Knock Knock

Today's jawsome revue is a revue of something that is basically jawsome* -- Jason Shiga's Knock Knock, an interactive comic book that knock knocked my socks off! Now that that's out of my system, on with the revue.

What exactly is an interactive comic book, you say? I've seen this book referred to as a Choose Your Own Adventure-style book, but to me it's more like solving a puzzle by finding the correct path. Granted, if I recall correctly the CYOA books had quite a few insta-death endings (resulting in having several pages bookmarked for easy backtracking), but this has only one true ending and thus the adventure is already chosen for you. Anyway, it's interactive because on each page, there are several (and I mean several) objects to interact with/actions, and you get to choose which one by turning to the designated page. Pretty cool, huh?

I can't really say much because I don't want to give any hints, so I'll talk about the presentation instead. It's "handmade" which probably means self-published at a local copy shop, which is pretty awesome, except after two run-throughs I'm worried about the binding coming loose. The cover is made to resemble a door, with a handle and an actual hole for the peephole, with the sound effect "KNOCK KNOCK!" emblazoned on it. When you open it, you're face to face with the dude on the other end (featured later in the actual book). The inside face of the cover has instructions, and page 2 has a reminder to read the instructions in case you're a douche and didn't read them. There is a noticeable lack of any kind of attribution to an author, which is unfortunate, but I guess if you bought it you probably know who made it. Still, weird.

The pages change color midway through the book; I guess they ran out of white paper at the copier? Leafing through it (after "winning"), I found an easter egg (I guess?), plus cheat protection, which rules. A large portion of the losing paths are worth following, for either a) clues on how to win, b) insight into the characters and your current predicament, or c) hilarious death scenes. Yeah, that's right, there's characterization going on in this game too! As I died in sundry ways, I developed a deep sense of loathing for the killer and a desire to emerge heroic and victorious.

The cool thing about it being in book form as opposed to being, say, a strip on the internet or a point-and-click game or something, is how simple and self-contained it is. It's just this impenetrable thing of 500 pages waiting for you to unlock its secrets. Pretty neat.

And when you do win? One nit to pick here: it is difficult to immediately understand the implications because it's hard to see what is going on in one of the most important panels. But the panels following it are just confusing enough for you to go back and -- that is when the full awesome, nay, jawsomeness, of the ending hits you.

So yeah, I'm now on the quest to acquire the other books in Shiga's oeuvre -- the ones that are available, that is. It is both cool and annoying that they are hard to find. He has made a great deal of them available to read for free on his website, but this is a rare occasion when having the physical copy is important to me. I'm even tempted to get a second copy of Knock Knock since I don't think I want to loan mine out.

If you decide to give this book a "Berry Good", turn to page 23.
If you decide to give this book a "Peary Good", turn to page 40.

* Basically jawsome defined as having a jawsome content of 98% or higher.

Double Happiness

Howdy howdy folks, welcome to my first jawsome revue (though I cannot in good conscience call any of my reviews truly jawsome -- I'm merely referring to it as a revue that is on the jawsome revue blog). Double Happiness is a graphic novella (1999, 64 pg) that delves into a favorite of topics: finding one's identity in a foreign land.

First a confession: I got this book because it was cheap. I ordered Knock Knock (review forthcoming) solely on its Choose Your Own Adventure premise, but didn't want to order just one book. So I browsed Jason Shiga's other selections, and based on pages per dollar -- 64 pages for $5 -- it was the best deal, compared to for example another book that was 60 pages for $25. I kind of wish I'd also sprung for the $25 book since it was another CYOA-themed book and probably would have had far more "replay value." Anyway, basically I had totally forgotten that I had ordered this book.

Okay. So it's about this Chinese guy that goes to live with some distant cousin of his in SF's Chinatown and his attempts to and feelings on fitting in there vs. his past life growing up in Boston. And it kind of goes in a fairly predictable way, including a burgeoning love story, until the last act, where it leads somewhere that was hinted at subtly throughout. So on the surface you have a sort of generic boy-makes-good-in-new-territory story, with undercurrents of something-is-not-quite-right. Granted, I don't know too much about the things that go on, so perhaps to a different audience it's pretty clear.

Which brings me to the art style. Apparently he's aped an artist that is hugely famous in Southeast Asia but not as much anywhere else -- and has provided a glowing recommendation to this artist in the introduction. It's a fairly simple, cartoony style with wobbly lines and all, but it effectively conveys character's emotions and it "reads" easily. There are also some trope-y things, like speed lines, extreeeemely emotional faces with sweat flying off, extreme close-ups, but used sparingly and appropriately.

The thing about the style is that it creates some assumptions as to what kind of story this is going to be -- a bit cutesy, a little romantic, funny, light in tone -- which is, as I said earlier, turned quite suddenly on its ear in the later parts. In fact, the shift hits at the highest point in the main character's arc, just when you think you've got the ending figured out.

I do want to talk more about this but I hate being spoilery (though the odds of you running out and getting this are slim -- but if you do see it, don't hesitate to pick it up; it's a really well-done book), so I'll just leave off with some of the notes I wrote in the outline for this review.

