Ben PassmoreRecensioni

Biting, laugh-out-loud funny, infuriating. Even as the action spins out into ever greater absurdity, all the direct human interactions feel consistently plausible.

Still goes hard; still both very funny and genuinely affecting.

How about that cover, huh? “Your Black Friend and other Strangers” is a series of comic shorts that center around race as depicted through the trippy lens of a 21st-Century punk. One comic takes place in a coffee shop, as a black friend observes the interaction of a an oblivious customer and a barista. Another story follows two black punks who are harassed by a nasty cop until the tables are gruesomely turned.

I loved this odd little collection. There were frequent spelling and grammar errors (some that were clearly on purpose and others that were clearly not) but the art and the commentary made it worth ignoring.

I did not get this at all. The actual book has no summary on it, so I went in totally blind, expecting some kind of satire of our worship of athletes. Instead, I got a jumbled mess about race (maybe?).

The Super Bowl leads to riots, which leads to different armed factions fighting for control of the city, which leads to a faction recreating the same Super Bowl in the field, but with more murder.

There's clearly some kind of racial political aspect to it - the main characters are black, talking about protests and anarchy, and the white couple is clearly ridiculous. But nothing makes sense or, really, even goes anywhere.

I did like the monochromatic orange palette, and the weird announcers.

Passmore has been one of my favorite artists featured in The Nib, so it was awesome to read a collection of his work. Recommended if you want some punk rock discussion on racism and white supremacy while also laughing your ass off.

Body horror and social commentary combined to create "Gentrification Horror" and I'm here for it

the title story and "It's Not About You" are must-reads but the whole book is great and beautiful

Over-the-top satire often does not work for me, but I found this one biting and amusing. Passmore imagines a Super Bowl where a Colin Kaepernick stand-in leads his team to victory, setting off a sports riot that cascades into a race riot, internecine fights between factions (MLK nonviolence, Nation of Islam, anarchists, Black Lives Matter, white allies), and outright race war.

It's a pretty effective but depressing commentary on the current state of affairs. I can't love it, but I certainly respect it.

Several of the strips are genius in poking fun at mainstream society. Other strips are outside this world.

The start is a bit slow, but this sci-fi take on a haunted house story picks up steam as it goes. The art and coloring very effectively convey the bizarre and eerie tone.

FYI, there are 113 pages in this collection of comics by Ben Passmore. I cannot say I learned anything new, but definitely got the anarchist author's message to "stay dangerous". I appreciate graphic novels more and more with each one that I read.

Very thought-provoking work.

A mixed bag. The title story is pretty amazing, and when the author stays on politics and racial issues the other stories are pretty decent and thought provoking. But then some real crap fantasy/weirdo stories are shoehorned in, and the whole thing is in desperate need of a proofreader to fix the numerous and distracting grammar and spelling errors (and, no, I'm not referring to the obvious use of dialect in the word balloons).