One of the lesser known works by both Josh Fialkov and Kody Chamberlain, Punks the Comic is as much a tribute to the music scene as it is a revolution in graphic storytelling the likes of which have not been seen before or since. Combining multiple storytelling and artistic styles, the book skirts the line between lighthearted(ly violent) buddy comedy and intense political metaphor. On top of this though, while all comic books feature art as a storytelling component, Punks the Comic is very much a living, breathing piece of art in and of itself that stands as a tribute to the glory days of the punk rock subculture.
Click on down to find out why this is one of the most special comics I picked up at NYCC this year.
Alright, if you clicked on down after my immensely hyperbolic introduction, you probably already know and are okay with the fact that this will be a positive review. What I need to make clear before you read further is that a lot of the reasons I like it are deeply personal and have to do my time spent within the Canadian punk scene during college, which I suspect is the point of the book. Some comics are created with a wide and varied audience in mind, including other works by the two creators involved. Punks the Comic is not one of them.
While there is certainly a semblance of story to follow, it is largely disjointed and chaotic. While the art, majestic as it may be, takes some getting used to by traditional comic fans and may be just a little too out of the realm for some to enjoy.
But that is their own damn fault because everything about this book rules.
Starting with Chamberlain’s art, you’ll notice right away that the visual portion of this book is nowhere near traditional lines on the page, but rather extensive collage and photo manipulation. Made up 100% of photography Chamberlain himself took and arranged, the book takes a completely new stylistic approach to graphic art. However at the same time, the book manages to stay true to traditional comic book arrangements and progressions. The characters on the page look and operate within space as any other character in any other comic, they were just arranged that way as opposed to being drawn that way, which makes the whole thing even more impressive.
It’s this type of genuine experimentation with form and content that keeps comics relevant, and the best part is that the concepts involved are not particularly new. Collage and photo manipulation are both staples of the 1980s punk aesthetic. Pick up any independently published (maga)zine from that time (or better yet, go buy Despite Everything, the omnibus collection of Aaron Cometbus’ self titled publication) and the visual similarities will be very apparent. Given the story’s existence as a love letter of sorts to the movement, I can’t imagine it taking shape in any other way. However despite the strong visual history, Chamberlain’s approach is just as fresh as any other “groundbreaking” artist working in comics, and that is a true gauge of talent. Plenty of artists can mimic style and composition from what came before, but the ones that stand out above the rest are the ones that boil past styles down to their very essence and rebuild it themselves.
As far as the story is concerned, Fialkov’s script very much reads as a written version of some of the best punk records from the 80s and 90s. And what I mean by that is not that it is rife with references and name drops (in fact, there are barely any throughout the issue), but rather that the book embodies the ordered chaos that exists inside of every decent punk song. The punk movement has always appealed to me (and indeed many others) not simply due to the occasionally aggressive, brash tone of the music, but because it manages to convey mixed human emotion way more than anything you can really hear on the radio. Just because someone is aggressive and overbearing does not mean they aren’t happy. Just because someone is angry does not mean they lash out without thought. Just because you don’t have money doesn’t mean you can’t create music. Just because something is chaotic, does not mean there is no order involved in it. The story captures these ideas impeccably well while still taking some of its aesthetic cues from the scene itself.
Continued belowIf you don’t believe me, look no further than the characters themselves: a walking bulldog that loves Morrissey, a walking fist, a walking skull and former President Abraham Lincoln. As disparate as these four archetypes are, they come together in a way that almost makes sense given the off-beat nature of the book and it’s established sense of self. So too are the metaphoric battles they fight against representations of greed, xenophobia and racism, which manage to prove a highly politicized point using comedy and off-beat violence rather than preachy rhetoric. In other words, placing them within a context people can understand and enjoy and feels organic to them, much like Punk music has done for years.
One can’t fully evaluate this book without mentioning it’s connection to 1980s/90s zine culture. While this type of guerrilla journalism is very rarely seen anymore due to the dominance of online self-publishing, at the time zines were the primary way a lot of the members of the North American punk scene discovered new music and expressed their opinion. Usually written and photocopied by hand, homemade zines were often immensely reflective of the people that created them, making no two zines alike. Everything about this comic is reflective of that subculture, right down the size of the book itself. So while interrupting the story for an interview with another comic creator may seem bizarre to some readers, this is pretty much par for the course in the unwritten language of zines that never truly defined how a publication should or should not progress.
With the book officially picked up by MTV’s prepubescent MTV Geek comic line, we should be seeing more antics coming down the road. As bizarre as it is for me to comprehend MTV, of all companies, being the one to put it out, I can say that more Punks the Comic is a universally good thing. Normally this is the point where I’d add an addendum to my last statement that reads something like “…provided Fialkov and Chamberlain stick to their guns and not allow their aesthetic to be changed to fit the MTV mold”, but as I see literally no possibility of that happening, I’ll just skip ahead and tell you to go on over to punksthecomic.com and pick this sucker up.
Final Verdict: 9.5 – Buy Unless You Are A Person Who Sucks, In Which Case Buy Two
