Girls: Conception

Girls #1

by Joshua Luna, Jonathan Luna (Artist)

Ethan Daniels is a typical bachelor who suffers from one, infallible truth: dealing with the opposite sex can be complicated. One night, he bumps into a mysterious woman who will change his life... and maybe even the world.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Science Fiction, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

152 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 2005

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just to be clear: this is a review of the entire 4 book series, not just the first book.

As you might expect of the Luna Brothers, this is another story with a unique concept and excellent execution. I've yet to read anything of theirs that hasn't impressed me in some way.

That said, I found this story rather... dark for my taste. Not in terms of violence. (Graphic violence doesn't really bug me much these days. It's cheap and easy, and I'm desensitized.)

No. This series shows the dark side of human nature. How people behave in crisis. How they behave *badly* in crisis. That kinda got to me. It's not that it was unrealistic. Just the opposite. The reality of it was a little much for me.

Again, it's not a bad book. Making me uncomfortable is a grand achievement. I'm just saying that this was dark for my particular taste at this particular time. Showing all the grim potential of humanity without the leavening agent of hope or altruism... well... its just not my favorite thing any more.

Is it worth your time? Yes. Especially if you're a fan of grim stories like Joe Abercrombie's stuff. Or The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones.

Dealbreakers: If you you can't handle looking at boobs, or if you actively dislike any of the above stories because they're too grim/grity/bleak for you, then this story probably isn't for you.

[Brad · Rating 1 out of 5]

What the fuck is this shit?!

A super hot naked brunette girl comes to town (the hokiest, most stereotypical small town you can imagine -- with, oddly enough, a crazy high percentage of caricatured feminists) after escaping from hicks with guns and starts killing all the women.

If she fucks, giant eggs appear and about 8 hours later, those eggs hatch clones of the super hot naked brunette girl, who all proceed to beat every woman they see to death.

Those caricatured feminists yell and scream about misogyny (with good reason, it turns out), and they are made to look unreasonable and, dare I say it, hysterical at every turn.

A giant spermatozoon can disintegrate guys with its axial filament, or bat them like baseballs into the next corn field ("if you ejaculate it will cum" -- at least that is what I thought at the sight of the worst movie reference ever).

The men are fucking idiots, and just as caricatured as the feminists, but at least there is more variety in their idiocy. There's the druggy idiot, the religious idiot, the alpha male cop idiot, the video game idiot, the idiot who like to blow up pumpkins, and the "hero" maybe-mutant idiot.

Oh, and their small town is surrounded by a gigantic shield so no one can escape (egg, perhaps?).

What a fucking waste of money. I wonder which struggling TV network is going to pick this shit up and try to turn it into a hit?

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is pretty much misogynistic from the get go, so there's no nasty jolt out of a false sense of security. The entire book, from its first panel, to its main character, to its plot, is about the denigration of women. It starts with a full panel shot of a naked woman. You know, just so you know right out the bat that there'll be naked chicks in this. All empowered and that by having no clothes on. Pretty much the primary scene is a full monologue delivered by the main character about how all women are bitches. If you think I'm exaggerating I shall quote "Filthy whore! . . . Zip it, cocktease! You're all the same! Every single one of you! I don't have to know any of you. Don't you get it? You're all women!" So, not just in my head. This guy is not just the main character, but, we are repeatedly told through his (male) friend and father, is a totally awesome guy. He's just unfortunate enough to be white male geek, oh! the most tried of all men. There's a bit of casual racism thrown in too, where the only African-American woman voicing anti-white rhetoric in the same sentence as her condemnation of this douchebag's woman-hating rant. Again, boo hoo, the world is just against poor white men, boo hoo. Pretty much all the women are written like that too, made to mouth stuff to undermine their own point, have their claims to be treated with dignity made into a joke by their subsequent cowardice or infantility or seemingly bullying demeanour. Not one of them feels like a real woman, and to be fair, there's really no effort to make them seem so. This is a book where the main character (and from the plot so does the author) sees women as an alien, tormenting, evil creature, and they are written to fit exactly into that role. The plot itself is exactly that - aliens arrived as women, they are evil, no one is surprised. The alien women go around completely nude, which is convenient, and only attack other (human) women. Pretty much they're the embodiment of misogyny. They beat women to death, they are silent, they are naked. You couldn't sculpt a better image of a patriarchy than that right there. I kinda hoped this was some kind of self-aware, irony laden sci-fi romp. Instead it's a exercise in ego masturbation for the white male geek audience this book is aimed at, where they can see enacted and voiced all their ideas of women as evil and tormenting sex objects. A word to the author: Grow up.

