Thursday, May 05, 2022

Assholes by Bram Algoed & Micah Stahl

Does this count as a foreign comic? It's written by an American (Micah Stahl) but drawn by a Belgian (Bram Algoed), and was originally published in Dutch - this edition is a translation, and comes from an outfit (Europe Comics) specifically devoted to bringing Eurocomics to Amerireaders.

That's foreign enough for my purposes, but there's an additional wrinkle: this is a satire, with two main characters who are, well, Assholes. One is American, one is British. So to restate the original issue: does this count as someone else picking on those people, or is it all within the family?

It's familiar enough, and the satirical targets (rich, self-obsessed TV celebrities! golf!) are broad and obvious enough that I don't think anyone will actually care. But it does make the is-the-call-coming-from-inside-the-house? question more interesting here than usual.

Anyway, this book takes place all during one morning, at a presumably exclusive golf club, the Royal Marabou, which seems to be somewhere in the LA area. Two popular game-show hosts, the American Chuck Atkins (of Spin Your Luck) and Simon Kennedy (of Enigma) are starting a round there. Chuck is a big bluff sort with a brushy moustache, on his fourth wife - you know the type. Simon is toothy and slick - you know that type as well.

They both are tremendous assholes, though in my personal scorecard Chuck pulls far ahead on points and the race is never in doubt. The book is structured around their golf round, with chapters for each hole after some brief scene-setting among the caddies and groundskeepers, early that morning. We see Chuck and Simon interact with their fans, insult and belittle each other, do a lot of hitting balls with highly-engineered sticks, drink, and generally act out.

It's all amusing, and often quite funny - assuming you enjoy comedy about assholes. But, then, if you didn't, the title would be enough to keep you away. There's no higher goal, no frisson of discovery or breakthrough: assholes these two men began and assholes they will remain. If that's enough for you, this book provides snappy dialogue and bright art that, to my eye, sits somewhere between ligne claire and a modern North American art-comics look.

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