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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Although comic's aren't what I usually pick to read, I started reading this, because a good friend who knows my book tastes highly recommended it to me.
My highest praise of this story goes to the story itself. The projection of the characters feels very real, and their development is stunningly well written.
It was also beautiful to read the BDSM scenes or where it came up. To me it was kind of like the perfect gift covering to wrap the story with.
Plus that it's obvious that the author realy knows what he is writing about. From all the books/stories I've read up till now, I can easily say that this is to my estimation the best portrayal of what real life BDSM is about.
Lastly, it's a book with f/f romance I realy liked!
Mostly I don't like female lead characters in "modern/urban" settings,
But this one deliciously left out the often heavily present: "I'm a strong woman I can take care of myself" narrative, other books with female protagonists tend to have.
My highest praise of this story goes to the story itself. The projection of the characters feels very real, and their development is stunningly well written.
It was also beautiful to read the BDSM scenes or where it came up. To me it was kind of like the perfect gift covering to wrap the story with.
Plus that it's obvious that the author realy knows what he is writing about. From all the books/stories I've read up till now, I can easily say that this is to my estimation the best portrayal of what real life BDSM is about.
Lastly, it's a book with f/f romance I realy liked!
Mostly I don't like female lead characters in "modern/urban" settings,
But this one deliciously left out the often heavily present: "I'm a strong woman I can take care of myself" narrative, other books with female protagonists tend to have.
3.5 stars. I enjoyed this quite a bit. It's definitely more of a love story than total sexy times. My fiancé also enjoyed it a lot (but I mean of course right?)
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This is way sweeter than I expected! And I was told it was very sweet. The characters feel real and nuanced, the jokes are funny. Art style is quite minimal but very expressive, I love the speech bubbles. The haircuts are kind of regrettable but perhaps they just belong to a zeitgeist I wasn't part of.
Sunstone Vol. 1 by Stjepan Sejic starts to tell the story of two women who meet online and later in person to participate in some BDSM play. Sounds good. Someone mentioned Strangers in Paradise, so I wanted to give this a try, since SiP is a melodramatic, complicated, over-the-top masterpiece with some very good character development, non-model-like body types, love triangles, secret pasts, and criminal action-adventure.
Sunstone's first tpb volume reads like an S&M manual for beginners. The narration (by one of the characters) is very repetitive ("I just met her two months ago," repeated in many forms over and over again, for example). It manages to be humorous at times, and cute and loving at others. Perhaps the most humorous exchanges are between Ally and her "best friend" Allen, the only other prominent character in the volume, and the only male. Even though everything about the BDSM community and some very basic rules and conventions are reiterated many times, it is not clear why the women have issues that they are emotionally (not just sexually) attracted to each other. They bang their heads, no, I can't she's just a friend, on and on, but nowhere in the extensive explanations do we hear why this is a problem. Was it that they think nobody in the BDSM community has relationships? That people meet to play and there is a solid rule of not getting emotionally attached (could be, but usually discussed ahead of time...)? Unclear.
I imagine the sexual orientation issues will be expanded upon in the coming issues, since there seems to be some disconnect between BDSM play and sexual orientation and expression here (the impression I got is that Lisa is straight, or thinks herself as straight. Ally doesn't give an impression either way, except we know she had a relationship with Allen before.) Unclear what the message is, or if there is one, about the nature of BDSM and sexuality and sexual identity and expression (beyond dominant and submissive, which in and of itself is very narrow; also keeping in mind that there is ongoing debate whether BDSM is a sexual orientation itself). It seems that the women both thought that it didn't matter that they were both women, only that one was dominant and the other submissive. Yet, many in the community would have very specific ideas of who they would choose to play with, what gender, what gender expression, etc. (But I realize, this is just a fantasy comic, and perhaps does not require such realistic attention :) )
Most of my issues with this volume are the unnecessary narration and many, many basic cartooning conventions and good practices that are just ignored, and some cause a worse reading experience than this comic deserves, which is a pity. I am not familiar with Sejic's other work, so have no idea if this is "his style." And having a style is certainly fine, and welcome really, if it does not confuse the reading. For example, the speech bubble tails are thin and squiggly. OK, fine. They seem to express some of the emotions of the characters, so that's very cool. But the fact that they do not properly point at the mouths (a common mistake many cartoonists make; but in cartoons anything could be talking, someone's hair could be talking, their stomach could be talking, it's the beauty and power of cartoons, so it is important to get the tail pointing to the right place), and that sometimes they cut across a scene, instead of completing the framing of a scene are two things that are not going to win any points from me. This makes the panels look like they were not well thought out and not planned properly, that the cartoonists wanted to emphasize or show something, but the cartoon elements got in the way.
