Prime Cuts

Prime Cuts is a real blast from the past: the team of Howard Stangroom (who now goes by the name of Will Morgan) and Stephen Lowther were a mainstay of 90's gay comics, and I remember reading their work in Gay Comix and Meatmen. In this collection, for which all the stories have been colored, we find most of their collaborations, as well as an interview with the two authors (also available online).

A strong science-fiction bent (yeah, pun intended) is obvious in most stories, as well as an interest in superhero comics, which are jibed at, as well as paid homage to, very often. From aliens who fall to earth (a far beefier alien than Bowie portrayed) and find a willing human to help them acclimate to humanity, to a superhero who crosses the universe searching for his kidnapped partner and lover (finding himself in rather compromising situations along the way), with a dose of surrealist stories or real-life ones, this selection should be of interest to anybody who enjoys (mostly) light genre stories with a strong gay content. Some are all-ages, and some have naked guys in them, with a few more or less explicit sex scenes.

Stephen Lowther, who drew the whole book, wrote some of the stories and worked from Howard Stangroom's scripts on others, has a very mainstream style which shouldn't be hard to enjoy by anyone who reads comics from Marvel or DC. His men are usually well-built, ranging from twinks to hairy men, but always look believable (well, okay, except some of the aliens) - and their haircuts look very late 80's to me.

The stories in Prime Cuts don't take themselves too seriously and give the impression that the authors had a lot of fun doing them. I'd definitely like to see new works from them.