Brubaker, Elijah – Reich #3

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Reich #3 Now Available! $3

OK fine, we’re at the third issue of this remarkable series about Wilhelm Reich (a mystery to me before I started reading this), but what on earth was he like as a child? What led him to his obsessive research into sexuality? This issue takes care of all that, as we get to see Wilhelm’s early years. It details his first observations of sex (with the household servants and among the animals on his farm), his first literature on the subject, and, of course, his first time. Which, of course, led to many other times, but he seemed to have a local cook who was a willing, constant partner. Elijah mentions in the footnotes after the story that at least a few things are his best guess, and the fact that Wilhelm said that he lost his virginity at eleven and a half can’t be proven or disproven. As such, it’s hard to say how much of this is sheer conjecture, but everything up until this point has been thoroughly documented, so even if Elijah is taking some liberties I trust that he knows his subject well enough to do so. It’s series like this that are the reasons they keep giving out awards for these funny books year after year, and three incredible issues is always enough to have me convinced that it’s going to stay that way. I really can’t recommend this enough.