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Just Read: Desert Peach #16
Working my way through the entire Desert Peach saga (30 issues + two AFTERDEAD GNs in total), a series that follows the exploits of The Desert Fox's gay younger brother, Pfirsich Rommel - The Desert Peach! And here I am at the more-or-less halfway point - issue #16!
First off, the cover sports a simple but utterly beautiful use of watercolor, one of the prettiest covers of the series yet - past covers offered a greater dollop of exquisite detail, but this one makes simplicity look damn good.
Inside, then, the story follows the attempted mating of Pfirsich's white purebred mare with a black pureblood stallion (the mare is a breed that boasts blood purer than humankind can scarcely fathom...well...except for the fact that people were the ones who bred them, or anyway an Arabic people did, which blow the European peoples' little brainpans).
Anyway, long story short, Pfirsich wants to work closely with the Arab folken to enact a successful mating with the mare, an event which would double as a friendly-relations event between the Germans and the natives, but then Peach's subordinate, Udo, rather fancies a mating between the white mare and some other gray speckled horse. He tries to sneak said mare out one night, to make the coupling happen the way HE wants it to, but of course it all goes horribly awry and leads to - I kid you not - a horse orgy with army men stuck in-between. The look on Udo's face as he gets tangled/tied to the white mare's rump as a black, quite erect stallion rears up for the mount, is beyond priceless and perfection itself!
It's a disaster of sexploitative length and breadth (tee hee) that leads to (a rare happenstance for this series) a direct kind-of sort-of "to be continued...", in which a particular event what's threatened poor Udo for the past six issues or so, finally looks to happen in issue #17. (Wedding bells anyone? - shotgun wedding to keep the peace!) Auteur Donna Barr begins to inch toward a looser, more kinetic style, leaving behind the smoother, more crisp pages of the early DP books. Which isn't to say that detail is lacking, but said detail becomes vastly more wild and fancy free as compared to the rigidly controlled linework of Barr's 80's work. This is the perfect story for Barr to cut loose, because horses rampaging and rutting amongst a small turmoil of human bodies stampeding to put it all under control = the very organized chaos Barr's pen-stroke evolves into.
While the social and cultural issues usually explored in a Barr story take a back seat for the situation here - a thing Barr obviously couldn't help but work into an issue-length fiasco out of sheer glee (horse sex! horse sex! army men in the middle! whoooo!) - sixteen issues in, and this is actually a breath of fresh air, allowing DP a chance to get down and get nasty not to mention funny and ridiculous before tackling the intricacies of a multi-cultural wedding in the next ish (which should have big-big cultural insights aplenty!).
Desert Peach #16 is a whirlwind ride of humor, humanity, and absolute artistry, if you like your art a fair shake on the naughty side.
Story - 8/10 (hysterical, dense, fast-paced, everyone in character, awesomeness)
Art - 8/10 (a wonderful blend of intricate and expressionistic, drop dead gorgeous cover)
Importance - 8/10 (Udo's goin' ta the chapel!)
TOTAL SCORE - 8/10
For more "Desert Peach" visit http://www.donnabarr.com/
To order copies of this Issue #16 (which is now SOLD OUT from Donna herself, Mycomicshop.com still has a few for $4.00 a pop at http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=300451
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