Husbands

Husbands

by Brad Bell, Jane Espenson, Ron Chan (Illustrator)

Written by Husbands creators Jane Espenson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Brad Bell, this is the comic-book continuation of the sitcom phenom. Husbands tells the story of famous gay newlyweds Brady and Cheeks, who sparked a media firestorm when they woke up legally wed after a drunken Vegas weekend. Now, a mystical wedding gift launches the couple on a series of adventures-a tongue-in-cheek journey through iconic genre realms-filled with obstacles that threaten to tear them apart. Follow Brady and Cheeks into a superhero showdown, a fairytale fantasy, a Holmesian mystery, an epic galactic battle, a madcap high school romp, and a saucy secret-spy thrill ride. Includes bonus "making of" material and a special introduction.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, LGBT, Fantasy, Romance, Queer, Humor

113 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 9, 2013

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pair of newly-wed dudes are lounging about their honeymoon suite with their blonde female friend, opening their wedding gifts. One of their presents is a magic book that sucks them into it. Unfazed, they have several adventures in different genres: superhero, fantasy, detective, sci-fi, Archie, and Bond. And that’s it – they exit the book unperturbed.

Whuh?

Apparently Husbands is a web series and this is a spinoff comic by its creators Brad Bell and Jane Espenson. Is this what happens in the show? The short stories all revolve around the two guys in different outfits trying to smooch one another, the blonde girl is some kind of villainess and sometimes just comic relief, and they invariably end with the two guys affirming their love. It’s so inane and repetitive!

Whatever! The stories are boring, overly cutesy-poo and pointless but the dialogue is very snappy and the differing art styles (provided by Ron Chan, Natalie Nourigat, MS Corley, Ben Dewey, and Tania Del Rio respectively) are right purty.

I’m all for more comics celebrating gay marriage but Husbands went waaaaayyy over my head as to what it was going for/was about. Maybe nothing in the end? That’s certainly the effect I was left with after reading it!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neil Gaiman made me do it! When I saw Mr. Gaiman’s name on the cover, I picked Husbands up. After reading his introduction, it went straight in the basket. What can I say? The man rules me. Plus the cutie on the cover didn’t hurt. :D

A magical wedding gift sends newlyweds Brady and Cheeks spinning off into a comic book world tour of genres. Each chapter presents a new look and style of art with obstacles, dilemmas, and forces of evil to conquer. From the outer galaxies to the halls of high school! Princes, paupers, villains, and super agents all come out to play! This graphic novel has it all! A nonstop ride filled with wit, romance, style, and heartfelt lessons of love and marriage. Our heroes must learn to work together, communicate, and compromise if they hope to make it home again though.

My favorite chapter was “Nocte Machinas”. A Star Trek inspired space adventure filled with humor, flirting, and tight uniforms. What’s not to like about tight uniforms? ;)

Not only did I stumble across a gem of a book, but Husbands is an online series as well. An addictive series that had me laughing out loud, cheering, and “awww”-ing all over the place! I’m hooked!

A hilarious read filled to the brim with love, cuteness, space, and spoofs!

Favorite Line:

“There’s been an enormous red button this whole time?! Always hit the enormous red button!”

[Bubbles Hunty Honest & Direct Opinions · Rating 5 out of 5]

I preordered the hardback edition of all the stories but just found out I can buy the individual issues on my iPad Darkhorse app. So I had to buy them since I can't wait to read these.

Issue One: Drawn In: OMG! So cute. So funny. Love these two guys. I wasn't sure what to except with this series but this was great. It was different than the YouTube hit show but kept all of the charm and wit you except from these guys. Wonderfully done.

Issue Two: The Well-Intentioned-But-Oblivious Prince And The Justifiably Belligerent Peasant or Equally Ever After: It was laugh out loud adorable. A cute humorous story. It's short but the characters just come to life. I'm loving reading these.

Issue Three: A Case Of Assumption: I liked the old mystery feeling. Wish it had been longer. It kind of felt like the movie Clue. But it was too short to really develop properly.

Issue Four: Nocte Machinas: not a huge Star Trek fan and never saw the movie that HAL was in reference too. So yeah this wasn't my favorite. It wasn't bad just didn't do anything for me.

