Girls Gone Wild 1

Katie Lane 

2d Cloud

When "Girls Gone Wild" hit VCRs in 1997, I'm sure its creators knew the name would be ripe for parody. katie lane's comic is part of this history, though it's far from entirely satirical. lane's pen remains crisp while depicting a stressed relationship, unlike its namesake’s blurred lines. Girls Gone Wild's legibility contrasts with its dialogue and narrative; we wonder what’s left out of the story due to the comic’s spare exposition. Girls Gone Wild’s sex scenes are rendered in drab gray ink washes. Most of the narrative’s eroticism comes after arguments about movies and pronouns. lane’s scratchy renderings of hair and her muted portrayal of nudity lend gravity and nuance to the familiar strained couple narrative in her depiction of a fraught relationship. Compulsive mark-making and dialogue unite Girls Gone Wild: during sex, the narrator’s partner says ‘thank you’ over and over again; loops of cursive strewn throughout the comic; and the lettering’s repetitive, sometimes illegible scrawl that lets readers know that the couple’s argument has played out time and time again. An exercise in cathexis and catharsis, compulsion, and agency, Girls Gone Wild is a raunchy and earnest take on a love affair run awry.

katie lane is a cartoonist and collage artist. Her work depicts the emotional and material intensities of relationships, and work: navigating the boundaries of language, personal hardship and self criticism. lane's collage webcomic single camera sitcom ran from 2018-2022, and is being published by comicsblogger. Her recent pen and ink work in the collections sine qua non, perception through a gap, and blue idea orbit sexual experiences and iterations of argumentative moments in romantic partnerships. She is the coeditor of bernadette magazine along with Angela Fanche.