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Essays

Feeling Fa-Boo!-lous: Becca Boo Issue Three

Plot Recap of Issues One and Two

Becca, a well-meaning but slightly dim woman with a high libido, is hit by a van and dies. When the Grim Reaper comes to take her away, he becomes distracted, allowing Becca to glance at his papers and see her fate. In an attempt to reverse course, she uses her sexual prowess (for good!) to bed men, women, and other ghosts, including Bloody Mary who becomes a friend to Becca in the afterlife.

Standard cover by Kenan Halilovic.

Becca Boo Issue Three

The Grim Reaper arrives at Bloody Mary’s apartment to finally escort Becca away. Once again using her charms and sex appeal, Becca is able to buy more time in the afterlife by having kinky sex with Death at his bachelor pad. Becca tells the Grim Reaper that she is using her time as a ghost to do good deeds, and recounts her activities the past two months, which include bedding the new tenant in her apartment (sparing him from a fate worse than death: karaoke!). However, the Grim Reaper falls asleep during Becca’s flashback. Seeing her chance to escape again, Becca makes haste, taking Death’s robe and scythe with her. With the help of Bloody Mary, Becca glams up the outfit with white stockings, exposed midriff, and lots of ribbons, and is now ready for more undead action.

As with issues one and two, Becca Boo #3 was a crowdfunded endeavor, which completed its campaign in September 2024 and fulfilled in January 2025 (during a time that the Canadian post was on strike). The third issue continues Becca’s exploration being a ghost, with the story trying out new comedy angles. If Becca Boo #1 was leaning in on ditzy blonde comedy and Becca Boo #2 added in some teen boner comedy, Becca Boo #3 transitions to all out parody. The centerpiece gag in #3 is a spoof of the Ring/Ringu films, where Becca crawls out of a wells à la Sadako, and then trips coming out of the wall-mounted television set. It is a sequence that was parodied over twenty years ago in Scary Movie 3, so it may not be the most current pop culture reference. However, the gag still works and it transitions extremely well to the sequential art format and fits in with the in-universe comedy of Becca Boo as issue one continued a callback to the early 90s movie Ghost.

Another spoof can be seen at the end of the comic when Becca dons the attire of the Grim Reaper. Recollections of The Simpsons 2003 Halloween episode “Treehouse of Horror XIV” which contains a segment called “Reaper Madness” where Homer becomes the Grim Reaper (itself a parody of the Tim Allen Santa Claus films) comes to mind. Becca’s sexy death outfit gives off a gothic Lolita vibe.

On the subject of the Grim Reaper, this character becomes much more fleshed out in issue three. Issue one introduced Death as a character who may not be the best as his job as he is easily swayed by the promises of sex, and issue three ramps this facet about him up to eleven. The Grim Reaper gives off the impression he is smarter than Becca, the reality is that he is easily manipulated by her sexual powers. The Grim Reaper adds tremendously to the comedy of Becca Boo with his facial – er – skull expressions. It sounds fairly hard to have a skull be so emotive, but Death brings all the squees, furrowed brows, and exasperations, so kudos to interior artist Kenan Halilovic for really bringing Death to life (pun 100% intended) and having him so animated.

Bloody Mary is not as prominent in this issue as she is in issue two, but the narrative seems to be pushing her to be the straight character in the comedic escapades.

Becca, as oblivious as she is, displays a surprisingly amount of cleverness and guile (probably accidental on the character’s part) as she is able to escape the clutches of death (again!) and, during flashback, seduce the chaste man who has moved into her apartment. Becca is truly singularly focused to redeem herself as a ghost and escape eternity from hell, so it will be interesting what her next move will be as she assumes the guise of Death.

Nude variant of the Luca Strati edition.

As with prior Becca Boo Kickstarter campaigns from publisher Obscura Comics, Becca Boo #3 sports a wide array of alternate covers which in turns have various incarnations of not nude/nude artwork. All of them portray Becca in with different sex appeal styles.

