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posies23's review against another edition
4.0
A clever graphic novel meditation on fame and greed, using thinly disguised Disney characters.
drewdietsch's review against another edition
4.0
A darkly comic and horrific takedown of Hollywood exploitation and superstition told through the lens of cartoon stars. The documentary structure has this begging to be turned into a movie.
darren_cormier's review against another edition
5.0
Perfect send-up of both the formulaic documentary-style structure of "True Hollywood Stories" type shows and the family-oriented image of Walt Disney. The manufactured conspiracies and drama of these shows is unveiled through its use of "eyewitness photographs", usually nothing more than a a blurry image with a vague reflection of the subject they are trying to cover.
I can't imagine this book would have been published in the 80s, when the Disney monolith was at is family-image zenith, and they went to all extremes to portray that image. Corporations seem to have embraced our ironic culture's focus on negative publicity, that a little self-humor and acceptance of negative criticism can go a long way; Disney itself seems to have promoted the image that its not just the family friendly atmosphere of Mickey Mouse but is about "diversifying its interests". In fact, Mickey Mouse is almost nowhere to be seen anymore when talking about Disney. Now, with a new corporate ethos where any publicity is good publicity, this book is allowed to be published, although it certainly didn't thrive.
Still, we do need great satire, and Rick Koslowski delivers great satire in this form.
The cover art and title can be taken two ways as well, from the standpoint of the fourth digit that most cartoons seem to lack, to the possibility that it stands for three fingers of scotch, when two fingers is usually what is ordered.
Anyway, thank you Rick Koslowski. I will now seek out more of your work, not just for the content, but for your impeccable artistry and illustrations as well, in particular the illustrations of Carhorn Armwhistle. Thank you.
I can't imagine this book would have been published in the 80s, when the Disney monolith was at is family-image zenith, and they went to all extremes to portray that image. Corporations seem to have embraced our ironic culture's focus on negative publicity, that a little self-humor and acceptance of negative criticism can go a long way; Disney itself seems to have promoted the image that its not just the family friendly atmosphere of Mickey Mouse but is about "diversifying its interests". In fact, Mickey Mouse is almost nowhere to be seen anymore when talking about Disney. Now, with a new corporate ethos where any publicity is good publicity, this book is allowed to be published, although it certainly didn't thrive.
Still, we do need great satire, and Rick Koslowski delivers great satire in this form.
The cover art and title can be taken two ways as well, from the standpoint of the fourth digit that most cartoons seem to lack, to the possibility that it stands for three fingers of scotch, when two fingers is usually what is ordered.
Anyway, thank you Rick Koslowski. I will now seek out more of your work, not just for the content, but for your impeccable artistry and illustrations as well, in particular the illustrations of Carhorn Armwhistle. Thank you.
cjordahl's review
3.0
The art is technically very good (although straight-forward and repetitive). The dialog is well done, each character has a distinctive style (although derivative of the figures they're modeled on). The story is quite thin, the entire book could have been cut by a third or more. It was amusing.
matteldritch92's review
4.0
A darkly humored alternate-history mockumentary dramedy of the "golden age" of Hollywood and its cartoon stars, this was a really good read.
The closet thing the book has to a main character would be Rickey Rat and Dizzy Walters due to having the most impact on the events of the book. Rickey is the most sympathetic character for what the book holds in its later pages.
The conspiracy, described in the book as Walter's rival studios, was to "replicate" the lightning-in-the-bottle success of Rickey which is pretty horrifying reveal. The bigger reveal though would be the what evidence leads to Dizzy and his studio being in on the ground floor of the conspiracy in a chilling manner. The deaths of historical/postmortem conspiracy figures such as MLK, JFK and Marilyn Monroe and how they figure into the conspiracy was a great nod, as was the famous camera footage of Bigfoot from 1967, nicely repurposed here too.
The cameos of ersatz Looney Tunes characters were interesting as they're the ones who are shown to have suffered the most in the story and along with the Hollywood system and the people in with the conspiracy, the ersatz Bug Bunny character who profited the most out of the corrupt system to the detriment of his fellow co-stars (the treatment of this world's Daffy Duck can give one shudders). Another WB character gets a cameo in the final page of the book with a harsh reminder that the world keeps on spinning and that the efforts to curb the conspiracy went unsuccessful.
The only negative criticisms I can give is that artwork, while beautiful in its photorealsim and grittiness, can be often copy-pasted in most of its interviews and that the story could've been a bit longer with its sights set on the other eras of animation but overall its a really great story.
The closet thing the book has to a main character would be Rickey Rat and Dizzy Walters due to having the most impact on the events of the book. Rickey is the most sympathetic character for what the book holds in its later pages.
The conspiracy, described in the book as Walter's rival studios, was to "replicate" the lightning-in-the-bottle success of Rickey which is pretty horrifying reveal. The bigger reveal though would be the what evidence leads to Dizzy and his studio being in on the ground floor of the conspiracy in a chilling manner. The deaths of historical/postmortem conspiracy figures such as MLK, JFK and Marilyn Monroe and how they figure into the conspiracy was a great nod, as was the famous camera footage of Bigfoot from 1967, nicely repurposed here too.
The cameos of ersatz Looney Tunes characters were interesting as they're the ones who are shown to have suffered the most in the story and along with the Hollywood system and the people in with the conspiracy, the ersatz Bug Bunny character who profited the most out of the corrupt system to the detriment of his fellow co-stars (the treatment of this world's Daffy Duck can give one shudders). Another WB character gets a cameo in the final page of the book with a harsh reminder that the world keeps on spinning and that the efforts to curb the conspiracy went unsuccessful.
The only negative criticisms I can give is that artwork, while beautiful in its photorealsim and grittiness, can be often copy-pasted in most of its interviews and that the story could've been a bit longer with its sights set on the other eras of animation but overall its a really great story.
amalelmohtar's review
5.0
Amazingly well done. I kind of wish the text boxes hadn't overlapped with the images as much as they did -- it seemed like a deliberate stylistic choice I couldn't figure out a reason for -- but elsewise it was just brilliant. Such intelligent slow-creeping horror spun out of childhood cartoons.
booksandbosox's review
4.0
Really interesting sort of alternate story of Disney and Mickey Mouse. Really liked it. Wanted it to go on longer.
bplache's review
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
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