FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
CARTOONIST: Johnny Ryan
24 pages, B&W, $3.50
After reading “What’re You Lookin’ At?!”, the trade paperback that collected the first five issues of Johnny Ryan’s ANGRY YOUTH COMIX, and also reading what I considered a less than stellar issue seven of the series, I was burnt out on Ryan. After reading #8, I’ve suddenly discovered that I’m back in, baby! Ryan is the craziest, maddest, kookiest cartoonist to come around since R. Crumb and Peter Bagge were scaring people with their old magazine, Weirdo.
With Ryan, nothing is sacred: sex, religion, religious figures and martyrs, crime (especially sex crimes), family, politics, education, technology, art, etc. Everything and anyone is subject matter for or might end up in one of his short, but lethally funny tales. Jesus Christ gets dog feces thrown in his face and turns on black people when they’re falsely accused of being the dog crap-throwing culprits. How can that offend anyone? It’s all so absurdly funny that saying AYC is not politically correct is an understatement; there’s more to it than being anti-P.C.
Ryan is facile with the pen and brush, a cartoonist who seemingly has no doubt what he’s going to put on the page. His bravado and confidence in creating these quadruple X-rated, nasty cartoons is awe inspiring, and the result is lots and lots and lots of laughter. A
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