Mabel

 


Mabel is an erotic comic set in the 1950s, which allows Bex to really explore the sweet, submissive side of femininity that a boy back then would aspire to - a role that very much speaks to my heart!


I loved how Bex opened the story with the casual, friendly narration of a "beautiful young man" who is so excited by the prospect of a new store opening in town, before introducing us to a car full of horny boys who completely misread the reason for his excitement. It gets you excited as a reader, and (knowing Bex) it gives such hope for where the story is going to go. 

Matt's desire to get out of his "coarse male clothes" and into something pretty is so familiar, and the three pages of him transforming into Mabel is just beautiful. Bex always does such a wonderful job of drawing women, of capturing their poses and their facial expressions, putting them into beautiful lingerie, and that lingerie is ever more exquisite here. 

Usually Bex goes right for the kink and the slutty fun, but here he takes a bit more time, really playing up the romance angle. The fantasy panels of the romance novel Mabel curls up to read are so dreamy, and then her first anxious steps in public, her horror at being catcalled by that car full of boys, and then her guilty delight at exploring her first romance with one of those boys . . . it's all so wonderful. Their romance is as cautious and tentative as the period suggests, but it's interspersed with sexy dreams of what might be, and then there's her impassioned reveal . . . and, oh my goodness, the dark panels of self-doubt and nightmare that follow are some of the most powerful stuff he has ever drawn!

I will say no more, because I don't want to spoil the fun, but this is a romance in every sense of the word, and there's happiness to be found, but there's also sorrow that allows us to appreciate the joys. Time and time again, Bex has proven how kinky and fetishistic he can but, but the romance here is something new and delightful!

Hugs,
Sally
P
Sexy | Gender-Bending | Genre-Bending | Smart