The other major issue (and this is where Terry Moore and SiP shine!) is the body types. The two female characters look very similar. Heck, Allen looks just like them, except he has a goatee (which is surprisingly shaped like the way the two females shape their pubic hair!) Everyone is slim, hot, with stylish haircuts. In fact, all the BDSM gear Ally has hoarded over the years (presumably trying stuff on herself, since she did not have any other partners other than Allen) fit perfectly and beautifully on Lisa, because, really, they are the same exact size... Luckily, Ally wears glasses and her hair is black (though later, it seems to turn brown over the course of a single day), and Lisa is reddish. A scene with a co-worker at Lisa's work has two women standing side by side, looking exactly the same (same outfit, red tops and white aprons, red tops not a part of the work uniform), luckily again, the co-worker is blond...
I will try and read the second volume, as well. I am hoping the BDSM 101 class will end and the characters will start to gain some more shape... I am not expecting anything too realistic (I mean, most BDSM people are not hotties, they're just normal looking people, not models like Ally and Lisa, so that's pure fantasy, which is fine) but something less preachy about the basics of BDSM and more nuanced in the cartooning aspects would be nice.
Sunstone's first tpb volume reads like an S&M manual for beginners. The narration (by one of the characters) is very repetitive ("I just met her two months ago," repeated in many forms over and over again, for example). It manages to be humorous at times, and cute and loving at others. Perhaps the most humorous exchanges are between Ally and her "best friend" Allen, the only other prominent character in the volume, and the only male. Even though everything about the BDSM community and some very basic rules and conventions are reiterated many times, it is not clear why the women have issues that they are emotionally (not just sexually) attracted to each other. They bang their heads, no, I can't she's just a friend, on and on, but nowhere in the extensive explanations do we hear why this is a problem. Was it that they think nobody in the BDSM community has relationships? That people meet to play and there is a solid rule of not getting emotionally attached (could be, but usually discussed ahead of time...)? Unclear.
I imagine the sexual orientation issues will be expanded upon in the coming issues, since there seems to be some disconnect between BDSM play and sexual orientation and expression here (the impression I got is that Lisa is straight, or thinks herself as straight. Ally doesn't give an impression either way, except we know she had a relationship with Allen before.) Unclear what the message is, or if there is one, about the nature of BDSM and sexuality and sexual identity and expression (beyond dominant and submissive, which in and of itself is very narrow; also keeping in mind that there is ongoing debate whether BDSM is a sexual orientation itself). It seems that the women both thought that it didn't matter that they were both women, only that one was dominant and the other submissive. Yet, many in the community would have very specific ideas of who they would choose to play with, what gender, what gender expression, etc. (But I realize, this is just a fantasy comic, and perhaps does not require such realistic attention :) )
Most of my issues with this volume are the unnecessary narration and many, many basic cartooning conventions and good practices that are just ignored, and some cause a worse reading experience than this comic deserves, which is a pity. I am not familiar with Sejic's other work, so have no idea if this is "his style." And having a style is certainly fine, and welcome really, if it does not confuse the reading. For example, the speech bubble tails are thin and squiggly. OK, fine. They seem to express some of the emotions of the characters, so that's very cool. But the fact that they do not properly point at the mouths (a common mistake many cartoonists make; but in cartoons anything could be talking, someone's hair could be talking, their stomach could be talking, it's the beauty and power of cartoons, so it is important to get the tail pointing to the right place), and that sometimes they cut across a scene, instead of completing the framing of a scene are two things that are not going to win any points from me. This makes the panels look like they were not well thought out and not planned properly, that the cartoonists wanted to emphasize or show something, but the cartoon elements got in the way.
The other major issue (and this is where Terry Moore and SiP shine!) is the body types. The two female characters look very similar. Heck, Allen looks just like them, except he has a goatee (which is surprisingly shaped like the way the two females shape their pubic hair!) Everyone is slim, hot, with stylish haircuts. In fact, all the BDSM gear Ally has hoarded over the years (presumably trying stuff on herself, since she did not have any other partners other than Allen) fit perfectly and beautifully on Lisa, because, really, they are the same exact size... Luckily, Ally wears glasses and her hair is black (though later, it seems to turn brown over the course of a single day), and Lisa is reddish. A scene with a co-worker at Lisa's work has two women standing side by side, looking exactly the same (same outfit, red tops and white aprons, red tops not a part of the work uniform), luckily again, the co-worker is blond...
I will try and read the second volume, as well. I am hoping the BDSM 101 class will end and the characters will start to gain some more shape... I am not expecting anything too realistic (I mean, most BDSM people are not hotties, they're just normal looking people, not models like Ally and Lisa, so that's pure fantasy, which is fine) but something less preachy about the basics of BDSM and more nuanced in the cartooning aspects would be nice.
I wish I could give this ten stars. Twenty stars. ALL THE STARS IN THE SKY!
الرسم جميل ..والحقيقة أنا حزينة لأنه القصة ما كانت مطلقاً بمستوى الرسم ...ما حسيت في شيء يشدني اكمل اقرأ حقيقة ...القصة كانت جداً مكررة والكلام فالصفحات كان ماخذ نص المكان ومع ذلك نصه بدون فايدة ..مارح اكمل الكومكس ..
its cute, the art style is very nice, however i didn't really care for any of the characters. i know its technically just erotica, but neither of the protagonists were particularly interesting. the depictions of their "normal lives" was kind of. boring.