Tab Kimpton

I read this as a webcomic, as it first came out. I love the way that Kimpton has taken the (somewhat disturbing, I'm told) sexual politics of the blockbuster 'Shades of Grey' and turned it into a lyrical exploration of how romance works when one isn't quite what is expected by one's partners.

I find the viewpoint character, Anwar, to be unsympathetic, but as I've said in other reviews, I don't get young men, and having difficulty identifying with them is nothing new. He's somewhat socially inept, and this comes through in some of the behaviour, but the mix of current day and flashbacks with the parallels between the previous relationship and the current relationship say so much about how he has matured, while highlighting that he certainly isn't there yet.

The supporting cast are fabulous as well - members of the kink scene, each drawn/imagined so lovingly, in such detail, that there is no sense of a 'pick'n'mix' collection that can come out in stories that are about minority groupings.

Other things Kimpton does well (from my perspective) - as well as a range of sexualities, his characters are from a range of ethnic backgrounds, the characters are shown in the context of their families (in particular Anwar, where multiple family members get a look in) and scenes that are embarrassing for the characters are written in enough detail for this reader to empathise, but not feel overwhelmed.… (más)

This is a set of four books, all telling the intertwined stories of eight late-high-school / early-collage age teenagers.

I really enjoyed them. They are a bit formulaic - there will be two people, they will be non straight, they will have some kind of 'oh no, this isn't going to work out' moment, and then have a happy ending at the end of the book. [Except for the last book, where they don't quite get their happy ending yet. I mean, yay for realism, but I was enjoying these as chocolate box escapism, and I wanted Charlie and Jaimie to have their happy ending too.]

I love the narrative structure - little asides in the early comics become the main story in the later ones, and in the late comics remind you of what you know from the first stories. A really nice picture of 'everyone is the hero in their own stories, but they are in the middle of a sea of other people's stories which are just as important and complicated and where they only know the surface of what is going on.'

They're all on line. The on line comics have the 18+ excerpts, which oddly aren't in the book.… (más)