So, I’ve recently started reading the series Artesia and it’s pretty cool. One thing that sticks out is that the author makes a big deal about the main character being a woman as well as several of her confidants/commanders also being women. What I can’t tell, however (and maybe I just need to read some interviews with the guy) is whether he’s really trying to make a point with the female nature of the character, or if it’s just a cheap way to throw in some “deep meaning” in the book.
I was leaning to something interesting when I got to the middle of the third series and there were two giant orgy scenes in the space of two issues (there may have been a third one in the intervening issue, which I don’t have). It seemed a bit…excessive. The character gives a speech about how she’s making an offering to the sex goddess and apparently she’s got some guardian-angel types who gett off on her doing this, and afterward, she makes a speech about how she’s been trained in the methods of this goddess and eventually reveals the big surprise, “the secret of [goddess’ name which I can’t spell] is not what women do, but why they do it.”
Now it’s seems a bit unecessary. Of course, having the question of whether a strong woman character can lead armies and play with the boys who don’t have the same sort of second-class stigma to deal with is interesting, but thinking about it more, it seems like he really just wrote a female Hamlet - always worrying, trying to find his voice.
On the plus side, he started like three issues in a row with tits. You really can’t ask for much more (other than he learn to draw boobs a bit better, while not your standard comic rack, they still don’t obey physics).
Anyone else read this series and have any thoughts?