This issue might be Lapham’s most difficult to pull off, because he’s not just charting the decline of a previously sympathetic protagonist, he’s charting the decline of new, female character. He’s got to do it very, very carefully.
The story is about a young woman who a couple lousy boyfriends who starts seducing married men (for the rush). The couple lousy boyfriends are really lousy, one even abusive, and Lapham doesn’t handle her reaction sensationally. He does it calmly (when he really could have her start killing her lovers or blackmailing them or something). So it’s depressing. Well, at first it seems like it might not be as depressing, then he clarifies she knows exactly what she’s doing.
Maybe it’s all the build up cop Roger, who’s the only returning character, and the only one to stand up to her.
It probably could be longer, maybe doubled, but it’s good.
A-
CREDITS
Live Nude Girls!; writer, artist, and letterer, David Lapham; editor, Deborah Dragovic; publisher, El Capitán Books.
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