Angry Youth Comix is one of the few comics I've read that nearly made me ill, and I mean that in the good and bad senses of the phrase. Oddly enough, the disturbing and often borderline racist stories, while not my cup of tea, struck me as something very different in the comics market, and those who have a high tolerance for grossout humor would be well-advised to check it out. Johnny Ryan makes Johnny Knoxville and Tom Green look like fine English gentlemen who drink tea with their pinkies out.
Ryan has the same extreme and caustic world-view that is so appealing from Peter Bagge, Evan Dorkin or Kieron Dwyer. His characters are to a person unlikable, crude and disgusting. And his story ideas are bizarre and fairly sick, running the gamut from a deaf chef bringing disgusting dishes to a hapless patron to a hygienically-challenged girl showing off just how gross she can get to a boy she has decided she likes.
There's a lot of stuff in this book that could easily be viewed as offensive, including racist language, making light of serious subjects including the Holocaust and the 9-11 attacks and an obsession with sex that makes its way into a lot of the stories. However, while I sort of hated myself for laughing at some of the jokes, I couldn't deny that they were often very funny. The sheer ridiculousness of "Islamic Terrorist Spring Break" was probably the highlight of the issue for me, and I respect Ryan for his willingness to skewer such sacred cows.
On the other hand, while I'm impressed with the ability of a writer to actually physically gross me out, I'm not really sure that's what I seek out in my comic-book entertainment. The story of Blecky Yuckerella is full of vivid visuals and imaginative bodily functions, and I found myself pretty nauseated by it. I can take tasteless, but there's a certain level at which gross stops being fun, and Angry Youth Comix hit that level.
Angry Youth Comix is an ideal comic for those who enjoy Dork!, Lowest Comic Denominator or Arsenic Lullaby and are looking for the hard stuff. There's a warped humor and sickness to this book that has to be seen to be believed, and if you've got the stomach and sensibilities for it, I imagine you'll be quite entertained.
