Adversary

by Blue Delliquanti

Minneapolis, 2021. Curtis is newly out, single, and ready to take his life in a different direction. Anton is an enigmatic young man who recognizes Curtis from their pre-pandemic lives. One casual drink leads to a charged relationship layered with unspeakable needs.

A graphic novella about connection and failure, grief and responsibility, and the effect of world-changing events on the soul of the individual.

Originally published as part of the 2022 Shortbox Comics Fair.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, LGBT, Queer, Fiction, Romance, Gay

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2022

About the author

Blue Delliquanti is a comic artist and writer based in Minneapolis, MN.

Since 2012 Blue has drawn and serialized the Prism Award-winning science fiction comic O Human Starat ohumanstar.com. Blue is also the co-creator of the graphic novel Meal (with Soleil Ho), published through Iron Circus Comics, and The ‘Stan (with David Axe and Kevin Knodell), published through Dead Reckoning. Blue is represented by Jen Linnan of Linnan Literary Management LLC.

Reviews

[Maia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mid-covid lockdown, a transman meets a teacher he'd previously learned from in a women's self defense class. The teacher is newly divorced and out as gay. The transman invites him into an arrangement of violent sexual role playing. Both men act out fantasies and traumas, but they do not both survive the pressures of 2021. This is a heavy, dark, brutal comic novella. I am constantly in awe of now much story and meaning and gender and complexity Blue Delliquanti is able to pack into a one shot. Go into this one with some care.

[Mel Gillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Subtle, haunting, and deft storytelling that has stuck with me for weeks after finishing the book. Blue is a master craftsman at comics and you don’t want to miss this one; read it twice.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story started strong as it explored the main characters' physical and emotional relationship, but the depressing ending just made no sense to me.

[Austin Shay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adversary expands on O Human Star’s themes of identity and AI personhood with expressive art and thoughtful worldbuilding. While emotionally compelling, the pacing is uneven, and some character arcs feel underdeveloped. The ending is especially jarring—bold but surreal and unsatisfying. Fans may still find it intriguing, but it doesn’t fully recapture the strength of its predecessor.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adversary is a graphic novella centered around the complex relationship between two men, Anton and Curtis. Set amidst the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in Minneapolis, Curtis is recognized by Anton from an earlier encounter prior to the pandemic. The two men go from having a casual drink with each other to a challenging and layered relationship. The story is slight, but the character work is subtly executed as we learn more about their complex dynamic. It's an enigmatic read for the first half, but the second half unfolds some pretty challenging ideas. It's best read twice just to see how deft the overall storytelling is here. Tons of sharp, naturalistic dialogue also really aids the overall character work here.

Blue Delliquanti's artwork is strong throughout, but the overall achievement here is just how complex and tragic the narrative of Adversary actually is.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really good, subtle, fairly short comic. I think Delliquanti is very talented at writing dialogue/creating interesting and tense conversations between characters, and their art is beautiful! I have wanted a more “adult” (not to say, like, sexually explicit, though this one is!) audienced comic from BD since reading O HUMAN STAR—which was a bit more YA than I tend to read—and this book did not disappoint. Recommend checking it out, though definitely check the content warnings.

[Marj Gaber · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are surrounded by tombstones.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a fan of the O Human Star, Volume One series, I thought I'd try another graphic novel by this author. Adversary is a much more condensed storyline that ultimately left me unsure of what happened to our primary characters (and why). I struggled to pinpoint Anton's motivations at any point in the story. Maybe this one just went over my head?

[Carina Stopenski · Rating 4 out of 5]

it has all three things: political, sad, and horny!

[Natalie Weizenbaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's an indescribable mixture of painful and cathartic to see a story that expresses a similar kind of twisted pain and rage about the world of 2020 and 2021 that I hold in my heart. Delliquanti's writing always has a piercing insight into the darker corners of the human heart, and applying it here to such a complex, tragic, maddening time and place—one the author themself lived through—produces something raw and blistering. I still struggle to communicate what this time felt like, what marks it left on me and my community. This book makes me feel a little less alone in that.

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to rate -- I went for four stars because I think it was "good" even though it wasn't, in the end, something I wanted to read. It just feels wrong to be the first/only GR review and rate it worse just because it turns out I am not yet ready to read things set in and about the pandemic. Even with the content notes, it wasn't what I was expecting and I'm not sure why.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read twice in one afternoon. The characters are very illuminated, the ending intense. Also a bit of a time capsule of 2021 post-uprising, mid-pandemic Minneapolis…which still feels very close. Delliquanti does a great job of capturing the surreality and trauma of that time. Great read.

[Akiva ꙮ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woof. This is heavy. I really didn't expect the end.

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I have a physical (paperback) copy of the edition with this cover (and the other edition also, through accident of I didn't recognise I technically had it already), but I don't feel like going through the process to update the listing.

