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August 23, 2005
Everybody F*ckin' Run!
Top Shelf released Super F*ckers #1 a few weeks ago, and I resisted buying it for a while because of the price. I mean, really, 7 bucks for one comic book? Then, thanks to Fanboy Rampage, I came across a link to The Super F*ckers Theme Song by James Kochalka's band. It was like a moment from my childhood, when a TV commercial for the G.I. Joe comic book would whip me into a comic-buying frenzy! I'd gather up the spare change from between the sofa cushions and dash down to the stationery store for Larry Hama's latest 22-page extended toy advertisement. Except, of course, that this commercial jingle features lyrics like "Our dicks are stuck in the PlayStation 3" and "Get High!" Also, it's much harder to scrounge seven bucks out of the sofa cushions than sixty-five cents. Nonetheless, I was whipped into yet another frenzy, so I marched on down to Brooklyn's own Rocketship Comics and scratched that consumerist itch.
If there was nothing more to this book than the ridiculously dirty humor, I would have been pretty well-entertained. When Jack Krak cried out, "Nobody controls JACK KRAK! Jack Krak is the MOTHERFUCKER!" I was hooked. But upon further reflection (and upon reading Tom Spurgeon's excellent interview with Kochalka), I saw how much more was going on in this book. In between the absurdist superhero hijinks and potty humor, Kochalka delivers some interesting meditations on teenage angst and the siren song of nostalgia. The way Vortex protects and cherishes his Kandor-like jar was a touching-yet-biting commentary on superhero fans and their desperate need to cling to a time of childhood innocence. Some people may interpret that as Kochalka hating superheroes, but I see it as the opposite. It's Kochalka trying to reconcile the appeal of superheroes with an adult outlook on life, a theme that is examined from many different angles throughout this book.
Don't get me wrong: the beauty of this book is not just in the subtext. It's in the teenage superheroes getting high off the slime drippings from a purple hairy turd monster, the mutant touching himself to the sounds of a girl brushing her hair, and the aforementioned "Jack Krak is the MOTHERFUCKER!" line. This book is nonstop, over-the-top, subversive, nasty fun, and at seven bucks it's just as much of a bargain as a sixty-five cent issue of G.I. Joe. If only there were Super F*cker action figures.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at August 23, 2005 02:30 PM
Comments
Let's get together for some RISK soon. Maybe this weekend. You can lend me that $7 comic and I'll give you the first two seasons of Clone Wars.
Then we will attempt to dominate the globe.
Posted by: Peat at August 25, 2005 09:30 AM
The way Vortex protects and cherishes his Kandor-like jar was a touching-yet-biting commentary on superhero fans and their desperate need to cling to a time of childhood innocence.
I really liked how you zeroed in on this, because I'm one of the people who think that this book celebrates what makes Superheroes cool for kids in a way that so few other comics have done of late. Yeah, these are just kids in a clubhouse, goofing off and doing very little in the way of actual superheroic activity, but their day-to-day life consists of pocket universes, strange lifeforms, and awesome powers. How can this not not be cool, you know?
And Jack Krak is, indeed, the MOTHERFUCKER.
Posted by: BeaucoupKevin at August 29, 2005 01:11 PM
Thanks Kevin. There is an interview with Kochalka on CBR right now where he says something about how he pictured these characters as living in his backyard in Vermont. I thought that was a striking comment; it seemed to indicate how personal a story this really was for him. The fact that it's dressed up with so much blue humor and ultra-violence makes it that much more successful.
I was all set to dislike this book but it won me over in a big way. I haven't stopped thinking about it since I read it.
Posted by: jdonelson_nyc at August 29, 2005 02:49 PM