Elin Gregory

Time for another Seductive Studs and Sirens do – yes, I’ll be making my usual recommendation of something not particularly obvious in the LGBT line.

Last week it was Abigail Roux’s, and Madeline Urban’s, Cut and Run series – which appeals to me particularly for the humourous content, something not often found in M/M type fiction. This week I’m going right out on a limb and risk lots of eye rolling.

This week I want to recommend a graphic novel.

You see, way back in the depths of time when I was a girl and dinosaurs roamed the earth, I really fancied drawing comics for a living and drew these deliciously willowy long haired men with big eyes. Since manga was still unknown in the rural heart of England, people told me to pack it in and get a job in an office instead. But I’ve still got a very soft spot for ‘comics’ and am always on the look out for really good artwork online.

Which is how I found Artifice, written by Alex Woolfson with art by Winona Nelson.

Deacon is an ‘artificial’ human – physically perfect an trained to be the ultimate killing machine. He and his unit of super soldiers are sent on a search and destroy mission to wipe out a colony, root and branch. However the rest of the unit are killed by a booby trap and Deacon is left with depleted batteries and one somewhat fraught survivor. Jeff is terrified, aware that Deacon has only spared his life so he can operate the machinery to charge Deacon’ batteries, and knows that as soon as the rescue mission arrives he is crowbait, but he and Deacon still develop a relationship that gradually deepens into something very like love.

The drawing is astounding and perfectly complements the story. Some of it is a bit wordier than normal for a GN but then it is delving into definitions of what makes a human, the philosophy of love=/=lust and how far one person is prepared to go to protect another.

The paper copies of the work now available on Amazon were funded through a Kickstarter campaign [I put in my few dollars] and I am so delighted to have my copy!