Written and Illustrated by Michael Sweater
Published by Silver Sprocket
Nineties kids will remember the halcyon days before the internet when comic books were still printed on paper. Sega and Nintendo were locked in what seemed like an eternal war of video game dominance, throwing around nonsense terms like “blast processing.”
Everything cool was to the max or the extreme.
And adult animation and comic strips were both thoughtful and irreverent and at the zenith of its art form; think classics like Beavis and Butthead, Doonesbury, Life in Hell, and Bloom County.
Enter Michael Sweater’s Everything Sucks.
I honestly felt guilty reading a digital copy of this book as Sweater hoped that readers would hold this book in hand like the comic books and the Sunday funnies I so looked forward to as a kid.
Nevertheless, I pushed my guilt aside and read Everything Sucks with an open mind and enthusiasm for a markedly different product from anything I’ve read in the last several years.
The series’ premise is simple, Noah and Calla are high, hungry, and should probably go outside.
Unfortunately, the outside sucks. You can’t even get a burger without the whole place almost burning down!
That sums up every stoner film from the late Eighties to early Nineties.
Everything Sucks recaptures that era with enthusiasm and wit. I will be honest that this is not the type of book that I would usually read; however, if it was an animated comedy series and I still watched TV regularly, it is indeed something I would watch.
Thus I can conclude that Sweater set out with what he intended, which was a funny and irreverent call back to the politically incorrect irreverent days of the Nineties.
Final score: 4 out of 5
