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TEX: GEORGE BUSH AND THE FINE ART OF CHARACTER ASSASSINATION #1
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Atomic Basement Entertainment
Writer: Joshua Dysart
Artist: Brad Rader
Additional Contributors: Mike Wellman, Brad Kayl, Carol Lay, Tony Salmons, Allen Gladfelter, Adriann Helton & Julie Poulos
Letters: Bill O'Neal
Price: $3.99 US |
I'm ready to laugh at George W. Bush. In fact, Jon Stewart and company make me do it four nights a week, and I'm sure the daily news has given me more than a few chuckles as well. Tex!, unfortunately, is so focused on the mistakes and stupidity of the administration that it can't really be all that funny and thus, as a parody comic, it fails. However, as a well-researched attack on the record of this administration, it hits the bullseye, and while it didn't succeed in making me laugh, it did succeed in refueling my anger at the administration and those who support it. It's a shame that this comic is unlikely to land in the hands of undecided voters or Republicans who are willing to consider the facts (if any such creatures exist anymore), because these creators have put together a pretty damning account of the Bush administration, even if it's smack dab in the middle of a somewhat weak parody.
The biggest laugh of Tex! comes from the cover, when the reader is assaulted by the image of George Bush in a power armor suit emblazoned with corporate slogans. It's an effective image, and it says a lot about the perception of Bush that goes into this comic. Unfortunately, it never really gets much funnier than that. Dysart's script includes some really amusing notions, such as Cheney putting himself into an Iron Man-like suit (his heart condition being reminiscent of Tony Stark, y'see) or Donald Rumsfeld being shrunken down to stay with Bush all the time, but it's all presented just a bit too plainly to really make me laugh. There's not enough comic-book references to connect with the geek humor part of the brain, and it's a little bit too goofy to connect with the political satire side as well.
Dysart, along with most of his co-contributors, falls into the trap of too many writers attempting comedy in comics: he tries too hard. The presentation of the Bush administration as a circus, with Karl Rove as its ringmaster, or the presentation of Ann Coulter as a Fox news anchor who browbeats "liberals" is all a bit too much on the nose to really be funny. In addition, some of the shots (like Ann Coulter - pre-op trannie) taken are a little adolescent or just ad hominem attacks, and it lowers the discourse, something modern politics certainly doesn't need. Dysart's script gets his points across, but he's making observations about the administration (Colin Powell has lost credibility and power, Cheney runs the show, Bush is dumb) that are too easy and too familiar, and they don't really have enough bite. It may be the truth, but the truth isn't necessarily funny... it's just depressing, which Dysart himself acknowledges in the last few pages. There is some laugh out loud humor to be found here, but it comes more from the one page strips done by Carol Lay or the hilariously over-the-top political ads sprinkled throughout.
While the humor generally can't seem to land in either the so outrageous it's funny South Park territory or the sarcastic funny of The Daily Show, the strength of Tex! is actually to be found in the anger that prevents it from being really funny. Dysart expresses his anger on the last page of the book, and the reasons for that anger are made clear throughout the book and in the annotations at the back. Anyone who's going to read Tex! will probably already be predisposed to dislike Bush, and probably know this information, but if this book does land in the hands of someone who is undecided, then the information here is likely to make them consider a vote for Kerry (or at least, not for Bush).
Honestly, because I'm so philosophically behind the idea of an anti-Bush comic (or anti-Bush books, movies or hell, underoos), I hate to admit that this isn't really the kind of thing I was hoping for. But while the anger and the facts here are genuine, the all-important chemistry that makes comedy doesn't quite come together here. Good reading if you need some arguments for your conservative friends or if you're an undecided voter who wants to see why so many people are planning to cast their vote for anyone but Bush, but not so good if you're depressed by the thin margin of the polls, worried about the prospect of "four more years" and looking for a laugh to compensate. 4/10
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