This comic book highlights the gross; most readers will just think
it’s stupid. I don’t really know who would enjoy Angry Youth
Comix. I can’t say I enjoyed them much, not even the scatological
humor.

The main story is "Blind Date" in which Loady McGee,
an sociopath if ever there was one, humiliates and aggravates
his friends, his date, and everyone who comes within one hundred
yards of him. At the end, his obese and ugly date says she is
in love with him. A shorter story is "Ku Klux Kuties"
about group of small bears who are working for the final solution.

Of course, the problem is that I don’t really "get it."
Plenty of other readers must like Johnny Ryan’s work, and after
all Fantagraphics Books are happy to publish them; maybe
they see ironic comment on today’s worthless society, or they
just enjoy jokes about bodily fluids. It might be a matter of
needing to be angry or at least being able to tap into your resources
of nihilism to get it; I can enjoy a fair amount of punk, and
I liked it a lot back in the late 1970s. Certainly plenty of skill
went into creating this comic book; far from being a low quality
zine, this is drawn well, printed on high quality paper, and there’s
plenty of cultural references in the stores: the cover is not
joking when it specifies "for sophisticated jerks."

I’d be surprised if a lot of teenagers actually get their hands
on this book; would they really want to spend $2.95 on it? Maybe
teens who watch South Park on cable paid for by their parents.
The stories are not about teens though; the settings are adult:
how many teens go on a date eating out in a restaurant with a
stand-up comedian? I’m guessing this comic book is more for college
students or twenty-somethings with money to spend, bored with
their lives, looking for diversions. There are smarter, funnier,
and far more articulate books and comics for them to buy instead. But I’d recommend listening to the Clash or Minor Threat.

Links:

• AYC "Fan Art"
  
• Fantagraphics Books
  

Categories: ArtAndPhotography, Fiction