This one baffled me. Just baffled me. Who likes Queen enough to do This. Its like telling your life story through a poem about Top Cat. Good enough read though. I like this one because its a review thaths starting to sound like the way I want to review it, as opposed to writing for an audiance who knows fuck all about comics.This was also unpublished from Verbal issue 15. See if you can spot why.
Ciaran Flanagan reckons this one will most definitely 'rock you'…
Don't Stop Me Now
Freddie & Me by Mike Dawson (Jonathan Cape)
Even at the best of times autobiographical comics are a funny wee beastie. It might just be me but there’s something quite disturbing about an anthropomorphic version of a real life person, pouring their heart and soul out onto the page for the benefit of the fan boys (who can then enjoy the vicarious thrills of having a social life or perhaps a girlfriend!). But to tell ones life story in comics form using the career arc of prog rock/opera super-group Queen as inspiration and reference point, takes a special kind of bravery or mania. Mike Dawson is one such courageous madman.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with slavish fan boy devotion to either music or comics (given that I have a Rolling Stones tattoo and review graphic novels), but it seemed to me that it would be bit of a stretch to match up the events of ones life with the carreer of a band like Queen - especially given that their front man snuffed it in 1991. Not so. From his humble beginnings as a child in Leighton Buzzard all the way to his later life as a struggling artist in New York, Dawson is able to use Freddie Mercury and the boys (and also, curiously, Wham of all people) as a point of reference; a point of discussion and, most interestingly, a point of view (literally in some cases). Although there’s a little childhood trauma and teen angst, in the main its all either pleasant nonsense or George Michael based flights of fancy. The art is nice enough. Nothing flashy, just good solid work. What makes it stand out however is his use of partial frames, extreme close ups and darkness to create a sense of suspense around what is essentially quite mundane.
At times the Queen-love becomes a little nauseating (especially when referring to the Ben Elton penned musical ‘sensation’ We Will Rock You), and ultimately you might have to learn to live with it. But fuck me , you can't ever say you love Queen as much as this cunt does.
If you’re a fan of the hard rocking, apartheid cultural-embargo breaking, Wayne’s World inspiring, hair/teeth pop combo, you will LOVE this. If you are indifferent to them (as I am) you will still enjoy this.
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