Love or Lust? Sunstone Volumes 1 and 2
This has been a year of firsts for me when it comes to literature. Earlier this year I read a romance novel for the first time because it was written by Marjorie M Liu, who I loved on X-23 and Astonishing X-Men. Then, I got to Sunstone, the first erotic book I’ve read - comic or regular book form. It was interesting to have read both of those in this year as they serve a pretty interesting contrast in the way things are categorized. Liu’s book, Tiger Eye, is merely a romance and yet the descriptions of sex are extremely graphic. Sunstone is classified as erotic, not romance, and yet there are no graphic depictions of sex. In fact, there are no depictions of sex - both times I remember it happening during the first two Sunstone volumes, the story does the comic equivalent of a movie fading to black and then coming back post-coitus. That’s not to say the book isn’t explicit - there are sexual lingerie outfits and pubic areas are visible at various times - but it doesn’t complain the explicit sex of, say, Black Kiss. That said, the biggest reason to read this graphic novel is the artwork. Here at Comic POW! we try to make sure to acknowledge the artists as the writers often get all the glory despite being only half the team. (Or ⅓ or more depending on how many people work on a particular issue) However, on this book, what makes it so much better as a comic than a book is Stjepan Šejić’s great work with facial expressions. Longtime readers of comics will know that some artists tend to be better at bodies or faces or action. Rarely is one artist able to do them all. Even those good at faces are often not able to make their characters as expressive as Stjepan Šejić does in Sunstone. Here is a gallery of some of my favorite expressive panels. ...