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A review by jeffhall
Awaiting the Collapse by Paul Kirchner
4.0
Paul Kirchner was one of those creators who was in my peripheral vision back in the glory days of Heavy Metal magazine in the 1980's. He was never one of the marquee names associated with that wonderful publication, but his series of half-page the bus strips always stood out for their imaginative and unassuming artistry.
So Awaiting the Collapse provided a great opportunity to discover a trove of Kirchner's work that I missed the first time around, including the "Dope Rider" series for which Kirchner is perhaps best known. The surrealistic adventures of that mellow skeleton have an appeal much greater than simple stoner weirdness, best summarized in this line from "Taco Belle":
"For Dope Rider, who has followed the road to ruin far beyond the last exit, the brief intermissions on his endless journey seem like brief intermissions on an endless journey..."
Although this volume is packed with great stuff, the piece "Tarot" (originally published in Heavy Metal) is certainly the crown jewel: it's a perfect blend of the grim, the supernatural, and the sexy that allows the artist's creative abilities to soar, and when Paul Kirchner soars, it's one heck of a flight for the reader!
So Awaiting the Collapse provided a great opportunity to discover a trove of Kirchner's work that I missed the first time around, including the "Dope Rider" series for which Kirchner is perhaps best known. The surrealistic adventures of that mellow skeleton have an appeal much greater than simple stoner weirdness, best summarized in this line from "Taco Belle":
"For Dope Rider, who has followed the road to ruin far beyond the last exit, the brief intermissions on his endless journey seem like brief intermissions on an endless journey..."
Although this volume is packed with great stuff, the piece "Tarot" (originally published in Heavy Metal) is certainly the crown jewel: it's a perfect blend of the grim, the supernatural, and the sexy that allows the artist's creative abilities to soar, and when Paul Kirchner soars, it's one heck of a flight for the reader!