NOT YOUR MOTHER'S MEATLOAF

Doing it—as portrayed by young comic artists.

Miller and Bley have been gathering comics written by youth since 2008, and this compilation pulls together 50 different young authors from across the country. Hetero sex, queer sex, BDSM, hookups, innocent sex, dirty sex, first times, multiple times, healthy, unhealthy, safe and sometimes not-so-safe—the deed is presented and illustrated in 50 different graphic (often in both senses of the word) stories and vignettes that will enlighten, educate, intrigue and...um...inspire... readers on several different levels. The collection is divided into seven chapters on such topics as “Bodies,” “Identity,” “Health” and “Endings”; the editors contribute prose introductions to each. Some of the stories are sweet, as in one of how two girls meet on a nude beach as children. Others are dark, such as Leah Johnston’s installment that includes images of a woman tied and bound. Some blur the lines between educational and titillating, such as “Train Cum,” which explores a spontaneous, messy, consensual encounter between two men in a train station. There’s no doubt teens of all ages will be scrambling to get their hands on this title; it’s more of a matter of finding adults who are willing to offer it to them.

A frank and honest look at sex and sexuality. (Graphic anthology. 16 & up)