I have to admit, this one threw me off, since I had an IDEA of what to expect from the story based on the title, but it went in a very different direction from what I thought would happen. MOST of the story is good, and feels like a complicated but less-represented type of relationship in media, but... I don't really get the ending. There are a few dots I haven't quite connected to understand the decision involved (spoilers and all, why I'm not spelling it out), and I guess it has to do with I haven't lived the same life to have had experiences that would make me want to do... that.

Otherwise, I enjoy Blue Delliquanti's work a LOT and have acquired as much of it as I'm aware exists! This particular title just hits some tones I didn't expect and leave me with a bittersweet aftertaste.

Recommended... for... survivors? I guess? That's probably the theme, considering the tagline on the back cover: "We all deal with the pandemic in different ways."

[AL · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short but interesting read. This one takes on a lot of subjects in it's short run, but it does not quite stick the landing. BUT, maybe it didn't need to. This is a queer book through and through, other reviews give better plot synopsis, so I wont, but this book has a lot; complex queer relations, the pandemic, police brutality, and death. It's not perfect, but I think it is going to stick with me for a while.

Sadly in this books 80 page run it doesn't get to fully touch on all of it's topics, at least in a way that makes it feel satisfying. If you are confused by the ending, I suggest giving it another skim. Though there will probably still be things that don't make full sense. This is the type of book where you just have to accept you wont know everything you want to know. It's a worth while read, even, if a bit wonky, I'd give it a shot.

The art is also nice, some pages are better than others, but when it looks good, it looks great.

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review hasn't changed much from my prior review; this is also a physical copy, though in colour vs. the monochrome of the other edition. It still beautiful AND ugly, and about all I would add to my other review is I just really appreciate when people sneak food out that would otherwise get thrown away, because food waste is a greater crime than robbing big chain stores, honestly. (Even smaller Mom-and-Pop stores, I can't imagine they would rather their food go to waste than go to someone hungry, though some of them I would also imagine would eat the food themselves and/or feed friends/family/neighbours.)

Definitely an acquired taste, particularly since it's such a nontraditional story (I wouldn't say "happy ending" by a longshot).

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been a huge fan of Blue Delliquanti’s work ever since I binge read all that had been published of O Human Star in 2018. I read Adversary when it was released online a couple years ago and it didn’t quite click with me then, mostly because of the ending. A paperback copy just showed up in my local comic book store so I decided to give it another shot. I’m glad I did. I still think it has pacing issues and maybe bites off a bit more than a novella length story can chew but Anton’s escalation to self-immolation doesn’t feel like it came out of nowhere anymore, the nuances of his motivations and emotions felt a lot more obvious on a second read.
Also it’s still hot so there’s that.

[Hung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great art, but I can't make out what I have just read. So this is what I got.

The older guy was a self defence instructor who recently came out and separated from his wife.

The younger guy is trans, works at ALDI, and processing the loss of his sister due to Covid.

They got together and started a relationship, but it's not working out because the younger guy is still Hung up on his dead sister, and something is going on with the local politics.

The younger guy ended up setting himself on fire. Why?

[K.C. Norton]

I am… confused. I wish there was just a little more explanation about context, because even going through twice I’m not sure what to make of the end, or of a couple of these exchanges. I think the fact that I live pretty far away means that there’s a specific event that would be immediately recognizable to locals but isn’t clicking in my memory.

[Fiore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hm, around a 3.5, the feelings contained, with the rage and grief all spiraling together while resisting that constant need to connect was great. The story itself was a bit...structurally wobbly? But still, you can fell how much the characters struggle in a world full of daggers against people just trying to live.

[Ashlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not what I expected, but I did like it. I wanted a bit more of Anton and Curtis’s relationship to develop, but I like how their story was told. I’d be interested to see what would happen next in their love story. I’m glad I picked this one up and will definitely read more by this author in the future.

[Kieran Craft · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love weird, unexpected queer stories, so this was perfect. It's not really a love story, or a coming out story, or a fighting the homophobes story, it's this little slice of the unique situations which can emerge in the lives of queer/trans people.

[Anna]

Um what. I read this in one sitting and it's a fairly quick read but I am more confused than anything. I think I know what happened and maybe that's the point but I really felt like there was a lot left unexplained and it just didn't quite work for me.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will read anything Blue Delliquanti writes. It's all good. This one...I didn't totally get. Was the end what I thought it was? I don't even want to look at it again, too depressing. But very well done.

[Andreas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m slowly making my way through the shortbox fair comics and damn this one is brilliant.

[Millie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartstopping. Absolutely worth a read

[Norman Praught · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting zine. Love personal stories like these. Didn’t quite resolve for me in the end. But fun illustrations and daring topic.

[Drac · Rating 4 out of 5]

The kind of book you need to read twice.

[Ezra Horne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't connect much with this, to be honest, but it was recommended to me.

[Julie Kirby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpected but compelling, and more importantly, believable character connection. Evidence of an excellent storyteller.