ML Kennedy
Yaeger is a honest, creative, and fearless writer. His voice is one of substance over style. I'm impressed by the unprotected power of his prose.
An interesting read that translates the artistic struggles of wrestlers in the ring with real world battles of loneliness, hopelessness and depression. The poetry is often moving and the drawings are quite lovely.
It starts with a blank page, snow against the white sky. An accident leaves two strangers trapped in a desperate situation. What else is there to do, but tell each other stories? Stories of doomed love, desperation and dead dogs? What else is there to do as we wait for rescue or for death?
Isn't that what we are all doing?
This book was pretty good, but I really wanted to give it a round of developmental editing to help its flow.
Sometimes there's a man... I won't say a hero, ‘cause, what's a hero? But sometimes, there's a man. And I'm talkin' about this dude here. Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's JMaq
There's a lot to be said about Connor Coyne's Urbantasm. It's a loving Xennial tribute to 1993. It's the story of a dead factory town named Akawe which stands in for and somehow also next to Flint Michigan. (Akawe means “Similarly” in Yoruba and “first of all” in Ojibwa. So, not only is the city a character, it's also two adverbs.) Most of all, however, Urbantasm is a coming of age story told with such specificity that it becomes universal. A tale of first kisses, contrived plans for new identities and the utter confusion that comes from being thirteen years old.
Coyne's book takes us from the mundane to the surreal and everything in between. It is the story of madmen with knives, and ghosts that disappear with the right sunglasses. It's a novel that is comfortable expounding on everything from Miles Davis to the Insane Clown Posse, from Eurylochus to a place called the Butt Hut. If you've read his work before, you should recognize the author's ability to discuss typically low art topics in typically high art terms. His prowess is in full display here, incidentally making the case that such distinctions of “high” and “low” are meaningless. (Just so you know: they are.)
Urbantasm is a unique take on familiar themes that manages to be both bold and vulnerable with its sheer honesty. We are experiencing the utterly exposed heart of Connor Coyne.
400 pages deep, and it's only the beginning.
I feel like I should've liked this more as it had Zelazny meets XistenZ vibes, but throughout the book most of the goings on are gross or repetitive and I found one of the main characters boring and unlikable.
Half of the middle section is a fun bit of adventure with characters I liked though, so not all bad.
The smartest thing this book does is to keep past events in the present tense. That way we really get a look into the mindset of a victim of a parent's abuse without having to reconcile each moment with “but actually.”
Thoroughly interesting and well written, but it can absolutely horrifying if you are sensitive to depictions of child abuse. I suppose we should all be sensitive to that thing.
A quick, fun read with some interesting concepts and philosophy. The dialogue sounds more like a TedX talk than human conversation and there is way too much plot getting in the way of the story.
I mean, there's a lot of nothing happening in this book, but there's also an evil train who likes riddles.
Solid comic with a likable protagonist.
Too much of the modern decompression for my taste, as this entire TPB doesn't contain one complete story.
It was more generous to the crackpots than I would have been. It ends really strong. I got more out of Packing for Mars.
The first 30 pages of this book comprise the most horrifying and stomach churning experience imaginable. Highly recommended.