- Parallels to own life, vis a vis being a banana, Asian growing up in a predominantly white community, outsider everywhere (oh cry me a river).
- A lot of nice character moments. I'm a sucker for these.
- Abrupt, obtuse ending that made me google for reviews to try to figure it out.
- What would I have done? Probably the opposite of what the main character did. It seemed like a good idea to me.

Grade: 7 Jaws

Peepshow #1-14

Welcome, one and all, to the Jawsome Olde Tyme Revue, the blog where we revue things that are jawsome -- or is it that the things may not actually be jawsome, but our revue is? It's hard to say.

Anyway, the first item up for revue is issues 1-14 of Peepshow, a comic book by Joe Matt, the man of two first names. I'm not really into the indie comic "scene," so my colleague would probably be better suited to revue this, but she hasn't gotten around to reading it yet, so the task has been delegated to me. So you'll just have to excuse me if I don't know what I'm talking about. All I know about this comic and its author is what I learned from reading it.

Peepshow is an autobiographical comic. The narrator is somewhat unreliable, so it's not clear how much of it is exaggerated or outright fabricated, but it doesn't really matter. I know that being unflattering and self-deprecating in an autobiographical work is a common device, but this guy takes it to a whole new level. During the first storyline (ishes 1-6), he seems to go back and forth between pointing out how much of an a-hole he is and trying to portray himself as a sympathetic character. The first issue is about his crush on a friend of his girlfriend; the second is about him dealing with his girlfriend not being happy about his making a comic about his crush on her friend. You're never sure whether his ridiculous justifications for his behavior are being presented as a target for laughter at his expense or whether he actually expects you to agree with him. It's probably a little of both.

It's kind of a strange mix, but it works. His character is most assuredly an a-hole, but he's still likable. It helps that his friends Seth and Chester (who are apparently other comics peeps, but I'm not familiar with them) are usually around to make fun of him and act as representatives of the reader's incredulity at his a-holeness. (Pictured above: Seth reiterates his analogy that talking to having a conversation with Joe is like being a treadmill.)

So the first six ishes deal with Joe lusting after various women, and the consequences that arise from that. I'd go into more detail, but I wouldn't want to spoil anything. By the way, despite what the title might lead you to believe, this isn't an especially bawdy comic. Oh sure, there's the occasional T&A (and even some C&B in a later ish) and lots of masturbation references, but the really filthy stuff is not explicitly depicted. Just thought you should know so you're not disappointed.

After six ishes of Joe Matt's girl troubles, ishes 7-10 comprise the "Fair Weather" storyline, an abrupt and radical departure from the previous ishes. Out of nowhere, Joe Matt flashes back to his childhood for a story about attending church fairs, making unfair trades with his unwitting friends for rare comics, digging underground forts, and trying to meet a TV horror host. If this all sounds a little saccharine, well, it is, but tolerably so (no worse than any other nostalgic childhood remembrances), and it's somewhat balanced out by Joe and his friend making fun of a retarded girl and sneaking peeks at topless women (not pictured) through a fence. It's a cute enough little story, but it's not really where the author's true talent lies, and maybe I'm no better than the unwashed masses complaining about it on the letters pages, but I have to admit I was glad when this storyline was over and Peepshow returned to the present-day (more or less) neurotic sex-addict version of Joe.

Even so, the last storyline (ishes 11-14) is a different beast. Now Joe is less of an a-hole and more just pathetic. He seems to have stopped interacting with women altogether and now spends all his time borrowing porn videos, dubbing them and editing out all the shots of the guys (with the exception of money shots), and masturbating several times a day. He reaches new heights of patheticness when he comes up with the "stroke of sheer genius" of keeping a second urine bottle in his closet so he'll have to empty them half as often. Aside from Seth and Chester, he now tries to avoid interacting with other people whenever possible, and a large portion of this storyline consists of him talking to himself. It starts off as an exposé of his porn addiction and then drifts into commentary on his comics output and his life in general. Then it just kind of ends, unsatisfyingly. Apparently the next storyline will be about Joe moving to Los Angeles. But this series started in 1992 and is only now up to issue 14, so you probably shouldn't hold your breath waiting for it.

Oh, I guess I should talk about the art style a little bit, since it is a visual medium and all. (Here's the part where I really don't know what I'm talking about.) Well, it's a pretty simple style, black and white (except for the last storyline when the pages turn yellow and he incorporates splashes of red (not the infamous ZZT game)), with bold lines. The early ishes have a more grotesque R. Crumb sort of look to them; "Fair Weather" is just sort of straightforward cartoony; and the last storyline simplifies it even more and makes it look sort of like a newspaper comic strip or something, fuck if I know. Obviously I know nothing about art but I felt obligated to have something about that in here.

I also recommend reading the letters pages, where readers repeatedly admonish Joe Matt for various things and suggest he get therapy. Plus it includes special celebrity guest letter-writers such as Rivers Cuomo, James Kochalka, one of the women depicted in an earlier comic, and Joe Matt's mom.

So, for my money, the first six ishes of Peepshow are the most amusing, but the whole series is worth reading. Czech it out if you get the czance.