Jess Fink is an illustrator and cartoonist that has been working professionally for nearly 15 years. Much of her work falls under the erotica category, and she unabashedly advocates for the extended creative expression erotic comics in particular can have over other erotic media, especially for women and people of color. In 2008, Fink began posting her own erotic comic, Chester 5000 XYV, which had its first volume released in print in 2013. This year, Fink continues the series with Book 2: Isabelle and George.
Chester 5000 is an “erotic, robotic, Victorian romance”, and begins with the characters Pricilla, and her husband Robert having marital trouble in 1885. The trouble being Robert is a workaholic inventor and Pricilla is a raging nympho- so Robert builds Chester, a robot that looks like the most elegant of butlers, but is built to fill Pricilla’s appetites when Robert is unavailable. Sex, drama, and love polygons ensue.
While the first book is mostly about said polygons and the whimsical notion of a steampunk sex robot, Isabelle and George expands more on the backstory of Isabelle, a more minor character from the first book, including how she met Robert and how she became a widow. There is still an abundance of sex scenes in Fink’s characteristic style that plays with perspective and layout to create a unique sense of flow. However, this second book develops characters further, beyond “jealous husband” or “horny lady”, and explores the relationships it depicts with depth and finesse. There are plots that revolve more around issues of the time, such as sexual/emotional repression and the industrial revolution, and romances that are deeply emotional and built on more than the idea that producing wank-material is recession proof.
Considering that Fink accomplishes all of this without her characters ever speaking an actual line of dialogue beyond illustrated symbols, her ability as a storyteller as well as a creator of erotica is without doubt. Erotic steampunk comics might be a niche market, but it’s one that Chester 5000 has definitely cornered.
