Kickstarting Comics: Ed Firth’s Brilliantly Sexy Drama ‘Horny & High’ Comes To North America!

The first part of Ed Firth‘s magnificent series of sexy, harrowing, poignant, and moving series is finally coming to readers in the US and Canada via Kickstarter – but there’s only a few days to go to back it.

Here’s a nice summary of what it’s all about…

“Ed Firth’s Horny & High is a breathtaking comics series looking at the sex and drug culture in London, blending sex and humor and tragedy in a bracing series of stories. The first volume has gone through four shorter print-runs in the U.K., but has never before been published in the United States. We are aiming to produce an offset-printed North American edition of the series, starting with Volume I, to introduce his fantastic work to a wider audience.”

Now, I first saw Ed Firth’s work when he was made joint-runner-up in The Observer/Faber graphic short story prize in 2022 for his story, The Lift, about which I said this here…

“As for Ed Firth’s The Lift, it’s completely different to the other two, the artwork is angular, wildly inventive, unusual camera angles, full colour, and with a great narrative, one that chills and impresses in equal measure as our young gay narrator tells a tale of childhood and stranger danger. There’s just something quite stunning about the way that Firth constructs his pages, the artistic choices, the angularity of the art, it all really pops to me. More than that, in just four pages he really sends a fine chill down your spine and makes it feel like a hell of a lot longer than its four short pages.”

It was, quite simply, rather damn brilliant. So, after a while, I got in touch with Ed and he sent along a copy of Horny & High for me to look at with a view to reviewing. That was maybe January 2023. And that copy of Horny & High was amazing, absolutely amazing. Full of all the cartooning skills I’d seen in The Lift but also with a story that was all about sex and drugs and normal life. It’s very adult, both with graphic sex and very real situations where the consequences of that sex and a life of partying are clearly shown. Again, quite brilliant stuff.

So, I put it to one side and put it into the folder marked ‘review these’. And there it sat. And then last year happened. In any normal year, the amount of time to review comics is never enough but last year had even less time. So, that’s why I haven’t managed to spend any time telling you just how good Ed Firth’s Horny & High is, the to do pile overwhelmed the to review pile and it got rather buried.

Anyway, enough on that and now let’s get to the Horny & High Kickstarter. Again, something I only saw late, meaning that the campaign finishes on Tuesday March 19 at 4:00pm UTC. Which means you have so little time to get on and back it. Believe me, you’ll be damn glad that you did.

This is a new 72-page print edition of the UK release that will be distributed to retailers and readers in the U.S. and Canada by Northwest Press. It contains the stories “The Nightbus”, “Chillout”, and “?” as well as hookup profile portraits and some new graphics and extras.

As for more info… here’s some more from the Kickstarter…

“Most comics take a sanitized approach to love and sex (if they address it at all) omitting anything that might be deemed too explicit even if its inclusion might benefit the story. Others sensationalize sex and depict it in a fantastical way that’s designed purely to arouse, leaving out any inconveniently unsexy details. Both methods omit truths about sex—positive and negative—and leave a large part of our lives unexplored.

Firth goes in a different direction. His series depicts not only the beauty and seduction of hookups and partying but also its uglier aspects and sometimes tragic consequences. It doesn’t talk down or preach and doesn’t devalue more casual sexual encounters. But it shows you what porn and app profiles won’t: the ebbs and flows during sex, feelings of isolation, an unforgiving social culture, threats to one’s health, and addiction.

Ed Firth tells these stories with a highly-expressive art style, communicating complex emotions and longings with spare, iconic lines and bursts of color that propel the reader into the story. He’s a master of setting a mood, bringing you right into the center of each tale.”

Absolutely. I completely agree with all of that. This is a series you really should be reading. Well, if you’re an adult at least, and not easily offended by graphic scenes of sex, drugs, and life in general.

HORNY & HIGH VOLUME 1 – Kickstarter ends Tue, March 19 2024 4:00pm UTC – PLEDGE HERE!

And although I never quite managed to get to reviewing and telling you about Horny and High, that doesn’t mean that others didn’t. All I can say is I absolutely agree with every word spoken here…

“Beautiful and very special, a very unique style. Sexy, sad, a melancholic mood… the story is very internal, it tells a truth only the gut understands”
—Ralf König (The Killer Condom, Konrad and Paul)

“Undeniably compelling… visually stunning. The strength here is that these tales don’t wallow in their dank milieu, as dark as things get there is a yearning for light.”
—The Queer Review

“Firth constructs an elaborate character study that is all the more impressive for how little he actually needs to reveal about the cast. It’s all there though in the body language and the bantering interactions of the assorted players… But the great strength of ‘Chillout’ is that Firth ensures our sympathy with this small group of perhaps damaged and self-destructive but ultimately fragile and very human characters, despite their recklessness and sometimes limited empathy.”
—Broken Frontier

“It’s always exciting when a talented illustrator develops into a complete auteur with their own story and voice… with the three tales in Horny & High, he arrives as a confident comics creator, sharing his intimate, frank perspective on desires and delusions. No wonder he was short-listed for this year’s Myriad Editions First Graphic Novel Prize. Discover him for yourself.”
—Paul Gravett (Graphic Novels: Stories To Change Your Life)