Sex In the Comics: Sex In Color

After all that text in the book Sex In the Comics are the color spreads. Here are the captions that went with each of these illustrations in that spread. Apologies for many of the comics not being in English, but that's what happens with a survey of international comics.

Enric Sió, L'Uomo delle Pirimadi (“The Man from the Pyramids”). Sex and archaeology: you can bet there is a curse on old Pharaoh's tomb.

Gérard Lauzier, La Course du Rat (“The Rat Race”). Or, when love games get out of hand...

Jan Strnad and Richard Corben, Mutant World. This page provides an incongruously happy ending to the grim tale of barbarism and inhumanity that preceded it. Corben is one man unshakable in the belief that sex is what makes the world go round.

Roger Zelazny and Gray Morrow, Shadow Jack. Sex is sweet, but to evil queens revenge is even sweeter.

Howard Chaykin and Pat Broderick, American Flagg!. A typical moment of relaxation for the hero, fresh from having saved the galaxy (again). Notice the flippant dialogue, unusual for an American comic book.

Mike Friedrich and Dick Giordano. Stephanie Starr. Here the hero and the heroine enjoy a moment of relaxation together. A typical American romance.

Paul Gillon, La Nouvelle Vénus (“The New Venus”). The comic artists' visions of the future can hardly be judged puritanical. Here the heroine, back from saving the galaxy (of course), enjoys a typical moment of relaxation with a virile partner whom she has just materialized through a contraption called “the cosmic transmitter”.

Rodolphe and Buffin, Cabellos Azules (“Blue Hair”). In this unusual vampire story, with the benefit of some unusual artwork, a beautiful “vamp” (in the literal sense) lures handsome males into her arms, in order to drain their blood, and thus keep herself eternally young—a clear illustration of the “praying mantis” syndrome.

Jacques Rochberny, Jeune Mariée aux Oies (“Young Bride with Geese”). Rochberny displayed a deft and witty touch in this rural version of Leda and the Swan. In the case at hand, unfortunately, the tale ended not in apotheosis but in murder—with the jealousy-crazed husband wringing the necks of the offending fowl.

Carlos Trillo and Horacio Altuna. Tragaperras (“Sucker Plays”). A love story with a different twist: after saving an apparently beautiful young girl from a gang of rapist, the hero finds the victim isn't a “she”...

Alan Moore and Stephen Bissette, The Saga of Swamp Thing. Waking up from a horrible dream of sex and degradation, a girl finds herself face to face with the object of her repressed fears.

Nazario (Nazario Luque), Anarcoma. Firmly set among the gay underlife of Barcelona, with its hero a transvestite private eye, Anarcoma shows just how far comics have traveled.

Then is the afterword. Here you can see what I meant in previous chapters when I said the text was given as big margins and type as possible to still classify as a book of text when it was really the pictures that were intended to sell the book.