Sunstone Vol 5 TP Comic Book Review
Summary: BDSM ties two people together, but love is the bond in danger of breaking.
5
Love Bound
From a casual glance it would be easy to dismiss Sunstone as a titillating title with the hook of latex and BDSM… but to do so would be a great disservice to the story and the characters. The book opens on the breakup… but it’s the going back over the events, the deep investigation of what really happened that forms the bulk of the material and is both a sort of emotional detective story and a very familiar voyeuristic look at post break up self assessment.
Writing
Perhaps ironically at this point… I almost don’t know what to say. The story was absolutely gripping… I wanted to know what was going to happen next and part of that meant learning what happened before, actually a lot of it meant learning what happened before. The interplay between characters is very natural and has the same clunkiness many of us experience when fumbling through our feelings for someone. But perhaps even more familiar is the internal monologues… the going over everything that was said and done, not just to try and figure out what the other person did to bring about the end… but the realisation that perhaps it was both parties making mistakes and misunderstanding. There is so much here that is relatable that the words just seem to flow so naturally that you have to keep reading.
Artwork
As much as this story really rides on the power of the writing… the artwork is not to be dismissed, it is simply gorgeous. There are the set pieces, fully page emotive images that guide you into the next section of the story, these alone contain a lot of power…. like a snapshot from the story. But then there are the panel to panel images… the whole story is filled with wonderful subtleties, raised eyebrows, bitten lips, the expressiveness of each character is all over their face… even if part of their face is obscured by bondage gear. There may be people who are put off by the BDSM imagery… but they will miss out on a wonderful story if they let that stop them giving it a go.
Final Thoughts
I can’t think of many (or any) stories that arguably focus on BDSM and related fetishes yet really are love stories through and through. The BDSM aspect is really just a thread that strings the characters together… but the characters themselves and their emotions are the real stars. People may pick this up for the erotic images… to be honest they won’t be disappointed as there are quite a few “interesting” images throughout. But once someone starts reading the images almost fall to the background… the back and forth interplay between Ally and Lisa just takes you to that place where you have to read one more page… ok now, one more page… ok now…. The end works well too… I don’t want to say if it’s good or bad… but it works! Absolute credit to Stjepan Sejic for creating a believable and engrossing love story that just happens to take place in and around the world of BDSM.
If you like BDSM, Latex, same sex relationships or simply great love stories, you should do yourself a favour and pick up a copy!
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Stjepan Šejić, Linda Lukšić Šejić
Artist: Stjepan Šejić
Colourist: Stjepan Šejić
Cover Artist: Stjepan Šejić
Genre: Erotica, Romance, Comedy
Format: 268 Pgs, FC TP
Release Date: 18th Jan 2017
About the Author
Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.
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