Maybe. I dunno. I was blown away by those volumes, but this one affected me emotionally, even more so than those two.
It's at once alternate history,an anthropormics comic, a character study, a meditation on the role of the arts in creating and reflecting society...and more . WAY more. To call this "layered" or "textured" does not do it justice.
I really do not want to get to specific about the plot. Describing scenes removed from context cannot convey why they are so powerful, but being pre described can ruin them for other readers, who read reviews to decide on what to spend their limited dollars. I will say that I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
Some great one-liners ; here's just a (very) few I especially liked :
"...an enemy is what we call people who get in our way"
"...you do not fight battles because you expect to win. You fight them merely because they need to be fought."
"A man can't pretend forever. ..He must be the man he is or forever become the mask assigned to him".
"Keep a relationship in a box and it becomes a coffin".
"In the end , any culture worth a damn is made by subversives. Because art is telling the world that it needs to change. Power merely redecorates it."
"There is no greater tragedy in life than to die a stranger to yourself".
Some nice little touches, like the claw polish on Lila's claws. Or the look on McGraw's face when he meets Hound jr. Or the Garst Cornfield War.
Gorgeous clean realistic art, good portrayal of fifties fashions and interiors.
There is a scene towards the end of the book, set in a hospital room, in which we see an old black and white photgraph. That page is now the second-greatest page of comic art from the 21st century that I've seen. (*And the very greatest coincidentally also stars a large talking cat.) But the very greatest scene, wonderful though it is, did not make me drop the book in shock and make my eyes sting.
Minor criticisms: Some of the real historical people I didn't find recognizable. Marilyn Monroe didn't look much like her, IMO. I guess Clint is Clint Eastwood, but is Marion someone I should recognize? Or those people in the photograph Allen shows Snagglepuss at the Algonquin meeting? And I do NOT like Officer McGraw's design : I think just giving him hands a la Bojack would have worked better.
In the end, the book leaves me with a sense of melancholy and disquiet . Not just because of what happens to Snagglepuss and Huckleberry Hound and Officer McGraw, because of the choices they made. Russell gives Snagglepuss the best one-liners on the role of the arts and of artists. And the USSR's attempts to propagandize its people via "socialist realism" didn't exactly create masterpieces. But Gigi Allen is not a fool or a caricatured villian. She raises important questions : CAN a country survive without a shared culture? What if "subversive elements" are deliberately holding a country's culture up to ridicule? Look at the online comments on any news site for a possible answer. I see nothing there any more but mutual loathing and contempt. What if anything can do done is for each individual reader to decide for him- or herself.
On a personal note: As a child, I never was a big fan of Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, or Quickdraw McGraw. I watched them because I watched anything animated, but I was more into the Warner Brothers classics, the Flintstones, and the Jetsons . (I also watched Scooby Doo even though I hated it, because I convinced myself that sooner or later they would throw in a show with a REAL ghost, or vampire, or werewolf, or whatever.) But I recall getting into an argument back in 1971-1972/ 2nd grade, over the burning question : Is Snagglepuss an African lion or a mountain lion? I held out for mountain lion, despite cogent arguments for him being a maneless African lion ("You're stupid!" "No, YOU'RE stupid!") But early in the book, Snagglepuss describes his childhood self as a kit, not a cub. That settles it : He's a mountain lion. But since he was born in Mississippi, that means he's most likely a Puma concolor cougar, a Florida panther. Which means he's LITERALLY a pink panther!
*(The very greatest scene in 21st century comic art-? The one in Saga (issue 14) , in which Sophie discusses her past with Lying Cat. )
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