Comics Review: Chester 5000 XYV by Jess Fink

October 4, 2011 Pamela Comics, Reading, Reviews 0

This review contains a NSFW image!

Chester 5000 XYV by Jess Fink

Series: No
Genre(s): Comics/Graphic Novel, Erotic, Steampunk, Romance, Victorian
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Available Formats: Hardcover Graphic Novel
Description: 1885: an age of industrial revolution and sexual frustration. Pricilla is a woman with needs, and her inventor husband Robert is a little too busy with his experiments to keep her fully satisfied. Science to the rescue! With a few gears and springs, the proper appendages, a little lubrication, and a lot of love, Chester 5000 is born! He’s the perfect tool for the job… but what if Chester is more than just a machine? What are the consequences of trying to engineer love?

A vintage delight for adult readers of all stripes, Jess Fink’s Top Shelf debut reads like a whimsical love-child of steampunk, silent film and erotic comics.

CHESTER 5000: Because sometimes love comes with detachable body parts.

— A deluxe 144-page hardcover graphic novel, 6.5″ x 7.5″, FOR ADULTS ONLY

This review is based on a copy received from the publisher.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

I first read Chester 5000 XYV a year or so ago at Jess Fink’s website, where it started its life as an adult webcomic. I absolutely loved it then, and I nearly leapt for joy when the hardcover bound version arrived in the mail. Even the second time around, I enjoyed the hell out of it.

How exactly can I describe Chester 5000 XYV? It would be easy to say that it is Victorian robot porn. And it is, but Fink manages to make the story emotional and sweet while still making the artwork explicitly sexy. And explicit it is! Keep a fan handy, because you’re going to need it.

Fink’s artwork is gracefully explicit. She creates a heightened sense of arousal and emotion by exaggerating body parts and positions, and I think it’s extremely effective as well as very pretty to look at. I particularly like how she uses elements of the characters’ clothing or hair to frame panels in a very organic sort of way.

Click for full size.

The story is pretty simple, and it’s simply told without any dialogue aside from the occasional “♥!” to express a particularly awesome moment of pleasure. The simplicity of the story and the storytelling method, though, allows emotion to take center stage. Priscilla is a very sexual woman who feels neglected and unloved by her husband. Chester 5000 is just a robot, but at the same time, he is more capable of love and devotion than his human creator. It was fascinating to watch Priscilla and Chester fall for each other, and to watch her husband Robert come to realize exactly what’s missing in his own heart.

The dialogue-less storytelling does bring to mind silent film, and I think that works perfectly with the setting of the comic. It reminds me of a more mature version of Victorian dirty drawings (I tried to Google that to illustrate my point. You don’t want to know the stuff I found instead.), meant to titillate all of its readers, male and female, rather than just men (who in my head smoke cigars while looking at the drawings and say things like, “I say, I’d like to tip the velvet into her crinkum-crankum!”).

Chester 5000 XYV is a beautifully drawn, elegantly told story. If you like sexy in your comics but are tired of just superhero T&A, give Jess Fink’s graphic novel a try.