Locas - The Maggie and Hopey Stories by Jamie Hernandez

Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories is actually the collected stories of certain characters that usually appear in the Love and Rockets comics.
The standard love and Rockets comic are short scenes from a number of different character's lives, most of whom are Latin American.



Two characters who regularly appear in Love and Rockets are Maggie and Hopey - two girls who have quite an open minded approach to life, to say the least.



Maggie I suppose is the more bisexual of the two, although Hopey does have affairs with men on occasion. They start off as punky girls and Maggie develops into a more feminine character as the time goes by whereas Hopey pretty much remains a tough talking, laid back cool character who plays bass in a band (Maggie is originally a mechanic).



The characters are very on/off and by no means exclusive to one another but you can't deny there's something very special between them and regardless of their sometimes unrealistic and other times painfully realistic mistakes and adventures, I can't help but be drawn into their lives. I veer between wishing I was them and being quite thankful I'm not but their tales are incredibly enjoyable.
The Hernandez brothers don't steer away from nudity, sex, violence and other adult themes. It's not quite as graphic as many other comics however. And it's lovely to see women portrayed in comics whose looks change, who put on weight, who lose weight, who grow up and change remarkably over the space of the volume. I will admit I have a bit of a crush on both of them, Maggie for her looks and vulnerability and Hopey for her straight talking boyish no-nonsense approach to most things.
You spend most of the time wondering if they are together and when they aren't, why they're not. It's beautifully complicated and in many ways a very realistic portrayal of a relationship - even if the events they go through sometimes seem too out of reality (well, to a square lesbian sitting in London it does, anyway but I don't doubt other people lead far more exciting lives than I do).

Definitely one I'd recommend for those wanting to read exciting adventures of cool ladies and the portrayal of an interesting and not straight-forward relationship.

You can find out about Jamie Hernandez via the Fantagraphics website: www.fantagraphics.com

- Purchase Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories by Jamie Hernandez from US Amazon
-Purchase Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories (Volume 1 only) by Jamie Hernandez from UK Amazon

Y: The Last Man by Brian K Vaughan, Pia Guerra and Jose Martin Jnr

So the general theme to this is that Yorick is the only man on the planet to have not been wiped out by a strange virus. As you can probably guess, this means that all the girls that don't meet Yorick (and even some that do) have turned lesbian through no choice of their own. What's good about this comic is. at least they accept that would happen and it's not really portrayed as a wank fest or anything similar but neither do they shy away from it.
Which means that although the main character is Yorick, there's a lot of girls hooking up and some rather interesting little scenarios and pairings amongst that.


Picture above shows minor characters hooking up. Click for bigger image.

There are some lesbian sex scenes and some characters are even lesbian to begin with - shock horror! And I certainly found some of them very fanciable. Of course, most of that is technically an interwoven side plot to Yorick's search for his backpacking girlfriend but there's been enough to make me purchase all the volumes and issues so far and keep me keen. And I have to admit, I'm terrible for only reading things because they've got gay characters or someone in them that I fancy. Shallow, that's me. But at least that proves this has something to keep me entertained for 57 issues so far!

* Y: The Last Man by Brian K Vaughan, Pia Guerra and Jose Martin Jnr is published by Vertigo.
You can see the official website here: www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=1736

- Purchase Y: The Last Man Vol 1 from UK Amazon
- Purchase Y: The Last Man Vol 1 from US Amazon

Let's Be Perverts Vol 3 by Youjung Lee

Let's Be Perverts is one of those stories that sort of suggests there was something lesbian in a character's past but you just know it's going to have been 'a phase'.
The story actually centres around a boy who gets accidentally labelled as 'pervert' (or Perverto) and who fancies a young lady called Hongdan, who is new to the school. Hongdan is the one who appears to have had some sort of 'closer than friends' relationship with a fellow school girl at her old school, as we discover in volume one.


Image above shows Hongdan and her ex-best friend. Click for bigger image.