Issue Five: Arch Nemesis: I like what it was doing. Kind of spoofing Archie and I like the little rhymes and stuff but didn't really get into it.

Only one story left. :(

Issue Six: Agent Secrets : I loved this one! What a great issue to end with. I really hope they wrote more comic stories in the future. Even the ones that weren't my favorite were still good. I'd especially love to see more issues from what ever time/universe this story was set in. Them as undercover agents was just too cute.

[Luke Spooner · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fun and cute. A good PRIDE read

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

When marriage equality became the law of the land in the United States in 2015, a lot of (unfortunately, over-idealistic) folks thought that it would be the final hurdle that would lead to full LGBTQ+ acceptance in the country. While it's not the case, Husbands provides at least 100 or so pages worth of what a world where queer identities are normalized looks like -- all with a little bit of interdimensional travel thrown in.

I'm not here to say that this graphic novel is ground-breaking or revolutionary in any way, because it really isn't. Don't get me wrong, it's a cute story of two men gradually getting to know themselves as a couple better through hopping through various comic universes. It's fun and lighthearted with good art. I honestly enjoyed myself for the hour or so it took to breeze through this.

If you come into Husbands with this in mind, then you're going to enjoy it. If you're expecting commentary on the queer struggle in a larger context, then this is not the graphic novel for you. (The Wicked and the Divine might be, though.)

[Bookishrealm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this was hilarious and it was my first completed read for #diversathon. It isn't a set plot line except that two husbands are transported to different worlds after their wedding. It's funny because they don't remember their past but in each world they fall in love all over again and I think that's what makes it beautiful. No matter what happened they always found their way back to each other. Gahhhhh just beautiful haha.

[Mileena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Husbands
4/5 stars

This was adorable, gorgeously drawn, and one of my favorite tropes of where two people can be in a different world or a different time but they will still find their way to each other and a way to be together. And each of the challenges they faced was like a metaphor for an obstacle in a relationship it was just so cute.

I thought that the Characters were cute and I routed for them every time, but they didn't really get fleshed out or put depth and I think that's just because this is more for people who have a preexisting knowledge of these characters through the show, which I've never seen before.

Since each issue is a different story I'm gonna rate this like a bind up.

Drawn In
3/5 stars
"The Superhero One"
Probably my least favorite of the bunch because it just felt clunky.

Equally Ever After
4.5/5 stars
"The Princey One"
Adorable, my first inclination that I'd like this book.

A Case of Assumption
4/5 stars
"The Sherlock One"
The mystery kinda was all over the place in the beginning but it really came together nicely by the end. And I really loved the Johnlock vibe they were giving each other. It was my weakness.

Nocte Machinas
4.25/5 stars
"The Space Aliens One"
I thought this one was precious and raised a good dilemma and I would totally watch a movie of this.

Arch Nemesis
5/5 stars
"The Archie One"
Obviously I loved this one because I'm a sucker for the Archie aesthetic. And thought the plot was cute but only wished that it was resolved better.

Agent Secrets
3.5/5 stars
Drawn amazing, I loved the snake chick, and thought they had good chemistry in this one, but other than that it wasn't as memorable.

Overall:
This was not what I was expecting but I ended up loving the fantastical plot of it all with the wedding gift book that transports them to these different worlds, and I definitely want to pick up the TV show now.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. It made me really want to watch the web series. I loved how each story had the characters facing a relationship issue really in a different way. All the scenarios were so fantastic too. Loved the style changes in each one. This was light and enjoyable.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Husbands is a beautiful trade collecting the six book run of the comic of the same name. The art is gorgeous, particularly the character designs in "Nocte Machinas" and the dead on Archie parody of "Arch Nemesis". I wasn't familiar with the sitcom prior to being accepted for this ARC, but luckily the story takes place in an AU where Cheeks and Brady, a pair of tabloid darlings who got married in Vegas, are transported to different traditional comic settings to learn morals on relationships and marriage. Written by Jane Epenson, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, and show-runner Brad Bell, the comic maintains a lot of the signature humor and satire associated with the Whedon crew.

