Sunday, June 16, 2013

Girls

Girls written by Joshua Luna and illustrated by Jonathan Luna

A small town is cut off from the rest of the world by a transparent dome. The fifty six townspeople find themselves threatened by a giant glowing sperm and a horde of naked women who kill the local women and reproduce through sexual intercourse with the men. The invaders' different reaction to males and females pits the women against the men for survival. The authors have created a community much more diverse than normal, creating a microcosm of the USA to show how people react to crisis.

Originally published in 24 separate issues, there is plenty of room for character development and cliff-hanging moments. The main characters are two men, a low self esteem cashier and the town cop, and the female bartender they both love. As the naked women multiply and townspeople are brutally slain, there is lots of graphic content that is handled surprisingly well. The story provides enough detail to convey the plot while relying on gory or titillating imagery too much.

The setting seems strangely similar to Stephen King's novel Under The Dome, only he doesn't use naked alien women and a giant spermatozoa to accelerate the plot of his 1000+ page book. The similarities are enough to make me think he read Girls and saw a good plot device.