Comics creator Richard Fairgray isn’t for everybody. (Exception: his Blastosaurus series, which IS for everybody.) He dabbles in humor and horror and self-reflection, all of it excellent but occasionally inoffensively offensive. My first encounter with his work was Haunted Hill, which I thought was interesting. His Ex-Wives of Frankenstein series, still a work in progress, had me hooked.
As he’s lived around the world and at conventions alluded to anecdotes that made me laugh and once horrified me, his announcement of Ambitious Failures on Kickstarter caught my attention. Described by Fairgray as “…a graphic memoir of sex, art and human limitations,” Ambitious Failures may sound self-defeating. But as he gave me a look at the first chapter last night, I’m compelled to say so far it looks like an ambitious success.
Fairgray has a bit of the honest self-reflection of the late Harvey Pekar, a sorely missed voice. But there’s more humor than Harvey had, an impishness that may be out of line, but clearly helps cope with how tough life actually is. That he’s able to express it in his art already scores points.
But he’s also a cartoonist in the purest sense. As noted in the Ex-Wives of Frankenstein review, Fairgray plays with layout in ways that always support the emotional tone of a page. Self-deprecatingly he calls this his “one trick” in Ambitious Failures, but if it is, it’s a good one. For the first chapter, at least, it helps reduce the sting of a cancer scare. Necessary even though that scare has a hell of a punchline that sends him off on another tangent. And like any good comedian, he builds in the callback.
Let’s throw in the spirit of the still-with-us Scott McCloud. Whether intending to or not, by playing with the art form Fairgray offers education about it. Albeit a bit more risqué than McCloud would have it.
So back to the beginning — if you have a firm line as to what kind of material you find offensive, approach this book with caution. But if, like me, you like finely executed, utterly personal work at least fascinating, you owe it to yourself to look into Ambitious Failures.
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