>>REVIEW
BUT I LIKE IT
Joe Sacco
Fantagraphics Books, 122 pp.
Joe Sacco is best known for the influential comix/journalism of Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde, but these works were a long time coming and not especially lucrative works-in-progress. At one point, Sacco notes that Palestine was the worst-selling title in Fantagraphics history. So how does a struggling comix artist pay the bills? By snuggling up to the music industry.
But I Like It chronicles Sacco’s work for various music outlets, comprised of five basic parts – an early documenting of life on the road in Europe with a friend’s band, some one-page strips turned out for a Swiss magazine, a collection of posters and T-shirt designs done while living in Berlin, some reflections on life as a Rolling Stones fan and finally some work done for Fat Possum Records.
Unlike his more realistic work, the rock images fall in line with the R. Crumb/Peter Bagge style. In fact, 1989’s "In the Company of Long Hair," for Sacco’s short-lived Yahoo, reads like a more self-deprecating version of Bagge’s Hate!, written around the same time. "In the Company of Long Hair" follows Sacco’s journey with his friends in the psychedelic rock band the Miracle Workers, as they travel around Europe, trying to get laid and avoid absolute poverty. Most revealing are some of the sketches included from this sequence, where Sacco alternates between his comic book renditions of his friends and his realistic drawings that would later form the basis of his journalistic style. Four tracks from this tour have been included with a special CD insert, in all their Stooges-inspired glory. This eye-opening experience with the Miracle Workers helped to set the stage for the grunge-era cynicism fuelling "The Swiss Years," a collection of satirical strips that focuses on the workings of the music industry, from the marketing of specialty guitars, exploitation by record executives to the general self-importance of the musicians themselves.
At this point one would expect Sacco to have lost all interest in the redeeming features of rock ’n’ roll, although he did not abandon music altogether. His poster work for German promoters of travelling American bands earned him guest list spots at Berlin nightclubs (the ones for Mudhoney are particularly funny), though his comments on album covers done for German rock bands reinforce his claim that this was something that Sacco was doing for money. However, his return to Portland and his subsequent release of "The Stones and I" and "Suffering for the Stones," detailing his absolute adoration of the Rolling Stones is perhaps one of the most accurate depictions of unquestioning fandom and should be required reading for all rock critics.
Finally, as Sacco puts it, older, wealthier and with a lifetime of regret behind him, the Stones give way to the blues and Sacco’s style, slowly evolving away from its Crumb-inspired origins, is completely given over to the realistic portrayals of the Fat Possum blues stable. T-Model Ford, R.L. Burnside and Paul Jones are all lovingly depicted, with Sacco taking a backseat in order to give his audience a brief look at the lives of these legends.
Joe Sacco freely admits that the pieces of But I Like It are not amongst his best, but they nevertheless provide insight into one of our favourite industries. |
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