Mind Riot : Coming of Age in Comix

Rating:
Summary: Illustrated Time
Review: Featuring a foreward by the comic great, Peter Bagge, creator of Hate -- Mind Riot is a sprint, from start to finish, of teens and their myriad problems, ranging from social acceptance to family issues to sudden changes, body issues, and more. Unless you've been eating up what mainstream has offered through television, movies, newstands, and still have perceptions of teen problems being lighthearted as Archie's major dilemma of choosing between Veronica and Betty, and if Leave it to Beaver and The Patty Duke Show still seem relevent, you've missed the dirty truth that runs through the lives of teens and pumps through the veins of underground comics. This anthology collects a host of artists that many people may have not heard of. It's an excellent introduction to another world of the "otherside" of the medium, if you word-associate "comics" to Blondie and Prince Valiant and Garfield.

Mind Riot is diverse; it changes pace on a dime. For instance, Glenn Head's "Skateboard Mayhem", a tongue-in-cheek adventure of a metalhead skateboarder with a pratfall and latter-day ironic twist, is followed right after by a story by David Greenberger and Dean Rohrer called "With Arthur," a downbeat, subtly beautiful story about the two extremes between old and young. And after that, followed by a hilarious memory of teenage shoplifting by Diane Noomin.

The women artists throughout, as has been the medium's trend, are candidly open with nonfiction stories in comic form, having followed the lead of trailblazers such as R. Crumb and Justin Green, and latter-day Joe Matt and Julie Doucet, etc. In Vicky Rabinowicz's "My Body," it takes on the serious theme of women's body issues, but on a dreamy, sprightly, surrealist rollercoaster ride. On the other hand, Ann Decker's "A Tale of Three Sisters" approaches the same issue, but from a different angle. It deals with the animosity between women and their bodies, instead of embracing one another in sisterhood. And for teen guys, Peter Kruper candidly captures the teen loneliness and guilt concerning sex in the funny story, "Animal Urges." But the most powerful of the bunch was Phoebe Gloeckner's "A Girl from a Different World." A story about that deals with incest and molestation, and teen reactions in response. Powerful and honest, it rounds out this collection's coming-of-age feel.

Mind Riot is essentially an introduction to underground comics, showcasing a host of artists out there attempting to push the limits of an artform past stereotypes and sugar-coated plots, until it reaches some center-of-truth satori.