Shrink Fan’s “True Desire”

Good morning everyone,

Today we’re going to look at a different aspect of size-fetish and examine a work in which people get a whole lot smaller!

Specifically, let’s check out Shrink Fan’s “True Desire.” It consists of two issues; the first was published on October 1st of 2018 and the second was published in November that same year. (NOTE: Nice to get a follow-up right after the first.) Both were drawn by Vincenzo Sansone and written by Meri May. The issues were edited by Cezar Nix. Blue Jay colored the first and Ruben Curto colored the second, and Web Head served as the layout artist.

Vincenzo Sansone also drew “Undertoe 2” for Shrink Fan. Similarly, Meri May has an additional writing credit for Shrink Fan’s “A Little Competition,” which was previously reviewed here.

True Desire features two college roommates, Mallory and Sera, who unintentionally enter a magic shop while wanting to buy smoothies. Mallory ends up purchasing a set of potions for both of them. These potions are meant to alter their sizes in accordance with their deepest desires. (NOTE: It wasn’t necessarily clear that the transformations were actually their deepest desires, but I’ll get into that later.)

The comic tells readers that Mallory (seen above) is significantly taller and curvier than Sera (seen on the left). The height difference was accurately portrayed, and I could discern that Mallory was indeed taller than Sera.

However, they both had a similar body shape. Sera seems to be just as curvy as Mallory in most panels. If it wasn’t for the text telling me that Mallory was intended to be curvier then I would have assumed that they shared the same general build. Any differences in particular images could be attributed to clothing which either conceals or flatters their shapes.

Inner dialogue from all three characters reinforce the idea that Mallory is supposed to have a better figure. After reading that a few times, I expected to see the difference between Mallory and Sera clearly displayed in their illustrations. However, I just wasn’t seeing it.

There was also a brief two-panel sequence in which it appeared that Mallory was being attacked, or at minimum, “absorbed” by a micro-organism. (NOTE: Which I guess is really the only way a micro-organism can attack, seeing as roundhouse kicks or karate chops aren’t viable. If any micro-organisms are reading this, please comment below with your own perspective 😉 )

That should have been a real nail-biting scenario in which readers worry about the safety of a main character. But it’s never properly addressed and felt out of place. I do not think anyone, but Mallory was even aware of the encounter with the microscopic predator. Furthermore, Mallory does not comment about the event afterward. Speaking for myself, I’d be inclined to say something to the effect of “Holy fucking shit, I was almost killed by a goddamn protozoa!” 😳 But perhaps I am more sensitive than most.

It’s reasonable to think that Mallory might be a wee bit traumatized after nearly being absorbed! (NOTE: The organism covered or grabbed her left leg in the second panel.) Spoiler alert, no one actually gets hurt. I think readers were meant to understand that Mallory shrank even further and thus escaped harm. Maybe? It was unclear how she avoided injury.

Sex scenes (all girl-girl) were nicely done and there were many instances of nudity throughout.

Overall, the story wasn’t bad, and deserves praise for giving us a conclusion. Check out my last review, covering ZZZ comics, to see how conclusions are not a given.

However, there was a plot point in which a character shrinks even though she verbally expresses her desire not to shrink. It is explained that her true desire is to shrink. BUT… I don’t know if I buy that. At the end that same character thinks to herself that she still isn’t happy about her height (she wants to be taller) and that she wouldn’t mind being the big one for a change.

So, there were conflicting messages and it appeared that one character was gaslighting the other into thinking they wanted to be small.

Overall, this isn’t necessarily a bad comic, but there’s not enough here to recommend.

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