Monday, March 14, 2016

Mall of Temptation


J. Lichtenberg's "Boxmaster" book contained some amusing scenes of romantic comedy as well as more serious adventure. In this scene the two leading characters go into a bustling mall at a spaceport. By this time in the book, we readers know that instead of a neuter-gender, the young alien is a straight female and has a love interest in her Boxmaster guardian and teacher. But she doesn't know this, at least consciously. Her erotic sensibilities are awakened by the large projected image of a male of her species, a dancer wearing only a posing pouch over his alien private parts. We readers have no idea whether the equipment of these two is compatible for a sexual relationship. But in a conversation with Lichtenberg, when I asked that question, she said that not only were they physically compatible, but in the later books of the Boxmaster series she was planning to write more explicitly romantic and erotic material for these characters. I was kind of disappointed because alien/human erotica is such a cliche. Since the project was discontinued I don't have to worry about that.

"Mall of Temptation" is ink on illustration board, 8 1/2" x 11", fall 1994.

1 comment:

Tristan Alexander said...

I really like these illustrations, sorry to hear that the project was discontinued!