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This is a great book, very titillating erotica. Has the paper book and love it. The PDF files are easier to carry, but great fun.
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This is a great book, very titillating erotica. Has the paper book and love it. The PDF files are easier to carry, but great fun.
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This is a great book, very titillating erotica. Has the paper book and love it. The PDF files are easier to carry, but great fun.
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This is a great book, very titillating erotica. Has the paper book and love it. The PDF files are easier to carry, but great fun.
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This is a great book, very titillating erotica. Has the paper book and love it. The PDF files are easier to carry, but great fun.
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This is a great book, very titillating erotica. Has the paper book and love it. The PDF files are easier to carry, but great fun.
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This is a great book, very titillating erotica. Has the paper book and love it. The PDF files are easier to carry, but great fun.
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Before I begin this review, I should issue a caveat: I don’t understand, from a purely intellectual standpoint, the appeal of softcore (erotic) pictures; that is to say, singular pictures – as opposed to comics – in which the picture is just there, with no further exposition. Oh, I get it on a purely visceral level; I like looking at sexy women as much as any guy, after all. But from a more rational standpoint, it seems frustrating. Yeah, the lady in the pic looks arousing in her skimpy get-up, positioned to seem like she’s just about to expose her naughty bits…but they’re still not visible. Moreover, they’ll never be visible – you can stare at the picture for as long as you want, but she’ll never move. The whole thing is one big tease with no payoff. It’s arousal based on an implied promise which is never fulfilled. It was with that in mind that I cautiously approached the last XXXenophile book, aptly titled “Quick & Dirty.”
A short “ashcan edition” (I looked that up. It means a short comic published for legal reasons, which was not originally intended for distribution), this brief XXXenophile collection brings together a brief (six page) comic and about a dozen single-page drawings. Bearing in mind the definition of what an “ashcan” comic is, the cynic in me can’t help but wonder if the latter drawings were produced purely to make enough padding so that the comic could be published.
But let’s go over the specifics. The book is all black and white, and is twenty-six pages long. Two of these are the ubiquitous “brown paper covers” at the very beginning and end of the book, though those still seem odd on a PDF publication. There are two pages of ads right before the end, though calling them “ads” is a bit disingenuous, as they’re mostly just hawking the website for XXXenophile, and each page still has erotic drawings on them. Similarly, the first four pages of the comic consist of the real cover, an image of a sexy witch and a notice that that’s available on various things at their shop, a bonus image of a scantily clad chick from the back (in fact, it’s Natch, from XXXenophile Volume 6), and then an introduction to the short comic (and also has an unrelated naughty pic).
The introduction lays out the backstory for the comic. In fact, this comic features the return of the adventuring party from XXXenophile Volume 6 (just the heroes, none of the villains). The blurb tells us that this comic was drawn first (though chronologically it pretty clearly takes place after vol. 6) as a piece for the XXXenophile RPG (which has since become vaporware), and that Phil liked it so much he eventually made a full-length story for the characters.
The comic itself is fairly brief, but very satisfying (vague sexual innuendo intended). Sooja, the wizard of the adventuring party, has been turned evil by a cursed gem. The rest of the heroes catch her by surprise, however, when they agree to her ultimatum to join her as her servants on her diabolical mission of conquest…and are all too eager to prove their desire to “serve” her. Of course, you can probably guess this is all a distraction to get to the cursed gem, and you’d be right, but hey, it’s an excuse for some gratuitous sex (something that happens a lot with this particular party) so who cares? The joke at the end of the strip is rather amusing, too.
On its own merits, the comic isn’t too bad. The plot is quite thin, and the pacing is rather fast (to the point where even Sooja is surprised at how quickly things develop), but what can you expect from a comic of a half-dozen pages? The sex scenes, which comprise the bulk of the material, are quite well-done and thoroughly raunchy. However, the best part of this by far is how this comic brings back together established characters from the previous volume. While it works on its own, this comic is much more fun if you’ve already followed the previous adventure of this group from volume 6, bringing back the fun characters you got to know over that volume. It’s great seeing them again, and worth the price of the comic unto itself.
The dozen pictures that follow this are so diverse that they can’t really be summed up in any brief statement. These images are all over the map in what they depict, with no real unifying theme…but then, what else would you expect from a compilation of this nature? The pictures range from quite provocative (a pierced demon-girl lubing up her strap-on and leering at another demon-girl) to demure (a male and female centaur, embracing each other as they kiss deeply), from somewhat normal (an almost naked warrior woman poses with her sword) to rather weird (a naked woman kneels in a pumpkin patch…and her head is a jack-o-lantern…). The one commonality in all of these images is their softcore nature. Some display a healthy amount of T&A, some playfully cover the naughty bits, but in none of them will you see any actual genitalia (one pic possibly notwithstanding), let alone intercourse. A couple of the pictures have captions which explain some aspect to them (such as one for an unused Buck Godot page) which is a nice feature, but it only happens for three of the pics…again, a frustrating reminder of how we could get a little more, but are denied.
