Been waiting on this one for a while, as I'm a fan of Templeton's work and I've been itching to see his comedy, which I've heard so much about thanks to his previous effort Stig's Inferno. I must admit that I was surprised to find that it was black and white, but Templeton's artwork looks great in black and white, so that wasn't really a problem for me. Less surprising was that Templeton lives up to his rep and delivers in Bigg Time a funny story not just commenting on pop culture but really telling the story of a not-altogether likable protagonist and putting him through a variety of tortures for the audience's amusement. This was less of a "Hollywood in-joke" story than I expected, and it also dealt less with the framework of angels and mythology than I expected; actually, it wasn't at all what I expected, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Templeton's story is actually less about fame in general and more about how the quest for fame can affect one person in particular. Lester Biggs is homeless, but he used to be somebody (at least, a little bit) and you can see that drive for success and sometimes shallow appreciation for life that is more common amongst those who already have something, which gives them a starting place from which to covet. Biggs is in fact not the nicest guy; in fact, he's an insensitive jerk with a tendency towards selfishness and superficiality. In fact, the only thing that makes him the protagonist is this: Almost everybody else in the book is worse.
The viewpoint in this graphic novel is wonderfully, unrelentingly cynical. Even those who seem genuinely nice at first, such as Lester's brother or would-be girlfriend, turn out to be deranged in one way or the other. And his guardian angel is just a mean-spirited bastard, which is of course what the whole story is about. What's really remarkable, though, isn't the cast of somewhat shallow and self-involved people that Templeton has created. No, what's remarkable is that they're just shallow and self-involved enough to be funny, but not so much that they seem unreal. In fact, despite every instinct I had, I found myself fascinated by these characters and generally wishing things would turn out alright for them.
That's as it is meant to be, I suspect, because while Lester and his guardian angel Stavros are mean to each other and to random other people, they do have their redeeming qualities. It's hard to hate someone with as refined a sense of humor as Stavros, and both of them do find a sort of redemption throughout the course of the book, although probably not the one readers will expect.
As far as the plot, the story follows Lester as he accidentally discovers his guardian angel and then essentially blackmails him into helping him become famous. This leads Lester into encounters with plenty of new people, including a secret society based on hair loss, an agent who is around-the-bend nuts, gray aliens, famous and non-famous actors, the host of a national reality show and even a few orphans. The twists and turns of the plot are ridiculous, but they make absolute sense in the world that Lester has found himself in, and the wackiness is restrained, so that the reader is invited to laugh at what he or she finds funny, rather than being forced into laughing at something the author is trying to tell them is funny.
Templeton's artwork is also amazing here, and while I think the lack of color may scare off a few potential readers, the artwork looks so much better in black and white than it probably would have in color. Templeton combines realism with cartoony features for the perfect comedy style, and though he throws in a few storytelling tricks, including a maddening rotating page view when a tornado hits and a set of "camera" sized panels for the reality show, in general he relies on solid panel construction for excellent storytelling. The book looks great, and all the work that has gone into it really shows in the art.
