Gay Comics Review: Rainbow Country
What can I say about Class Comics English release of French artist Max’ Rainbow Country? Everyone’s talking about crossing soap operas with comics…yet only Class Comics has managed to license an ero title, which does just that. This reads like a scripted version of a gay Days of Our Lives. It’s amazing! ^_^;; There’s a few things that mark this title from other Class Comics licenses, the first is, it’s not your typical ‘big cock fare’. Sure, the men are all buff and idealized [but not a women’s ideal…a gay man’s cosmetically popular, ideal]. Everyone is well hung [not monstrously] the men are chiseled and buff, and there are plenty of things that even muscle BL fans can appreciate—the first being, the suspension of disbelief required to appreciate this storyline! LMAO!
Cut for scans and review:
Review contains Spoilers – Scans Not Worksafe.
Our story opens the fictional city of Rainbow Country. It’s a city made up entirely of hot gay men, and while every color of the rainbow is in full affect here, you won’t find any wimps, bears, cubs, or chubs. Not saying Max’ can’t draw them, but his style is unique, and native to him; his men are diverse, but not purposely. We open to the brooding silent stud on the motorbike, Philippe. Philippe just moved to RB, and into an apartment where one of his neighbors has caught his attention. Neighbor Mark is the quintessential innocent type in this comic. He’s loyal [cooking dinner naked in a kitchen apron, for his cheating louse doctor boyfriend, Frank!], who calls home to let Mark know he’ll not be coming home again, he’s going out of town for a convention [LIAR!]. Mark is hurt; he knows Frank is a whoremaster, he’s just not dealing with it. A ring at the door turns out to be Philippe, asking Mark if he can move his car, to free up some parking space. Once downstairs, Philippe puts the moves on Mark, but Mark will have none of it…he’s a good guy, HE’S IN A relationship. Duh!
Dr. Frank, meanwhile, is boning his nurse David. Now David is not so used to a louse like Frank, and when it’s dawning on him that he’s screwing a real player, it’s up to fellow nurse and friend Alex to take him to the clerks closet for a cry-on-my-shoulder suck session. [LOL!]
That night, back at home, Mark has polished off a bottle of booze, and decides…I ain’t sitting here while he’s out fucking around. Mark hits the club slightly drunk, and even two club regulars want to know what Mark’s doing out without his husband. Mark says, I’m here alone… Cute Patrons: You’re kidding? …you never leave the house without him [Frank]! Mark becomes a mess at the bar. He makes it to the bathroom where he’s accosted by some rough neck [if I have to tell you what this means, you have no business reading this comic], he basically bullies a barely coherent Mark, into getting on his knees for a suck, just around that time…ta dah! Philippe just happens to enter the john, to take a wizz. [Seriously, a BL mangaka couldn’t have set this up any better!] Mark makes a mess [yeah, he pukes] and the guy is completely torked off. Philippe steps in to save the day, and that he does, by kicking rough-necks ass! POW!
Philippe picks up Mark, and helps him home. Alas, Mark has forgotten his key and of course Frank is not home…so Philippe takes Mark to his place. But wait!! Nothing happens. Philippe, despite being given full access to an extremely drunk piece of ass, one he wants very badly, decides to just clean Mark up and put him to bed in the spare bedroom. [Give me a break! I would've totally taken advantage!!] While Mark dreams of possible eerie gang banging and no Frank to save him
…we cut to the actual Frank, who’s no where near a convention. In fact, he’s outside the city, heading to a remote country booty call; on the way he nearly runs some beefcake ranch hand off the road. LOL! He gets to a remote shack, where he rendezvous with yet another lover [Shit!], for some experimental and exciting sex. So as they’re experimenting with some new scenery, the mood shifts. Lover talks Frank into being tied up, and then, out of nowhere demands: Have you told him about us yet? [Visions of Fatal Attraction aside, this is a rather hot scene!] When it’s clear that Frank has no intention of breaking it off with Mark, lover decides he’s not going to be ‘some piece of ass on the side’ and punishes Frank, by abandoning him, tied up and helpless, in a dark shack! Just when you can’t hate Frank anymore… “What the hell is wrong with all the men in my life! Must they all fall in love with me!” [I hear you dude—I hear you!] in comes Ranch-Hand!! And He’s gotta HARD ON!
Will Philippe and Mark get together? Will Alex help David see Frank for the doucher he really is? Will Frank finally see the error of his ways after some intense backwoods punishment????!!! What’s going on in that SHACK!!!
Find out next time in…Rainbow Country!
I know I sound like I’m goofing on this title, quite the contrary. GGY is not a review blog. I don’t give reviews of manga and comics just to let buyers know what they should buy…I talk about titles that I like, and recommend them to my readers. If I like a book, then I will care enough to talk about it and tell people why I liked it; this shouldn’t be confused with, oh Crat gives great reviews. I don’t cold review; I just talk about what I’ve read, that I like.
Cover from Class Comics Web Site
Class Comics puts out some good titles, and some bad titles, but I’m only going to talk about the titles I like…And I like Rainbow Country. Oh hell, I loved Rainbow Country! It’s just kitschy enough to make me want to keep reading! I kid you not, it plays out like old-school bara manga, where romance [even if it’s comedic, dramatic, or angsty] is the sole lead up to that real cool hot sex scene. It’s great escapist fare, without big-dripping cocks, superheroes, or aliens.
Its target market is male comic buyers. It’s Class Comics, so the production values are flawless; thick smooth magazine stock, full color, and comic-size, stapled and sold in 25 page installments. In other words, no muscle-BL fen will buy RB, until Class collects it into a perfect bind format, and puts it on sale at Amazon [yes, this form of snotardery is native to fans of BL, even those into color and muscle, and the real gay over Japanese bish.] Yet female ‘comic’ fans will likely also wait, they will like Rainbow Country, and I think of all the titles Class has licensed, this one has the most ‘fen-market appeal’, once fulfilled accordingly. I doubt if Class gives a damn about the female market, but I do know they love yaoi manga, and they’ve always been supportive of OEL/BL creators, and listen to their fans [male and female] opinions’; and comics like Rainbow Country*, are proof of that. This title is available at Class Comics store, and if you like soap-operas, hot men, ero comics with realistic meat, but minus monster penor, then you’ll not regret picking up a full-color copy for just $7.65!
*Rainbow Country is available in it’s original French version, through HO.
While you’re over at Class Comics, don’t forget to check in with their publishers blog magazine, Boytoons. Today, Class CEO Patrick Fillion has a great interview with gay webcomiker Theo Bain [Gaydar, From The Cellar], that I found highly interesting, and NOT Worksafe! LOL! He’s working on a new graphic novel for Bruno Gmunder called Greek Love, written by comics writer, Dale Lazarov.
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