REVIEW: The Eltingville Club #2

By Evan Dorkin, published by Dark Horse

Four old, hate filled ‘friends’ meet at San Diego Comic Con and things devolve into a bloodbath.

Evan Dorkin is the Dian Fossey of the comic industry. He’s clearly spent time among the fanboy community learning their ways. The difference between fanboys and gorillas is; one has massive upper body strength and superb grooming habits and fanboys read comics. I read the early Eltingville club comics and prayed I wouldn’t turn into one of the four stereotypes Dorkin has clearly studied in great detail, poor bastard.

Evan Dorkin always seemed to hate the medium, on the surface. But no one can do what boils down to a talking heads comic and sustain a readers interest through some really wordy pages without the kind of ability a lot of creators would sell their souls for.

Dorkin’s skill with facial expressions, detail, composition and maintaining clarity through a comic where four people swear at each other for twenty odd pages probably put him on medication and shows a level of persistence that should embarrass any other professional into drowning in their India ink.

His writing knows where the boundaries are and he ignores them because he knows how to straddle parody and down right insult. Not only that, with any luck his audience has matured enough not to take it personally, if you do then you’re probably one of the fanboys this comic is about.

The characters are loathsome except for Jerry, who has made a success of his life and reflects Dorkin’s rarely seen optimism that even the vilest, cheeto encrusted, basement dwelling, self entitled little wank stain can build a good life doing something he enjoys.

A classic comedy that will make normal geeks laugh and those that don’t get it very angry.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]