Cover Image: Dollface V.2

Dollface V.2

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Member Reviews

The artwork is better than story line. The plot is as disjointed as Dollface. Lots of sex and violence for mature audiences only. Not an enjoyable read

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Okay so I read the first volume in the series in preparation and wasn't too impressed. I really should have checked out the reviews before requesting this one.

Don't get me wrong, Dollface has beautiful artwork. It's what first drew me in!
However once you start reading it becomes almost painfully clear that its written and illustrated from the male gaze viewpoint. It reeks of teenage boys wanting an excuse to look at breasts.
Add to that the fact they killed one of the gay women in the series, after only just introducing her.
Also were the babies the witch ate meant to be aborted fetuses since they were in a free clinic? Because 99% of aborted fetuses are not fully formed or look like newborns.
I'm just unimpressed by the whole thing and it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I clearly wasn't their target audience.

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The plot was vaguely better than the first edition however,the vulgarness of the comic itself just doesn't do it for me.

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Feels like it was written by a 13 year old boy who's into horror movies. The story is a few disgusting moments meant to shock surrounded by a bunch of nonsense.

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The first volume wasn’t written all that well, but I remember enough funny moments from it to give the series another try. This time the three take a portal to El Lay and land just a few blocks from a witch. . . but not just any witch. This one’s a baby-eater. Dollface flattens the clinic she’s in, thereby killing a lot of innocent people.
At Venice Beach she lifts weights, joins a drum circle, plays volleyball, and makes other women jealous. But of course the bad guys aren’t dead yet. And even more of course, the innocent character gets killed.
“You killed my family! Prepare to die!” Why does that sound familiar?
The giant fight scene was so difficult to follow. The artwork is so angular, much like Dollface herself.
Despite some early fun, it turned into as much of a gorefest as the first one. At some point it just stopped being fun and felt more like work. Emily’s reaction was strange as well.
The artwork is brighter than most.

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*I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

1 star.
This one just wasnt for me. It is book 2 in the series and not having read the first, I didnt really get what was going on, so if your wanting to read this, then reading book 1 is a must. This was also a bit too gory for my liking. An obese woman eating babies and there is actually an image of her holding a baby with its head missing and blood everywhere. Umm, no thanks.

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(Some spoilers ahead...)
The premise of this book, that two MIT students create a doll that contains the soul of a reincarnated 18th century witch hunter, was promising, but the execution leaves much to be desired. There is so much misogyny in this book that it is disgusting and makes me feel dirty just for reading it (all of the "evil" characters are women; there is a good bit of ogling over women's bodies without their consent; except for the two queer characters, women are either drawn as disgusting, almost nonhuman creatures or pretty much just glorified sex objects; the list goes on...). The queer love story part of the plot (which would have been a plus for the book had it not turned out this way) comes to an abrupt and, unfortunately, typical-for-media-portrayals-of-queer-characters end when, just a few short pages after being introduced, the main character's girlfriend is brutally murdered, barely to be acknowledged afterward. In fact, there is an abundance of murder in this book that gets completely glossed over or even praised (as in the case of Lila blowing up a free healthcare clinic that happens to provide abortions as a very small part of what they offer). And don't forget the fat-shaming (is it really necessary to call the villain a fat cow? Answer: no, it's not). The only reason I gave the book the star I did was because the illustrations, when not over-sexualizing women or depicting them as gross subhuman creatures, were very well done. They unfortunately were not enough to save the book for me, however.

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Looks could be really deceiving; that's my initial reaction right after I finished reading this comics. I got fooled by the cover, artwork, and the typeface because I find them a little childish; what I didn't expect is that the content is for mature readers only. There are several disturbing parts: abortion, the killing, and the consumption of babies by the witch; which even I, as an adult, find a little grim and dreadful. The publisher, Action Lab Comics, should have put the warning sign of Mature Readers in the front cover and not in the back; so, parents will be aware that this comic series is not meant for young kids.

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I really liked the illustrations, the story line not so much. To be really honest I was only interested in it because of the illustrations ,before going into it I knew nothing about it. For me it was too bloody and gross but if you are into all of that you will really enjoy it.

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Dollface Volume 2… where to start? Let’s start by saying that I have read Volume 1. I would not have rated Volume 1 above a three star rating. Dollface has beautiful artwork and a creative and promising plot. However, the book falls short on execution. If I were to tell you that the comic is about a 1700s witch hunter who has been summoned/reincarnated in the body of a human sized doll by two MIT students you would probably be intrigued. Then I would tell you that Lila (the doll) was actually intended to be a sex doll and just accidentally happened to be a witch hunter and you might change your mind. This series is full of so much blatant misogyny and sexism it’s sickening. I honestly really wanted to like this series and I still sort of (kind of) do. I want to like it. The plot has so much potential and the artistry is unique and captivating. I just cannot get past the fact that this book seems to have been written by a thirteen-year-old boy for other thirteen-year-old boys, exclusively. I feel like the female audience is completely alienated by this series and I hate that. Let me reiterate that I really want to like this series and I can even get past a LITTLE sexism but this book is on a whole other level. The writing switches between plot moving to soft-core from one panel to the next. I am no prude and I don’t have a problem with sex. I have a problem with blatant misogyny and the constant objectification of Lila (and others). I will give this book props for the inclusion of LGBT+ main characters but for me that doesn’t make up for the sexism. The scene with the eating aborted babies didn’t even bother me. I like gore, I like disturbing plots, I don’t like the alienation of huge swaths of the reader base. I won’t continue to read this series. If the writers took out most of the objectification and misogyny and focused a bit more on plot progression I might be interested.

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This was an interesting fresh read with a creepy supernatural vibe.

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Sexy, funny, and great artwork. Everything an adult graphic novel should have!

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Disclaimer for this review: I haven't read the first volume of Dollface and I hadn't checked out its reviews prior to reading this graphic novel so my interest in Dollface Volume 2 was based solely on its blurb and the image on the cover.

Emily and Ivan are the students who made Lila. Emily's girlfriend Paige attends school in California while Emily is studying at M.I.T. Emily wants to visit Paige but can't afford the travel cost or time because of mid-terms so Ivan, a ghost, creates a portal and the three of them whoosh through the portal to L.A. Once in L.A., Lila's witch alert system activates so she and Ivan go check it out while Emily catches up with Paige. Then all hell breaks loose.

I like the concept of a 17th century witch hunter being transported to present time into the body of a doll that a couple of students created with a 3D printer. Also I generally love all things relating to witches, ghosts, tattoos, people with brightly coloured hair and blood spatter, so I figured this was a pretty safe bet for me. This time I was mistaken. Not much offends me but I personally found this graphic novel quite disgusting and wrong on so many levels.

[spoiler: Had I not committed to reviewing this graphic novel I would have stopped reading as soon as I turned the page and saw the woman eating babies in the basement of a medical clinic that offers abortions.]

I'm sure there's an audience for this type of graphic novel but it's definitely not me. I take full responsibility for not doing enough research before I requested a review copy of this one. Had I done my research I would have known I wasn't part of the target audience. Lesson learned.

I received an ARC of this graphic novel from NetGalley (thank you very much to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback.

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