Obscura continues to provide fun swag as stretch goals are met. The numbered trading cards and magnet depict the different issue covers.

There is also a bookmark, postcard, and sticker, all fun and collectible swag that all adds to the reading experience of Becca Boo.


More info on Becca Boo can be found at the following websites:

Categories
Peplum

Maiden Voyage: Hearteater #1

Kimona, better known as the Hearteater, is an adventurous pirate lass, who along with her talking raven companion Zephyr, have had their fair share of encounters with treasures, riches, and near death misses. Their newest adventure brings them to Port Harmony, where a magical voice compels Kimona to rescue Finn, a handsome scoundrel of a thief, sentenced to be hung at the gallows. After getting intimately acquainted with each other during the night at an inn, a mystical bell that Kimona wears around her neck begins to glow, signifying a new adventure for the trio.

PDF Cover.

Hearteater is crowdfunded, erotic pirate comic set during the Golden Age of Piracy. Published by the women-owned Laguna Studios, (an offshoot/successor of Unlikely Heroes Studios), the comic is written by Laurie Foster (The SurgeonSuper!), with Cari Salviejo (XenogeistHypergeist) on line art, Patty Arroyo (cover artist for Bombshell & Atomica,Roseblood Manor) on colours, Saïda Temofonte (Number of the BeastDCeased) on lettering and Brian J. Lambert (Wingless Comics founder) and Sarah White (The Surgeon) as editors.

Genre waves come in cycles: rising, cresting, and retreating every few years. The pirate genre is no exception. After a period of cooling from the numerous Pirates of the Caribbean films, the last few years have seen pirates remerging in all corners of media: television (Our Flag Means Death), video games (Sea of Thieves, and Ubisoft’s freshly released, though somewhat maligned Skull and Bones), music (Visions of Atlantis), and comic books (The Pirate and the Porcelain Girl). Laguna Studios’ Hearteater definitely contributes to the pirate genre canon while overtly embracing the erotic angle promised by tales of swashbucklery. 

Kimona is a fun character, who knows what she wants and is always on the prowl for the next promise of adventure, be it by the sword or between the sheets. She is also a liberated character, both in race and gender, which gives her the agency and mobility to do her pirating deeds. Her raven familiar, Zephyr, acts as her voice of reason, but Kimona is the type of character who does not always give into reason.

Issue one of Hearteater is fairly short, there is no seafaring or sword fighting to be found, but there is an escape attempt and a steamy love scene. Kimona proper gets her character foundtations fleshed out and it is easy for readers to latch on to her.

While the narrative sets up the chess pieces as is traditional in first issues of a new series, the art of Hearteater tells a different story: great characters but forgettable backgrounds.

The expressions and details on characters such as Kimono and Zephyr are great.

The characters, especially Kimona, in Hearteater, look great. Kimona has the best facial expressions that compliment her speech bubbles and make transparent her emotions. Her seductive poses are sultry (with some breast jiggle onomatopoeia thrown in for good measure) while her other depictions show her in command, perhaps with air of mystery as readers are learning more about her.

Opening panel of the comic.

The background art, on the other hand, falters a bit. The opening shot of the comic, designed to lure readers in right from the get go, is an aerial shot of Port Harmony, filled with nondescript, featureless, flat buildings. Hearteater may actually be aware of this limitation because subsequent panels focus on closeups of Kimona and other characters, rather than have backgrounds shown in detail. It’s a shame since in the pirate genre, setting is important as readers want to be whisked away to tropical islands and port cities. The look of the characters nails it, but the world proper needs a bit more love.

Hearteater’s Kickstarter campaign concluded in the autumn of 2023 with backers receiving their rewards in February 2024, a pretty quick turnaround. As with many crowdfunded comics, Hearteater sported a variety of alternative covers – both in normal and risque formats – and came with a handful of extras from meeting stretch goals.

Zheanhmeart risqué cover – personal copy.

