This is the tale of self-help scumbag Mark Herrera and his ex-wives, in particular the blimp-chested gal on the cover, Rosalba “Fritz” Martinez. The book takes the form of a collection of short stories; some is good, some is bad - Gilbert Hernandeth’th High Soft Lithp ith all in all a decent comic.
The title story is the longest and, thankfully, the best. It’s a bio of Fritz’s sordid life whose voluptuous body draws the attention of many men whom she willingly lets use her, from her dad to various high school jocks, to wannabe rock stars and sleazy con artists.
You could view Fritz as sad and pathetic if she couldn’t help getting into abusive relationships with clearly damaged men except she keeps putting herself in these positions, so perhaps she likes being used. Gilbert Hernandez doesn’t allow readers into Fritz’s head so we don’t know what she really thinks about it all. And I like that hands-off approach which lends the story artistic ambiguity as well as forces the reader into coming up with their own interpretation.
Despite the grim tone it’s undeniably compelling reading and Fritz is quite a likeable character in remaining so chipper despite hooking up with one creep after another, getting knocked around, etc. The story also features some of Gilbert’s best line-work, which is very precise, masterfully simplistic and measured, and powerfully expressive. There’s also a gratuitous number of graphic sex scenes that turns it into borderline softcore porn! That was unnecessary. And the ending is perhaps the worst Gilbert’s ever done - it just ends on such a sudden and bizarre note!
But, despite the blatant objectification of Fritz’s physique going on, to his credit, Hernandez does make her the most fully realised character in the book. And that’s an important distinction as this book wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if she were just a mindless sex object.
The other stories are much shorter and aren’t nearly as good. The story of Enrique Escobar, the fat high school kid who was jilted by Fritz, was kinda interesting as a weird, if pointless, tangent to the main story. But the Mark stories weren’t all that as he’s not that great a character. His family are douchebags, he quests after something called The Sea Hog, and he rambles on about his various ex-wives and up-and-down career - meh.
There’s also a dream-like story where the characters are spirited away to some castle and Fritz has to belly dance in front of demented old men and a mysterious hooded figure…?? I had no idea what that was about but it was rubbish, as was some nonsense about an obscure TV show called the Phantom of the Campus that Fritz briefly appeared in.
High Soft Lisp is an uneven read but there was enough in here that I enjoyed to say it wasn’t bad. Fritz is a beguiling character who rightly gets the lion’s share of the attention though I can’t say the same for the others and their stories. It’s worth a read though if you’re a Gilbert Hernandez fan but it’s a bit too strange a starting point for new Gilbert readers - for them I’d suggest trying the New Love & Rockets stories and/or Julio’s Day instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment