Al-Qaeda’s Super Secret Weapon
Turns out the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was just the opening that the terrorists were waiting for! This witty, sexy, spy tale sends up Republicans, the War on Terror™ and gay clichés from A to Z. The end of the world was never so fabulous!
$5.99 – $14.99
Turns out the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was just the opening that the terrorists were waiting for! This witty, sexy, spy tale sends up Republicans, the War on Terror™ and gay clichés from A to Z. The end of the world was never so fabulous!
ISBN: 9781938720291
Publisher: Northwest Press
Publish Date: 2013
Page Count: 72
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Fearful Hunter $12.99 – $24.99
Oisin, a shy young druid, lives in a ferocious world of sacred sexuality and erotic elder gods. When he falls for Byron, a simple wolf who only mates for life, their love threatens the plans of those who desire a forbidden power. Do the star-crossed lovers stand a chance when lascivious Druid masters and savage elder gods threaten their fragile new relationship?
Punk music, pickup trucks, and psychedelic earth magic add an urban spin to this captivating queer Celtic fantasy world.
Written and drawn by Jon Macy, with bonus stories and art by Justin Hall, Dave Davenport, William O. Tyler, Steve MacIsaac, Dylan Edwards, Sina Sparrow, René Capone, Agnes Czaja, and Sean Z. Maker.
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The Completely Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green $9.99 – $24.99
Eric Orner’s groundbreaking comic strip, “The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green”, debuted in 1990 and appeared in papers in a hundred cities across the US, Canada and the UK. Now, for the first time, every subversive, laugh-out-loud funny, and occasionally surreal episode from the gay everyman’s 15 years in print is in one deluxe collection. Includes behind-the-scenes stories from the author, bonus strips, and a foreword by New York Times bestselling author David Ebershoff.
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Sale!The Mark of Aeacus #2 $2.99 – $4.99
Jack’s adventure as the Bearer of The Mark of Aeacus continues. A mysterious stranger appears at the foot of Jack’s bed, tells him the secrets of the mark of power that he bears, then tells him he must die. Can Jack’s mysterious new powers save him… or would we all be better off if they didn’t?
The digital edition of this book adds 25 bonus pages, including Mark Brill’s original pencil artwork and a bonus pinup by Briar Hollow artist Terry Blas!
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Dash #1 $2.99 – $3.99
Los Angeles, 1940: Private investigator Dash Malone can’t shake the feeling his lover, Johnny, is hiding something. Strange deaths start occurring throughout the city while a mysterious woman named Zita Makara begs Dash to take her case. When a grisly murder connects all three, a terrifying mystery unfolds.
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Al Qaeda’s Super Secret Weapon X-Mas Card $2.00 – $12.00
Send Mahmoud, the star of Al Qaeda’s Super Secret Weapon, to your friends and family to wish them a happy and joyous holiday season.
Sequential Tart –
“If you’re looking for something with good production values that is totally out of the box, this might be something worth checking out.” Read Katie Frank’s review on Sequential Tart.
Sequential Tart –
“The art is fantastic. Clean and open, drawing the focus to the characters. While the main characters are probably best described as ‘hot’, there is some variety of body types throughout the book (though, with the military aspect, most of them are also fit). Body mechanics are excellently rendered and realistic. I also really appreciate the time it takes to draw that much body hair and make it look good. ” Read Sheena McNeil’s review on Sequential Tart.
David Quantic –
“Of course, things go horribly wrong in the most hilarious ways. The terrorists soon become distracted by the everyday realities of the American Gay Lifestyle that include boyfriends, three-ways and learning how to make a mean arugula salad. Another result of the mission is the bombing of the Dallas airport (mostly for aesthetic reasons.)” Read David Quantic’s writeup David Quantic Film.
Zachary –
I should say this up front: I don’t read a lot of erotica. I come to literature for intellectual stimulation, not erotic. That said, for all its erotic content, Al-Qaeda’s Super Secret Weapon is an extremely intellegent riff on the fundamentalist values of conservative America, the fundamentalist values of certain sects of Islam, and gay culture itself.
The protagonist, Mahmoud, is a member of an Al-Qaeda cell. After hearing McCain state on television that the American’s military’s ban on homosexuality should stay in place so that soldiers are not “distracted,” Mahmoud’s cell decides to learn “the gay lifestyle” and introduce it into the American military. Over the course of the novel, Mahmoud falls for the blonde-haired American man Steve, who he enters into a relationship with. Steve calls Mahmoud his “swarthy little lamb kebab.”
The jokes are a mile a minute and span gay culture, military culture, Middle Eastern culture, and on and on.
Now, if that had been all there was to tell, I might not have proceeded to write up this review. But the real gem of this piece is its thematic core: Mahmoud’s struggle to reconcile his feelings for Steve with his identity as a terrorist. He feels trapped between two conflicting worlds and struggles to find himself.
That the novel succeeds in blending its satire with this deeper element and be simultaneously entertaining, is a great feat that few stories achieve, but Al-Qaeda’s Super Secret Weapon pulls it off with extraordinary finesse. I have one qualm with its execution. There is a page of text near the center of the novel that breaks the narrative in order to explain this thematic core directly. Big no-no. While itself humorously written, the story would have been stronger if I could have been allowed to arrive at that conclusion myself.
Overall, this is a very solid story—excellent satirical social commentary woven elegantly into thematic underpinnings—and I can highly recommend picking up a copy. Though if you are offended by religious commentary or graphic depictions of sex, you should steer clear of this one.