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Doll
Doll
Doll is celebrated cartoonist Guy Colwell's (Inner City Romance) darkly satirical take on patriarchal ownership, dehumanization, and sexual objectification. When an artist crafts a lifelike sex doll for a disfigured, middle-aged virgin, it soon takes a lurid life of its own. Like an erotic Frankenstein's monster, the mannequin brings out the basest instincts in each person it crosses paths with.
276 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
Guy Colwell
29 books2 followersGuy Colwell is an American painter, illustrator, cartoonist and social activist.
Colwell was born and raised in California, where he studied fine arts. Painting is usually his main form of expression. His art often reflects his political views and activism, tackling themes of social inequality and oppression.
When not painting or travelling around the world for environmental research, Colwell has done occasional work in comics. As a cartoonist, he is best known for his 70's underground comix series Inner City Romance. Colwell also worked as colour artist for underground newspapers and publishers from the 70s into the 90s. His other books include Doll (1989), In Fox's Forest (2016) and Delights: A Story of Hieronymus Bosch (2024).
Colwell was born and raised in California, where he studied fine arts. Painting is usually his main form of expression. His art often reflects his political views and activism, tackling themes of social inequality and oppression.
When not painting or travelling around the world for environmental research, Colwell has done occasional work in comics. As a cartoonist, he is best known for his 70's underground comix series Inner City Romance. Colwell also worked as colour artist for underground newspapers and publishers from the 70s into the 90s. His other books include Doll (1989), In Fox's Forest (2016) and Delights: A Story of Hieronymus Bosch (2024).
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 18, 2020
Men are like omg :( it's so sad men are rapists... bc it makes men sad. Shut the fuck up
August 8, 2019
As someone whose literary palate is accustomed to strong flavors, Colwell’s DOLL broke through my defenses. The recent Fantagraphics Underground reprint promises “dark satire” and the book delivers a tale of carnal desire turned into carnage that casts its murderous gaze on straight male desire, the art world, psychology, faith, and beyond. A deeply uncomfortable black comedy that’s illustrated with frankness and a clarity of line that refuses to let you look away—there’s nothing coy about DOLL. This is one of those titles that’s bound to be polarizing. Readers will encounter the identical book and walk away with an entirely different reading. Deeply misogynistic spank material? Bleakly anti-human-race manifesto? Sendup of chauvinist attitudes? The eye of the beholder will have to make that determination, but if you enjoy unsettling ambiguity, this is the good stuff.
July 15, 2020
This is Colwell at his peak and it's pretty damn good. One of THE best releases Fantagraphics has ever done. Highly recommend.
May 5, 2025
3,5
Om det är möjligt så är jag mer äcklad av män än jag var innan
Gillar verkligen illustrationerna
Om det är möjligt så är jag mer äcklad av män än jag var innan
Gillar verkligen illustrationerna
June 18, 2019
yes all men are deranged sex perverted fiends!
November 15, 2023
Guy Colwell made his name in the arts based on his figurative surrealist paintings that depict social conditions and contemporary political tribulations, but that work has often bled into his brief comics career. Colwell's Doll is no different, where he crafts an uncomfortably bleak comic about the way society views sexuality and women.
The story opens with Waxman, a renowned sculptor who is approached by a meek and awkward man named Evergood for a very specific commission. Evergood struggles to meet and talk to women, so he hopes that Waxman can build for him a very realistic sex doll that can serve as a suitable sexual partner. Though Waxman is initially hesitant to take the job, the "make me a woman" mantra presents an intriguing challenge for him. Since Evergood lacks the funds to complete the commission, Waxman approaches his porn film mogul associate to help with the costs. What follows is a detailed construction of this sex doll, which subsequently leads into investigating the psyche of the male gaze and the dehumanization and objectification of women. There are almost no good people in the world of Colwell's Doll, and some of the worst individuals are shown as unrepentantly greedy rapists.
Colwell takes his satirical approach to the extreme limits which was very engaging initially, but wears the premise thin by the second half. The psychological analysis of the male gaze is the novel aspect to the story, but there is a substantial lack of nuance in the tale due to Colwell's rather blunt approach. The comedic elements are present to lighten things up a bit, though it mostly serves to illustrate how absurd the premise is. Colwell's cartooning is sharp stuff throughout though. Somewhat representative of Milo Manara's approach towards drawing women, Colwell depicts the titular Doll as the focal point of sexual objectification. The artwork is striking throughout as Colwell relies heavily on his sharp, bold lines to craft some truly provocative imagery. This really isn't smut despite the heavy application of sexuality throughout since Colwell is layering in a pretty heavy, complex narrative about it all, but there are definite moments where one could easily confuse this for just being titillating for the sake of it. Overall, I quite liked Doll, though the second half could have done with some trimming to keep the story more succinct and the satire less diluted.
