Though it features the same characters, exaggerated and energetic artwork, and twisted plotting, Stay Puffed is a radically different sort of comic book than its predecessor, Puffed. John Layman picks up a loose plot thread from the first series and uses it to create a satire of the politics of war -- the recent War in Iraq, to be precise. He rails away at American intervention overseas and punches holes in the idealistic view of U.S. troops as presented on CNN and movies of the week featuring Jessica Lynch and the like. Though more focused than the stories that unfolded in Puffed, the first chapter of Stay Puffed is somehow more surreal and oddly thought-provoking.
U.S. troops make their way into the presidential palace in Basra, Iraq, in April 2003, and among their number is Seaton, the amusement-park employee who tormented a fellow employee by trapping him inside a Puff the Magic Dragon suit. Seaton's signed up, looking to get even... for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, for Saddam's (lack of) involvement, for anything. Seaton's an angry, paranoid man, tired of being ridiculed, of being second banana, of being small. He longs to be important, to be the Big Man, but his fellow soldiers are tired of the one story in which he comes out on top.
Crosland's over-the-top, angular style suits the subject matter perfectly here. I love how Seaton looks like an insect when compared to the lantern-jawed he-men with whom he serves, and how he explodes with anger, energy and bloodthirsty ambition later in the book. His depiction exudes dementia and corruption. The incorporation of other comics creators' works in the opening scene was hilarious as well, and a nice touch that brought a hint of reality to an unreal scenario.
I have to give Layman credit here for some brave storytelling. In a time when the American people applaud video footage of Saddam's lice check on CNN as it loops through the CNN news cycle, the writer paints those seen as real-world heroes as the villains of the piece to a certain extent. Though Seaton is a deplorable figure, he's ultimately pathetic, and that makes the other soldiers' belittling of a colleague irksome as well. There are no heroes here. I find it interesting that the title "character" is really only something of a peripheral element in this series, making for a surprising twist.
Ultimately, Seaton strikes me as something of a symbol of the everyman who's tired of feeling weak. He represents America in the wake of 9/11, feeling powerless, angry and restless. He is America in the 21st century, longing for the glory days of the Cold War and the other more conventional conflicts of the 20th century. He tells his stories of victory, longing for the respect he felt before, but failing to find it. Anger simmers and boils over, and Seaton/America charges ahead blindly, desperate to recapture it.
Man, I am so going to get hate mail.