If I sound a bit piqued over the nature of the pictures, rest assured I’m not blaming the book for it. It’s quite literally doing the best it can with the material it has. I’m glad for getting more of Phil’s artwork that would otherwise have been lost, and I’m especially glad for the comic – it’s just that the layout goes from depicting full-on hardcore sex to more restrained, teasing pictures…exactly the opposite of how a good erotic product should be laid out. It’s the literary equivalent of a premature ejaculation, where the most erotic material happens immediately when you begin, proving to be short but very intense, and after that the remaining erotic material is more restrained, and doesn’t seem as fun after what you just experienced – it really would have been better if it had happened the other way around. Ultimately, calling this volume “Quick & Dirty” is even more apropos than I think even the creator intended, and that’s the one letdown to what’s otherwise a very enjoyable time.
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As a general rule, porn is better with plot. It sounds oxymoronic, but I really think that characters are sexier if the viewers/readers have an emotional investment in them, otherwise it’s just bodies. That’s a lesson that live-action pornography still doesn’t seem to have learned, as virtually all such productions treat things like characterization as obstacles to be avoided.
Of course, that failing isn’t limited to just live-action porn; my biggest complaint about the previous XXXenophile Collections is that they were a series of unrelated shorts, introducing us to (quite often very enchanting) characters that we’d never see again. Luckily, the last such Collection, Volume Six, has no such flaw, presenting one long unbroken story from beginning to end.
Assuming you’ve already looked at the preview, you’ll know that Volume Six is the story of a group of eclectic adventurers; these guys really do seem like they were dreamed up by a group of gamers. There’s Otaz, the sexy cleric who is cursed so that anyone she copulates with mutates horribly; Avery, the cowboy magically displaced from Earth to that D&D-esque world; Sooja, the kindly mage whose outfits always leave her boobs hanging out; Feljikk, the drow samurai who honestly only seems to be there so that there’s a second guy around to bone the ladies in the many sex scenes; and Mowbri, the hot Asian thief-girl (complete with thieving stereotypes including Greedy and Quasi-Kleptomania). The villain for this tale is Natch (I kept expecting someone to say that her first initial was “S.”), the gal with the grin on the cover who, like Sooja, walks around bare-breasted…clearly, this is a society modesty is optional.
The story is that the heroes have accidentally come into possession of a powerful artifact…one whose major power is to make people engage in orgies, regardless of circumstance. While this is a plot-device that is as obvious as it is humorous, what really makes this comic work is the interplay the characters have with each other. Sooja’s blushing realization that Avery finds her attractive is sweet, but Avery’s shock over her reaction is comedy gold – after all, she has curves to die for and walks around with her tits hanging out, and she’s surprised he’s hot for her? (Incidentally, her explanation is that people are afraid of her blank eyes; the mark of a mage. Clearly, this chick must have a Wisdom of 9 – when breasts are in view, most men won’t bother to raise their gaze to eye-level to begin with.)
It goes without saying, but there’s numerous sex scenes in this comic, of myriad types. Those who want material that focuses on the xenophilia aspect of the series will be quite satisfied; the very first sex scene involves Avery banging both Sooja and Hinks (Sooja’s familiar, who seems like a homunculus), later scenes involve half-orcs, lizardmen, and more. Likewise, there’s no shortage of sex acts here, from “normal” sex to girl-on-girl action to orgies, etc.
Given the sexual antics, amusing plot, and the characters’ constant hijinks, this comic can honestly be called the perfect beast of erotic humor (or perhaps humorous eros). There are also a few unrelated single-page images at the end, apparently thrown in for no particular reason. I would have preferred they were more topical to the characters/story, but there’s really no reason to complain over being given more porn. The XXXenophilia Collection Volume Six may be the last of the anthologies, but it’s by far the best one, and a great send-off for the series.
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Very Funny. I loved it ^^
The story itself is delightfully entertaining and very cheeky. It is wonderfully complimented by the delightfully erotic and impressivly imaginative sex scenes. I think the appeal of these stories can be largely attributed to how much work was put in establishing context.
