Clotfelter, Max – The Elements of Rough #1

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The Elements of Rough #1

Finally, it’s the secret origin story of Max! OK, sure, he’s done autobiographical comics before. But Max had a simple conceit for this one: to answer all of the people who are constantly asking him why his comics have to be “so rough.” Since I’ve literally had friends come by, see his comics and ask me variations of the same question, he’s clearly not exaggerating how often he gets asked this question. The answer is a little more simple than you might have guessed: because he’s been surrounded by a colorful cast of characters his entire life. His father was quick to make friends with weirdos and slow to kick people out who were just looking to drink for a few days, leading Max to a childhood with his parents bailing friends out of jail, regular drinking and driving by all concerned, and running into an inmate that Max knew as he was cleaning a local library in his prison uniform. The nexus for all sorts of craziness ended up being a seedy liquor store that Max’s father owned, leading to even more colorful characters. Eh, “colorful” might imply “wacky” or “harmless,” and a few of these characters seem perfectly capable of doing harm. It’s an interesting story and it explains a few things, but Max promises that things get even weirder in the next issue, so there’s that to look forward to. If you’re a fan of his work it’s pretty much mandatory to get this comic, and if you’ve never read his stuff this is as good an introduction and anything. So basically you should buy this one either way, with the only exception being if you’re a terrible person who hates comics and only reads these reviews to torture yourself about all the unregulated art going on in the world. Hey, if it can be imagined, somebody on the internet is doing it…

Posted on December 21, 2017, in Reviews and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a Comment.

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