TEENAGERS FROM MARSby Rick Spears & Rob G
($19.95,
Gigantic Graphic Novels)
Reviewed by Tim O'NeilThis is an extremely accomplished debut from Spears and G, even if the book leaves me slightly baffled. On the one hand, they seem to have a confident sense of collaboration, producing a pleasantly conceived visual style that seems to rest quite nicely between the extremes of hyper-realistic manga and mainstream American adventure books. The art reminds me quite strongly of Paul Pope, but unless I miss my guess I think that has less to do with any conscious borrowing and more with shared influences.
But on the other hand, this is perhaps the most intensely
juvenile book I've read in ages. I don't mean that in a pejorative way - not necessarily - but this book captures the rhythms and preoccupations of teenage life so unnerringly that the pages practically sweat surplus testosterone. If there is an emotion worth feeling, it's worth feeling to incredible extremes. If something is worth doing, it's worth doing as violently as possible. Reading this book made me realize how completely I have become an adult, with all the stodgy quietude that implies. I realize we're supposed to root for young punks out to buck "the system" and get one over on "the man", but seriously, this is so incredibly over-the-top that you can't help but occasionally roll your eyes.
The story begins after Macon loses his job at Wal-Mart and gets into a fist-fight with the store manager. After that, Macon and his new gal pal Madison stop over at the store to knock out a couple windows and end up destroying a lot more than that. Of course, it doesn't take long for the Powers That Be to figure out who did it, and from there the story progresses rapidly into a superheated outlaw story —
Bonnie & Clyde with more superfluous pop culture references. Eventually Macon and Madison become full-fledged super-heroes, busting into police stations, molesting mayors and hitting the road to dispense their brand of pro-comic justice across the lower 48.
All of which tends to choke the oxygen from the atmosphere, just like being a
real teenager. Quite honestly, this is a difficult book to review: it's the type of book that makes demands of the reader. You have to be able to passionately
feel what's going on, or the proceedings will remain unavoidably opaque. Much like certain strains of punk music or the poetry of Sylvia Plath, you have to be
seriously invested in the material yourself in order to appreciate it on anything more than a technical level. I imagine that for anyone who feels — or at least vaguely remembers what it feels like to experience — an overwhelming rush of mad impulsiveness every second of the day, coupled with a boundless societal frustration borne out of subliminal expectations of entitlement, this book will speak to them loudly and without any ambivalence. This is the type of book where brutal fist-fights are considered courtship rituals, and if that sounds like something you can relate to then this is probably the book for you.
There is no doubt that Spears and G have definitely created something of lasting endurance here: whether or not I like it is somewhat besides the point. I have every expectation, based on the sizeable underground reputation it has already achieved, that this will become one of those rare success stories that grows exponentially by sheer word of mouth. As I said, it's impossible to be ambivalent about
Teenagers From Mars: you will either embrace the book like a special manifesto written in blood, or you will stand at the sidelines scratching your head in vague befuddlement. If you like it, you've probably already given your dog-eared and coffee-stained copy to ten of your best friends. I will happily count myself among the befuddled, because I strongly suspect that I am just too old to get it.
All things considered, I'm OK with that.
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