Overall i found this series very entertaining and worth re-reading. :-)
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Xxxenophile Collection, Volume 2, by Phil Foglio (with help from Adam Hughes, Edd Vick and others) and published by Studio Foglio / Xxxenophile Comics. It is a sixty-eight-page product (two of which is a “brown paper wrapper” including a content warning).
Just in case the triple X in the title did not give it away, Xxxenophile is an illustrated collection of erotica (or pornography if you prefer). The collection is broken up into several short stories often with a humorous twist and all told with the light touch that is the hallmark of Phil “Gentleman Pornographer” Foglio.
However if your personal squicks (hangups/ ick factors) include: lesbian sex, interspecies sex, tentacle sex, orgies, gender bending or gay sex (minor) or, indeed, all of them, you may wish to avoid this delightful collection. All of the above are handled lightly, it is humorous smut after all, and is not meant to offend.
Stories include the superheroic adventures of Orgasm-Lass, aliens, duplicates, psychics, wizardesses and familiars, the adventures of vibrator repair man, some goddesses help out, and finally ending where it began with another super-adventure of Orgasm-Lass. All are done in Foglio’s friendly cartoony style, which does not stop them from being quite . . . warm.
As I am primarily a game product reviewer, I will mention that this work contains very little directly of use for a gamer beyond some wonderfully bizarre ideas for characters (wizardesses, goddesses, and super heroes and villains) that could be incorporated into a game but it would have to be a very *ahem* mature game. In closing, if you want some quality cartoon porn with a sense of humor, look no further.
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It’s getting harder to find good domestic smut these days. Oh there’s still plenty of live-action porn, to be sure, but if “real people” was your thing you wouldn’t be reading this review now would you? And when it comes to naughtiness that’s drawn (or animated), it seems more and more like we’re being outdone by the Japanese. After all, how hard is it to find tentacle-rape manga over the internet these days? In fact, mentioning that highlights the second problem – despite having no real limits, since drawings aren’t limited by petty things such as laws or physical possibility, most comic porn is fairly tame, or at least fairly conservative, in what it depicts.
Enter XXXenophile. An erotic comic series by Phil Foglio, the title alone should be enough to showcase that this is no ordinary smutty comic. For those who don’t know, “xenophilia” is an attraction to something foreign, and the triple X in the title…well, if you don’t grok that joke, you probably shouldn’t be here in the first place.
The XXXenophile Collection is exactly what it sounds like. Each of these compendiums collects several of the XXXenophile comics that was published previously. Not having any of the original comics, I can’t talk about what’s collected in what order, if anything’s been altered or touched-up, or anything regarding the specifics of the compilation. From what I can deduce, however, all of the comics found here (of which there are nine, more on that below) are independent of each other, and likely of those in the other Collections as well. That means that it really doesn’t matter if you purchase them in numerical order or not. I started with Volume Three, and I don’t seem to have missed out on any kind of progressing story. While that’s mostly good, it’s a bit sad to see that there aren’t any continuing arcs, since it’s enjoyable to become attached to characters over time, and it’d be nice to see how an erotic adventure would work to keep the readers entertained.
The PDF is entirely black and white, notwithstanding the cover and the interior, higher-resolution scan of the cover. Oddly, the first and last pages of the book are a “plain brown wrapper,” the cover of which contains the disclaimer (and a rather humorous illustration), which almost makes me think this Collection has a print version which was then digitized to give us this electronic copy. Full bookmarks are found within, linking to each individual story, as well as the covers. All of the artwork here is done by Phil Foglio (notwithstanding supporting roles such as the inker, letterer, etc.) so if you know his art style, you’ll know what to expect here.
This Collection contains nine short comics, with the page count ranging from three to ten pages apiece. Despite (or perhaps because of) the erotic subject matter, almost all of the stories are also comedies, and even the more serious stories have some comedic elements to be found in them.
The first story is “A Beautiful Tale,” which sets a high bar for the rest of the issue. The story kind of starts at the end, as it has a human woman named Hilda and her huldra girlfriend (a huldra is a sexy Scandinavian fey – Wikipedia it) escaping from the troll realm. Returning to Hilda’s house, the huldra (adorably named “S’mores”) is already anticipating their wedding. Thinking that S’mores thinks she’s a man, Hilda showcases her femininity to her, only for S’mores to inform her that she’s quite aware of her gender, and doesn’t mind in the slightest…something she then demonstrates most thoroughly. Once their love-making is finished, Hilda informs S’mores that two women can’t get married, which being a huldra is a problem for S’mores (again, Wikipedia it). Luckily, the two girls are able to find a…creative solution. Needless to say, I really enjoyed this particular comic, so much so that I’d call it the highlight of this particular Collection. The xenophilia slant is much played up here, but not enough that most readers would find it truly disturbing. Likewise, the characters are a lot of fun, and easily engaging with their references to the adventures that they’ve been on. And of course the lesbian sex helps too.