Unfortunately, because we know Perverto is essentially the main character and Hongdan is clearly not that interested in her ex best friend anymore, you can pretty much sense that Hongdan is going to make a full recovery back to heterosexuality - whether that's with the real pervert (who is the school teacher), Perverto or a different male student. I suspect (although I missed vol 2), that the rumours from her old school made her move and she wants to start afresh as straight.
The book does have lots of illustrations of half-naked girls in just their knickers but it's rated 'Mature for ages 16+', so whether you'll ever get to see anything more than girls hugging and maybe kissing in a later volume is debatable.
Does have occasional rape themes, so if you're offended by those topics and situations, you may want to steer clear.

Let's Be Perverts by Youjung Lee is published by Netcomics.
You can see the official website here: www.netcomics.com/comic/letsbeperverts.htm

- Purchase Let's Be Perverts Vol 1 from UK Amazon
- Purchase Let's Be Perverts Vol 1 from US Amazon

Runaways by Marvel

Runaways is another of the superhero comics published by Marvel. It revolves around the 7 or 8 main characters, who are all children of a group of supervillains called The Pride. Most of the children have special powers of one sort or another. Same old, same old as far as superhero comics go, really. Fighting, rushing about, bad teenage decisions etc. I'll admit right now I am not a big fan of superhero comics published by the big comic companies but other people may be, so you'll probably know yourselves if this is your kind of thing or not.

The current lesbian characters in the comic are Karolina - who is an alien (and also gay) and her gender-morphing alien boy/girlfriend, Xavin (whose 'default' is male but who morphs into female form to woo Karolina, who isn't overly bothered by this as long as Xavin doesn't try to kiss her in his 'male' form).


Picture above shows Nico and Karolina having one of their flirtyish moments from issue 25. Click image for a bigger version.

However, there's also a lot of flirty subtext behaviour between Karolina and one of the other (human but superhero powered) runaways, Nico (who is a goth witch with a big staff) - but a lot of the chemistry between Karolina and Nico seems to come and go, depending on who is currently writing it (as Marvel adopts different writers and artists).
Personally, I find this rather annoying, as some writers clearly ignore certain aspects and characters (in fact Karolina got written out of it for a good few months at one point by conveniently being kidnapped back to her home planet) and then it will all change and the flirting will come back, so sometimes it lacks consistency. But do bear in mind this is Marvel and a superhero comic about children so you're unlikely to ever see anything more juicy than a kiss anyway - even with Joss Whedon currently writing for it.
Sometimes I wonder why I buy it at all (I think this is largely because I have HUGE problems with the character of Xavin) but other times there are some sweet one or two panel moments in between all the routine bad guy bashing.

* Runaways is currently by Joss Whedon and Michael Ryan and is published by Marvel.
You can see the official Runaways website here: www.marvel.com/universe/Runaways

- Purchase vol 1, Pride and Joy from UK Amazon
- Purchase vol 1, Pride and Joy from US Amazon

Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore

Shall we start with one of the big ones?



Strangers In Paradise by Terry Moore is possible one of the best known comics with lesbian plots. Not only does it have gay themes, it features those themes around the main characters.
Although it's emotionally centred around the three main characters and their interactions: Katchoo, Francine and David, in a rather nail biting torturous way, it still has an awful lot of plot.


(Above picture shows secondary characters Casey and Tambi in the final issue). Click image for bigger version.

The series finished last month - the last ever Strangers In Paradise comic was published (the cover picture is one of the three collectable covers for the final ever issue) and although that means no more new comics for those of us who have been collecting the individual comics, it does mean that at least all of you are are new to the series can just go straight out, purchase the entire back catalogue and devour it uninterrupted.
There are many different versions of collected volumes out there, so it might be worth having a browse through what's available in the shops/Amazon etc before you purchase one.

* Strangers In Paradise by Terry Moore is published by Abstract Studio.
You can see the official website here: www.strangersinparadise.com/

- purchase the collected issues Vol 1 in pocket book form from UK Amazon
- purchase the collected issues Vol 1 in pocket book form from US Amazon