Silver Sprocket BRS: Viscera Objectica, Limbo; Adversary, Delliquanti; Putty Pygmalion, Garcia
As threatened, I read more Silver Sprocket graphic novels; hit and miss, unavoidable when reading anything en masse, and not as horror-y as I expected from first brush, but that doesn't alter how fundamentally I love the style of works this publishing house is curating. Weird as hell, but quality, and most certainly queer. I'll trawl through more of their catalog in the future.
Title: Viscera Objectica
Author: Yugo Limbo
Published: Silver Sprocket, 2024
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 70
Total Page Count: 513,830
Text Number: 1859
Read Because: reading the publisher, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library c/o Hoopla
Review: Our protagonist falls in love with a puppet. And that's it: this is more heartfelt and uncomplicated depiction of objectum than a narrative, which is fine; representation justifies itself, especially for an under-discussed type of attraction. Limbo's art is highly stylized, trippy and animated and joyously queer, all of which I can appreciate without enjoying it aesthetically.
Title: Adversary
Author: Blue Delliquanti
Published: Silver Sprocket, 2024 (2022)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 80
Total Page Count: 514,000
Text Number: 1861
Read Because: reading the publisher, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library c/o Hoopla
Review: A self-defense trainer meets a former student under different circumstances, beginning an evolving, complicated relationship. This is a dense graphic novella, incredibly nuanced in its depiction of queer people and relationships and power dynamics and the internalized narrative of gendered violence, set in the early days of COVID lockdown & its social fallout. The ending tends perhaps too far in that direction (dense; sociopolitical), but I won't shun a graphic novel that immediately demands a second reading, and repays the effort.
Title: Putty Pygmalion
Author: Lonnie Garcia
Published: Silver Sprocket, 2024
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 70
Total Page Count: 515,070
Text Number: 1864
Read Because: reading the publisher, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library c/o Hoopla
Review: A lonely radish creates a companion using a banned children's sculpting toy. So this should be weird, right? Aesthetically, it is: fun character design and a phenomenal use of multimedia and image editing which gives this a crunchy, retro vibe. But even with the violent climax, this still feels like the most straightforward take on "reasons to maybe not try crafting a best buddy from clay": the uncomfortable power dynamics are forefront yet somehow still so tame.
(I'm not even giving this my unusually intimate relationship tag! Given the premise, that just feels wrong. Adversary gets it, though.)
Title: Viscera Objectica
Author: Yugo Limbo
Published: Silver Sprocket, 2024
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 70
Total Page Count: 513,830
Text Number: 1859
Read Because: reading the publisher, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library c/o Hoopla
Review: Our protagonist falls in love with a puppet. And that's it: this is more heartfelt and uncomplicated depiction of objectum than a narrative, which is fine; representation justifies itself, especially for an under-discussed type of attraction. Limbo's art is highly stylized, trippy and animated and joyously queer, all of which I can appreciate without enjoying it aesthetically.
Title: Adversary
Author: Blue Delliquanti
Published: Silver Sprocket, 2024 (2022)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 80
Total Page Count: 514,000
Text Number: 1861
Read Because: reading the publisher, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library c/o Hoopla
Review: A self-defense trainer meets a former student under different circumstances, beginning an evolving, complicated relationship. This is a dense graphic novella, incredibly nuanced in its depiction of queer people and relationships and power dynamics and the internalized narrative of gendered violence, set in the early days of COVID lockdown & its social fallout. The ending tends perhaps too far in that direction (dense; sociopolitical), but I won't shun a graphic novel that immediately demands a second reading, and repays the effort.
Title: Putty Pygmalion
Author: Lonnie Garcia
Published: Silver Sprocket, 2024
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 70
Total Page Count: 515,070
Text Number: 1864
Read Because: reading the publisher, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library c/o Hoopla
Review: A lonely radish creates a companion using a banned children's sculpting toy. So this should be weird, right? Aesthetically, it is: fun character design and a phenomenal use of multimedia and image editing which gives this a crunchy, retro vibe. But even with the violent climax, this still feels like the most straightforward take on "reasons to maybe not try crafting a best buddy from clay": the uncomfortable power dynamics are forefront yet somehow still so tame.
(I'm not even giving this my unusually intimate relationship tag! Given the premise, that just feels wrong. Adversary gets it, though.)