Roberto Baldazzini

Basically, this is the tale of a young submissive shemale breaking into the world of porn. She's partnered with another shemale by the name of Red Domina, who has a hard time getting an erection (pun intended), and who speaks with a deliberate lisp. Maybe it's just the translation, but the imagery leads me to suggest she really is designed to be a rather lightweight domina, tentative, anxious, and really quite needy.

Bayba, on the other hand, is a submissive little whore - and proud of it! The more she's used, abused, tortured, and humiliated, the more she loves it. The best part of the book is the flashback to her early days as a sissy, and her discovery by the woman whose house she cleaned. There was some real domination there, and even a suggestion of forced coercion one her husband stepped in.

Along with the porno shoot storyline, there's also a developing romance that seems to end poorly when Bayba catches Red Domina giving up her ass to the producer, who loves it so much he promises to make her he star. The final panel redeems it all, however, when the humiliation leaves Bayba writhing on the floor and cumming all over herself.

The narrative is a little weak, and the dialogue awkward (especially Red's lisp), but the book looks gorgeous. The colours are stark (reds, browns, blacks, and fleshtones), and the whole thing has a vibrant, yet almost washed out look that adds to the atmosphere. The bondage situations into which Bayba gets put are glorious in their intricacies, and Red always looks stunning in her red latex. The pig-faced men are a bit strange, to be sure, but I'm guessing that's a trademark of Baldazzini's work.

All in all, a nice little graphic novel.… (meer)

Sigh. I had such high hopes for this, but it was really just a mess of scenes and panels that lacked any sort of cohesive linear flow. Yes, I know, big words and fancy terms for a sissy looking for a stiffy, but when a book fails to arouse, it tends to make me think.

The Bayba Set (which collects her Lady Brown & Domina in Red adventures) looks absolutely gorgeous. They're beautifully oversized books, printed on thick, glossy paper, with vivid colors and sharp text. The drawings are absolutely gorgeous, with enough costumes and props to make me overlook the fact that Bayba seems to change shape and lose/gain weight from one panel to the next.

If only Roberto Baldazzini had lavished such attention upon his words. There is a loose story in both books, but it jumps around, leaps from scene to scene, and never really connects. While I read Domina in Red cover-to-cover, I gave up halfway through Lady Brown and really just scanned it for the artwork.… (meer)