The Virgin Project is a comic anthology written by K.D. Boze and drawn by Stasia Kato.
Finished on: 19.2.2024

Content Note: rape, sexualized violence, child sexual abuse, incest

“Plot”:
Boze and Kato collected over 400 very different people’s stories of how they lost their virginity and made short comics of some of them. Those comics range from funny to disturbing, from sweet to wild – just like the first times of people.

The Virgin Project has been sitting on my book shelf for more than a decade, and I had completely forgotten what it was and why I bought it in the first place. I thought I’d have a quick thumb through it and then put it on my “give away” pile – but this collection is actually a keeper.

Losing your virginity is a very personal experience and even if a lot of stories share the same bones (teenagers in love is a recurring theme, of course), Boze and Kato do manage to give each of them the unique personality they deserve. In particular Kato’s drawings show a variety of style that is quite impressive and do wonders for each of the stories.

While a lot of the stories are about horny teenagers, far from all of them are. There are tales of sexualized violence in many forms, some refuting said violence as it being how the virginity was lost, others working through their trauma in different ways, other again not working through it at all. The collection opens with a story of (consensual) incest between siblings, so there are definitely some heavy themes here.

There are the occasional blunders, and I wouldn’t have minded some more critical framing of the concept of virginity itself. But given the diversity of the people and the stories, the criticism is almost inherent. There is actually a second volume of stories by them that might get more into that. I don’t know if I need more stories, though there are always more ways to look at and experience “the first time”, but I very much liked the many stories here.

Summarizing: an excellent read.