When MTJ
began putting out e-comics,
I have to admit, I was
jealous. I love fiction, but
like a lot of writers, I
came to that love through
comics. And as a
tickle-enthusiast, comics -
far more than fiction or
even movies - had always
seemed the perfect, untapped
medium for my fantasies. In
my younger days, I spent
hours poring over everything
from the old DC horror
titles to the much kinkier
Heavy Metal,
wondering why somebody
couldn’t just once
take a feather to a bound
victim. When the old Tied
and Tickled magazine ran
a questionnaire asking
readers to rate the features
they wanted to see,
"tickling comics" was at the
head of my list.
Of course,
nobody listened to me.
Not back
then.
But then
came the internet, and
suddenly all kinds of
tickling fantasies were
being visualized and made
readily available. Lo and
behold, there were the
tickling comics I’d always
dreamed of, courtesy of BAC,
Smith, and other good folk.
When MTJ Publishing came
along, the dream-machine
kicked into serious
high-gear, and with their
e-comic line, tickle/comic
fans suddenly found
themselves noshing on a
smorgasbord of riches:
ShanE’s Pure Torture,
Ozzy’s
Yenny
and Sonya, and of course the
mighty Vellicatrices
Unlimited.
These
weren’t just single-panel
tickles; they were
fully-realized stories
with good writing and
fantastic art. I was in hog
heaven, but writers are
notoriously self-centered. I
wanted to be involved in
this, but while I draw a
decent funny animals (the
chicks at my day-job just
love the cute little
froggies and jive-talking
teddy-bears I regularly draw
on my cubicle’s whiteboard),
my attempts at
professional-level narrative
art involving human beings
are...well, embarrassing.
So there I
was...you know, seething.
Then I get
a call from Morandilas. He
has a couple of new artists.
One, Maitre Neko, had
already given me a chance to
work out in another field I
had long wanted to be a part
of - with his unbelievable
anime-style illustrations
for my e-novella The
Laughter of Angels. But
there’s another - guy name
of Mau Russo. He’s expressed
a willingness to do a
tickling e-comic and
Morandilas wants to know if
I’d do the script.
Would
I?
10%
Inspiration
was the result, and I’m
absolutely delighted with
it. You’ve seen Mau Russo’s
work before - his excellent
covers for my
Make Him
Laugh 3 and Xodlirv’s
wonderful Fiendish Women,
Helpless Men. But on
this comic, the man turned
himself loose in a big
way. This is beautiful,
intricately-detailed art
with a highly distinctive
style.
Mau Russo
has brought the story to
life in an amazing way; this
is the kind of collaboration
every writer dreams about,
where all sorts of
subtleties are picked up and
elaborated on effortlessly
by the artist. This comic is
highly-charged with extreme
tickling action. I believe
Mau Russo is a fetish-artist
to watch, someone who could
make a serious impact
in this scene. I hope we see
a lot more work from him.
Lord knows he won’t lack for
scripts, as long as I’m
sitting here.
