Fante Bukowski was one of my favourite comics of 2015 so I’m delighted that Noah Van Sciver has returned to the character for another brilliant book.
Set one year later, the pretentious, talentless fuck-up/wannabe “great writer” poseur Fante Bukowski is still on skid row plying his terrible words for no money. Besides dodging his heroin-addicted slumlord in his peephole-ridden den, Fante discovers zines (photocopied pamphlets) - decades after they were a thing! - and we catch up with how Audrey’s career as a novelist is doing too.
I love Van Sciver’s character because he’s such a mega-twat. It’s so entertaining watching this grouchy, pathetic knob trying and failing to make any kind of dent on the literary scene with his terrible ideas while living how his favourite writers did (copious booze, crappy rented rooms, no money) despite having a credit card from Mommy! The heroin addict slumlord and the hooker to the literary stars who pities him are two great new characters and all the scenes in the dingy motel were hilarious.
It was nice to catch up with Audrey but I felt like she got too many pages, especially when her storyline and character were fairly one-note and uninteresting after a time. Noah draws himself into the story too as her flaky, fame-hungry boyfriend for some reason - I guess the self-loathing must’ve taken over?
It’s also not as funny as the first book but I still enjoyed catching up with more of Fante Bukowski’s hopeless exploits. Recommended to indie comics/Noah Van Sciver/Fante Bukowski fans - here’s hoping Van Sciver continues returning to this character in the future!
No comments:
Post a Comment