Alright, I can't believe after getting this the day it came out that I am JUST NOW FINALLY doing this. Been kinda feeling bleh, so I didn't want to half ass this. So let's get this bumped up and getting the love it deserves.
You, and Ponce, sold this comic the moment I glanced at the cover. Actually, I think this is an important thing to note, as we see a lot of cover art, but it is imparted that what is inside is what is going to be worth it. The cover has to sell us. Often times, artists go very simple, or the restrain themselves, or they try to sweep over everything and create something that looks good, looks solid, but still has some level of bottled-up-ness. It's the mystery within that sells us. Maybe I'm looking into this aspect of cover art too deeply, but it's rare, at this point, that any of it truly knocks my socks off. For me, it's art, often done by people who don't get the fetish at that primal level, showing some girl getting her feet tickled, with a promise that HERE COMES TOPLESS TICKLING and MAYBE EVEN A LITTLE GENITAL TICKLING of which there is one panel and a feather tastefully takes the place of a leaf as cover for the artist to not go to that extreme.
But the cover of Tickling In Space: Blake's Revenge, Part 1, it grabs onto you. It exhibits a helplessness, a desperation. Hell, it's extremely heavy on desperation and helplessness. Dusty is surrounded at every turn, trapped. Even if she could break free, there's four women standing there, weapons drawn, ready to cut her down. She can't even get there. With things as tight as this, she never will. The feathers are mere inches from her tantalizing breasts, and she's in pieces. Literally. Tears and spit flowing. Head shaking. It's not even started and it's this dire. The girl, front right? Holding that threatening looking key, all while the only bit of protection Dusty has on her nethers is that chastity coin? You both sold this series on this alone. This is what you can expect. This intensity. This sense of desperation. This level of threat and this level of darkness. It's different than anything you've ever done, and it's bold. I absolutely love it.
From the onset, the story is very, very streamlined. I love TiS, it's my favorite series of yours, and it's easily my favorite setting in the tickling fetish art realm, but most times, most cases, what is released is a one off comic where a TiS character, or characters, are put in a position, they get caught, and they get tickled. The action is all about the different ways to get them tickled. There's a world here, and I think the novellas and the short stories, and in fact, when allowed to breathe, there is a lot of compelling things. It's different here. There's no fuss. We are given what built to this point, WHY past issues were important in the Ponce era, and we arrive to this point, where the story is told. You give us ample reason to be engaged. You show us there is a threat. You explain just how dire the circumstances it is to have Krandaloozian pheromones are and set the perfect backdrop as to why her crew being captured at this point might just be the most damning circumstances they've ever faced. Actually, it is there most dire circumstances they've ever faced.
For people who don't know who Blake is, they got a taste. You set her apart from all others in just how savage, how brutal, and how efficient she is. She's a mortal enemy. A force of nature. She's cunning and she has back up and has grounded her foe and now, she's going to break her systematically annihilate her. By the end of this comic, Dusty is already near her wits end, and to be honest, we don't know how long of a ride she's in for.
There's a real threat that anyone on her crew might not make it out of this.
There's a real threat SHE might not make it out of this.
It should be pointed out that the art fits in with all this. It's the most physical Ponce has done to date, and it shows evolution. Dude is definitely top notch. This is the first time I'm not going to say it would be better if Bandito did it, not because Bandito is not as good as an artist, but because Ponce effectively nails the notes you want in a piece of this kind of art. There is dread and panic and terror and laughter and everything just hits and it doesn't stop hitting. This execution is so hard to pull of. I see it in art all over, MTJ, Agencies, the works; sometimes, an outsider will conflate literal static shots of someone laughing their head off as being truly indicative of why this fetish is ours. It's more than that. It's a twist. It's a look. It's the way a face is framed. A manner in which something is touched. Here, everything feels authentic. It looks authentic. It is authentic.
It's such that I can't even talk about specific panels that really stick out to me, almost everything has a place and shows a different dynamic, either in the story, or in Dusty's/her crew members torture. I think, if I had to pick one, or things that stood out, the blade cutting through her transparent top is up there, along with the threat of her completing the Krandaloozian Cycle. The last panel we get is a full on, knee buckling, uncompromising message to leave the audience with. But I think what sticks out most is when Blake removes Dusty's gag. It's not much, it's not that large of a panel, but Dusty's plea, her hysterics, the way her face is framed, how Blake lords over her, how her breasts sit there and the image is almost like a band is just underneath them to hold her upperbody against her rack? That panel, for me, is the money shot. Every time. For me, it's too perfect and I can't stand it because it's everything I love extracting from a lee as a ler.
I can complain about length, but to be honest, with how everything is bundled, I'm shocked that it's as short as it is. It feels like a ten page comic. It feels longer than it is. And it leaves me desperately craving for more, for completion, instantly.
Needless to say, I think this is the best thing MTJ has released all year, and it isn't even close. That's how good this is.
