Review - Dangerous Laughter

What follows is a short, uncompleted review of Dangerous Laughter, Steven Millhauser's latest collection of short stories. Originally I had intended to write about the entire book, but then I a) ran out of energy, b) discovered that many better reviewers had already written about the book at length, and c) realized that the review I had started would be so long, hardly anybody would read the entire thing (kind of like my "Love & Rockets X" review). At any rate, I decided to go ahead and post this partial review, focusing on the book's opening story, and encourage everyone who appreciates good fiction to read this excellent, excellent book.

Steven Millhauser is one of my favorite writers, and Dangerous Laughter, his new collection of thirteen short stories, which was just released in paperback, may just be the best single book he's ever written (which is saying something considering he won the Pulitzer for Martin Dressler).

The book opens, as did many of the old silent movies in the 30s and 40s, with a cartoon.

Actually, the opening story, "Cat 'N' Mouse," is less a cartoon than a meditation on the classic cartoon dynamic of Tom & Jerry (or Sylvester and Tweety). Now, I realize that calling something "a meditation" is somewhat cliched, and in and of itself kind of meaningless, but here I think the term is apropos. Millhauser conjures many colorful and exquisitely described mental cartoon scenarios, each of which are so familiar, they are a part of the pop-culture-saturated social fabric, a familar cartoon lexicon of unrealistic accidents and exaggerated conflicts which we all have imprinted on our collective memories. But what makes this story "a meditation" are the thoughtful passages interspersed between these familiar confrontations, in which the cat and the mouse reflect on themselves and their relationship, each recognizing their diametric hatred for the other, and yet also understanding the duality and dependency of their eternal conflict. In this sense, the psychology is not unlike that of the Joker/Batman paradigm which Christopher Nolan explored in the Dark Knight. Neither the cat nor the mouse quite understands what a final victory over the other would mean, or even if that would ultimately be fulfilling, and that sad revelation leads both characters to their only natural conclusion (which I won't spoil for you).

Of course all of these cartoonish scenes are written in Millhauser's typically sublime prose, which is among the most evocative and poetic of any modern writer, while still managing to be remain surprisingly natural and wholly accessible (unlike so many authors whose overblown descriptive prose can become tedious and alienating after a few pages).

FCBD

I decided to boycott Free Comic Book Day this year. I am not opposed to the idea of FCBD itself, but just had such a bad experience last year, standing in line for over an hour at Midtown Comics, listening to some idiot in front of me shout rude insults to women as they walked by, then brag about how he was writing a Moon Knight movie script and was going to get Vin Diesel to star in it, that I decided not to bother. Plus, last year, when I finally got inside, they had run out of the Fantagraphics, D&Q and Top Shelf comics anyway, so all I got was a pile of stuff I wasn’t even interested in. Then, the icing on the cake was that, at MoCCA a few weeks later, all the indie publishers had tons of copies of their FCBD offerings available. So, anyway, I skipped the whole thing this year.

However, when I went to Midtown last night, I was lucky enough to score a few leftover freebies, including the Melvin Monster/Nancy book from D&Q. This is an exceptionally nice looking book for a free comic, with slick, shimmering covers designed by everybody’s favorite comics historian, Seth. And the book itself also delivered a real joy of discovery.

The flip book features Melvin Monster, which was both written and drawn by John Stanley (writer of the classic Little Lulu), and Nancy, written by Stanley and drawn by Dan Gormley. While these are essentially kids comics, their charm lies in the smooth flowing visual pace of the storytelling, punctuated with one skillfully depicted visual gag after another. Stanley's humor is timeless in the same way that a Tom & Jerry or Bugs Bunny cartoon is timeless, and the punchlines still elicit chuckles.

I also really enjoyed the way D&Q reproduced the yellowed newsprint effect, while using actual high-quality, thick, glossy paper. This unusual format gives the book an archival upgrade, but maintains that old, heavily-worn floppy comic feel. I wouldn’t have thought these two formats would blend well together, but I think D&Q found a healthy middle ground and, personally, I found this format more appealing that the usual remastering and recoloring that goes into most comics archival projects. I don't know if I’ll lay out the money for all three collections of Stanley’s work that D&Q is releasing this summer, but I’ll certainly look long and hard at them and may end up buying at least one.

BTW, Heidi MacDonald over at The Beat has links to several John Stanley comics currently making the rounds on various websites. It's worth clicking over.