Heat #4

After a bit of a vacation form its usual annual release schedule, Heat, Volume #4 has returned! Now it's your turn to sit back, relax, and enjoy a few more tales of romance and eroticism! Find yourself some shade under a palm tree on a beach, or the warmth of a deck chair by a pool, or some cool breezes blowing across a hammock under the pines, or the privacy of your own bed with the shades drawn. Get comfy, and prepare yourself to be transported to new exotic places through the storytelling talents of this issue's writers, some new and some old.

• Loudly, the Maid starts your journey by stepping back in time with a story by Alex Vance about a young vulpine thief who uses his quick thinking and skills with disguise to get him out of more than one sticky situation. Sara Palmer's illustrations provide a glimpse into the costumes and characters of the era.
• Chance: Happenstanced, a comic by Blotch, takes us to the picturesque but lonely hills and valleys of sheep-herding country, where you will see that keeping predators away from the sheep can sometimes be the least of a herding dog's worries.
• First Taste is a journey down memory lane for the narrator, a mousy young woman whose college years were a time of personal discovery, in part through observation of others. The story is written by Rechan, with illustrations by Fel.
• Nothing Else brings us a reunion between very close friends with poetry of motion and emotion intertwined. AlumaSquirrel's cinematic illustration serves as a bold backdrop to his verses.
• The Last Coyote Story takes us to the land and time of Coyote, the famous trickster, in a story about how Coyote himself was tricked by a beautiful woman. It is both written and illustrated by Jonas.
• Motion of the Ocean sails off to the Caribbean for a romantic cruise. In this comic by Fluke, one of the ship's entertainment crew goes a bit beyond the call of duty to entertain one of the cruise guests.
• Don't Blink rounds out our trip with an escape from reality to a world where superheroes live among us. Author Kyell Gold brings us a story of a young coyote who is learning to live (and to love) with his new-found abilities — and all the complications that come with. The cast of heroes and villains are illustrated by Cooner.

And finally, in this issue our refrigerator takes a voyage of its own to Japan, where devious monks have rearranged the poetry magnets into various virile verses of haiku.

Front cover by Fluke.

Back cover by Blotch.