Product Description: Ellen Forney's guide to alternative experiences, with cameos by Camille Paglia, Kristin Gore, Margaret Cho, and others.
"Ellen Forney's comics are smart. Ellen Forney's comics are sexy. Ellen Forney's comics are funny. Ellen Forney's comics are hotter than five-star curry." —Sherman Alexie (from his Introduction)
I Love Led Zeppelin is a long-awaited collection of strips created for several alternative newsweeklies and magazines over the last several years by the Harvey and Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist Ellen Forney.
This book includes full-page comics published in prestigious weeklies such as the L.A. Weekly and Seattle's The Stranger, as well as the leading feminist magazine, Bust, and the Oxford American. Her strips are characterized by bold, sensual brushstrokes and striking images of powerful, butt-kicking women.
While most of the stories sprang from Forney's own inspiration, some are collaborations with such luminaries as comedienne Margaret Cho, novelist (and Al Gore's daughter) Kristin Gore, writer and editor Dan Savage, writer David Schmader, cartoonist Ariel Bordeaux, writer Tamara Paris, Forney's beloved Grandma Florence, and Camille Paglia.
Several of Forney's strips fall into the "How-To" category, although this is not your standard advice column fare: topics range from the practical ("How to Tip Your Server") to the whimsical ("How to Twirl Your Tassles In Opposite Directions") to the fascinating but hopefully never-needed ("How to Sew On an Amputated Finger").
Other strips include "The Final Soundtrack," a death fantasy involving blood, glamour, and Led Zeppelin; "How to Smoke Pot and Stay Out of Jail"; "How to Talk About Drugs With Your Kid"; "How to Fuck a Woman With Your Hands"; "How to Be a Fabulous Fag Hag" (an illustrated interview with Margaret Cho); "Seattle's Erotic Landmarks"; and "Memories of Love," a graphic tour of Courtney Love's rise and fall of celebritydom.
How to be an Ellen Forney fan There are certain expectations that you bring to different authors and artists. When it comes to comix, for example, you go into a reading of R. Crumb knowing that he excels at exploring the inner landscape. If you read Harvey Pekar, you know that he's going to take you to a richer appreciation of the quotidian. Art Spiegelman's work, you know, will hit you in your moral gut.
But if there's one thing that stands out about Ellen Forney's work, it's that it doesn't lend itself to easy expectations. Sometimes she comes across as a hip, cool, punk. At other times, she seems like the girl next door. One minute she's an incredibly sexy, excitingly creative avant gardist. The next she's a chronicler of the mundane. There's very little that's predictable about her work, and that's part of what makes it so intriguing and so illuminating.
In I Love Led Zeppelin, Forney presents her work in 4 different categories: "How to" guides ("How to Be a Fabulous Fag Hag," "How to Tip Your Server," and "How to _____ a Woman with your Hands"); More Short Comics, including the hilarious and poignant "The Light Snow Became a Blizzard," "Walking with Carol," and my favorite, "Wednesday Morning Yoga"; '92-'94, with "My Date with Camille Paglia" leading the pack; and Collaborations, with themes ranging from star-struck fans to sexual coming of age.
Forney's artwork is clean and incredibly expressive given the minimum of pen strokes she uses. She has a good eye, both for drawing and for focusing in on the funny, joyous, alarming, and profound moments hidden away in the stuff of everyday life. Like Harvey Pekar, she sees the deep significance in what's too often dismissed as insignificant. Unlike Pekar, though, she seems to have an uncomplicated love of life, an exuberant appetite for fun and celebration, that makes her work both insightful and fun.
So: how do you be an Ellen Forney fan? Read her stuff without expectations and preconceptions, and enjoy the ride. Oh, and one more thing: loving Led Zeppelin wouldn't hurt.
Those who love Zeppelin will soon betray Floyd... It's funny and informative. I reattached my own severed finger with the help of one particular cartoon.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Not Available Comics
Trevor