“Knitchers at an Exhibition” is the single shortest comic in the collection. It’s also the first of the sci-fi-oriented comics, something that came up fairly frequently – four of the nine comics here are sci-fi, rather than fantasy. I mention this because, well, the sci-fi sort of skirts the issue of xenophilia. For example, this comic has some plant-based life-forms complaining to the local human governor of the territory about how another local species is damming up a river they need to asexually reproduce. While this is going on, the governor’s exhibitionist wife decides to have sex with her husband right in front of the plant-aliens. Being plants, of course, they have no reaction to this at all, which is sort of the joke here. The premise works quite well unto itself (particularly with the unexpected joke in the last panel) but it highlights the aforementioned problem…there’s nothing too exotic about sex between two humans. It’s a recurring problem, though later sci-fi stories do their best to dance around it.
“Elf Help” is a fantasy tale, wherein a young human warrior has just slain a monstrous spider, and his sexy lady elf companion is looking over it. Unfortunately for the warrior, he’s stuck in its web; fortunately for the elf girl, this is a great opportunity for her to tease him, and it’s not long before they have sex that way. The story was fairly amusing to read – particularly the backstory about why the couple hadn’t had sex before this – but again, the main thrust of the story (pun intended) seemed to be about how the couple was having bondage sex, rather than playing up that the girl is an elf. Maybe I’m being a little too demanding here, but I expect a comic called “XXXenophilia” to really work the angle that it’s about sex with non-humans.
“Watch This Space” is perhaps the worst offender in this regard. The premise is that a spaceship has exploded, and the lady captain and her (female) officer are floating in a “survival bubble,” which is exactly what it sounds like – a single, empty bubble that keeps them alive, but has no artificial gravity. Needless to say, after some minor exposition about their feelings for each other, the two have sex while waiting to be rescued. Again, there’s a fairly decent joke in the last panel, but the fairly mundane nature of this particular comic left me cold. Come on Phil…two human women? That’s it? At least make one of them an alien with fur or scales or a tauric lower body. Maybe if this were the first lesbian sex scene in the comic that’d help somewhat, but Hilda and S’mores already did that, and better to boot.
I said that the last comic was worst in not living up the name of the comic, but really that mark of shame is shared between that one and the next one, “End Game.” Now, this comic certainly has a better story. Here, a monstrous being (presumably the Devil) is outlining its plan to bring forth the Antichrist to his angelic opponent (presumably God). It involves two specific people having sex on one specific night when the stars are right. The Devil is quick to subliminally make the two get together and do the nasty, but at a little goading from God the plans falls apart. I won’t spoil the joke, but like all of the others it makes for a good chuckle. Moreover, in terms of the sex that we see, this comic is easily the raunchiest. Nowhere else will you see anal sex, for instance. What bothered me was, as outlined before, this is just two ordinary people screwing; something that’s compounded by the totally non-sexual presence of the non-humans in this comic. Can we please get some other species in on the action?
“Family Reunion,” the next tale of lust, doesn’t quite go so far as to introduce another kind of creature, but its heart is at least in the right place. A sci-fi piece, a guy discovers an old, derelict spaceship drifting through the void. Upon exploration, he finds two beautiful twins are the only inhabitants, except it turns out they’re not twins, they’re the last clones of one of the original crew. Never having seen a man before, the two sister-clones are quick to invite him into their bed, eager to experience heterosexuality. So…yeah, they’re human, but not quite. Still, bonus points for the first three-way we get to see in the Collection thus far.
“The Monster Under the Bed” finally moves back towards what XXXenophile is all about. The premise starts off fairly innocuously: a pair of sisters (twins?) come home from college over break, and have to share a room. Sleeping in the same bed, one of the sexy sisters reminisces about how she used to think there was a monster under the bed. The irony here, of course, is that there is, and we can see that his form shifts to whatever the girls are thinking about at the moment…which is rather awkward for the monster when they starting wishing there were hot, naked men under the bed. Of course, things become much more awkward when the girls start engaging in lesbian incest! The monster isn’t quite able to hide his appreciation of what the two are doing, but every time they check, there’s nothing under the bed. Finally, the monster speaks up, confessing that it can’t be seen directly. Ingeniously, the two turn out the lights so it can climb into bed with them, and with its alterable form, it proceeds to thoroughly violate first one, and then the other girl, much to their delight. As an idea, this comic was great for its largely-innovative idea, though it was somewhat irking that the monster was so vaguely-defined – its kind of hard to appreciate its monstrous sexuality when we can’t see what it’s doing to them, instead having to extrapolate as the girls shriek and moan out what they’re experiencing. Not bad, but the whole thing seems like kind of a tease. It doesn’t help that the comic suffers from gaps in the story; why are the sisters having sex? Why doesn’t anyone else in the house hear them (they’re both screamers)? Why hasn’t the monster had its way with anyone else living there? I know I’m overthinking a light bit of eye-candy, but the critic in me can’t help but note these things.
