Hicksville [Paperback]

I consider myself a graphic novel snob. And I just don't have the time or energy for poorly executed work. Lone Wolf & Cub, Usagi Yojimbo, Maus, Watchmen, the Swamp Thing books, Top 10, Nausicaa, Transmetropolitan, these are the collections you'll find displayed proudly in my living room. Not only is Hicksville in that collection, but it's quickly catching up to Watchmen as the story I've most often loaned out to non-comics readers.

Hicksville is self contained, consistent, and human. I never got into the whole DC/Marvel thing, but Horrocks' enthusiasm for comics history draws you in. And while he plays with that history, he weaves in compelling stories about people which are subtle and adult. Yes "adult", but not in any gratuitous way. Here, it is in the way that we have all experienced life as we get older. Relationships are confusing and sad. Wounds take time to heal. Quests for answers don't always (ever?) work out as we had hoped.

At first I was worried the art was too simple and sketchy. I quickly realized that I had underestimated his style. The frames have a smooth, even flow that carry you with an unhurried pace through the story. As the various threads begin to weave together, the drawings take on much of the burden of storytelling. And frames which don't need any words, don't have any.

You might go back to the beginning the first time you get half way through so you can savor the art and the story before all is revealed. Don't feel bad, his unassuming style (both in drawing and in storytelling) just lowered your guard.

I believe this is a great work.

As an enthusiast of the comics medium, I'm very excited about this book. Hicksville shows a maturity and grace that has finally gotten beyond the pulp conventions of comics' first fifty or so years, and the anxiously antinomian hipness of the last twenty. Horrocks has deep affection for all those periods, but the voice he uses is entirely his own. In Hicksville, we have a true graphic novel, delving into character and atmosphere, rather than relentless, explosive action. Horrocks' cartoony, accessable art style never seems forced or draws attention to itself. Unlike other similarly-ambitious comics artists of his generation, such as Seth or Adrian Tomine, Horrocks never comes across as arty or forced. The plot -- with its concern with the history, art, and business of comics -- may be initally offputting for the non-comics-literate reader, but anyone who perseveres (and uses the glossary in the back) will find Horrocks' enthusiasm infectious rather than offputting.

Dick Burger has made millions and is one of the most powerful people in the comics industry. He's often compared to comic legends like Jack Kirby for revitalizing the industry and Stan Lee stands in awe of him. Leonard Batts, a comics biographer, begins the process of creating the definitive book on Burger. But as Batts begins his research he finds Burger has a dark secret back in his home town of Hicksville--a small remote town in New Zealand where comics legends come and the library has books found no where else in the world. Will Batts survive discovering this secret or will it drive him to the edge of destruction?

Hicksville starts off a bit slow as it takes a little bit to figure out the pacing and the interweaving of the short comics, but once you get into the story and action really pick up. This book is Dylan's love letter to the comics world, his way of perhaps saying that the best comics in the world...are those ones that aren't published. And that sometimes the biggest and most talked about folks in the industry...aren't the greatest. Sometimes it's the small quiet ones that change the world. In many ways the story line reminds me of some of the subtleness of Twain's short story "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" as Twain makes some of the same comparisons to that the greatest in a given area might be the ones that you've never heard of before.

The artwork takes a bit of getting used to, as it's not as well drawn as say Blankets or Fun Home Family Tragicomic...but it does have it's own style and grace to it, especially as he blends together the stories with the short comics--each having it's own style to set it apart. And sometimes the drawings and figures are so big that the frames themselves can't contain them and the characters take on a life of their own carrying the story with them.

If you're a fan of graphic novels or the comics industry...or even if you aren't--pick up this book and give it a read. Then read it a second or third time just to see what you missed.