Snakepit 2008 (Comix)
Grade 10 Up—This volume is comprised of daily three-panel records of the life of video-store clerk and drummer Ben Snakepit as he goes to work, rehearses, watches movies, gets drunk or high, spends time with his girlfriend, and repeats himself. The beginning of the volume mentions that the book is intended to be read on the toilet, and it's good advice; the sheer repetition of material makes sustained reading an exercise in fatigue. Ben works to make his experience varied—he mentions a few times that he's tired of drawing the same old thing—and has a few clever ways in which to represent what can be fairly staid events, but primarily his visual vocabulary returns to a handful of well-trod clichés. The most surprising aspect of the collection is that Ben never varies from his rigorous, limiting format to muse or reflect over his record of his life. In one strip, he has a severe reaction to marijuana, and the next day he mentions that he's afraid of experiencing another bad trip. Within a week, he's using again without a hint of contemplation. One might be taken aback at how this and parallel events occur and are consistently recorded with a degree of banality, simply because aside from some self-depreciation about his drawing skills, there's no depth, insight, character, or growth to be found.—Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NHCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.