[Hyzenthlay · Rating 1 out of 5]

I fucking hate myself for reading the whole run, almost as much as I hate the people who suggested I'd like it.

The art is kind of terrible and the story is fucking dumb. Such a waste of time.

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Veljespari Joshua ja Jonathan Lunan "Girl : Conception" (Image, 2007) aloittaa scifiä ja kauhua yhdistelevän sarjakuvan, jota voi hyvällä syyllä kutsua melko erikoiseksi tapaukseksi.

Tapahtumat sijoittuvat amerikkalaiseen Pennystownin (tässä lienee jonkinlainen sanaleikki tai sitten ei) pikkukylään, jonka asukkaat joutuvat todistamaan salaperäistä, hieman ukkosta muistuttavaan ilmiötä. Se toimii lähtölaukauksena omituisten tapahtumien sarjalle, joihin liittyy paikkakunnan sisälleen sulkeva kupu (vrt. Stephen Kingin Kuvun alla), outoja munia munivat alastomat naiskloonit sekä keskellä maissipeltoa oleva jättiläismäinen pallukka, joka muistuttaa isokokoista siittiötä ja jonka häntä voi katkaista ihmisen kahtia. Ja siinäpä on paikkakuntalaisilla lisää miettimistä, kun käy ilmi, että mystiset muukalaiset haluavat tappaa jokaisen vastaantulevan naisen.

Että semmoista! Sarjakuva voi vaikuttaa synopsiksensa perusteella jonkinmoiselta parodialta, mutta humoristisena teosta on vaikea pitää, vaikka dialogi on kyllä hetkittäin tahattoman kökköä. Luulen, että tekijät ovat yrittäneet oikeasti kertoa jotakin ihmisistä poikkeusoloissa (vrt. erinomaisesti alkanut mutta vähän turhan liian pitkään jatkunut The Walking Dead) ja sukupuolirooleista, mutta eivät kaksikon kyvyt moiseen riitä. Henkilöhahmoista on vaikea löytää kiintymiskohteita. Taide on aika kamalaa sekin.

Luultavasti olen ottanut sarjakuvan aikanaan lukulistalleni Tähtivaeltaja-lehdestä lukemieni arvioiden myötä, mutta eipä olisi kannattanut.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was prepared to give this the benefit of the doubt because of the superb Alex and Ada by the same writer but I'm really not sure about this series. It walks a very queasy tightrope between being 'about misogyny' and just being plain misogynistic. Plus the end is ripped STRAIGHT from Stephen King. Hmmm.

[Vít Kotačka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nebudu zastírat, že jsem si tenhle komiks vybral kvůli nahatým ženským. 😇 😈 A těch se čtenáři taky dostane. Ale je to velmi, velmi decentní. A erotika? Rovná se nule.

Žánrově jde o sci-fi(?) horror, s profláknutým B-čkový námětem: sexy mimozemštanky (klony?) jdou (decentně krve)lačně po obyvatelích malého amerického městečka. Přesně takové to klišovité městečko s jedním barem, jedním obchodem, jednou benzínovou pumpou, jednou uchyláckou rodinou, pošta, policajtská stanice; to vše obkroužené kukuřicí a lesy. Populace? Hodně, hodně středoškolských teenagerů. 🤦

Co však tuhle sérii dělá zajímavou? Dvě věci. Za prvé nápaditost a nepředvídatelnost, plus jakási decentní "ujetost". Bratři Lunové dokázali na profláknutém základě vystavět velmi originální konstrukci. 👍

A za druhé - a řekl bych, že to je hlavní plus - jde o (další) nelítostnou sondu, do hnusu vztahů a charakterů na archetypálním (americkém) vidlákově. Je to samozřejmě vydestilované, ale takovou koncentrovanou snůšku odporných lidí (jak postupně vychází na jevo), aby člověk pohledal.

