has since retired from comics, which is a shame, because My New York Diary was one of the first books that made me realize that hey, women are in fact making books that are weird and dirty and sexy. Her move to and life in New York involves a lot of poor decisions, including sex ones. Dirty Plotte gets weirder. “Plotte” is French-Canadian slang for vagina, and that kind of crass dirtiness is carried throughout the volumes of Dirty Plotte. There’s a story about cookie masturbating, one where snakes give head, and it’s all told frankly with gorgeous black and white art. Her comics also tend to deal with gender roles, including what it’s like to be a women in the male-dominated spaces of comix in the 90s, so while there’s not a lot of plot within Plotte, there is a lot to chew on.
— Kat Overland
Oglaf by Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne
This is definitely one of the dirtier and funnier webcomics out there. The sex is strange and sometimes complicated, there are disembodied penises, sex chambers, lots of BDSM. It’s a fantasy webcomic that takes place long, long ago in a fictional land. There are a few short story arcs that are mixed up with a few others, and a lot of great one-off pages. Expertly drawn, full of hilarious jokes, you’ll want to read it at work but the pages of orgies and squirting will probably dissuade you.
— Al Rosenberg
Rent Girl by Michelle Tea and Laurenn McCubbin
Rent Girl is the account of one woman’s work in the sex industry. Michelle is a lesbian who has sex with men for money, and this story follows her and her friends through the good, bad, and ugly of being a prostitute. The art betrays an almost nervous tick, that anxious feeling you have when you’re not sure if you can make rent, and the sex that’s illustrated is sometimes hot, but more often uncomfortable. Michelle frequently stares out at the viewer over the man’s shoulder, and that pairs with a self-awareness in the writing to make clear that she doesn’t want your pity or to be thought a victim.
— Sarah Richardson
