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geekwayne's review
3.0
'Minimum Wage Volume 1: Focus on the Strange' by Bob Fingerman does indeed focus on the strange. With a plot like a Judd Apatow film, it's definitely an R-Rated comic.
Recently separated, and soon to be divorced, comic book artist Rob Hoffman is looking to restart his life. He's living with his mom and trying to get his life back together with better jobs and a renewed dating life. His friends aren't especially encouraging, and the dating scene is discouraging at best, and pretty strange at worst. Another strange encounter happens with Rob and a childhood idol that is bizarre. Will Rob find happiness, a steady job and someone to love? You'll just have to read for yourself.
It's an underground comic in the spirit of Pekar and Crumb among others, but it's got it's own strange humor. The art kept me turning pages. It's very cartoony, but detailed. It was reminiscent of the cartoon work in Mad Magazine that I remember, and I really liked it. The story is pretty crude and isn't for everyone (me included), but it's still a well made work.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributor, Image Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
Recently separated, and soon to be divorced, comic book artist Rob Hoffman is looking to restart his life. He's living with his mom and trying to get his life back together with better jobs and a renewed dating life. His friends aren't especially encouraging, and the dating scene is discouraging at best, and pretty strange at worst. Another strange encounter happens with Rob and a childhood idol that is bizarre. Will Rob find happiness, a steady job and someone to love? You'll just have to read for yourself.
It's an underground comic in the spirit of Pekar and Crumb among others, but it's got it's own strange humor. The art kept me turning pages. It's very cartoony, but detailed. It was reminiscent of the cartoon work in Mad Magazine that I remember, and I really liked it. The story is pretty crude and isn't for everyone (me included), but it's still a well made work.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributor, Image Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
thekarpuk's review
1.0
If there is one thing that always made growing up as a nerd in the 90's, it was my inability to properly quote media.
The 90's were a heyday of referencing. Tarantino, Kevin Smith, and the Simpsons made it easy for impressionable minds to pick up the habit of dropping pop culture references into every conversation apropos of nothing. I always mangled the quotes, and nothing triggers a nerd's need to correct more than a paraphrased reference.
This book starts out with all the tired hallmarks of the era. Losery protagonist with women problems, "edgy" motor-mouthed buddy who's always trying to give unsolicited advice (can we retired this character, along with unsolicited advice in general?), and a cast of characters that all seem to engage in excessive verbal gymnastics.
It felt like a lot of content in that era all has the pervasive notion that all a slacker needs to get his life together is the love of a good woman. Having observed plenty of slackers who got girlfriends, I can say that they remained the same, which usually ended up with the girlfriend breaking up with them eventually. The better order of operations would be to get your shit together, then try and find a partner, but I can only speak for what worked for me.
Maybe the ending addresses this, the way the movie Swingers did. I may never know, because about a third of the way through I gave up, because beyond any other issues, I just hated the way most of the characters talked. All the deeply referential, highly affected speech patterns left me cold. I don't like these people, and beyond the blather it all seemed so mundane, as though the solution to lacking plot was to ratchet up the dialogue.
Like a lot of the stuff I consumed in my teens, this just makes me sigh and wish the characters could just get it together.
The 90's were a heyday of referencing. Tarantino, Kevin Smith, and the Simpsons made it easy for impressionable minds to pick up the habit of dropping pop culture references into every conversation apropos of nothing. I always mangled the quotes, and nothing triggers a nerd's need to correct more than a paraphrased reference.
This book starts out with all the tired hallmarks of the era. Losery protagonist with women problems, "edgy" motor-mouthed buddy who's always trying to give unsolicited advice (can we retired this character, along with unsolicited advice in general?), and a cast of characters that all seem to engage in excessive verbal gymnastics.
It felt like a lot of content in that era all has the pervasive notion that all a slacker needs to get his life together is the love of a good woman. Having observed plenty of slackers who got girlfriends, I can say that they remained the same, which usually ended up with the girlfriend breaking up with them eventually. The better order of operations would be to get your shit together, then try and find a partner, but I can only speak for what worked for me.
Maybe the ending addresses this, the way the movie Swingers did. I may never know, because about a third of the way through I gave up, because beyond any other issues, I just hated the way most of the characters talked. All the deeply referential, highly affected speech patterns left me cold. I don't like these people, and beyond the blather it all seemed so mundane, as though the solution to lacking plot was to ratchet up the dialogue.
Like a lot of the stuff I consumed in my teens, this just makes me sigh and wish the characters could just get it together.
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