Lost Girls Collected (Hardcover Comic) free download
Lost Girls Collected (Hardcover Comic) free download
By M. L. C. Montgomery (Winnipeg, MB, Canada) - See all my reviews
I’m a great fan of Alan Moore, one of comics’ most acclaimed authors, and I’m also a great fan of erotica. Moore, being comics’ greatest formalists structures this tale of sexual identity and experimentation in Austria in 1914, before the onset of the Great War.
We are introduced to Alice through a looking glass. We are introduced to Dorothy via her luxurious shoes. And we are introduced to Wendy by floating downwards from the top of the hotel, the main setting for this. Each woman has a story to tell. The hotel has a story to tell. The “bibles” lain around the hotel have a story to tell.
Moore uses the three famous stories of our youths to explore concepts of sex and art and where they meet. Each note-worthy element of the prime-stories is apparent and used to portray the development of the woman. This is a bildungsroman of sexuality and innocence. We watch and listen to the growth of Alice, Dorothy and Wendy as they couple. We are a voyeur. This effect is echoed in the first volume, as the characters take inspiration from the Tijuana bibles in the hotel (of course, they’re not named “tijuana” by Moore; although he does in Top Ten).
This is an excellent work of erotic exploration. What can erotica do? What can comics do? What can stories do? These are the questions that Moore asks of the different media. These are the questions he asks with every project. I will follow him with every step as he attempts to puzzle it out.
A note on the physical item. It’s far larger than I expected. When it arrived, I was taken aback by the girth of the book. It’s huge. About a foot and a half tall, and about a foot wide. The pages are large, allowing for almost microscopic analysis of the art. This edition is akin to DC’s “Absolute” editions of Watchmen, Dark Knight and Kingdom Come. (Sadly, Lost Girls does not come with any creator commentary or bonus features. Oh well.)
I recommend this title to those who enjoy Moore’s work, or to those who feel comics are of a juvenile sort. This is art.
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