Sometimes, it's an editorial.  Sometimes a review.  Sometimes commentary.  This time Mr. Charlie #91 mixes it all:

ANGRY YOUTH COMIX #11

FANTAGRAPHICS

CARTOONIST:   Johnny Ryan

24 pp., B&W, $3.50

Two things:   First, Johnny Ryan hasn’t been incarcerated… yet.

Secondly:   Last year, on an Internet forum that I visit from time to time, another member posted messages of awe (or excitement) that state we were witnessing the Renaissance of the Hollywood R-rated comedy with such critically acclaimed, box office hits as Wedding Crashers and The 40-Year Old Virgin.   There was general agreement from other members, as if with such juvenile and vulgar (but entertaining) films, we were witnessing a cultural awakening.   It’s funny that those same message board posters have such conservative tastes in comics – always chasing after the latest DC/Marvel superhero shenanigans, because if they weren’t they’d see that the R and even X-rated comedy has been alive and well in comix for decades – even when there were relatively few of them around.

Getting jerked off while at the dinner table with family present (Wedding Crashers) or not knowing how to sheath one’s member with a condom (The 40-Year Old Virgin) is sedate chuckles next to the incredible madness of Johnny Ryan, as always on display in his soon-to-be outlaw comic book series, ANGRY YOUTH COMIX, and issue 11 has barged its way into our homes.

Whereas AYC is usually an anthology title, #11 is one of those issues that focuses the entirety its leprous 24-pages on Ryan’s signature character, Loady McGee.   Loady and his gullible and oft-victimized friend, Sinus O’Gynus are grave robbers this time around.   Loady has grand, but diabolical plans that involve robbing celebrity graves of body parts.   His latest prize is the grave of the recently deceased Santa Claus.   I won’t spoil for you the cause of St. Nick’s death, nor will I say more about the story.   However, I will point out that while some consider Ryan’s “act” to be tiresome or getting old, it’s not.   The big reveal of why Loady is robbing graves even gave me pause, and I thought that after nearly two years that I knew Ryan’s limits.

Underground Comix are mostly a thing of the past – something we remember with fondness.   Even when we discover them for the first time, the comix are like part of a time capsule.   They do live on in a sense in modern alternative comic books or atl-comix, but for the most part, we have only reprints and an occasional R. Crumb single issue to remind of us the glory.   It is in Ryan that the energy and gall of 60’s and early 70’s cartoonists like Crumb, Spain, Robert Williams, and S. Clay Wilson, etc. still surges and burns the readers with full-on taboo.   To call Ryan un-P.C. is an understatement.   If you want the kind of take-no-prisoners comedy that Wedding Crashers and American Pie pretend to be, then you want Ryan and Angry Youth Comix.

Check out my movie reviews at http://www.negromancer.com.