Comics Roundup #39: Sex Criminals, Vol. 1

Sex Criminals, Vol. 1: One Weird Trick by Matt Fraction, illus. by Chip Zdarsky with colors by Becka Kinzie and Christopher Sebela

Genre:

Fantasy; Humor

Series:

Sex Criminals

Pubbed:

2014

Goodreads summary:

Suzie’s just a regular gal with an irregular gift: when she has sex, she stops time. One day she meets Jon and it turns out he has the same ability. And sooner or later they get around to using their gifts to do what we’d ALL do: rob a couple banks. A bawdy and brazen sex comedy for comics begins here! (Goodreads)

My thoughts:

I really enjoyed reading this. The story was entertaining and unexpected because I didn’t know where they would go with such a premise: girl and guy can stop time by having sex, so they rob a couple banks. What?!

Part of me wishes I didn’t know before reading the book that Suzie can stop time by having sex. I kind of wish I discovered that as she finds out about it. I liked the part when the two time-bending-when-sexing characters discover the ability in each other. That was funny. And I like how the two differ in how they explored their ability when they were younger (lol young Jon getting caught at Cumworld). I love that the couple’s motivation for these bank robberies is to save libraries (ah, book nerds, lol) and that they got caught by the “Sex Police.” Lol! That cracked me up!

I had a good time reading this and want to read more, so I will certainly pick up the second volume. I want to find out more about the sex cops and how many people in this world have this ability and find out about Suzie’s dad and Jon’s mental health.

Art style:

Umm…not a big fan, but only because I really like thin lines, like what I see in WicDiv… I just really love the illustrations in WicDiv and can’t get over them.

Anyway, the illustrations in Sex Criminals are great. It’s easy to follow along and understand what’s happening. I like the colors used and the strobe-light effect used for scenes when time stops. I really like that the Sex Police appear in all white, which makes them stand out, and that the effect makes their bodies seem flat, like empty space, because it’s as if they are not part of the story in those moments, as if the artist forgot to complete them.

My favorite thing, though, is probably the cover. I’m slow on the uptake sometimes so until I read the book, I didn’t realize that the cover was a close-up, blurred image of the characters kissing. This whole time I was like “oh, that’s an interesting placement of colors. Why does it look so blurry?” Smh. I could tell there’s an image there, but for some reason my brain didn’t want to tell me what it was until I read the book. (I guess it didn’t want to spoil things for me.)

Overall: ★★★★☆ ½

It was great and I had a great time reading it. I consider it a favorite, and I intend to read the next volume to find out what these time-bending-while-sexing thieves get up to next.

Buy | Borrow | Bypass

I’m considering to purchase myself a copy. I think it’s worth it.

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