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HICKSVILLE TP
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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Drawn & Quarterly
Writer/Artist: Dylan Horrocks
Price: $19.95 US/$24.95 CAN |
If you were building yourself a foundation for a good graphic novel library, you'd probably start out with the acclaimed works of the medium: Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Maus, maybe more recent works like Acme Novelty Library, From Hell and Pedro and Me. Hicksville should be on that list as well.
It's a love letter to the medium, complete with an examination of various styles
and genres of comics and the politics of the industry, as well as a compelling
story of several different characters. There's a wistful sadness to much of it,
but it's grounded in a sense of bright optimism for balance. It's an engrossing
read, and certainly one of the most important and entertaining works to be found
on the shelves.
The story takes place in a fictional town called Hicksville, New Zealand for the most part. The driving force behind the story is Leonard Batts, an American reporter for a Wizard-style comics magazine, who is something of a
super-hero fanboy but has good journalistic instincts and an appreciation for
the history of the medium that makes him susceptible to the charm of Hicksville.
Batts is seeking out the truth about well-known publisher/artist Dick Burger,
who came from Hicksville and is apparently not well-liked there. In the course
of his quest for information, Batts comes across several occupants of the town,
including Sam Zabel, an autobiographical cartoonist who was Burger's childhood
friend, a somewhat bitter ex-girlfriend named Grace and the owner/operator of a
tea shop (and former beau of Grace) named Stanton. Both Grace and Sam have spent
time abroad and returned fairly recently, and Grace has complications in her
former relationship with Stanton and the mysterious owner of the lighthouse, a
man named Kupe. In the midst of the quest for Burger's story and the ongoing
lives of Grace, Sam, Stanton and Kupe there are "comics within comics" by Sam
Zabel and others that either flash back to older parts of the story or help to
establish the different possibilities that the medium offers.
Horrock's book is incredibly dense and
packed with meaning. The story hits on the frustrations and difficulties of
life, whether it's choosing success over ethics or struggling with romantic
choices, and ties it into the world of comics. Just as Grace struggles to choose
between Stanton and Kupe, Sam Zabel has to choose between working on a lifelong
dream character or following his artistic tendencies and ethics, deciding
whether his greatest love is the medium or the characters from the medium. Even
as Batts seeks out the truth of Burger, he's seeking out the truth of comics,
learning that the industry is not as grand as he'd like it to be, and that the
medium he's seen may not be the ideal one that he thought.
There are numerous references to other small-press comics and creators, and at some points it almost crosses the line into self-indulgent, but generally I found it quite entertaining. Naming the tea room after Rick Veitch's (or Windsor McKay's) Rare Bit Fiends or having the Hogan's Alley costume party is a nice nod to the wide breadth of comics that is out there, which helps to reinforce Horrocks's point in Hicksville. Through these direct references and veiled analogues of modern comics, Horrocks educates readers about the medium and the possibilities that do exist, even outside of the fictional lighthouse that makes up a surprising story point. While Hicksville is meant to entertain, it also hopes to enlighten its readers to a wider world, just as Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics did.
In art style, Horrocks's work is also
impressive. His work is reminiscent of Seth or Paul Grist, drawn in a fairly
simple style but featuring plenty of detail and exquisite storytelling. Also,
Horrocks varies his style throughout with more or less detail, shadow,
background and lines to simulate the different styles we see throughout the
book. The autobiographical mini, the mainstream humor publication, the
super-hero comic, the European graphic album, just about every style short of
manga is covered in a few panels, in another example of showing readers how much
variety is available.
The subject matter of this book, and its
wistful tone, could easily have turned this into a depressing rant on the state
of the industry and how many opportunities we have lost. Instead, Horrocks's
work serves as a wake-up call, a reminder of the magic potential in comics, and
it seems more likely to inspire readers to seek out or create this magic rather
than bemoan the weaknesses of the current industry.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
