Review by Ian Keogh

If erotica about women being rogered by well equipped robots is what floats your boat, it surely doesn’t come more decoratively applied than in Jess Fink’s steampunk erotica.

Relatively soon after their Victorian era marriage Robert becomes aware that Pricilla’s needs are beyond his capacity to supply, so being an inventive type, he constructs a robot to service her in times of need. Pricilla is delighted with the gift, and over successive chapters investigates all the accessories that Robert has thoughtfully provided.

Fink’s art is ornate and decorative, charmingly embodying the period atmosphere. Her approach switches from chapter to chapter, with the more conventional day to day scenes occurring within traditional four-lined panel borders. When the sex scenes begin, however, she shifts into curved panel borders feeding into the fisheye view she often provides, and adorned with curlicue frames in preference to straight lines. It’s a pleasant method of defining joyous activity. While some scenes certainly don’t require words, the entire book is dialogue free, and sustaining this approach requires some facility with facial expression and body language. Fink’s up to the task, and loves illustrating both Victorian era lingerie and period technological innovation.

It helps greatly that the erotic content has a plot backing it up, and a sly sense of humour is apparent throughout. It’s most obvious in the full page illustrations displaying the workings of the various accessories, but further in the sheer joy of the sex, and via subverting genre convention. It’s worth noting that ejaculate, the mainstay of all fantasy sex, is internal if present at all, which is extremely unusual.

The good natured rumpy-pumpy proved a surprise success when transferred from web comic to graphic novel, and prompted a second dose of action in Isabelle and George, which fills in much of what occurred between scenes of XYV.