Book-It 'o13! Book #8
The Fifty Books Challenge, year four! (Years one, two, three, and four just in case you're curious.) This was a library request.
Title: Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman
Details: Copyright 2012, Fantagraphics
Synopsis (By Way of Publisher's Description): "Politicians such as Newt Gingrich, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama are forced to live in the world they made in this satiric graphic novel.
What does it mean to live in America today? If you know there’s no right answer to that question, you’ll want to read Barack Hussein Obama - a book about you; about your country, your family, your president. Barack Hussein Obama is not a graphic novel. It’s neither a biography nor an experiment, but a whole, fully realized parallel America, a dada-esque, surrealistic satirical vision that is no more cockeyed than the real thing, its weirdness no more weird, its vision of the world no more terrifying. The zombieesque simulacra of Joe Biden and Hillary and Newt and Obama wander, if not exactly through the corridors of power, through an America they made and have to live in, like it or not. American cartoonist Steven Weissman takes from the lives of the leaders of the free world, his friends, his family, his sworn enemies, and gives them a new life that is both withering and oblique, devastating and contemplative, chaotic and pellucid. Before you lose your will to vote, read Barack Hussein Obama. "
Why I Wanted to Read It: This received attention from the AV Club Comics Panel.
How I Liked It: Kate Beacon has achieved success with her Hark! A Vagrant series which often features real life figures from history doing humorously uncharacteristic things (generally with a modern edge).
It feels often like Weissman was reaching for that, but he never quite gets there.
Some of the early cartoons read like a slightly less clever version of Beacon. At about three-fourths of the way into the book, he decides to make it episodic and it goes downhill from there. It seems at times to be attempting to decide whether it's artfully surreal or humorous and failing to be either. It comes off frequently as merely trying too hard on both levels and it escalates through the book, as though the author realizes the "awww"s and laughs, respectively, he was hoping for he isn't getting.
The artistic style runs between a messier, cruder version of the more modern New Yorker style cartoons and a slightly better, less crude version of that kid you knew in high school who liked drawing action figures.
If Weissman was attempting a more "arty" version of Beacon, he failed in that Beacon's work is art with a distinctive style and voice whereas Barack Hussein Obama is simply a mess not worth sorting though.
Notable: No less than Truman Capote and a surprisingly well-rendered Alfred E Newman have cameos.
Title: Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman
Details: Copyright 2012, Fantagraphics
Synopsis (By Way of Publisher's Description): "Politicians such as Newt Gingrich, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama are forced to live in the world they made in this satiric graphic novel.
What does it mean to live in America today? If you know there’s no right answer to that question, you’ll want to read Barack Hussein Obama - a book about you; about your country, your family, your president. Barack Hussein Obama is not a graphic novel. It’s neither a biography nor an experiment, but a whole, fully realized parallel America, a dada-esque, surrealistic satirical vision that is no more cockeyed than the real thing, its weirdness no more weird, its vision of the world no more terrifying. The zombieesque simulacra of Joe Biden and Hillary and Newt and Obama wander, if not exactly through the corridors of power, through an America they made and have to live in, like it or not. American cartoonist Steven Weissman takes from the lives of the leaders of the free world, his friends, his family, his sworn enemies, and gives them a new life that is both withering and oblique, devastating and contemplative, chaotic and pellucid. Before you lose your will to vote, read Barack Hussein Obama. "
Why I Wanted to Read It: This received attention from the AV Club Comics Panel.
How I Liked It: Kate Beacon has achieved success with her Hark! A Vagrant series which often features real life figures from history doing humorously uncharacteristic things (generally with a modern edge).
It feels often like Weissman was reaching for that, but he never quite gets there.
Some of the early cartoons read like a slightly less clever version of Beacon. At about three-fourths of the way into the book, he decides to make it episodic and it goes downhill from there. It seems at times to be attempting to decide whether it's artfully surreal or humorous and failing to be either. It comes off frequently as merely trying too hard on both levels and it escalates through the book, as though the author realizes the "awww"s and laughs, respectively, he was hoping for he isn't getting.
The artistic style runs between a messier, cruder version of the more modern New Yorker style cartoons and a slightly better, less crude version of that kid you knew in high school who liked drawing action figures.
If Weissman was attempting a more "arty" version of Beacon, he failed in that Beacon's work is art with a distinctive style and voice whereas Barack Hussein Obama is simply a mess not worth sorting though.
Notable: No less than Truman Capote and a surprisingly well-rendered Alfred E Newman have cameos.