The Alcoholic: A Geekscape Review
The Alcoholic is a newly released Vertigo graphic novel by writer Jonathan Ames and artist Dean Haspiel. It follows the “fictional” character of Jonathan A as he recalls his lifelong addictions not only to alcohol, but to love, to pain, to redemption, to himself. The Alcoholic is the first foray into comics for Jonathan Ames, well known for his published memoirs and one man shows where the admittedly self involved writer takes his audience on a humorous and self deprecating ride through his past. This comic inexperience comes through a bit here.
The Alcoholic doesn’t read like a comic, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It instead has the feeling of a story being told verbally. It is loose. It skips around in time and comments on itself. Actually, if it wasn’t for the strong, simple art of Dean Haspiel this would seem more like an excerpt from a diary instead of a comic. Reading The Alcoholic gives one the feeling of sitting in a smoky bar at one in the morning listening to a man spill his guts to you in a way you can only really do to strangers. There is no veil here, no attempt to cast himself in a better light. It’s just the truth and, and as the truth generally is, it’s heartbreaking, hilarious, and a little bit too honest for comfort.
Even if you don’t relate to Ames’ battle with alcoholism there is likely much here that will hit close to home. He very often comes out and says things that you’ve always known about yourself but try hard not to admit. Listening to Ames endlessly repeat his small victories and failures in an attempt to define himself, to give his life the sense of importance that it’s missing, is almost painful. He habitually self destructs just so he can recover and have that momentary feeling that he’s won. He is addicted to this fleeting victory as much as he is to drugs and feeding his own ego. For a sexually confused, apolitical agnostic it is pretty much all he has to hold on to.
While the book often feels like an elongated “the world sucks and then you die” exercise in self loathing and apathy, it is actually very funny and, I think, important in some way. Ames gets to the heart of some problems that plague many of us and recognizing these problems is the first step to recovery. Does Ames use these self revelations in order to heal himself? You’ll have to read to find out but I will say it doesn’t give any easy answers.
I can’t go through this review without mentioning Dean Haspiel’s art. Haspiel uses clean and simple black and white art to great effect here. His slightly cartoony illustrations help to bring levity to what can sometimes be a very dark book. I was also very impressed with his character work. His ability to create unique looking characters and be consistent with them is impressive. So often comic artists rely on colorful costumes to differentiate characters who otherwise would be very hard to tell apart. Haspiel draws normal looking people who you will remember and recognize based on their facial features, not the big S on their chest. Watching as they subtly age over the course of the book is a treat as well.
The Alcoholic is another great release from the startlingly reliable Vertigo line, and definitely deserving to be read along with your latest superhero hijinks.
