Alternative Visions
Alternative Visions |
|
Page 18 of 29  Hate (Fantagraphics) Both the Hernandez brothers had punk connections, and had been involved with the scene in Southern California. In true punk spirit, they had taught themselves to draw, and then started to experiment with different kinds of storytelling. Jaime stuck with his roots, and populated his tales with struggling bands and cute punkettes; Gilbert, who went on to become by far the better writer, preferred to process his family history for his Palomar strips. As he said later: 'Sometimes my mother would be ironing or something, and she'd suddenly tell us a story about a jilted aunt or a drunk uncle or something. Things like that fascinated me. "Heartbreak Soup" [a Palomar strip] is in part a vehicle for those stories. Its cartooning style tries to make them closer to how they felt to me as a kid.' Britain also produced its share of soaps, and honourable mention should go to Downside (Macnamara and Ketley, 1988), which had more bite than most. Set in a future London denuded by years of uncaring government, a small group of squatters create their own culture in the last of the subsidized housing estates. Among them are single mothers, political activists, punks and people who just want to be left alone. The authorities, however, have other plans, and try to sell off the estate to developers. This is cue for much political heart-searching, and violent confrontations with police. The story was hardly subtle in terms of characterization (the goodies are angels, and the baddies the spawn of the devil), but its class consciousness captured something of the spirit of the times.  Hate Pages (1990). Here, the appalling Buddy Bradley (a leftover from Heat Stuff) and his even more appalling friend Stinky have one of their frequent 'physical discussions'. No comic better captured the absurdities of twenty-something slacker existence.  Panel from 'The Death of Dan Pussey' (1994), a savage satire of the comics industry. |