Sunday 16 February 2014

Review: Sleazy Slice #5 by Robin Bougie feat. Maxine Frank, Jim Rugg, Tom Crites, Steve Carter, Antoinette Ryder, John Howard & more

All I can say to this one is, what a comic! 68 pages of filth, hilarity, unfettered imagination, and a little bit of stuff to make you think...

Jim Rugg does the honours with the great cover, which includes lots of humourous toilet graffiti.

Robin Bougie and Maxine Frank collaborate on the epic 20 page 'Nakedgirl Bigbattle'; a fun comic which starts off like an autobio strip, and quickly morphs into a pornographic kaiju fantasy.

After a brief introduction by the pair, the strip begins when Maxine's cat start's acting weird, talking to her and ordering her around. It is soon revealed that her cat is a vessel to an alien consciousness which has been sent to give earth the chance to prepare a giant titan to protect them from an imminent threat, and that he'll give Maxine the blueprints to create such a gladiator once she's fed him moist treats.

Maxine creates an underground science lab and get's to work, and a week later is almost finished and tells Robin to come over to tell him what's going on. When an accident occurs with one of Bougie's drawings in Maxine's underground science lab, it inadvertently determines the form of Earth's champion (a sexy naked girl who looks a little like Velma from Scooby Doo), and she breaks out onto the streets, where she awaits for them to climb inside to pilot her (see pic).

With Robin navigating the Giant's motor functions, and Maxine controlling her weapon systems, they're off, leaving mayhem and destruction in their wake as they get used to the controls.

Suddenly, the alien invader arrives; a Giant alien woman, who leaps to the attack. Thus begins the epic battle through Vancouver city, with some brilliant pages of art such as these:
The alien starts changing shape, developing tentacle like fingers, and it soon becomes apparent she's not only interested in fighting, but getting it on.

Just when it looks like our Giant earth girl is overpowered with pleasure, and that she's going to get a particular brutal arse-fisting, Maxine unleashes a secret weapon (I won't spoil it), and the battle begins afresh soon reaching it's very funny and O.T.T. climax.

S.C.A.R. Comics (Steve Carter & Antoinette Ryder), provide a brilliant 16 page strip entitled "Australia After The Fall", a dark fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic world, full of weird and wonderful chimera-esque mutants, the product of cruel genetic experiments, who had once been human.
Two trackers have been sent to find two missing women, in the dangerous outback where different species vie for dominance. As the story unfolds we see more and more of the different creatures and discover that some have strange laws, breeding rituals and religious rites.

When they eventually find the two women, all is not is at it seems, and the two manhunters need to figure out what has happned, or else lose their lives, or become sexual prey to one of the mutant group's breeding rituals.

I love the imagination in this one - all the numerous creature designs are inventive, there's a couple of twists and turns, and a nice philosophical bit right at the end.

Next up is "The Leather Whore" conceived by Bougie, with art by the perversely talented John Howard, and words, believe it or not, by Andrea Dworkin!

This is kind of a strange, hardcore, radical feminist exploitation revenge strip (I don't think Tarantino will be making this one though).

The first half depicts a catalogue of abuses inflicted on the prostitute by misogynist johns, next to the Dworkin quotes about victimisation of women. The second half of the strip shows the prostitute exacting bloody revenge on each of her abusers, along with some of Dworkin's more controversial quotes about women fighting back, that fit what's going on well.
It made me think. I know that Dworkin herself had been a prostitute for a short while and also said she had been in an abusive relationship, which seems to have heavily influenced how she viewed male-dominated society, prostitution and sexual imagery afterwards.

It also shows how violence and power can shift, where the victim can endure so much to the point that, in extreme circumstances, they turn on their abusers with rage and violence.

I can't see that Dworkin would have approved of this strip at all, being as anti-sexual imagery as she was, and having such entrenched generalisations, but I found it strangely fitting, as it deals with the dark side of the sex trade, and a woman who had no power previously, getting her own back on the men with a bloody climax, and I feel that Bougie and Howard's sympathies lie towards her in the story.  As controversial as some might find it, it's a very interesting strip which also shows on another level, sadly, how sexual violence and abuse, can cause such gender divides in people. Well, that was my take on it anyway, maybe I'm over analysing...

Jason Karns (AKA Fukitor) give us 'Carny Tramp', a darkly funny tale with a gory climax about a small-town woman who frequents the visiting carnival, run by a creepy freak-show owner. It feels like a 70's grindhouse film, and has a twist ending.

Karl Wills has a selection of his really nicely drawn 'Jessica of the schoolyard' strips that features a tomboy leader of a gang of schoolgirls, who spend most of their time picking on others and getting into fights

Finally, there are 4 pages of the late Tom Crite's excellent illustrations, which are beautiful, brilliantly detailed, laced with psychedelia, mandalas and occult imagery, and are something to behold.

Tom tragically committed suicide in the August of last year and I only discovered this today, and it came as quite a shock.
I'd chatted with Tom quite a few times online in the past, and we swapped comics with each other (he produced the brilliant Malefact books). He always came across as a kind,intelligent, funny and supportive person, and he was a fantastic artist. One of the good ones.

It's sad news that he's gone, I'm going to miss him.

Anyway. This is an excellent comic, a middle finger to those who say that porn comics aren't art, and don't have anything to say.

Also, Sleazy Slice #7 and Cinema Sewer #27 have just come out so check those out too.

This issue is still available from:

 http://cinemasewer.ecrater.com/

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