“My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies” has been pitched as the first original graphic novel from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. While that statement is certainly true, relegating it as another story from a dynamic creative team is a disservice. This is a completely engrossing tale that must be read multiple times to fully comprehend the questioning of social norms and morality that is being presented to its readers. In my humble opinion it is by far Brubaker’s best work. It not only shows the writer’s mastery of the comic medium, but opens a door to more engrossing tales akin to Neil Gaiman or Alan Moore.
Cover by Sean PhillipsWritten by Ed Brubaker
Illustrated and Lettered by Sean Phillips
Colored by Jacob PhillipsTeenage Ellie has always had romantic ideas about drug addicts, those tragic artistic souls drawn to needles and pills have been an obsession since the death of her junkie mother ten years ago. But when Ellie lands in an upscale rehab clinic where nothing is what it appears to be… she’ll find another more dangerous romance, and find out how easily drugs and murder go hand-in-hand.
With a title like “My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies,” it was difficult to predict what direction the graphic novel would head in. Luckily, not only is the title engrossing, but I’m also a big fan of Brubaker’s work. Thus, the uniqueness of the cover art, coupled with the creative team’s reputation, made this an easy purchase.
The artwork, while not as captivating as Sean Phillips’s typical work during these collaborations, nevertheless grows on you with each passing panel. Ellie comes across as a cute, blond teenager most of the time, but there are particular pages where she seems a bit disproportional, or at the very least older than what she is written to be. It is difficult to say if bringing in Jacob Phillips for coloring detracted from the artwork, as the pallet for the novel appears to be purposefully moody. At the very least the artwork and coloring are in harmony with the story.
I will try to describe the experience of reading this book without going too far into details, as there are particular plot twists that should remain hidden to future readers. Yet, trying to go beyond a simple review will be difficult. The book is clearly an engrossing tale with excellent pacing and a premise that unfolds in multiple layers. However, that is only the portion of the book that lies across the surface of the page. The title character, Ellie, has a running inner monologue where it appears she is not only deceiving the people around her, but deceiving herself as well. Thus, as a reader, every time you ingest one of her thoughts, you truly can’t determine if she is being deceitful, or to whom she is being deceitful to.
There is a point in the book where Ellie states that you can’t trust a junkie. The hypocrisy of this, of course, is that Ellie is very much a junkie, and an unabashed one to boot. It is a lovely moment of foreshadowing as the book’s climax hinges just a few pages away. With Ellie finding herself engrossed in a drug fueled relationship with another rehab patient, the tension of this tumultuous tryst is slowly building. There is a sense of betrayal that hangs in every panel. It is just a matter of when that betrayal will play out.
As I stated earlier; the backstabbing, the plotting, the stealing, those are only the surface symptoms. There is a deeper layer to Ellie’s story that is as much a representation of our American upbringing as it is the psychedelic revolution of the 1960’s and 70’s. The question Ellie strives to awaken in us is, at what point can the benefits of drug use be great enough to justify its destructive effects? Taking this question beyond the approved pharmaceutical world, there is a host of people who rely on drug use for a variety of reasons. While it is easy to point at a heroin addict and categorize them as lost, Brubaker’s characterization of Ellie goes beyond this simple label. She details the emotional baggage that can be released with drug use, or the creative pathways that can be opened by alleviating yourself of your material worries. It is an extreme romanticization by all accounts, but when coming from a mind as fractured as Ellie’s, one can almost argue for its justification.
In this regard “My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies” is more than a graphic novel. It is the impetus for a self-assessment of our own morality regarding the drug use in our Country. It is a gentle reminder that, even with something as blatant as heroin abuse, one must always be cautious when throwing stones. By understanding Ellie’s life and link to her family, we can see how a young girl can become drug addicted. Even when that addiction is one of her few remaining links to her past and her family.