Each chapter works well as a stand-alone, though only together do they really weave a story of a blossoming partnership. Together the boys travel to the time of golden-age superheros, medieval knights, Sherlockian-countryside, outer space, high school, and Bond inspired spies. In one chapter they learn about fidelity; the next, trust. The morals don't come off heavy handed or preachy, except maybe in "Arch Nemesis", but then Archie morals are about as subtle as a hammer to the nuts.

It's not a heavy comic and it's a fast, easy read. If anything, "A Case of Assumption" and "Secret Agents" could be longer. My favorite was "The Well-Intentioned-but-Oblivious Prince and the Justifiably Belligerent Peasant OR Equally Ever After", because it portrayed a gay couple in a way I don't get to see very often: tender. With fourth-wall breaking humor, a drunk sidekick, and natural-feeling romance, I heartily suggest Husbands for a fun evening in.

[archdandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into Husbands not knowing about the webseries. I had requested it from Netgalley because I saw that Jane Espenson was a main writer and that had me all giddy for the possibility of awesome humor. After reading it I can safely say that I am definitely going to check out the webseries.

In Husbands we follow newlyweds, Cheeks and Brady, as they travel through different scenarios to learn relationship lessons. They go through multiple story settings, including superheroes and villains, Bond style espionage and an Archie look-a-like. It was fun to get different settings for each new relationship lesson and it was very easy to get lost in this story and read all the way until the end! I think my favorite story was "The Well-Intentioned-but-Oblivious Prince and the Justifiably Belligerent Peasant OR Equally Ever After". I think thats the one that really brought home the main theme of equality for everyone.

For fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or just Whedon's stuff in general I would definitely recommend this book. It's got many of the same quirks and a lot of the same humor in it which made it all the more enjoyable.

[Sean Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful trade edition of the six-issue series. Part of its charm is the subversion of traditional comics - the Archie satire is spot on both in tone and visuals. When I first read the comics as they came out I was a bit disappointed that these aren't really the characters as we 'know' them in the series - I would rather have had a continuation of their own stories - but now that I know there's a third season on the way I can appreciate the comics a bit more for the way they play with the characters within certain genres. I hope there are more Husbands comics to come!

[Miss Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuuuuute. I can think of a couple grounds to critique this on but honestly? It is literally six interconnected AUs of fluffy fanfic. My head was killing me yesterday, mentally non-taxing fluff was exactly what I needed (why were you reading when your head was at the point where bright lights made you hiss away like a vampire? Because I was about to crawl out of my skin with boredom Judgement Joe; this was the healthiest alternative I could think of. Some of us are not blessed with a body capable of sleeping when it's good for it >l) 3 stars

[Janelle Track · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was super cute and fun to read but it was also kinda campy.

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this in a collection, and wondered why I hadn't heard of it before, as it came out while I was working in a store that sold a wide variety of queer graphic novels. It's co-written by someone who wrote Buffy The Vampire Slayer, it has an introduction by Neil Gaiman. How did it slip through the cracks?

It's awful.

While I understand from the back of the book that this is the continuation of a sitcom that I'd never heard of that has a dodgy but maybe endearing premise, this graphic novel is just a bunch of lazy cliches with very Whedonesque dialogue (which makes sense, Espenson wrote some of the best work attributed to Whedon) that are meant to be witty satrical takes on pop culture and comic history.

There just aren't any laughs in it. This style of dialogue is so dependent on what was then current pop culture that it comes across stilted. Oh, sure, I remember when jokes about Lady Gaga being derivative of Madonna were .. ahem ... en vogue but it's hardly a timeless punchline.

We're rather quickly hurled into the trope where the characters find themselves as characters in a variety of different comic books. The art is perfect for each era, and is the only thing keeping this from being a one star book . The stories are unmemorable and unfunny. I'm not sure if Espenson was off her game or if her humor doesn't translate from TV to comics because the dialogue in this book made my eyes roll so hard that I fear I may have had a concussion. It's some of the cringiest dialogue I've read by someone who definitely knows better.

I don't reccomend it, unless you can find a copy of the storyboards with all the dialogue removed.