The story opens with Waxman, a renowned sculptor who is approached by a meek and awkward man named Evergood for a very specific commission. Evergood struggles to meet and talk to women, so he hopes that Waxman can build for him a very realistic sex doll that can serve as a suitable sexual partner. Though Waxman is initially hesitant to take the job, the "make me a woman" mantra presents an intriguing challenge for him. Since Evergood lacks the funds to complete the commission, Waxman approaches his porn film mogul associate to help with the costs. What follows is a detailed construction of this sex doll, which subsequently leads into investigating the psyche of the male gaze and the dehumanization and objectification of women. There are almost no good people in the world of Colwell's Doll, and some of the worst individuals are shown as unrepentantly greedy rapists.
Colwell takes his satirical approach to the extreme limits which was very engaging initially, but wears the premise thin by the second half. The psychological analysis of the male gaze is the novel aspect to the story, but there is a substantial lack of nuance in the tale due to Colwell's rather blunt approach. The comedic elements are present to lighten things up a bit, though it mostly serves to illustrate how absurd the premise is. Colwell's cartooning is sharp stuff throughout though. Somewhat representative of Milo Manara's approach towards drawing women, Colwell depicts the titular Doll as the focal point of sexual objectification. The artwork is striking throughout as Colwell relies heavily on his sharp, bold lines to craft some truly provocative imagery. This really isn't smut despite the heavy application of sexuality throughout since Colwell is layering in a pretty heavy, complex narrative about it all, but there are definite moments where one could easily confuse this for just being titillating for the sake of it. Overall, I quite liked Doll, though the second half could have done with some trimming to keep the story more succinct and the satire less diluted.
May 14, 2023
“Make me a woman” was the request of this man with the grotesque face. After all, what real woman would want him? In his 47 years, the man with the face has never had sex, which was why he wanted the artist to make him a doll—for sex. Was that even possible?
The quest to build a perfect woman. Boy, they get really detailed and technical on the…specs. The B/W sketches were cool.
Soon, a fight for the doll sends her in the possession of other sx-starved guys. Evidently, this doll had a hypnotic power over everyone. Everybody just had to have her. Yowza! Was she that real? Did it feel that real? The images were quite sexually explicit, but some were kind of hot.
It was funny how ever man wanted her—this plastic doll to mess with. For the ugly guy, this becomes a mission to get his doll back. Poor guy. All he wanted was a doll to have sex with.
I didn’t really get the second half of the book. She was just passed around to every crazy pervert? By that point, it becomes nothing but sex, sex, sex. What kind of way was that to end the story? It turns into nothing but p0-rn. It gets kind of disgusting and VERY graphic. I’m talking about close-ups on EVERY part.
Like I said, the graphics were cool. Quite honestly, the story was sweet up until the second half of the book. Perhaps the author wasn’t going for sweet. In any sense, I didn’t like how it developed with everyone literally fighting over the doll.
An okay read.
The quest to build a perfect woman. Boy, they get really detailed and technical on the…specs. The B/W sketches were cool.
Soon, a fight for the doll sends her in the possession of other sx-starved guys. Evidently, this doll had a hypnotic power over everyone. Everybody just had to have her. Yowza! Was she that real? Did it feel that real? The images were quite sexually explicit, but some were kind of hot.
It was funny how ever man wanted her—this plastic doll to mess with. For the ugly guy, this becomes a mission to get his doll back. Poor guy. All he wanted was a doll to have sex with.
I didn’t really get the second half of the book. She was just passed around to every crazy pervert? By that point, it becomes nothing but sex, sex, sex. What kind of way was that to end the story? It turns into nothing but p0-rn. It gets kind of disgusting and VERY graphic. I’m talking about close-ups on EVERY part.
Like I said, the graphics were cool. Quite honestly, the story was sweet up until the second half of the book. Perhaps the author wasn’t going for sweet. In any sense, I didn’t like how it developed with everyone literally fighting over the doll.
An okay read.
October 2, 2021
Weird. Erotic. Disturbing. Fascinating. Social commentary. Prophetic?
The interview done in 2018, celebrating 30 years of this book, puts it in a better context. The idea of Doll seems even closer to reality now. Would the implications exaggerated in this book eventually happen in some form?
A nice pick from the library.
The interview done in 2018, celebrating 30 years of this book, puts it in a better context. The idea of Doll seems even closer to reality now. Would the implications exaggerated in this book eventually happen in some form?
A nice pick from the library.
June 14, 2026
A bit repetitive towards the end but it had some interesting commentary on men, women, sex and power dynamics.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews