Simmons, Josh – Happy #2

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Happy #2

Is it too much to hope that eventually comics will gain widespread acceptance? See, there are probably plenty of people who just don’t care, and I’m usually one of them. But I was struck last night by the fact that this is exactly the kind of comic that has all the potential to be read by all kinds of people and loved but just doesn’t quite pull it off. I should make one thing clear before you start to draw conclusions: I loved this comic. Absolutely thought it was one of the best things I’ve read in months, a whole lot better than the first issue. That being said, his 7 page intro to his autobio tale about a day at the baseball park with his Dad was sure to turn off everybody who didn’t have an in-depth knowledge of autobio comics. Does that matter? Should anybody ever cater to the possibility that non-comics people might pick up an issue? No, pretty much never, in my opinion, but this is just the kind of thing that cements the fact that comics are going to keep their tiny audience and probably go no farther. I don’t want to spoil anything because everybody should really buy this, but I think this issue by itself should establish Josh as a name in comics, whatever that means. I laughed out loud more than a few times. He raised a lot of good points about how self-absorbed autobio comics are, but… well, decide for yourself. Helping Hand was the highlight of the book but, again, I’m not going to tell you what it’s about. And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with a elephant, bunny or chicken. Read it!