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DORK #9
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Slave Labor Graphics
Writer/Artist: Evan Dorkin
Price: $2.95 US |
The indicia says it is published "once in a blue moon." That's about the right dosage for Dorkin's brand of cynical, very politically incorrect and edgy (bordering on bitter) humor title Dork. It is impossible to pick this title up and not get a laugh, and unlikely that you'll be disappointed with anything within. This is the sort of thing Jhonen Vasquez of the Arsenic Lullaby guys are doing, but Dorkin got there first, and he still does it best. His artwork is polished and impressive, his comedic timing spot-on, and his concepts some of the most outrageous I've seen. Whether it's running characters like the Eltingville Club or the Murder Family or the hilarious one-page or one-panel strips in each issue, Dork never disappoints.
They say that brevity is the soul of wit,
and Dorkin proves that on the first page with ten one-page cartoons that are all
laugh-out-loud (or at least groan-out-loud) funny. I particularly enjoyed the
"How to Get Sued" gag featuring Harvey Dent, but I have an appreciation for puns
as well, so "Town Without Pitney" got me laughing as well. The strips on the
final page are also examples of quick comedy, a series of four panel cartoons
that tell a funny joke and get on with things. Too often these days, a good joke
gets run into the ground, and Dorkin seems to know just what jokes have running
time and which ones only have a panel or a page in them.
Which isn't to say that he can only do
quick strips. "The Island of Misfit Candy" is a take on political correctness
married to strange illustrated mascots that flirts with racist stereotypes in a
hilarious way that is bound to offend all the right people. The Eltingville
Club, always a fun feature, is both a mockery of the geek lifestyle and a
tribute to the inner strength of one of the lead characters, which manages to
make you proud of the lead even as you pity him. And "The Murder Family," a
sitcom about a hilariously homicidal clan, is pretty much the same joke over and
over again, but it never seems to stop being funny. I suspect that Dorkin's
designs for the characters, which are misshapen and strange but easily readable,
have a lot to do with it, because the visual appeal keeps me there for the
stories.
Rounding out the package is an autobiographical story of Dorkin's days at summer camp, turning the habit of a teenage boy (no, not that habit... perverts) into a
funny gag with a poetic justice ending. Despite being based more on real life
than the strange tales of candy mascots and murder families, it works because it
has the same manic pacing and skewed worldview that Dorkin brings to the rest of
the book.
It took me a long time to finally pick up Dork, and when I did, I grabbed all of the issues at a convention from the Slave Labor booth. Anyone who hasn't tried it up to this point is lucky, because they can try it out with this issue, available on shelves this week, and then pick up the Dork trade
paperback if they're hungry for more. And honestly, I think most readers will
be.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