Co musím vytknout - kresba je sterilní, akce nepřehledná, nedynamická a "polopatická". Postavy jsou charakterově ploché a "blbé" (ale možná to souvisí s tou B-čkovou stylizací, kdy se vždycky u filmu chytáte za hlavu, proč se postavy na plátně chovají jako idioti; tady je to podobné).

Takže, takové guilty pleasure... nevím, jestli si na konci série nebudu nadávat do blbců za ztracený čas. Ale přečetl bych to nejraději na posezení. 🤭

------------

Recenze Girls Vol. 2: Emergence ★★★

[JB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another original story from the Luna Brothers. Where do they get their ideas?
This one's a doozy! Let's go over what we get in this one: Guy finds mysterious naked girl on side of the road, check; when girl is left alone in bathroom and makes weird noises, guy opens door of bathroom and finds naked girl with a bunch of big eggs, check; some kind of clones of this naked girl come out of these eggs and start attacking the women of the town, check; the men of this little town find a giant sperm which attacks and tares a couple of them apart, check; they find themselves stuck in their town because of a giant orb-like barrier; check.

If you think this sounds like the weirdest story you've ever read, you know how I feel now, after just finishing it in one go. It's a quick read, just like that other story of the Luna Brothers I've read (The Sword). I can tell you one thing, I'm intrigued. I'm going to continue reading both "The Sword" and "Girls" and if these stories continue to impress and entertain me, I'm going to read other stories of the Luna Brothers as well.

If you're as intrigued after reading my review as I am after reading this first volume of Girls, then wait no longer, read this story!

[Sooraya Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous art. Dark pastel colors. Creative use of sporadic blur effects.
A loser almost runs over a naked woman in the middle of nowhere. He takes he home. They have sex and she lays a bunch of giant eggs the next morning. Somehow, the whole premise reminds me of that 90s Species movie. Nevertheless, I’m still eager to find out what it’s all about.

[Oscar Leal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ESTRELLAS ☆☆☆
Una interesante historia con algunos toques de originalidad que busca crear misterio en un pequeño pueblo de los Estados Unidos. Lo más destacable sin duda es el plot, la creación de lo que parece ser el "antagonista" principal me ha encantado. Es una clase de monstruo bello. Las razones de sus acciones, su naturaleza y lo que hay detrás es bastante misterioso y busca querer saber qué se encontrará allí.
Si bien los personajes de estos primeros cómics son planos, sin gracia y que no salen del estereotipo de habitantes del pequeño pueblo de los EU que nadie conoce pero que sin duda pasa de ser aburrido a interesante, han acompañado la historia de una buena manera como principales espectadores, no se han involucrado de más, incluso nuestro protagonista y su grupo.
El arte es pasable, funciona pero no da ese toque final llamativo. Los colores pasteles con oscuros abundan entre sus páginas y resaltan en momentos oportunos. Es inevitable leer esta historia y no ver a Stephen King: Una mezcla de Los Tommyknockers con La cúpula. Lo más desesperante son los puntos de opinión de los habitantes, tan procesados que lucen artificiales , nada naturales (con todo y que es una historia ficticia) .
Sin duda le doy mi punto bueno para continuar, la historia tiene potencial para mejorar, para desarrollar todos esos momentos que llamaron la atención. Los comienzos de los buenos guiones son excelentes, pero se ponen mejores. No veo por qué aquí eso no pasaría también. Ya veremos.

[✿ K.B ✿ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, nothing much to say yet about this one.🤔

Does it have an interesting story?
- It kinda does seem it might turn into one. Can't say from just this volume. Which by the way seems like just one chapter from a volume. There is so little about the characters and the premise. It's just the skim of it. Which is making me want more... I guess this is working for the story.😏 Also, although it is in horror nothing horror like happened or is predictable yet.

Does it have interesting characters?
-Not so much yet, because there isn't much about them except when the main character Ethan is fed up with all the women in town and just berates and insults them in the only bar in town. Just because one woman broke his heart doesn't give him the right to say all those nasty stuff about others to them in rage. He was being misogynistic. And then in the end does something so stupid that feeling bad for his broken heart is useless.🤦🏻‍♀️

Artwork?
Pretty neat yet uneven...? Not extravagant. But nicely done. 👍🏼

So I think I will give this a chance because I do wanna know more about the story concept. And also it is kinda interesting. 😬

I am a bit sceptical about this one. Very much in the middle of meh and oh ok interesting... 🤷🏻‍♀️

Moving on to the next volume... Or just another chapter... 😏

[Clay · Rating 3 out of 5]

It starts off being intriguing and ends with a big mystery. Between the start and the finish, though, there were simply too many characters (and most of them acting stupidly). If you need to have two dozen different and distinct and relevant characters going through your story, you need to get some background or a little bit more time to ramp up to that number of people the reader needs to keep track of in Act 1.

The art was minimal. Almost like it was frames taken from a really flat animated version printed between covers and word balloons added.

Having gotten through 1/4 of the story, I'd be willing to see how it develops and resolves.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

SO weird. Somewhat intriguing. But probably not enough to keep me going with this series.

NSFanyW. :)

[Lexxi Kitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

When dealing with comics and graphic novels, it is difficult to say how many 'thingies' I've read by a specific author. I mean, this here is a collection of, um, 5 or 6 individual comics all collected. So it makes talking about certain things hard.

Long long ago I read the first issue of Girls when it was offered free. Must mean something if the first issue involves a naked woman wandering around and is vaguely interesting. But I never attempted to read the second issue until today. Oh, that's right, that's because the main dude, the lead character, is massive dick. Whiny, immature, dick. So, yeah, I didn't continue until today.

I really had no specific desire to try this here series. But I'd read Luna's Alex + Ada, and, eventually, I broke down and decided to actually read this one here. So - just to get the order right, I read issue one of Girls, then everything in the Alex + Ada series, then back to first volume of Girls.

First off - Luna sure is obsessed with women who look like Girl and Ada. At least, in the sense that they look so bloody similar. Could very well be the same woman. I mean, same hair, body type, etc. Hmms. Looking at the covers, they don't look the same. But I recall them being quite similar when I was reading them. Well, at the very least, they could be sisters.

Okay then - this book started off with the weird little scene involving sperm. Yes, sperm. Swimming. Then moving on to a man. Man works in a store. Woman comes in. They flirt. Woman makes comments like "I'd like you to squeeze my cantaloupes". Man looks down at woman's breasts. Woman holds up cantaloupes for him to squeeze while saying that she never can figure out how to tell how ripe the fruit are. Man suggests going to a bar that night. Eventually the woman says she might go. Man says it's a date. Woman looks at him like he's the biggest loser on earth and says something like 'I meant, I might go with my parents.' Man looks like he's very confused.

I would not normally have so, both vaguely and graphically, described that scene, but it's the model for the rest of the book. Man's bloody clueless near women. Apparently dated one of them, then didn't speak to that one for six months. Bottled up his rage. Then unleashes it one night. Man gets tossed out of bar by cop. At roughly the same moment a big loud boom is heard. Man drives away.

While driving somewhat insanely down the road man almost runs over a naked woman. He pulls her into his car and drives her home. Instead of, you know, to the police station or a hospital or the like. Two rapist looking guys poke out of the forest holding guns (well, one had one, I forget if other had one as well). They look disappointed the naked girl got away.

One thing leads to another and naturally man fucks the naked woman. Because that's what you do when you find a naked woman in the road. One who appears so shell-shocked that all she seems capable of doing is occasionally repeating what you are saying. Though one or two 'things' are said that were repeated from others, though he doesn't know that at the time. So, as I said, naturally you would 1) take such a woman home instead of getting help for her and 2) fuck her.

