Crumple

Rating:
Summary: SUPERB! I CAN'T RECOMMEND THS ENOUGH
Review: Dave Cooper is among that rare and hateful breed: he makes it look easy. Humor and dread collide easily like a stiff drink down the gullet in this sci-fi meditation on feminism, chauvnism, revolution, shame, and sex.

Impassive anti-hero Knuckle and and his leering pal Zev take off on various adventures while the threat of alien invasion looms ever-present. Or has it already happened?

I don't know how a female would react to Crumple, but I would recommend this to any guy. Or anyone who's ever felt the sweaty shame of pornsexlust.

You will see yourself in these pages.

Oh, and it's very, very funny too.

Rating:
Summary: chilling edgy sweaty cool funny scary ... neat-o
Review: five stars. this should be in any collection. dave is a soo-poib arteest that deserves to be seen by all.

from what i hear the comic book industry is dieing. more like it's growing up and casting off all the excess fan-boy stuff from over the years. stuff like this will be taking it's place. high quality printing, art and story. stuff you'll put on your bookshelf and read again and again and again. typical fantagraphics stuff here.

i'm going to dwell on the art here. i'm familiar with dave's work from his pip and norton story in dark horse's "scatterbrain" mini-series from what seems like too-long ago (why aren't there more comics like this?). anyhoo, if you're like me and enjoy dips into dave's subconcious that allow us to view his skewed universes, then this books is heartily recommended.

put down those super-hero comics! now! look at what you're paying for them! way too much! read this instead. your eyeballs will thank you.

cheers,

beatnik bandit

Rating:
Summary: it came from outer space
Review: In addition to creating perverse cartoon visions of anot-too-distant and eerily plausible future, Dave Cooper illustrateschildren's books. That influence shows here quite evidently, resultingin a disturbing blend of cuteness and venom. A young man sells hisGranny's hoverwalker to finance a foray into the Hollywood pornindustry while news of recent UFO sightings slowly moves from theperiphery to center stage. What in its first pages seems nothing morethan adolescent misogyny transforms brilliantly into a twisted butredeeming vision of the future of women, sending a message to the pornaddicts of the world: be careful what you wish for...

Rating:
Summary: Men Are Such Pigs!
Review: In Dave Cooper's latest graphic novel (collected from Zero Zero where it was serialized), the lead character, Crumple, seems to be the only decent male left in the world. Sure, he is awkward around women thanks to the interaction of his shyness and sexual drive, but he is a nice guy who treats women as equals. Unfortunately his more confident male friend (as well as the few other males in the story) are complete and utter pigs. As it turns out, however, the women have the upper hand because their sexuality gives them power over man.

This is the background for Cooper's satirical and surreal look at the Battle of the Sexes and what happens when males are rendered useless thanks to a bizarre alien intervention. Of course, neither sex gets off too easily. Only the most intolerant of man-haters would consider the ultimate fate of male-kind tolerable despite how disgusting some of the male characters are. And the male reader should ask himself why the females would be willing to resort to such an outcome. This graphic novel should have both males and females questioning their unconscious attitudes towards the opposite sex. Sure many of the characters are stereotypes of both males and females, but only to raise the point that either extreme of Male Chauvanism and Capital F Feminism is intolerable. Cooper's deceptively cartoony style is very effective in adding to the mood of this nightmare.

Rating:
Summary: Men Are Such Pigs!
Review: In Dave Cooper's latest graphic novel (collected from Zero Zero where it was serialized), the lead character, Crumple, seems to be the only decent male left in the world. Sure, he is awkward around women thanks to the interaction of his shyness and sexual drive, but he is a nice guy who treats women as equals. Unfortunately his more confident male friend (as well as the few other males in the story) are complete and utter pigs. As it turns out, however, the women have the upper hand because their sexuality gives them power over man.

This is the background for Cooper's satirical and surreal look at the Battle of the Sexes and what happens when males are rendered useless thanks to a bizarre alien intervention. Of course, neither sex gets off too easily. Only the most intolerant of man-haters would consider the ultimate fate of male-kind tolerable despite how disgusting some of the male characters are. And the male reader should ask himself why the females would be willing to resort to such an outcome. This graphic novel should have both males and females questioning their unconscious attitudes towards the opposite sex. Sure many of the characters are stereotypes of both males and females, but only to raise the point that either extreme of Male Chauvanism and Capital F Feminism is intolerable. Cooper's deceptively cartoony style is very effective in adding to the mood of this nightmare.

Rating:
Summary: Innocent fun?
Review: This is a short stream-of-consciousness graphic novel featuring talking animals, angry lesbians, and a lot of nipples. Dave Cooper is a strange combination of Walt Disney and William Burroughs. He uses funny animals and balloon-shaped people to depict a world of organic machines and imminent violence. It's funny and disturbing at the same time, with some sort of childhood sexuality under the surface. I highly recommend it to anyone with a healthy sense of humor and an open mind.