Frontier #7: SexCoven

Frontier #7

by Jillian Tamaki

Frontier #7 features the story "SexCoven" which revolves around IRL and online relationships, the seductive and secret world of early internet file-sharing, and life inside a commune (cult?).

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Womens

32 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2015

About the author

Jillian Tamaki is a cartoonist and illustrator living in Toronto. A professional artist since 2003, she has worked for publications around the world and taught extensively in New York at the undergraduate and graduate level. She is the co-creator, with her cousin Mariko Tamaki, of Skim and This One Summer, the latter of which won a Caldecott Honor in 2015. She is the author of the graphic novels SuperMutant Magic Academy, originally a serialized webcomic, and Boundless, a collection of short comic stories for adults. Her first picture book, They Say Blue, was released in 2018.

Reviews

[Mike]

I hold my hands up. I am a believer in SexCoven. Hallelujah.

[Jenn]

Huge Jillian Tamaki fan but... I just don't get this. The art is wonderful. The set up and treatment of early internet file-sharing is fascinating. Then halfway through it switches gears to tell us a brief story about characters we don't care about in a way that leaves you very confused who you are even supposed to identify with. Wish it had ended in the middle.

[P.]

If you like reading about communes, weird internet mysteries, and the early 2000s, you will like this. Jillian Tamaki creates a world with her usual boatload of talent.

[eliz]

3.5 stars. This is the first comic I've read by Tamaki. It's well crafted and centers on a unique and interesting premise (internet subcultures which spun up irl activities and how they impacted those who became deeply embedded in them). It's far richer than most of the Frontier issues I've picked up in the past, but at the same time didn't really stick with me. It feels a bit like the exploration for a larger work.

[John]

The best unexpected find I've come across at Copacetic Comics. A more risque work the creator of "This One Summer".

It's about early internet online Communities. And Cults. And Joshua tree sex clubs.

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH]

SUPER WEIRD, but really intriguing. this is Skim/This One Summer-style art, not like the quick sketches of SuperMutant Magic Academy. so of course it's astonishingly pretty and intricate.

[Mars]

So I really love this. It's an exquisite comic. The art, of course, is amazing, but it's also a great use of comics language. The balance of words and illustration is just right for the story, as is the amount of world-building for this ever so slightly sci-fi tale. Definitely one to study and look over. And think over. READ IT.

[Cindy]

I really enjoyed the beginning of this volume and the sort of anthropological discussion of the SexCoven phenomenon, but I did think it went off the rails a bit at the end. I understand that focusing the story on actual people helped humanize the phenomenon and let us understand why SexCoven was so important, but I did find it jarring.

[Elisa]

Love her artwork, plot was wierd to me but that just goes with the story.

And Thanks to Youth in Decline from San Francisco I've got my coolest shirt ever!

[Blue]

Tamaki delivers again. Great art, strange story, real people, sci-fi theme, all in there, all smartly told and executed.

[Drew Rosensweig]

Got that leftfield narrative shift on lock. Greased me up for "This One Summer."

[Ale]

Super good and interesting, as per usual with Jillian Tamaki, as well as her top-notch art.