Four Women

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Four Women by Sam Kieth was a five-part limited series published by Homage Comics about four female friends of varying ages--Donna, Bev, Marion and Cindy--and a road trip during which they are attacked and sexually assaulted by two men. The story mostly takes place in a flashback as Donna recounts the story to her psychiatrist.

The comic touches on several of Kieth's trademark themes: rape, feminism, and survivor guilt.

The comic deals mostly with the characters and how they deal with the stress of the encounter and the guilt that might be associated with it. As usual Sam Keith's enigmatic writing and strange drawing style work towards an understanding of such complex concepts as perspective, rape, emotion, crimes against women, and guilt.

[edit] Plot

Bev, Donna, Marion and Cindy set out to their friends' wedding in a car. They stock up on junk food and set out. Throughout the book, Donna is restrictive about the details of the encounter when describing it to her psychiatrist. She eventually reveals that Bev was the driver, and that through the course of the drive, two men attacked the vehicle and the women.

Through a convoluted experience full of close calls and tense moments, the women end up locked in their car, hoping help will come. Instead, Cindy is almost raped while stuck half in the car, half out. Marion, who takes a chance and gets out of the car, is attacked and raped. According to Donna, Bev locks the doors and won't let Marion back in, or let anyone out to help.

The psychiatrist feels that Donna isn't telling the whole story and presses Donna to reveal more. In an odd twist it is revealed that Donna was the one driving and that she was the one who refused to unlock the doors to save Marion.