Skip to main contentI spread open Colleen Coover's labia-laden comic-book collection of girly-porn called Small Favors Vol. 1 (Eros Comix, 128 pages, $14.95) with trepidation.
The last time I had seen this much of a vagina, I was coming out of one. (And, yeah, I am proud of that line.)
In two volumes of Small Favors, Coover's explicitly revealing tales revolve around a titty-fucking Tinkerbell, "Nibbil," assigned to chaperone "Annie," a "masturbation-crazy little nympho." Full of truckloads of drawings of girl humping, this bisexual's book made even a porn-loving homo like me blush.
Like a lot of queer men, I guess I'm out of touch with my Sapphic porn side. I'm just not drawn to the girl-on-girl action like those featured in Small Favors and Box Lunch: The Layperson's Guide to Cunnilingus (Alyson, 142 pages, $13.95), another of Coover's just-published books. At least not like the dykes who seem to get wet every time they see two gay men break out their boners.
This doesn't surprise Charles Boucher, who believes that queer men have spent most of their lives being exposed to images of naked women--and not enough of naked men. The proprietor of the perv-friendly CounterMedia, Boucher, who turned me on to Coover, says her books have become one of the biggest sellers in his store: "Not just for lesbians, but also straight guys and straight girls."
Boucher believes that much of the success of Small Favors has to do with the fact that Coover's characters are just so darn "cute."
Coover, whose work straddles the sexual divide between straight men and queer women, doesn't claim to be a sex expert. "I'm just enthusiastic, and adventurous, especially creatively," says the author, who just moved to Portland with her boyfriend.
And her characters are cute. Drawn in the same sleaze-free, wide-eyed wondrous way that has made both Japanese anime and Disney cartoons so popular (right down to the fact that one is fairy-sized), Coover's women, look like, well, women. They have small boobs and bad hair, and they don't seem to need the company of men.
"I was conscious as a bisexual woman who prefers girl-on-girl porn that I was being cast into the role of a male voyeur," says Coover, who labels herself as a feminist. "I wanted to specifically target women readers without excluding men."
Although she identifies with her characters--she says they all have aspects of her personality--she doesn't consider herself one of the cast. "If I were an exhibitionist, I wouldn't be doing a comic book. I am very, very shy."
She also doesn't think gay guys should have a problem with her material, even if they aren't her target audience. "I don't think [gay men] are being excluded," she says. "It's not the mainstream girl-on-girl porn directed to [straight] men. It's about two people who have a genuine affection for each other."
Sadly, at least in terms of porn, hot girl-on-girl action ends up being a big turnoff to most gay men. Even when we are looking for comic relief, we still need to see ourselves.
Colleen Coover art show/book signing,
, 927 SW Oak St., 226-8141. 6:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 7.
TART benefit for PDX Gay & Lesbian Film Fest, Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St. 4-9 pm Sunday, Oct. 10. $5. 21+.
WWeek 2015