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White, Josh – Dating Jesus Stories
Dating Jesus Stories
This one is a collection of short stories, and there was a definite theme early on (stories of the past that he regretted with the benefit of hindsight), but that shifted a bit over the course of the comic and it ended up being about a variety of different subjects. Subjects include the time that the lead character (I assumed that these were all about Josh, but looking through it again at least a large chunk of these stories have to either be fictional or about other people) caught his fiancee having sex with another man on top of his favorite blanket (which was obviously too much to take), how his buying a cheap used A/C unit led to a roach infestation and his revenge on the guy he bought it from, the power of first love and first orgasm (story partially by Elena Costello), how another character was able to eventually decipher bathroom code to have more mostly anonymous gay sex in a repressive small town (and how it went wrong), tree climbing and sleeping in trees, and a mysterious lady who’s eating alone in a restaurant and wants to buy a specific painting. There’s also the title story, which deals with a once devout (and deeply misguided) young man who turns down sex more than once because he’s waiting for marriage… until he takes a shower with a different lady and discovers what a blow job is. Yep, that’ll do it every time. It’s a nice wide range of stories, and them all being in color didn’t hurt a thing either. Check it out, learn all about how Jesus doesn’t stand a chance against shower sex.
White, Josh – Hot Shower #8
Hot Shower #8
How exactly did I pick up a comic from a local Columbus artist in Chicago? Not that the man doesn’t deserve to have his comics all over the place, it’s just that if he’s already on #8 I should have seen an issue around here at some point. This comic alternates between stream of consciousness weirdness and more normal storytelling effortlessly, to the point where it gets a little difficult to tell when one piece ends and another begins. It’s irrelevant though, as the comic works beautifully as a whole. Josh starts off simply enough, with a couple of stories about how it’s easier to wake somebody up early in the morning if they’re not your lover and about his experience at COSI, a Columbus landmark of sorts. He follows that with a simple observation from his grandfather, then everything starts to come together. Without trying to analyze things too much, it’s all about formless sex, learning about women, drawing, watching serpentine cigarette smoke, failing to clean up before attempting to meet women, more sex (with symbolic dog head), taking inner photos with hard blinking, meeting two women in L.A., a sign of affection, being self-centered and a drunken brawl. Honestly, when something is this disjointed it could go either way, but I thought it was brilliant. Makes me wonder if #1-7 were this good or if he had to work his way up to this. Hey, SPACE is coming up, maybe I can find out more there. $2
