BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga–and occasionally non-manga LGBTQ+ media!

Writer: Andrew Wheeler
Artists: Travis Moore
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: June 29, 2022-Ongoing

“… acts of defiance are their own reward.”

Within the first few pages of Sins of the Black Flamingo #1, the titular anti-hero breaks into a Nazi memorabilia museum owned (in Florida, of course), burgles the soul of a holocaust survivor’s queer lover inscribed in Hebrew letters on a stone, and nicks an ancient note about a collar designed to contain powerful entities. He then proceeds to resurrect said queer lover as a sexy clay golem, meets a malevolent god and frees a sexy collared angel from said malevolent god’s literal chains.

I should’ve picked up on the “sins” part of the title; its inclusion is not in any way, shape or form superficial. We are excavating some queer religious angst here, folks.

Much like my review of Bonds of Brass, this is mostly going to be a love letter to this series. Sins of the Black Flamingo is as tight and titillating as a circuit party gay’s abs. Even the protagonist alone hits all the right notes; Sebastian Harlow, the Black Flamingo, flamboyant, sarcastic, catty, caring, narcissistic, nihilistic, misanthropic, anti-racist, anti-colonial, sensitive, sexy, slutty, horny, melancholy, tortured. Dream man.

By day, a stylish antiquities dealer with a predilection for the occult, arcane and mystical; by night, a doubly stylish, misanthropic gentleman thief who steals from the rich “because the poor have nothing worth taking.” While attending a party hosted by an obscenely rich, white prick living in a gaudy seafront mansion–in Florida… now why does that sound familiar?!–Harlow realizes his host is something dark and evil, who has a sexy, winged, scarred twunk collared and captive… But, as it turns out, the presence of this angel is the only thing that lifts the veil of a curse that forces Harlow to see existence for the Boschian, fallen world, rotting, corrupted living hell that it is.

Jon Kent. Dick Grayson.
The 2nd half of our Nightwing and Superman crossover is out in March in #Superman: Son of Kal-El #9. Both issues drawn by the awesome @Bruno_Redondo_F.
Beautiful Variant cover by Travis Moore and @TBonvillain. pic.twitter.com/R06bOd0MzQ

— Tom Taylor (@TomTaylorMade) December 17, 2021

Sins of the Black Flamingo is an ongoing five-issue series, currently waiting on #5 coming out at the end of the month. I’ve followed series before where even with such limited space for storytelling some shots, or action, or exposition feels like filler, flabby, like they’re just taking up precious space on the page. Not so with this unabashedly queer, hot and horny series. On top of industry icon Travis Moore’s exquisite art, the most impressive thing about Black Flamingo is the storytelling that is both rich and dynamic, extraordinarily well paced. Even the shots that are unapologetically fan service–like the several times in the first three issues that Harlow is running around naked or next to naked, bless the creators–are woven into the story so well that they don’t feel gratuitous… just sexy!

Gods, I really can't wait to buy this comic book in its collected paperback next year. (Sins of the Black Flamingo by Travis Moore) pic.twitter.com/PZuMNndLo9

— SchizoidArt (@schizoid_art) October 7, 2022

Despite worshipping Moore’s talent–and the many, many pretty boy superheroes he’s given us, see Twitter sidebar #1–I honestly almost gave Sins of the Black Flamingo a pass for completely superficial and hypocritical reasons. In my mind, with precious little knowledge about the series beyond Moore’s drool-worthy art, Black Flamingo was little more than the proverbial and thematic circuit party gay; beautiful but vapid, sensual but surface, visually appealing, but not a lot going on upstairs. A gorgeous, thirst-trap postin’ gay boy I don’t mind ogling from afar, but (judgementally) write off as shallow and boring, of no substance. Aside from my social media feed, guys with abs are not my world, so I figured there wouldn’t be anything in the pages for me. Luckily thanks to a two-page centre spread posted by a horny Twitter artist (see Twitter sidebar #2, mild spoilers) I follow, I decided to check out the series… “for science.” You know… like a total hypocrite!

I couldn’t have been more wrong. The depth of the story both surprised and delighted me. I mean, I’m a recovering Catholic, so there’s already that. Even in the sexy gay parts, the circuit parties, the sex, there’s a desperate melancholy, like ours truly is a fallen world, and the gays are just trying to party our way to something better. Even just digging into some of the queer signifiers, conventions and tropes that are turned on their head would give Jungian psychologists a field day. For example…

MILD BACKSTORY SPOILERS !

In issue #3 we learn that Harlow was initiated into the occult by his older archeology teacher–a dead ringer to be played by David Harbour in the screen adaptation I will be screaming for. Their relationship was sexual in nature, they attended “black masses that were sex parties… and sex parties that were definitely black masses.”

Hot.

However, in their kinky, queer, Satanic Indian Jones-ing around the world plundering ancient dig sites they discovered a dark artifact that revealed the “true beauty of the world.” The truth. When Harlow touched it, the curse showed him the world was fire, poison and corruption, bankrupt of divinity or grace. He spent three years in a psych ward, and by the time he got out his teacher was dead, leaving the artifact as his sole inheritance of their relationship.

So let’s dig into THAT. Already right there you have the classical gay initiation, the senex and puer, the older gay man passing on knowledge to the younger, arcane knowledge in every sense of the word. Only the knowledge is ultimately corrupting, driving the young gay man to insanity. Every homophobic, conservative fear come to life. Badass.

For protection against the dark masculine forces, Harlow turns towards insular feminine powers, witchcraft passed down through the ages by the colonized but not conquered, black, latina and indigenous–he also has a kickass witch friend and conspirator, Ofelia, excellent character, I’d read a whole series about her. So there’s definitely an animus/anima thing going on, which rocks.

Then the cursed young homosexual discovers a literal angel–Ezekiel, named for the prophet, hmm–ageless, eternal, a blank slate, innocent… or so we’re led to believe. The puer aeternus. The perfect lover, the only man who can temporarily lift the dark, mad veil from the eyes of the bitter, cynical, cursed homosexual. Again, so many delicious, cerebral and symbolic layers to dig into.

MILD BACKSTORY SPOILERS END HERE!

Sins of the Black Flamingo, like the titular protagonist, hits all the right notes. Heavy on the religious angst, if I haven’t made that abundantly clear, but not particularly bogged down by it. Exquisite art, excellent story, and sexy as all hell. Amen.

And if you can’t track down the individual issues, not to worry! It looks like Image Comics will be releasing an omnibus in the new year!

Level of Problematic: Sins of the Gym Bunny; Almost every single guy on these pages is slim and muscular with a six-pack. Progressive-me rolls his eyes, horny-me sneaks off to my bedroom with a couple issues in hand. Because I’m a horny hypocrite, okay?!

Level of Adorable: Sins of the Speckled Pup; Between Harlow, Abel (the golem) and Ezekiel (the angel), there’s more than enough gorgeous eye candy to go around. Good God. Please let Travis Moore do this kind of work as often as he wants. I could pitch a few things… ideas, that is.

Level of Spiciness: Sins of the Playful Otter; There is just so much sexiness. and sex on these pages and I want more. More, damnit! If prints of any pages of these pages exist I want them on my horny art wall–yes, I obviously have a horny art wall. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, over and over, Travis Moore, you draw queer masterpieces.