when i arrived at the castle by emily carroll

It compiled five of her webcomics into print form, soaking its pages in vibrant colors to pleasantly garish effects. I didn’t know anything about Carroll’s sexuality before reading the graphic novel (though I’ve since found her on a 2014 list of “ Queer and Trans Women Comic Creators to Support this Holigay Season!“) 2014 is the release year her first major book, Through the Woods, earned her much-deserved, international acclaim (she’s from Canada, yet more evidence of that nation’s comics prominence). Its overt genre is horror (the pair of blood-drizzling fangs on the cover declares as much), and while far from pornographic (there are only a few exposed breasts inside), the not-really-a-subtext is both erotic and lesbian (the cover’s tightly cropped embrace declares that too).

Which is a long way of saying how startled I am to have enjoyed Emily Carroll‘s When I Arrived at the Castle quite so much. The image of two female bodies sexually groping isn’t about (or for) actual lesbians but the doubling of female genitalia for increased male consumption. Even when not sadistic, porn is most often created by and for men. When the two genres mix, the pornographic results are typically male-oriented and sadistic. Erotica is also about excess, but it’s the excesses of pleasure, not pain and fear. Either way, it’s rape, not sex, and so it’s anti-erotic.

They roofie victims with their charming looks and mesmerizing eyes, while werewolves and other clawed beasts consume without the pretense of a date. Vampires are romanticized rapists, their penetrating fangs barely a metaphor. When the image of a female body appears in a horror story, it’s usually scantily clad and in peril, making rape the subtext if not the overt threat. I think of erotica and horror as opposite genres.

When i arrived at the castle by emily carroll