I know from working in a comics shop that Frank Cho has a huge audience, and he certainly doesn't really need me in it. Which is good, because unfortunately I'm just not much of a fan of Liberty Meadows, and can't really see the appeal that so many see in the book. I've read sporadic issues, and I've found the strip to be reminiscent of a watered-down Bloom County, which in itself had a few similarities to the Doonesbury that I only realized later. At any rate, this collection, which makes up some long out-of-print work from Cho's early days, will make a lot of Liberty Meadows fans happy. I'm just not really among them, even if, at the same time, I can't really work up any desire to badmouth the book... it's just not for me.
I say that I can't see the appeal of the book, but that's not entirely true. From an art perspective, I can definitely see the appeal that Cho's work holds. Even if you ignore the obvious factor that he is the best cheesecake artist this side of Adam Hughes (hell, maybe even on the other side of Hughes), Cho is a very talented draftsman. His style is instantly recognizable and he can at once perfectly evoke reality (with his dead-on wiener dog Oscar or the way clothes fold on the characters) and tweak it just right for fantasy (giving the animal characters expressive, human faces or making Brandy the most gorgeous woman to be found in two dimensions.)
Actually, I suppose that's where my largest complaint with Liberty Meadows comes from. The strip doesn't capture my attention, but the art is undeniably gorgeous, and I just wish that Cho were working on something I was more interested in. The thought of Cho working with someone who is as talented a writer as Cho is an artist really appeals to me. Instead, his artistic gifts, which would seem ideal for an adventure comic or something of that nature, are being put to use in the fairly limited form of a comedic strip.
Which would probably be fine by me if I found Liberty Meadows funny. However, while Cho's ideas sound funny on paper, there's a certain matter-of-fact approach that undercuts the more ludicrous and potentially funny situations that he comes up with. In theory, Cho's style should appeal to me, as he mixes in pop-culture references, has a bit of a surreal streak and has likable, everyman characters. And yet, the humor just falls flat for me. I think the largest problem is that Cho shares many of the same influences that I grew up with, and so when I see his sight gags, his dialogue gags, even his storylines, I feel like I'm getting a knockoff. The horny frat boy antics of Leslie and Dean remind me of Steve Dallas from Bloom County, a lot of the sight gags come right out of Chuck Jones's Looney Tunes and the pop culture references and star-crossed lovers have shown up pretty much everywhere.
With all of that said, it really is difficult for me to give this book a low rating, and I should stress that more than usual, this is very much just my personal tastes. Cho's work is worthy of the oversized hardcover format, and the sketches in the back, where he gets to break free of the constraints of the strip format, just remind me how much I like his art and would like to see it on another project. It's just that for whatever reason, I don't find Liberty Meadows as funny as everyone else seems to.
