How Loathsome [Hardcover]

Tristan Crane (Author), Ted Naifeh (Illustrator), Danielle Willis (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2004

The new series by the artist of Gloom Cookie and Courtney Crumrin! Do the town with gender outlaw Catherine Gore and her disreputable friends. It’s Friday night and Catherine is dragged to an S&M play party to see what passes for sex these days. There, the beautiful, enigmatic fem fatale Chloe takes Catherine by surprise. Chloe is a girl with a secret. Catherine is intrigued, and the two form a tight bond. But is it love, or desperate obsession? Part "Queer as Folk," part "Trainspotting," this deeply personal, sexually bizarre, drug-addled adventure is a gothic exploration of the not-so obvious nature of gender. Collects the 4 issue mini-series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An androgynous figure, wearing nothing but black PVC pants, dominates this book’s cover. It’s an appropriate introduction to a story that explores gender experimentation. At an s&m party, Catherine meets Chloe, a "tall and immaculate" transvestite. The narration is entertainingly self-loathing, as when Catherine tells readers, "I wondered how to put her at ease, how not to come off as the person I was." With Chloe, Catherine sees herself as part of a pair of "outcast aliens... beautiful monsters." The four stories in this book explore various aspects of San Francisco’s queer, transgendered subculture as the characters drift in and out of a world of drugs and broken romances. The spare, angular style of Naifeh (Courtney Crumrin) makes the characters look inhumanly glamorous, capturing the cast as the freaks they not only think themselves to be, but pride themselves on being. But Crane’s sympathetic script puts this defiance in the context of the universal search for love and self-acceptance. Deep black and sepia pages alternate with gray-toned fairy horror stories, flashbacks and dream sequences to provide insight into a world of fetishes and addictions, appearance and identity. Like the best stories, these put readers inside the head of someone they might otherwise never know.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Naifeh and Crane's realistic graphic novel attests that San Francisco remains home to the most cutting-edge lifestyles. All four chapters star a lesbian in SF's "genderfuck" community of those of deliberately confused sexual identity. In the first, cartoonist Catherine Gore is infatuated with Chloe, an all-but-complete male-to-female transsexual who, alas, just doesn't go for girls. The second is a typical episode in Catherine's friendship with heroine-addicted rent-boy Alex; the inclusion of one of Catherine's comics stories suggests her and Alex's closeness. The third chapter pairs a drug- and sex-drenched week in the life of Catherine's sometime-dealer friend Nick, and one of hers, with a male-female Goth couple who think they want a threesome. Finally, Catherine, Alex, and Nick go to see Chloe's return to the stage of Dragshack (subplot: Alex hits on a boy-band member who turns out to be--quelle horreur--a girl). The writing is pitch-perfect in its combination of callow dissent and lost-soul sentimentality, and the black, white, and tan artwork is stylish in a David Bowie-ish way. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 109 pages
• Publisher: ComicsLit (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561633860
• ISBN-13: 978-1561633869
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,132,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Walk beyond the wild side, May 19, 2006

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: How Loathsome (Paperback)

What's it about? Lots of things, and nothing. It's about gender, the social identity, but not about body features that determine sex. It's about the act of sex, too, or maybe just an act. It's about the constant, demanding search for the next big head rush - maybe not a thrill, but the thing that makes you feel like you're really alive. It's also about heroin, and the search for no feeling at all. Lost people, finding each other. Sometimes. For a while.

The artwork is stark and strong. It's angular and harsh, like the people in it. It varies a lot - black and white plus tan, B&W with grays, and a strong mix of computer work with pen and ink. In fact, I'd use this book to straighten out some dumb art student who wants to jump all the way into electronic images: it's not either/or, it's about expression. Have a picture with something to say, then combine the tools to say it.

It's hard, raw, and ugly in places. It's just really well done. I'm looking for more by this art team.

//wiredweird

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant and empathetic~, January 19, 2008

By 

Spiderbaby Fastwolf "art fiend culture lover" (chicaga il, usa) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: How Loathsome (Paperback)

If you've had the pleasure of reading Danielle Willis' wonderful poetry collection, "Dogs in Lingerie" you really must read this book.
If you have transgendered friends,are transgender,or are simply a wonderful libertine, you muse read this book.

An objective and kind vision into the SF underground;
no punches are pulled- this is intelligently clear storytelling with Ted Naifeh's gorgeous illustrations.

Keep in mind that one, the book is over before you know it, two, it is an illustrated novel, and three, for an aging deathrocker like meself, you will most likely be consumed with sweet nostalgia for your glory years.

5.0 out of 5 stars Flawless, May 18, 2007

By 

Cat (Poconos, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: How Loathsome (Paperback)

I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I have adored this book since the day I got it. Ted Naifeh is truly brilliant from gloom cookie and beyond I have adored every book he has had a part of.