Where would we be without our mothers? As a parent myself, I’ve felt starved for stories about parenthood within the world of Yuri media. In fact, a large amount of Yuri centers on characters that explicitly reject the notion of having children and raising a family, and not without good reason. That’s valid and I support it. But it leaves out a few avenues for telling new stories, which is why I was excited to discover the topic of today’s review.
Motherlover is a spinoff comic (launched on Mother’s Day, of course) centered on two random characters from Lindsay Ishihiro’s long-running autobiographical comic How Baby. After creating them, she felt compelled to give them their own story. The first leading lady, Imogen, is a quintessential Midwestern homemaker, managing a household of four kids; her counterpart is Alex, a Cool Artsy Queer mom who has moved back into her parents’ house after their recent deaths.
Both leads are well-rounded characters. Imogen became a mother at 19 and flunked out of college before meeting her current husband. Her inexhaustible capacity to care for her children is only matched by her insecurity about her limited life experience. Alex, meanwhile, pushes away people who love her as a result of the emotional abuse she suffered from her extremely strict parents.
The core of the story is the dynamic between Imogen and Alex. Their friendship feels lived-in and believable, which further sells you on their compatibility as their feelings for each other deepen. You could even say that they are a bit too accepting at times; even when one is venting ugly honest feelings, the other never takes offense. It’s as if they are committed to each other before they are committed to each other. There is no moment of doubt that their connection will break, which makes for a breezy read even when the topics get heavy.
Putting my Serious Critic hat on, I would say I wish the children had more space to be characters. For instance, how did Alex’s daughter Nolan feel about her mother’s previous partner? How does her feelings parallel Imogen’s kids feelings about their parent’s divorce? The only one of the five children who is given any spotlight is Imogen’s oldest, but their arc is so siloed from the core of the story that it could have been cut without affecting the plot at all. I’ve read enough of How Baby to know that Ishihiro knows how to talk about motherhood in a raw, vulnerable, and hilarious way, but not much of that transferred over to this story.
I also find myself wishing that the issues around Imogen’s marriage didn’t boil down to cheating. I thought Ishihiro did a great job sketching Imogen’s husband as a man who is controlling and withholding, but not in a domineering manner. The way he perpetuates Imogen’s insecurity by shooting down her ideas of going back to school is compellingly insidious; it felt so strong to me that I found myself disappointed when the breaking point of their marriage turned out to be infidelity. It’s believable, but a bit expedient.
One thing that occurred to me is that this is a queer love story where very little of the challenges center on queerness: Imogen never struggles with her gay awakening, Alex doesn’t encounter hostility from the community for being loudly out, a young character comes out as trans and basically no one bats an eye. It represents a kinder world than the one we live in, and I’m sure many readers will love that part of it. (Yes, there is some queerphobia represented in the text, but it’s treated with a light touch.) My feeling is that, in a story where being a parent is the premise, I would have liked to see it tackle what it means to be a parent who is queer, AND what it means to be the parent of a queer child (though I felt the coming out scene was well-handled). To be clear, all of these critiques are quibbles for what is an easily enjoyable story.
While the comic is complete and free to read online, I was unaware of it until seeing an announcement of a physical release from Iron Circus Comics. It’s a lovely softcover book with glossy hearts embossed on top of the matte finish of the cover. The art and paneling is solid and translated well to the printed page. Also, I was pleased to see Abby Lehrke in the credits as a proofreader, given her involvement with A Certain Manga Series Set In College that I am fond of.
If you are looking for the perfect sapphic comic for Mothers’ Day, this would be one to pick up, but I’d say it can be enjoyed and celebrated on the other 364 days of the year as well, just like your mother. (And would it kill you to call every once in a while?)
Art – 8 Solid and clean
Story – 8 Tightly paced; could have been expanded but would have required a longer page count
Characters – 9 Everyone is well written, though some characters could have had more to do
Service – 1 Domestic snuggles is as spicy as as it gets
LGBTQ – 10 70% of the named characters are queer, so it gets high marks
Overall – 9 The best Mom-meets-Mom story on the market
Yes, Ishihiro is aware of the SNL skit of the same name; it’s mentioned on the comic’s About page.
Matt Marcus is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network, as well as the writer for the blog Oh My God, They Were Bandmates analyzing How Do We Relationship in greater depth.
