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<\/a><\/p>\nI’ve seen this cover a million times. I’ve known this cover forever. Where has this comic been? Why haven’t I read it before? What took so long? The cover image is the perfect illustration for what’s about to be read… and sure, we’re all victims of our environment and TIME… but the kid’s leg is turning into roots, which I take to mean we are what’s devouring us… anyway, the roots are breaking up the concrete and digging in and then we see what lies beneath or what doesn’t lie beneath. We see some pipes and some construction shit and some of the kid’s foot roots and then NOTHING. Nothing there. White space… writing about it now, this image is too loaded for a cover, it’s a thesis and I’d prefer it if this were the last image of the comic. Something built. A narrative chord, harmonic dirge.<\/p>\n
When I picked this up I knew nothing about David Wojnarowicz (RIP) and I don’t really care to know anything about him or his reputation. This comic hits me where I live. Its repulsive and attractive and its something I know and something I don’t.<\/p>\n There’s a lot of copy in and on this book for what amounts to a 52 page comic. Lots of exposition is provided for us by people not named David Wojnarowicz. We get exposition from Wojnarowciz’s lover. We get exposition from Carlo McCormick and from the usual flap copy and pull quotes… six fucking pull quotes to be exact!?! And all of it is trying to make sure we recognize this comic, this story, David Wojnarowicz’s story is IMPORTANT. And it is important and thankfully the comic itself foregoes exposition because it’d be weak to include all that fucking noise… but that noise, that expository noise is one of the things that adds to that drowning feeling…<\/p>\n Maybe not drowning… maybe submerged… fighting to make your way before…<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n James Romberger is a discovery for me. His work here is awesome and its difficult to look at because it READS. He has an inviting line and he’s got that magic cartoon thing where I feel shoulder to shoulder with his ink. I feel projected into his graphic world. His lettering is lettering! (Dear 2023 Reader, there was a time when comics were only lettered by computers pretending to be humans. I know it sounds stupid but that’s why all that old stuff looks old.) Romberger’s lettering fits somewhere between Alex Toth and Aaron Cometbus. Romberger appears to be coming from the Toth, 80s Mazzucchelli, Tony Salmons side of the yard but in someways he’s more restrained and direct, more functional and attentive to conjuring Wojnarowicz’s script. Flipping through the comic, the layouts look choppy but all those hard breaks evaporate and the eye willingly, thankfully let’s Romberger drive. And its a seasick road because the story is fucked!<\/p>\n Marguerite Van Cook’s coloring is pitch perfect and tells the story along with Wojnarowicz’s words and Romberger’s ink, which is something not common enough when it comes to color comics. Her colors are a fevered tied died wash of response to what the main character is experiencing. Her colors are psychologically psychedelic. And her color isn’t always full on. There’s a scale to Van Cook’s pallet. Her contribution is deeper than illustrative and is equal parts to that of her collaborators. Her colors push and pull and disorient as Romberger’s layouts turn and Wojnarowicz words dissolve.<\/p>\n \n Pound for pound, Seven Miles a Second holds its own when held beside the oblique autobiographical comics masterpieces: Binky Brown Meets The Holy Virgin Mary<\/em> by Justin Green, Invisible Hinge<\/em> and What the Left Hand Did<\/em> by Jim Woodring. The presence of Seven Miles a Second in this rarefied pantry is especially significant considering it was a group effort and published by mall-rat goth champs, Vertigo. In a medium known for either assembly line output or fiercely individualistic broadcasts, I hope Wojnarowicz, Romberger and Van Cook’s accomplishment will spurn more worthwhile collaborative illuminations.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n