Stickboy (Fantagraphics)

(Fantagraphics, 1990-1992, 2005)
™ and © Fantagraphics Books, Inc.

Now here’s a unique creature. A foul-mouthed, furious stick figure sounds like the kind of drek that embodies alternative comics when they’re at their worst: crude material masquerading as mature, and lousy art that mistakenly believes alternative street credit is an excuse for being unable to draw. But Dennis Worden’s The Return of Stickboy is none of those. It’s a funny book that dives into an ontological odyssey with a strange sense of agape cloaked in frustration with human nature. It’s not an autobiographical book, but the inspiration does seem to be Worden’s various misadventures.

This time around, Stickboy and his parallel-universe twin Blockhead try out the homeless existence, while Worden teaches the reader the secrets of zen street existence, and how defeating suffering is the key to a liberated soul. It’s great stuff, highly recommendable.

— Brendan McGinley

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