I can’t believe that Publisher’s Weekly seriously meant to laud this book as one of the best graphic novels of the year. What is the source over buzz Robinson’s books?? I requested this title and “Box Office Poison” after hearing so much praise for them, was surprised at how somebody who’s both a mediocre writer and a mediocre artist could get so much praise. Is it because nothing else significant really came out that year? Because I couldn’t even make it half-way through either of his titles before giving up out of boredom.

My major complaints? First of all, maybe I’m just tired of the whole semi-autobiographical trend in graphic novels, especially if it’s about angsty middle class urban 20somethings. Maybe there are just better writers for that social class, like Adrian Tomine or Richard Linklaker, but you won’t find true to life representations of this experience in Robinson’s writings. In fact, most of his female characters are pretty much flat, two dimension types, like the chubby girl with the heart of gold who deserves love or the enigmatic, beauty whose lovel redeems the burned out rock and roll star (another cliche posing as a character).