Theth
I rarely outsource my reviews, but the comparison by Robert Clough Gary Panter and the Kirbyesque energy of the comic on the back cover blurb was too good not to pass along. Succinct too, but I’m going to go ahead and write a bunch of words about this comic regardless. This is set in 1980, right when John Lennon was assassinated. On a surface level it’s about a kid (who is always in a full spacesuit) who sneaks out to the corner store to read comics when he says he’s going to the library, but is mostly forced to read them in the store because he doesn’t have the money to buy them. Along the way we see him in school, trying desperately to entertain himself while he’s bored, using a unique method of knocking on the inside of his desk while his head is laid down on top of it. His mom can’t seem to stand him, most of his classmates make fun of him (his name is actually Seth but they all call him Theth, hence the title), and the store owners are growing increasingly impatient with him doing nothing but reading in their store all the time. But under the surface there’s all kinds of stuff going on, and it’s damned near impossible to encapsulate here, which is where the Kirby/Panter comparisons become helpful. Every panel is packed with detail, but it’s a dirty, immediate kind of detail, which lends everything a slightly grimy tone. You can read this as a straight up tale of some awkward family and school days, all leading up to ______ (no spoilers as always), but this is one of those comics where it’s worth your time to go back through it again and just look at the artwork. I’m doing that now and catching more than a few things in the background that I missed initially. Josh got an impressive list of people to write blurbs on the back of this book, and it’s easy to see why they love his work so much. If you’ve never heard of him until now, you should absolutely fix that and check out some of his books. $10