Artists who contributed covered are Cari Salviejo, Ian Richardson, KodiArt, Dravacus, Zheanhmeart, and Katy Rewston. All the covers are great, making choosing one a difficult process. Salviejo’s cover though, showing Kimona surrounded by green tentacles, hints at the eldritch elements stated in the Kickstarter campaign but not shown in issue one (something to look forward to in the next issue).

Rewards for the campaign included a metal bookmark and a chibi-esque sticker of Kimona.

Backers also received both digital and physical prints done by Mike Watson and Veronica Smith.

Pirates are awesome and Hearteater is looking to be fantastic as well. The erotic elements are definitely sexy, Kimona and company look to be fun characters to invest in and see their adventure continue, especially if it might venture down into Lovecraftian/Eldritch horror territory while maintaining the pirate atmosphere. A Lovecraftian-Erotic-Pirate story? Yes, please!


Links to know more about Hearteater:

Categories
Essays

[S]extra Curricular Activities: Death Nell Issue One

Death Nell is an erotic horror comedy (in the Beetlejuice vein) comic published by Bad Bug Media in early 2023 after a successful Kickstarter campaign of their first issue in the summer of 2022. Issue one is written by Bill Stoddard with Cammry Lapka (Cat TailsBlack Market Heroine) doing art, Bruna Costa on colours, and Erek Foster (The Surgeon)providing lettering. 

Nell, her undead cat, and April.

The titular Nell is a twenty-two year old student at the Deus Mortem school for necromancers where she spends her time sleeping during class and fantasizing about her teacher, Professor Reinhart, instead of paying attention. At the suggestion of her best friend, April (who is a half troll), Nell visits the buxom school nurse (curse lifter?) Madame Flowers. It turns out that Nell’s sleeping issue is from exhaustion due to her insatiable desires despite a regime of self pleasuring. An alchemy spell later and the root cause is discovered: Nell is part Succubus and she needs to om nom nom on the sexual energies of others. Thankfully there happens to be a party coming up that promises lots of action…

Grave digging attire.

As a playful, lighter fare, Death Nell can be placed in a similar camp of monster-school stories such as Nicholas Doan and Gwendolyn Dreyer’s Monster Elementary, the Monster High media franchise, and even the prequel film of Monsters Inc.Monster UniversityDeath Nell’s art reflects its comedic tone, as the colours are vibrant (the fun gothic colours of purple and black) and the characters realized in an anime/manga-inspired fashion (drool, bonks on heads, pursed lips, etc.). The women of Death Nell do adhere to a specific type of depiction: eye liner as big as bats and hips as thicc as gravestones. It’s a fun style that juggles sexy and cartoonish – Hot Topic patrons will definitely approve (and mimic!).

Madame Flowers.

Death Nell’s comedy falls in line with school sex comedies of the 80s and the 2000s. This can be both a blessing and a curse depending on perspective. Because she’s an attractive succubus, the faculty of Nell’s school begin to lust after her (the aforementioned Madame Flowers, the graveyard undertaker Edgar) with only professor Reinhart seemingly immune to her passive powers. In reality, this, of course, is a big no-no in classroom power dynamics, yet it is also an extremely common plot device in pornographic stories (“teacher, there has to be something I can do to pass this class!”). The tone of Death Nell is much too lighthearted to even approach levels like David Mamet’s Oleanna, but might find itself in “Penny Pax spends times in detention” territory. The nudity and sexual acts are presented in wanton abandon. 

NSFW version of the issue one cover with art by Lapka and Costa.

As is SOP with mature comic books made possible via crowdfunding, the first issue of Death Nell comes in a variety of alternative covers, with nude variants of each. The campaign to fund issue two of Death Nell (which ends February 15th) follows suit.

There was also additional, fun swag that came with copies of Death Nell issue one:

Art prints

Art Prints that have a crossover with Bag Bug’s other erotic series, Vanya.

And cards.

The first issue of Death Nell is fun-n-flirty, school sex comedy. Nell has to deal with typical college problems of being socially awkward and get good grades, while also finding out who she is as a person. Er, succubus. 

We’ve all been there. 


For more information on Death Nell, check out these links: