A Review of Filthy Figments: An Erotic Comics Website
For as long as people have been making comics, people have been making erotic comics. Luckily for us, we live in the blessed age of the internet, which means we live in the age of the webcomic. While webcomics have been around in some form or another since the 1980s, in the past few years there has been a recent boom. Webcomics are appealing to many artists, as they are easy to share, you can independently control production, and they are extremely accessible.
That said, many websites for webcomics exist under fairly heavy censorship. Tapastic, for example, doesn’t allow NSFW comics to be read on their mobile app. Tumblr and Instagram flat-out ban many erotic comics. Twitter is still the wild west of social media, but its formatting isn’t friendly for serialized content.
The only option for many artists to post NSFW work is via an independent website. Enter Filthy Figments, which is a carefully curated collection of erotic comics. The website is queer and woman owned, and its comics are diverse, feminist, and queer and trans inclusive. Not only that, but the art is amazing and the comics themselves…phew! They’re hot!
Website Review
Here’s the nitty gritty. The website is subscription based, costing $18.18 for the first month and $9.69 for every month after that. For that rate, you get access to over 150 different comics by dozens of artists. The comics vary greatly in subject matter, style, and length. There are a great deal of kink-based comics and a majority of them are queer.
The website itself is a little outdated-looking. However, it loads quickly and all the comics are mobile friendly. You can navigate by arrow key on desktop, or by clicking on the comic pages or the navigation arrows on the page. The comics are organized either alphabetically by content or by artist and updates most weekdays.
There are only two minor gripes that I have with the site. Firstly, I wish there was a way to bookmark favourite pages or comics to return to easily, later. As is, if you navigate away from a page without bookmarking in your browser, there is no way to return to it. I would love a method to save your favourite comics or pages. Secondly, I noticed a weird glitch where if you touch the comic page with your thumb while scrolling on a device, it changes colour slightly. It’s a little annoying, but it isn’t a dealbreaker for me.
With all those technicals out of the way, let’s get to the important stuff: the comics themselves!
Some Great Erotic Comics on Filthy Figments
Villainous by Alex Reeder
Alex Reeder is a favourite artist of mine. His illustrations are bright and colourful, almost “rubbery” in style. This short piece features a super cute and kinky affair between a genderqueer supervillain and his transmasculine sidekick.
Gomorrah by Apalloh
I absolutely devoured this comic in just a few days. It’s several chapters long, featuring the daring exploits of the protagonist Jagger as he explores a naughty nightclub. It’s fun to watch the artist improve over time through the drawing of gay exploits.
Breaking Etiquette by Bramblefix
An absolutely adorable short piece about two female servants hooking up in a closet at a fancy party. I couldn’t stop grinning the whole time I was reading it.
Her Little Routine by Dante Luiz and H. P.
This dynamic Brazilian artist/writer duo brings us a cute and saucy story of sexy feminist escapades. Though the sex is great, I think that the colouring style is my favourite part of this piece.
100% by Gutsy
What can I say about this one aside from “I suppose I’m into sci-fi futuristic femdom comics now”?
Fucking Ace by Hien Pham
Hien Pham’s work is reflective of his own life experiences as a queer asexual man of colour. His art also celebrates the bodies of fat Asian men, and I love to celebrate along with him.
The Devil’s Due by G. C. Houle
I adore G.C. Houle’s art style, and their colours absolutely knock me out of the park. While the colours are great in this piece, a saucy story about a priest (?) “wrestling” with temptation (and a devil after his soul) is definitely a treat.
Bend Me Like a Pretzel by MAWAR
Although yoga may not be super sexy in real life, this piece makes me forget about all the aches and pains in my joints.
Queens of the Steppe by Molly Ostertag
Before she published The Witch Boy and The Girl From the Sea, Molly Ostertag made an appearance with a delightful comic about queer women in the Steppes.
Fuck Me Running by Nero O’Reilly
If you want to read a comic about two trans men hooking up written by an indigenous Latine man, this is the place to be. I loved this piece and the diversity of bodies.
Wrap-Up
While this list is long, these are just a few of the ones I love on the site. There are several comics on my to-read list as well, including Crossplay by Niki Smith and everything by S.W. Searle. If you like feminist porn, queer representation, and erotic comics, I cannot recommend Filthy Figments highly enough.
