Boundless Comics Had the Best "Cheesecake" Comics This Year That Actually Are Really Entertaining--2016 in Review

Raunchy, but Actually Quite Smart Too

This is actually the most mild of 3 different styles for one variant.

I have read and discussed a number of comics from, "Boundless," lately. An imprint/sub-company of Avatar Press, "Boundless," basically publishes new versions of the, "Bad Girl," comics Avatar used to be known for but moved away from over the years. These comics have essentially been revisiting and revising old Avatar concepts, but doing them with new writers, artists, and often a surprisingly high amount of entertainment. The books will often have a large number of variant covers, with some being extremely explicit, and the comics will just as often contain copious amounts of T&A as well, but everything generally is delivered with a slight wink at the reader as the comics almost always are extremely tongue-in-cheek.

Also, it helps that sometimes the stories in the comics are quite clever, and because readers probably go into these books expecting little, when something really smart or deep occurs it is all the more impressive. For example, the #0 issue of a series (with future issues coming, I assume), "Lookers," discusses the concept of the male gaze on its first page, and how the male gaze in 2016, "Is a webcam." I don't know about you but I didn't actually learn about the male gaze until during college when I was taking courses in the Communications Department, so this comic about a web-show girl who has a sister that beats-up internet trolls is actually coming from a intriguingly intelligent place. Plus there's boobs, so that's fun.

I blacked-out the copious nudity to keep this safe-for-work.

To give another example, the comic, "Hellina," features the titular character as one of Hell's officers over an Earth where Heaven and Hell fought, and Hell won. Her title as well as some spin-offs ("The Ravening," the upcoming, "Unholy") explore this concept in-depth and make some thoughtful statements on faith as well as our allegiance to what we may fell is, "Right," or, "Sinful." Plus there is of course a ton of sex, because these books know you're reading them for great artwork, fun stories, and detailed drawings of the naked body (both male and female, don't think it is just naked ladies).

The comics that Boundless is putting out don't try to market themselves as high-brow literature--they know the audience they want to appeal to and do so with gusto--that said, these, "Cheesecake," comics often have been quite solid in their own right and during 2016 a lot of good stuff was put out. I guess sometimes you can judge a book by its (many) covers, but despite that cover the book can also be a pretty smashing read.