Written and Illustrated by Evan Dorkin
Published by Dark Horse Comics
I have to say, I hadn’t realized just how much work in comics that Evan Dorkin has.
Or rather, I should say, I hadn’t realized how much of Evan Dorkin’s work in comics that I missed. I hadn’t realized read Milk and Cheese back in the 1990’s and I remembered liking it. I remembered it being fun and all, but I never followed his work beyond that. That is more of a detriment to me as a lot of his work that followed is certainly well done and very interesting.
It is really great that Dark Horse Comics has put forth this new collection of his work. It got me familiarized with his work once again and it showed me what else Dorkin has to offer the comics world, beyond what I originally sampled from him.
In this book, you get complete stories.
I had read some of Milk and Cheese before this. I had never read all of them. And this book collects all of them. The stories that I remembered are definitely in there. But there is definitely a lot that I have never read before.
And the ones that I hadn’t read before are some of the better ones. These characters were definitely a huge part of the independent comics scene. It is a little hard to describe what they are about too. But suffice it to say, Milk and Cheese are characters who get into all sorts of stupid adventures. The adventures are silly, fun, yet there is a lot of intelligence behind them. I laughed out loud a few times. The only drawback is that sometimes, at least for me, the way the pages are designed give me a bit of a head. The art is well done, but there are a lot of words clustered together sometimes. But I still have fun remembering these characters and discovering some works and adventures I hadn’t read before this volume.
The better part of the book ended up being the complete Eltingville Club Saga that is reprinted in this book. This one was quite a doozy to read and it shows Dorkin at his best. Never before has comic book fandom been caught so well and perfectly on the comic book page. I had never heard of this book before this but man, am I glad that I did. It really is a satire about comic book fandom and the rather dark side of it. It shows the toxic traits of the fans and how a lot of them act, but physically and socially. And it is pretty wild. Dorkin doesn’t hold back with this story and I very much appreciate that.
In this book, we are introduced to Joshua Levy. Joshua is, of course, a major comic book fan. He comes with all of the things a comic book fan has, including an elitist attitude about the hobby he claims to love. Anyone who has ever dealt with someone in fandom will recognize the toxic traits that Joshua exhibits. We get to see the various types of people that he interacts with. The conversations between various people in this book will make you cringe. It’s because it is all too real and recognizable. Honestly, there are some moments in this book that have me shivers up my spine. This book was produced in 2016, I believe. Yet, it is probably even more relevant now that it was back then. And that is really saying something.
The Eltingville Club Saga really is something to behold. It is also something that every comic book fans should absolutely read. It is a very telling book, and it is very much a must read. I don’t think that I have ever squirmed in my seat as much as I did reading this book. It is a brave swing and I think it now as Dorkin’s best work.
There are a lot of extras here as well. There is the Dork! comic presented here in full as well as many odds and ends. It is a beautiful book. Honestly, this is what Dark Horse does best. It puts together a high quality book focused on an artist who has always been interesting. It was a fine read.
RATING: A-
