Hotwire Comix

    (Fantagraphics, 2006, 2008)
™ and © Fantagraphics Books, Inc.

If anyone wondered what underground comix would have been like had they been born in this decade, this volume contains more than 30 examples that dare to try to answer that question.

Matt Madden’s “F*** Freely and without Fear!” reads like a clever and modern version of a Twilight Zone episode told in sequential form, R. Sikoryak’s “Mephistofield” is a hilarious Garfield-as-a-demon spoof, and Michael Kupperman’s “The Scaredy Kids” features his own usual nonsensical dry wit. In other words, these efforts affirm that undergrounds are actually alive and well; we just now call them “independents.”

On the other hand, Johnny Ryan’s “My Mother the Idiot” is an unremarkable example of his usual tasteless and so-not-funny array of toilet humor. Doug Allen’s “Hot Rod Hillbillies” condenses all the well-trodden stereotypes into two pages. And Rick Altergott closes things out with another annoying, pointless installment of “Doofus.” These entries do their best to ensure that this book never sees the outside of a head shop.

In between are stories from creators like Sam Henderson, Ivan Brunetti, and Tony Millionaire that put this volume as a whole into the black. Black light, that is.

— Jim Johnson
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