How Loathsome

An androgynous figure, wearing nothing but black PVC pants, dominates this book's cover. It's an appropriate introduction to a story that explores gender experimentation. At an s&m party, Catherine meets Chloe, a""tall and immaculate"" transvestite. The narration is entertainingly self-loathing, as when Catherine tells readers,""I wondered how to put her at ease, how not to come off as the person I was."" With Chloe, Catherine sees herself as part of a pair of""outcast aliens... beautiful monsters."" The four stories in this book explore various aspects of San Francisco's queer, transgendered subculture as the characters drift in and out of a world of drugs and broken romances. The spare, angular style of Naifeh (Courtney Crumrin) makes the characters look inhumanly glamorous, capturing the cast as the freaks they not only think themselves to be, but pride themselves on being. But Crane's sympathetic script puts this defiance in the context of the universal search for love and self-acceptance. Deep black and sepia pages alternate with gray-toned fairy horror stories, flashbacks and dream sequences to provide insight into a world of fetishes and addictions, appearance and identity. Like the best stories, these put readers inside the head of someone they might otherwise never know.