By Ellen Forney. Introduction by Dan Savage.
Fantagraphics Books. ISBN 978-1-56097-864-8. 168 pages. Hardcover. $19.95.
It's completely hot.
And it's completely hilarious.
That's a hard combination to get right. Sex and humor are a tricky combination. I've written about this before: a big part of sex is about building up tension, and a big part of humor is about breaking tension, so they're two great tastes that don't always taste great together.
But comic artist Ellen Forney makes it work.
Like I was saying, "sexy" and "silly" is a combination that's hard to pull off. But Forney has the knack of it. She has an unerring eye for the overlapping ground between sex and humor -- namely, playfulness. What's more, she has the ability to make her subjects seem completely human -- imperfect, vulnerable, goofy, hopeful -- in a way that's loving and friendly, and that actually makes her subjects seem even more sexy. And the shamelessness and pure adventurous spirit of these advertisers is simply inspiring. Anyone who runs adult online personal ads absolutely needs to read it...if only to get some new ideas.
But Forney is more than just an enthusiastic appreciator of the astonishing variety of human sexuality. She is also an exceptionally skilled comics artist, with a distinctive, immediately recognizable style that is a major part of the beauty and eroticism in this book. She has a strong, bold, sensual line that seems like it was born to draw sex. And her drawing and design skills are on proud display here. From the text of the BDSM ad written into the ropes tied around a naked body, to the lush Art Nouveau styling on the "Hairy Girl" ad, she shows inventiveness, imagination, and serious artistic chops. She clearly has a deep respect for sex, and is clearly thrilled to be using her considerable talents to illustrate dirty personal ads.
I should tell you that not all of these comics are explicitly sexy or dirty. Many of them are, but a lot of them aren't. And they're not all meant to be. Many of these cartoons are just supposed to be funny. So if you're looking at this simply as a stroke book, you may find it disappointing.
But I found Lust to be not just intriguing and funny and beautiful, but extremely arousing as well. And I found that even the silly, funny, non-explicit cartoons add to the overall eroticism of the book. Ellen Forney has found a way to turn the goofy, absurd, "what would this look like to space aliens?" side of sex into something hot, enticing, and erotically inspiring. It is sexy, it is unique, and it is not to be missed.
(Disclosure: Ellen Forney is a contributor to a book I edited, "Best Erotic Comics 2008," as well as the cover artist for that same book.)
Greta Christina has been writing about sex professionally since 1989. She
is editor of the annual anthology series Best Erotic Comics. She edited
the anthology Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients,
and author of the erotic novella "Bending," which appeared in the
three-novella collection Three Kinds of Asking For It edited by Susie
Bright. Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and
online publications, including Ms., Penthouse, and Skeptical Inquirer, as well as several anthologies, including three volumes of Best American Erotica. She blogs about sex, atheism, politics, and other polite topics at gretachristina.typepad.com.