Next morning arrives. There's some 'being sick' like noises from bathroom. Man wanders around in his boxers. One thing leads to another and the woman he used to date, who now dates the cop, the cop, and man are in man's home. Because man finally realized he probably should tell someone about the woman.

Man leads cop and Taylor inside (Taylor being the ex, the cop's named Wes, I forget the man's name; there we go - Ethan Daniels). So, Ethan goes to find named woman (no I can't now provide her name, naked woman has no name). Opens bathroom door. Finds naked woman on floor looking exhausted. Next to her are several rather large eggs. One thing leads to another and naked women who look like the first one spring out of said eggs. And immediately start hitting and smacking.

Sooo. This is one weird fucking comic, eh? Kept my attention and was vaguely interesting. If someone's read Alex + Ada, and liked it, I guess I'd recommend them to at least try the first issue - which is probably still free somewhere. Otherwise . . . I don't know if I'd recommend this naked women, giant sperm, giant egg comic series.

[Mikael Kuoppala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ethan Daniels is a young man living in a small town. Recently broken up with his girlfriend, he is filled with a sense of stagnation and oppressiveness in a tight, often judgemental community. One night he lets it all out in front of half the town in an explosion of rage. When he angrily drives away from the situation, he almost drives over a young naked woman who seems to be mute. He takes the girl home and is oddly mesmerized and ultimately wordlessly seduced by her.

Soon it turns out the woman is not alone...

The Luna brothers delve into dangerous waters with a story that sets out to explore and expose gender roles and the biological imperatives humans hide behind cultural constructs. The thing feels a bit clichéd with its gender notions on both fronts, but it still keeps itself in check I think. The point that individuals resort to adopted gendered behavuior to compensate for weaknesses in personality comes across, and the effect of a closed, highly normative community as a factor in this is well established.

As far as the plot and tone go, this seems like shameless B-movie horror sci-fi stuff that used to communicate smart ideas. Using campy motifs to appeal to a reader's intellect is very much in fashion, so it doesn't feel as innovative now as it did a few years back, but it works nevertheless. The tale has a strong atmosphere to it that also works wonders. This feels genuinely eerie, it owns a lot to "The Twilight Zone" and has a healthy dose of Twin Peaks added to the mix. Will be interesting to see where all this will lead.

[Megan L. · Rating 1 out of 5]

So a bunch of stereotypes walk into a bar in the middle of nowhere ... and then some sci-fi movie cliches happen. Plus boobs!

This mess isn't so much misogynistic as it is immature: the cast is actually quite diverse, but each character is neatly packaged as a very specific type, and the types seem to be whatever the author/artist team (they're brothers) picked up from watching television and movies. It's almost like they've never gone outside and seen how actual humans interact. Plus, the art? I admit for the first several pages I wondered how or why everyone in town was related — they're not, but the artist can apparently only draw one face. Remember when you were little, and you'd draw stick figures, but they all looked the same, so you put clothes on them to tell them apart? It's like that.

The only interesting thing about this series is the concept. The Luna brothers had a neat idea, but then executed it so poorly that the result isn't really worth reading. Unless you're into cartoon boobs.

[Gabrielle Geddes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a slow burn, but it was intriguing enough to want to read the next Volume. There was a number of unnecessary uses of the r slur, which was super gross and, although not excuseable, is contextualised by the release date of this collection. Let's see where this goes.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and intriguing and unusual, despite its less-than-likeable main characters. The first volume is essentially setup, so there's definitely potential for this to be a 4 star series, but I'm reserving judgment until I read more.

[jlf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terrible in every way. I gave this series two stars because it held my interest long enough for me to read the entire series, but it was by no means good.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting take on the alien invasion/zombie infestation story. It's like Slither if it was a Russ Meyer film.

[Laine · Rating 1 out of 5]

WASTE OF MY FUCKING TIME.

[Myk Pilgrim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderfully strange book that I never knew I wanted to read.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was weird, to say the least. The story focuses on Ethan Daniels - awkward, small town bachelor who finds dealing with the opposite sex difficult until he bumps into a mysterious and beautiful woman who changes his life and his town.

