HENRIETTA THE PIRATE OF LOVE ONE-SHOT

"Henrietta is an early character from around 1984 who appeared in a few short, absurd fables. Her comics never had word balloons and the slightly didactic text would appear at the top of the panels narrating everything, even putting the dialogue in quotes. She started as a mischief-maker and soon became even more unpredictable, often prone to disposing of her enemies without a shred of remorse.

I thought it might be interesting to revisit the character in the 1990s, and came up with this long tale. It’s still a fable but slightly more grounded in reality with a few recognisable elements, instead of unfolding in a total never-never land. I enjoyed experimenting with the form of story-within-a-story, and it ends up pretty layered.

This time I opted for full colour (crayons and watercolours), rows of small figures, and occasionally erupting into full-page vistas, with a storm at sea being my personal favourite. Yes, it’s disguised as a children’s book, but attempts to subvert the reader’s expectations. There’s strong gory violence as Henrietta dispatches anyone foolish enough to get in her way, and lashings of kinky sex too. Henrietta’s pro-active take-charge personailty leads to all forms of sexual emancipation, for herself and all the characters. To put it more plainly, it’s X-rated, steamy, pervy, and kinky!"hen