By Rick Geary (Fantagraphics)
ISBN: 0-930193-14-8
Rick Geary is a unique talent in the comic industry not simply because of his style and manner of drawing but especially because of his method of telling tales. He possesses a rather incomprehensible ability to create stories by stringing together seemingly unconnected streams of narrative to compose a moving, often melancholy and bemusing whole.
It’s as if he meticulously constructs graphic snapshots and candid Polaroids, arranges them on a page and then simply ‘free-associates’ captions to accompany them. Yet seen in progression the surreal and absurd, not to mention grotesque and morbid, achieve a subtle clarity that emphasises the very human humour of his work.
This collection of his earliest work shows his progression from Underground cartoon-influenced freelancer to his current august condition by reprinting many of the strips from National Lampoon that first brought him to the world’s attention. Also included are works from Heavy Metal, Epic Illustrated, Twisted Tales, Bop, Vanguard, Bizarre Sex, Fear and Laughter, Gates of Eden, RAW, and High Times, plus eight pages of new material.
Among the 66 strips collected here, five in full painted colour, are histories, mysteries and stuff that’s just plain twisted, and modern fans will be delighted to see the first dabblings with his current passion in ‘A Gentleman’s Occupation’ (1981), ‘An Unsettling Incident’ (1984) and ‘A Victorian Murder’ (1981) besides more autobiographical pieces like ‘Communal Life’ and ‘Adventures in Art’ included amongst the hilariously uncatagorizable ‘The Fabulous Miracle House’, ‘The Age of Condos’ or ‘Dachshund Nuptials’.
In an industry over-stuffed with posturing costumes and dark dramas, and cursed with bland cartooning in every paper, it’s a shame this kind of studied lunacy isn’t more readily available.
© 1985 Rick Geary. All Rights Reserved.