Jughead #1 (2015)
Chosen by Chantal. And picked up off the shelf from my shop. This is the first review for a book I hadn't read previously.
For a while I considered I may be asexual.
It would have made a sense of some of the confusion in my life. Even now I can be uncomfortable with people touching, especially hugging, me. I've never had any proper relationships.
But I found I liked sex. Even given how bad at it I am (and normally when I'm bad at something I cant be bothered trying to be better but at board games and sex I'll keep plugging away, so to speak, as they're fun). Still, even now, in the middle of being a beast with two backs I can find myself in a strange sort of existential fugue, sort of like when you say the same word over and over and it loses meaning. A heightened reality where all the sweaty, grunting just seems so silly and weird.
I'm not asexual, but Jughead is a hero for our age.
Jughead's disinterest in canoodling is never exactly a punchline, it can be funny - but because he is funny not because asexuality inherently is.
And the first issue of the Archie comics relaunched for a more canny all ages market Jughead book is very, very funny indeed.
Zdarsky and Henderson work brilliantly together (the second Henderson book I've reviewed for this blog - she's really one of the greats right now), the character work is impeccable and the jokes thick and fast. A Game of Thrones parody may be a little low bar (and odd considering the child readership aspect of Archie comics - though that speaks to Thrones domination of pop culture I guess) but the flights of fantasy that continue into the next issues with differing flavours (a time travel one, a James Bond one) are great bits of silliness and deepen Jughead's character without being too on the nose.
A whimsical delight.
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Erica Henderson
Letterer: Jack Morelli
No comments:
Post a Comment