Entries for July 2006:
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The Peach is dead, long live the Peach.
Last issue had shown Pfirsich Rommel, the fictional gay brother of Edwin Rommel, as a kind of, what, guardian angel? Jiminy Cricket? for a far-future descendant of his who displayed low morality.
This time, Pfirsich has found a new reality to live in. 6,000 years after our time, he's back on his feet, in human flesh, in a society which seems to blend all of Donna Barr's interests: centaurs, half-horses/half-human people, a Reich which has as much to do with 30's Germany as Bush's America has with a secular country, all that done with a coherence and a level of detail that puts to shame most fantasy writers. But, also contrary to some fantasy world-building, Frau Barr never forgets to tell a story--whether the setting is World War II or a future fantasy world, her characters are always believable and engaging.
So, Pfirsich finds himself in company of an humanoid, pint-sized horse and his human-faced horse-bodied assistant, who will help him get his bearings in his new life. One thing will set this life apart from the first one: in this military environment, absolutely nobody cares that Pfirsich is gay, and from what the author says, he'll get a new love interest in the upcoming issues.
It feels so good to know we'll get to spend more time with such a great character as Pfirsich Rommel. The gay aspects in his well-rounded personnality are only one facet of the attractiveness of the man and the world he (after)lives in.
This comic is available from Lulu.com.

 If you have any comments about Abby Denson's Tough Love or my review of that book, please post them below.

Here are the latest three issues of Dangerous, the Radio Comix "American yaoi" anthology. They were published in 2004, 2005 and March 2006, and can be found on the publisher's site.
Issue #3 (reviews for previous issues here) sports a cover by the creator of Incubus, and begins with the second part of a short story (which ends in the following issue of Dangerous) with the characters from that series, showing the human character beginning to accept his attraction to the incubus. Fun stuff.
There's also the first part of Lost Angles (second and last part in the following issue), a story where a demon puts the moves on an angel. I can't say the art is really to my tastes, and I must admit the angel character looks a bit young to my eyes.
I really liked the art on the last story, though. Bottled Up is fun story set in the past, about a straight guy who has trouble getting it up (more excerpts here). A (male) genie out a bottle will nicely fix it. Artist Pluto has also drawn Kit Fancy, reviewed here last year. She has a site filled with pretty boys and men.

The next issue gets a new volume number (as well as a spine and 48 pages). Volume 2 Issue 1 has a cover from the Lost Angles story. I guess you see what I mean when I say that the angel character looks really young. Apart from the continuation of the series, it also contains a weird and moving story where a scarecrow is given life by the Crow King who's taken human form. Writer Taffi Holiday (who also wrote the Bottled Up story) has a great imagination, and artist Tracy Williams has a detailed and expressive style.
And of course, there's the beginning of Liberty From Hell 2, the sequel to the excellent series I've already reviewed. A new status quo has been established, and it's a real pleasure to meet again such well-rounded characters. The series continues in the next issue.

Issue #2 (of volume 2) gets a nice and tender cover by Liberty From Hell creator Christina Hanson. A couple of short stories (one about Spartan soldiers, and another about a young guy who dreams of sucking himself and gets help from a friend) follow Hanson's contribution, and the anthology concludes with a wonderfully-drawn story by artist SageBrush (who has her own online strip): two young cowboys find a watering hole in the desert, which leads to one of them discovering that the other can't swim. Help and comfort soon follow. The story is mostly an excuse for sex between the teenagers, but there's a nice, tender touch at the end. The only thing that I find bothersome is the constant protestations of straightness by the characters, but then, that's present in most stories of this anthology. Remember, it's not gay comics, it's yaoi. Anyway, the art is of high quality and there's a very high cuteness factor.

As you can see, those anthologies present a nice mix of short stories and continuing series, with varied art. And I hope we'll get more Liberty from Hell soon.

Here's the follow-up to last year anthology of the same name.
Prism Comics has collected excerpts from varied erotic comics for this 56-page black & white comic, which gives us another opportunity to sample longer works.
To begin with, there are pages from the upcoming Harry and Dickless Tom graphic novel by Brad Rader. Rader's work is wonderfully cartoony (he's worked on the Bruce Timm cartoons and on the current Catwoman series from DC, before it went "realistic" in art), and he obviously has a really weird imagination.
Tristan Crane (how loathsome) and Jamaica Dyer give us a complete sweet story of two girls in high school, Victor Hodge presents a fun voyeur story from his Black Gay Boy Fantasy stories, Justin Hall and Dave Davenport have some pages from the recent Hard to Swallow comic, Craig Bostick and David Kelly give us a really cute tale of young love among superheroes, Henry Kujawa's Stormboy has sex with his boyfriend (or I assume, I haven't read the comic), the Pinned! OEL is previewed (my review is here), Patrick Fillion has a few pages from one of his comics, Mark Brill and Charles Christensen give us an intriguing excerpt from their upcoming fantasy comic Mark of Aecus, and Chris Companik has a fun story of the consequences of using frying oil instead of body oil.
Add to all that a cover by Kelly & Bostick, a naughtier inside cover by Donna Barr, and a back cover by Aman Chaudhary, and you can see that there's something for everyone in this collection. It's available from the Prism Comics shop.

Here's my review of Nicolas Presl's Priape, a wordless and very unusual story of a young man in ancient times.

Post your comments below.