BELLY BUTTON COMIX #2
by Sophie Crumb
($4.95, 32pp comic,
Fantagraphics Books)
Reviewed by Henry Chamberlain One artist I was interested in seeing at this year's MoCCA was Sophie Crumb. I had enjoyed her
Belly Button Comix when I got a copy at last year's APE. She was chatting with Jeffery Brown at APE but this time around I got a chance to see her uninterrupted. She looked lovely and was very charming, signed a copy of
Belly Button Comix #2 with her Za Za character smiling back at me, and graciously accepted a copy of my own comic. I think the challenge last year was to live up to the Crumb name with her debut book but now I think she makes clear in her latest book that she's her own person with her own original take on the world.
Sophie is very comfortable in her own skin even when she's relating to us how uncomfortable she can be in her own skin. She manages to harness what's compelling about autobio comix with the right amount of self-deprecation and self-revealing information. She is a young artist who sees the current bumps in the road of life as life lessons because that's exactly what they are. She's not going to pretend she's seen it all before she actually has. So, when she relates her story about a boyfriend with drug problems, she does it with honesty and integrity. She too falls flat on her ass and partakes of one too many recreational drugs but finds a way to stand back and question what's she's doing without sounding preachy.
The indie kid rage against the mainstream is handled very well. One of my favorite pages is "The Foul Mouth Sisters" that illustrates a conversation between Sophie and her friend, Emily. Both are laughing it up over the sheer fakery of the affluent Berkeley scene: how it's all too easy for some rich kid to buy himself a life as a hipster complete with expensive tattoos and piercings. "Berkeley, you can suck my anus! Haw Haw Haw," declares Emily. They both keep laughing until they return to a sense of gloom as they realize how completely surrounded they are by the poseurs they despise.
It is an "us against them" spirit that attracts Sophie to Johnny, a layabout if ever there was one but who is infused with an unmistakable animal energy and a kind heart. Not long before meeting up with Sophie, Johnny lived in the hallway of a school. Having just turned 30, this street kid rebel wants to give up drugs but he just can't quite manage to do it and pulls Sophie into a downward spiral. As much of a mess as it all is, she acknowledges the thrill in one telling panel: A narrative reads above a moment of sexual pleasure: "Even though the place was a dump and fallin' apart, and we had to pee in buckets, it still was pretty quaint..and there were mirrors! Arf. Arf." Say what you will, Sophie is telling us, there was something about Johnny. Ultimately, however, the thrill wears thin and Sophie ends up with something she desired but was determined not to contrive: a hard won life lesson.
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