Graphic novels:

Allison, John: Heavy Metal Hearts and Flowers: A Scary Go Round Story
(reread. I've actually been reading the webcomic Scary Go Round for years, and its predecessor Bobbins years before that).

Chadwick, Paul: Concrete vol. 1
(It's precious, but I liked this more than I thought I would anyway).

Chinsang, Wayne, writer, and Dave Crosland, illustrator: Heaven, LLC
(okay, actually, I didn't read more than five pages. As satire, it's a little lacking in subtlety...intelligence...purpose...).

Cruse, Howard: Stuck Rubber Baby
(A coming-of-age story set in the 1960s, about a young, white, gay man learning to accept his homosexuality at the same time that he is drawn by his friends into the Civil Rights movement in Dixie. I was brought to tears for the tragedy, and was grateful for the honesty, the humbleness, the generosity of its spirit. God, this was a hell of a thing to read on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. What a good book. Read it).

Los Bros Hernandez: Tears From Heaven
(I think I prefer Gilbert to Jaime).

I am amused and perfectly unsorry that this discussion doesn't really encompass superhero comics. Shaenon Garrity assembles a crack panel to identify which American cartoonists draw really hot men.

Of the ones mentioned, I can firmly endorse Carla Speed McNeil (who draws sexy, sexy people of both genders, but who is also talented and imaginative enough to draw a variety of physical types, including unsexy people--do not take this sort of thing for granted!) and Mike Mignola (I never got anywhere in Hellboy, but both the male protagonists and the poor women who got eaten by rats were extremely sexy in Migola's adaptation of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser), Wendy Pini (I agree about wanting to bone the elves. Hello, Rayek! Pini also gets props for that coveted ability to draw different physical types), Los Bros Hernandez (the mustaches of Palomar are not my thing, but the male characters have the same vibrant sexuality as the female characters; that extraordinary ability to convey the power and presence of sex and sexuality is one of the magnetic qualities of Love and Rockets), and Kyle Baker (you know the protagonist in You Are Here? The one who looks like a young Cary Grant? That's my type, and how).

I would also like to add Phil Foglio to this list. You can go look at the canon of Foglio's cheerful, sexy, funny, sci-fi porn comic XXXenophile if you don't believe me, but you really need look no further than his current work, Girl Genius, which contains two of the most smoulderingly hot men around in comics: Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, and his son, Gilgamesh. You know, Gil, the one I said I wanted to clone a thousand times so I could marry all the clones. In the context of Girl Genius, that's slightly less bizarre than it sounds. Really.)

Oh, and Adam Warren. It's easy to get distracted by Emp in Empowered, but Thugboy--wow.


Looking over this list, it occurs to me that with all of these artists--I think all or all but one of whom are both artists and writers--the sexy characters they've created aren't just physically good-looking, but are also dynamic, memorable, interesting personalities. It's that synthesis of a well-shaped physical form and a lively personality that makes them stand out as sexy. Superhero comics are filled with cookie-cutter character designs of ideal male and female bodies (sometimes idealized to the absurd or even to the point of being grotesque); it's all quite dull. I find some superhero characters very sexy, but only when they have such interesting personalities that they begin to stand out as people. For a variety of reasons, that doesn't happen much.

Anyway. Anybody else know of any American cartoonists who draw really hot men? Inquiring minds want to know, preferably before my next visit to Hub.

Graphic novels/comics:

Kelly, Walt: Our Gang
(I don't know whether it's a consolation or a tragedy that decades into the future, we'll still need to be apologists for the half-assed nature of our baby steps away from horrible racial caricatures and stereotypes in our comics. This is charming, but has its wince-worthy moments in that regard).

Hernandez, Gilbert: Sloth
(damn good stuff. Confusing, but good).

Bertozzi, Nick: The Salon
(Ping! The positively pornagraphic Picasso penis panel! I was going to write, "infamous," but then I decided to work that alliteration.

This is definitely not a comic for children--aside from the frequent full-frontal nudity--both women and men, which is refreshing!--there is semi-explicit sex and discussions of sex acts and scatological pranks, and several people's heads are ripped off, unsurprisingly resulting in death. The unfortunate comic book store owner in Georgia who is being crucified by local prosecutors for accidentally having given a sample from this to a kid on Free Comic Book Day a couple of years back definitely did err in doing so. That said, trying to criminally prosecute someone for giving a sample of this to a kid is nutty--it's racy, adult, regularly violent and not appropriate for kids, but not harmful.

It is mondo fun. Picasso charms me, the writing is clever, and the art's excellent).


Misako Rocks!: Biker Girl, Rock and Roll Love
(I think the inking is attractive, and would be lovely if the linework was stronger to begin with and if it wasn't often shaded or filled in with dull, ugly tones and scrapy lines for hair. This is my only positive comment on these books, as they are poorly written, inexpertly drawn, unfocused, banal, and badly in need of some editing, especially the one that's a barely fictionalized chronicle of her own teenage crushes when she first came to the states. However, the fact that they are bad books will not necessarily pose a barrier to the right readers. God knows, I've enjoyed crap in my time; even now, I voluntarily watch Torchwood).

Graphic novels:

Talbot, Brian: The Tale of One Bad Rat.


Hernandez, Gilbert: Luba: Three Daughters
(I was initially freaked out by the big boobs, but eventually I realized that it was a deliberate choice of character designs, and the boob size is thematically meaningful. Stop laughing at me, you fucker, it is!

I've put off reading any of the Hernandez brothers' work because I knew it was going to be like jumping into the deep end of a pool: you shouldn't do it unless you're prepared to swim. Like swimming in the deep end, though, it's a lot of fun if you're ready. I look forward to more).


Richardson, Mike, and Rick Geary, authors, Rick Geary, artist: Cravan: Mystery Man of the the Twentieth Century
(Rick Geary work is fun even when there are no horrible murders!).

Eisner, Will: The Name of the Game.

Van Lente, Fred, author, Ryan Dunlavery, artist: Action Philosophers vol. 3
(I've nothing at all against popularizations of complicated subjects, but some of these feel uncomfortably pat. Maybe I just don't entirely agree with some of the characterizations of the persons under discussion).


Manga:

Otomo Katsuhiro: Akira vol. 2.