[Aidan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars.

Comic books/graphic novels aren't generally my preferred medium, but I loved the Husbands webseries and bought this as a result.

This was charming and a very quick read. The text is structured as a series of adventures, in which the eponymous husbands star; each adventure is a different, classic type of comic. The overall narrative is strung together through some very meta hand-waving.

I've no real complaints about the text. The story/stories are cute, the art similarly so, and there is enough humor to keep everything moving (both within the stories and from the narrator). There doesn't really seem a need to say a great deal about this: the adventures are short and self-contained and, as a result, not particularly involved. They do a good job manifesting the comic "types" they're intended to, though everything has (rather obviously) a queer twist, since the two main figures are gay men.

In short, it's a fun text, and has humor in line with the series it's been spun off from. If you liked the Husbands webseries and are looking for a light diversion, you'll probably like this, too.

[Joanna’s Reading Rainbow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this graphic novel but the writing just wasn’t there for me and the plot didn’t flow well. The story begins when newlyweds Brady and Cheeks are opening their wedding gifts and they get pulled into their very own comic book. They face six different obstacles in which they have to work together in spite of their differences. Each problem situation is written/ illustrated in a different genre: fantasy, mystery, sci-fi, detective novel, etc. While the illustrations were great, the writing was just bad. On top of that, the story has no real closure. It all feels like a blip in time in which you lost precious time that you’ll never be able to get back.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cool bunch of short stories featuring a newly married gay couple. Each represents a different facet of their relationship and takes on different genres as well as art styles.

I'm not familiar with the web series, but I found the book did a good job of introducing these characters and throwing them into various scenarios. I liked that it was played relatively straight storywise. I always like when a male/male romance is treated as a regular, normal occurrence.

I'm glad my local comic-book store has an LGBT section and featured this book.

[Yani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realise when I bought this that it was related to a web series (which I haven't seen), so it kind of sat on my shelf for a while until I finally got around to picking it back up.

It's a cute set of stories, all "what ifs" for the two main characters and their female friend.

Each of the stories has it's charms, but I think the medieval fantasy one and the space warriors one are probably my favourites. The story just ends... which is a little bit abrupt and sort of just deflates the whole thing.

Otherwise the writing is good, the art is varied but overall looks pretty nice.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

According to the receipt I left inside, I bought this on January 10, 2015, such a dramatically different time in myriad ways. I finally got around to reading it tonight, and it was a DELIGHT. I'm glad I can revisit it whenever--good call, 2015 Me! I also "binged" the whole first season of the webseries (quotation marks because it's very short), and I'll be watching the second and third seasons tomorrow for sure. Clever, queer satire with heart. INTO IT. 👨‍❤️‍👨

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd miniseries. Maybe I would have appreciated it more if I had actually seen the TV show, but it still sort of stands on its own as a lighthearted study in genres and tropes. The same characters get dropped into different settings, including a superhero story and an Archie-style old-fashioned teen story. Not the most compelling book for me personally, but I'm still happy it exists.

[Alice Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved how the drawings really looked like Cheeks in some issues. He was cute.

But otherwise, I didn't understand the goal of the book. It would have been so much better to read about their married life together than some strange non-sensical adventures.

What I did love though was that I bought the book without knowing the series, so I discovered a new series, and the series is hilarious.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the collection of the Husband comics. It's a great read for anyone in a relationship gay, straight, or otherwise! I loved all the different styles for each issue. The breakdown of the comic at the end was really insightful.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually when I give less than 5 stars (for fully hits target) I write something explaining exactly why. This time I can say only that it wasn't all that good, and that I'm not exercised enough to figure out why not.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun. Made me want to watch the webseries too.

[Grace W · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only wish we that there was more of this. Cute and funny and delightfully queer!

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is just really cute and a lot of fun.

[Kristin R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute comic about two newlywed husbands navigating the world of relationships and interpersonal communication.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine and cute, but I think a fan of the tv show would get more out of it.

[Stephen Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frequently fun, occasionally sexy, always beautifully illustrated and packs more than a few important lessons.

[Fr. Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, adorable, witty fun. I approve and would like more.