It’s only in “Demonstration of Affection” that the Collection truly finds its equilibrium again. Here, a young wizard has magicked himself to Hell, and meets a very sexy (and very naked) female demon. After tricking him out of the wish that he gets from her, she informs him that once his wards run out, he’ll be trapped in Hell. Panicking, the wizard agrees when the demoness proposes a bargain: she’ll return him to Earth, if he’ll…well, you can guess what she wants. The mage, however, displays just how much of an idiot he is by balking at the idea, even as she gets on all fours and waves her tail at him. The demon girl, apparently very horny, snarlingly responds to his hesitation by informing him that he can either do it with her or suffer the consequences, to which this colossal imbecile, in a truly face-slapping moment of stupidity, takes offense at her threat and basically says that if she’s going to be such a bitch, he’ll just let himself be trapped in Hell. Listen you dunce, she’s doing YOU a favor! Would you rather spend eternity in a fiery pit, or get laid and go home?! Despite the fact that she’s totally in control of the situation, the demoness caves to his threat to cut off his nose to spite his face, and propositions him more seductively, at which point he finally warms up to her – proving that all dark wizards are arrogant nimrods who can be beaten by manipulating their pride – and they start getting it on. Rather oddly, while they’re having sex, she seems to teleport them to different locations throughout the universe…yeah, I don’t quite understand that, but hey, she has horns, a tail, and red skin, so who cares about little things like details? Admittedly, there’s almost no plot here (though the last panel, where the joke is – as always – made, helps to add a bit of background), but I’m just happy we’re back to showcasing the best of this sub-genre is all about.
The last comic, “I Swing the Body Electric,” is a sci-fi piece that features the character shown on the cover, the cyborg Mariko (they call her a cyborg, despite her appearance as a rather robotic gynoid; roll with it). The gist of the plot is that the six-man crew of a starship is waiting in a sauna (why?) for their android friend Mariko to be repaired – she was damaged in whatever fight ruined their ship. We see her old robotic shell, which looks like R2-D2’s retard cousin, so it’s obvious the guys are expecting something along that line for her new body. Imagine their surprise when she comes in looking like, well, you saw the cover. Luxuriating at her new form, Mariko rhapsodizes over her new form (which apparently perfectly mimics a human body’s sensory range and capabilities…including getting wet) and is very eager to have sex again for the first time in a while. The captain gets her first, while the other crewmembers…apparently draw numbers out of a hat to see who gets to do her in what order. Awfully democratic of them, considering how long it must have been since the all-male crew last got laid. Seriously, these guys have got to be the politest corps of space marines in the galaxy. Everyone waits patiently for their turn, despite that fact that Mariko has at least one, if not two, perfectly viable holes that are being ignored, to say nothing of her hands. Do they not have facials in the future? For crying out loud, she even mentions she has a sense of taste now, fellas, so put it to good use! Anyway, after they’re finally done with her, there’s some exposition about an assassination attempt on the crew by some aliens, but it’s not really that important. Who cares if they captured a bunch of space pirates? These guys just set a record for the politest, most orderly orgy in the galaxy! Semper fi indeed! Really though, I’m amazed at all the jokes Phil neglected to make here. Mariko never once talks about her new body being “fully functional.” And nobody mentions the captain “going down” with the ship. Oh, there’s still some in there, but clearly opportunities were missed.
There’s no doubt that XXXenophile Collection Volume Three is a great blend of arousing and amusing. But as far as showcasing creatures that are as exotic as they are erotic, it’s kind of hit-or-miss. Make no mistake, the sex scenes are well done, and the jokes work in most cases. However, if you’re seriously looking for something more than just porn in comic format, you’ll only be somewhat satisfied here. Likewise, don’t get too attached to any of the characters in these stories, because none of them will be around longer than ten pages; there are no serials here. That said, this is still a great product in every other respect. Most readers, I’d venture, will probably enjoy this book quite a bit…in more ways than one.
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