The story takes place in a small town in what I am presuming is America, so small there's a dozen or so families living in town. Then there's Ethan, who is hung up on a woman called Taylor and is looking to make her jealous, which ends up in him being misogynistic and a jerk. Cue him finding a strange, hurt and naked woman on the highway and instead of taking her to the hospital (she didn't want to go there) he takes her to his house and they end up having sex...

I don't know, if you see a hurt person (who's naked!) And they try to have sex with you, why not be the decent person and not have sex because you can obviously see what a messed up situation is this.

We don't learn much as the events go on, just the story getting weirder and weirder, which is making me curious to see how the story goes but then there's the misogyny and how women are conceptualized which is uncomfortable and wrong... if the second book is at the library, I will read it and see if its as bad as the first but I wouldn't recommend buying it.

[Ange Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually really dig weird and violent stories with ironic sexist humor, lots of nudity and unlikable characters, but this one (in my opinion) missed the mark.

First off, the art is horrible. All people look alike, no matter how old they are not which gender they have. This makes it hard to follow what is happening to whom. I like the fades though!

The main characters are very uninteresting. Every man is a chauvinist pig (not in an ironic way), while all women whine about this, they don't actually stand up for themselves either. Every time a women tries to stand up for them selves a 'smart and strong' man tells them off to their place. "The enemy" is also a bunch of crazy mute naked women, aching for sperm, wanting to kill all women. There are an incredible amount off insults, without any irony, just to show the characters are assholes.

The only reason for not giving this first volume 1 star is that i actually like the storyline. I bought volume 1-4 in one go, so I'm extremely curious where this is gonna go. Hoping for a strong female protagonist to give this story some spice and make some sense.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review for the whole series:

An interesting twist on the zombie/bodysnatcher apocalypse story. Good, distinctive characters fill out the town, even if it has its moments of annoying mischaracterization to forward the plot. The art does a consistent job of helping keep the (large) cast of characters straight, and it often looks great, but also often looks a bit lazy. The sexual nature of the story is really odd--it's full of parts that are sort of cringey, but it's never clear if the writers are being sexist, or if they're just trying to tease out the horror inherent in the premise. I found that these scenes made the story stick with me, while I pondered the gendered nature of the situations.

Ultimately, I think its flaws keep it from being truly amazing, but it's a really unusual and interesting take on a rather hackneyed premise. 3.5/5.

[Andy Haddon · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK so throwing every sexist and misogynist cliche and stereotype into a comic called Girls that is set in backwoods Pennystown (PENIS TOWN geddit?) comes off pretty heavy handed, but when the cover itself is laser guided at the male gaze, whaddya expect?

The story, a kind of under-the-dome X Files mash-up is (so far) mostly a load of disparate characters mouthing off at each other in various degrees of crisis. None of them are even remotely likeable, but with 3 more novels to go, who knows?

[Jennifer Juffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

You never know what to expect when it comes to the creative minds of the Luna Brothers.
Conception is pretty interesting. I had some laughs. It's definitely true there aren't many secrets living in a small town. I know. I live in one that barely reaches 500.
While the whole concept is a bit implausible, there are kernels of thought provoking themes.
The lesson I take going into reading anything, though... suspend reality for awhile.
It's overrated, anyway.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this after Alex + Ada, Vol. 1 but it's not great. The main character is a dude-bro who is two steps away from an angry involuntary incel without any redeeming features. The artwork is pretty but the story is nothing special.

[Kyle Berk]

A very underwhelming comic where the plot didn’t grab my attention enough to justify the very predictable nature of the characters. I wasn’t into it and don’t think I’ll continue past volume 1.

It’s got an intriguing ending but I don’t think it made up for what was overall a disappointing reading experience.

I would not recommend this as it’s a very rough start and has some very odd notions about relationships and a seemingly large axe to grind with feminism.

[Damian Herde · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went in without knowing anything about the story or creators. There were moments that were conceptually interesting scattered through a lot of problematic moments.
I first thought there may have been some homage to Tiptree’s ‘Screwfly solution’, of an alien approach to taking over the planet by interfering with human breeding and wiping out all who could have babies. But this story wasn’t that clever.