In this week’s Off the Cape, we’ve got 2010’s Afrodisiac from Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg. This book was met with critical acclaim and much love from readers, yet it isn’t something you can go into a shop and have a conversation with just anyone about. The superhero set hasn’t fallen head over heels with this book even though they should with a lot of very obvious connections to the capes and tights set. They should as this book is hysterical and often ridiculously badass. It demands to be read, Jive Turkey.
Click after the jump to find my reasons, and then quickly go out and buy this book! Also, for an interview with Afrodisiac co-creator Jim Rugg, please go here.
At its core, Afrodisiac is about Alan Deasler aka Afrodisiac, the baddest mother in all of Wilkesborough, PA. Unlike most comics though, we aren’t given a real core narrative about Afrodisiac. Instead, the life story of Afrodisiac and the comic book series about his life is told in rapid succession with a variety of covers, small stories, and hilarious expository sections. It’s a very atypical device of delivery, but it works oh so well for our man.
That’s the interesting thing about this book: if you’re looking for a driving, centralized story, this is probably not a book for you. If you’re looking for one of the best characters in comics in recent memory as well as a book that acts as a grand tribute to years upon years of pop culture (not just comic pop culture), this book is definitely for you.
Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg give us both stylistic and story beats that are taken from a cornucopia of sources. Afrodisiac, the character, has a laundry list of awesome origins: variations on Spider-Man and Captain America; sweet, retro, acronym filled ones; and a bevy of others. There are also bits that seemed ripped from old Power Man comics, blaxploitation films, and a whole lot more. 
Then we have the covers that play on the conventions of the covers of yesteryear, using titles and starbursts just as effectively as we were given back then (plus, AFRODUCK!).
Jim Rugg, as the artist of this exercise, is given a ton to work with in terms of varied styles and entertaining things to illustrate. Rugg is a bit of a chameleon already, and this book allows him to take his art through the timeline of comic art, giving us classic Marvel, Anime, retro cartoon, and other looks to see Afrodisiac in. Artistically speaking, it’s one of my favorite books of the year if only because it is so diverse and so packed with shout outs to various other pop culture touchstones. Plus, how many books are we able to see a hardcore pimp fight Dracula, Richard Nixon, and a giant cockroach in full color? One…this one.
This book is about as laugh out loud funny and as entertaining as anything you’ll find from any year of release, and in 2010, a year that we haven’t received a lot of standout books from the comedic front, it’s great to see something like this. Nothing I can do can really explain the awesome Afrodisiac. It must be experienced. Get on it people.
