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August 04, 2005
Subway Reading: Stupid Comics
Stupid Comics #3 - There's a lot to like in this collection of one-pagers from Jim Mahfood. When it's on, his heavily-stylized drawing and lettering style jumps off the page with infectious electricity. Unfortunately, the price to pay for such loose, lively art is the occasional sour note. I'm not talking about rendering mistakes, which are largely irrelevant in this context. Scattered instances of blotchy inking and uninspired layout decisions, however, have a way of interrupting Mahfood's flow. The problem is, if Mahfood slowed down and got more considered and cautious, he would kill the spontaneity and life that make his art so appealing in the first place. It's not easy to walk that line, and he stays on point more often than not. It's like a lo-fi rock song or an expressionistic painting; the evidence of the creator's hand is part of its charm.
As a whole, the comics in this collection perform their autobiographical task effectively, painting a well-rounded picture of Mahfood's life and his opinions. Unfortunately, the view we get of Jim is a superficial view at best. Though I personally agree with the opinions he expresses in his cultural/political screeds, I can't say that they make for compelling comics. The reason for this is a glaring lack of self-reflection. He does an accurate job of communicating the hopelessness that I see in the hearts and faces of disaffected, progressive-minded, young people. But his sanctimonious stridency limits the impact of the comics themselves. In the comic "It's Gonna Be Okay," for example, Jim shows himself sitting at the base of the evolutionary ladder, waiting for the rest of the country to show up. Meanwhile, there is no recognition of the fact that America's conspicuous consumption of reality TV, gadgets, and cheese doodles may not be all that different from his own conspicuous consumption of hip-hop CD's, cool T-shirts, and beer. Does the mere juxtaposition of these depictions qualify as acknowledgement of the potential hypocrisy? I suppose it could, but the self-satisfaction with which he depicts himself seems to discount the possibility.
Maybe it's not fair to hold Mahfood up to the master, but compare the autobiography of these comics to that of R. Crumb. Without the self-loathing, R. Crumb's comics would come off as nothing more than the work of a mean-spirited, perverted misanthrope. Or take Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, to whom Mahfood refers more than once in this book. His critique of the "nation of two hundred million used car salesmen" would not have been nearly as cutting if it hadn't been mixed with the pathos of his copious drug consumption.
It's hard to critique autobiography without critiquing the subject. Like I said, this book does an excellent job of documenting the attitudes, emotions, and lives of Jim and his peers. I'm just not sure that the picture that Mahfood is painting here is quite as complimentary as he intends.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at August 4, 2005 11:34 AM
Comments
great critique
Posted by: derek at August 13, 2005 10:15 AM