Only Words

Written by Tina Anderson, art by Caroline Monaco
Published by Iris



Slugline: Yaoi of a Nazi and a Catholic seminarian. Turn back now or forever hold your peace.

A short review for a short, intense study on the powerful lure of the forbidden. And with the multiple layers of wrongness come stronger desire and more serious fallout -- political, religious, and ethnic on top of the usual homosexuality taboo... potent stuff. There's sex, yes, but it's part and parcel of these characters' trajectories. Kudos all around.



- Miranda

Paintings of You

By Mia Paluzzi and Chris Delk
Published by Iris Print (Release date: June 6, 2007)



Slugline: Claude likes Ben likes Beatrice likes Hero likes John likes Honey who is actually a bizarre rag doll... okay, that part's a little strange...

Everybody knows the standard relationship-misunderstanding trope: our overwrought hero/ine overhears and/or misunderstands something the Lust Object says, mentally blows it all out of proportion and silently flagellates him/herself for dozens or hundreds of pages because they can't possibly say anything to anybody.

Imagine my shock when not only was the relationship misunderstanding extended to every member of the cast, but our hero (Claude) actually gathers information from Ben's friends (but since they misunderstand too, it's the wrong information) and realizes there's been a misunderstanding.

All this plus good art, snappy dialog and some insightful, honest portrayal of the inner agony of artists (someone is speaking from experience, methinks.) I'm giving this four stars and I don't even like straight-up romances, as a rule, since they all end the same.

Porn content: two boy-on-boy kisses, both well earned. There's no rating on this promo copy, so I'm basing the rating tag on the fact that there's nothing remotely nasty in this book unless you're violently homophobic.



- Miranda

When Worlds Collide

by various artists
Published by Iris Print



Slugline: Anthology of yaoi romance titles themed on the "opposites attract" principle.

As with any anthology, some are better than others in this collection of short stories. The art is of varying quality but generally good, and the writing is necessarily condensed and requires a few leaps of faith from the readers. On the whole, it's a pretty decent book.

My main point to make is that this is not a porn anthology. There are a few explicit frames, but the emphasis here is clearly on the romance. There's nothing new about explicit romance, of course, but if you're expecting porn this isn't it.



- Miranda