My True Story

Rating:
Summary: Radical Comix
Review: "My True Story" is a grab-bag of comic strips, some semi-autobiographical, created between 1974 and 1992 by the famous alternative cartoonist Manuel "Spain" Rodriguez. Comix fans will be aware that along with fellow artists Gilbert Shelton, Robert Crumb and Trina Robbins, "Spain" was a key figure in the 'underground comix' revolution of the late '60's. Less unconventional than his colleagues, his work has a more 'standard' radical political perspective on social issues, and celebrates macho violence and righteous conflict.

This collection of about a dozen stories begins with a series of loosely-related pieces describing Spain's youthful, late '50's experience as a motorcycle gang member, followed by two mid-'80's strips about his experience at the Democratic Convention protests in 1968, and a fictionalized account of his then-girlfriend's journalistic investigation of the Iran-Contra affair in 1986. This is followed by an unrelated series of propagandistic historical vignettes celebrating radicalism. The most interesting pieces are a Robert Crumb-inspired self-examination and the final strip, in which Spain discusses his artistic inspiration.