A harrowing tale of finding one's self in the midst of social upheaval and injustice, Stuck Rubber Baby draws strong parallels between the struggles of the minority in the past and the present. Filled with a memorable cast living in a town polarized by issues of race and sexuality, SRB may take place in the 60s, but it certainly has something to say about the present day.
Toland Polk is a young man of no great ambitions. Though he's intelligent enough to attend college, he's content working at the local gas station, and enjoys a relatively responsibility-free existence. Though he has recently lost both parents in a car crash, he suffers no ongoing trauma or depression related to this event. His life is largely unremarkable, until the day he meets Ginger.
While Toland and his best friends Riley and Mavis have fairly progressive ideas about race and sexuality, these issues really have little effect on their lives. They live in a large, very conservative southern town, seemingly untouched by the Civil Rights Movement. Two events spell out big change for Toland: first he meets Sammy, Mavis' childhood friend, a sailor fresh out of the Navy and the first openly gay man that Toland has met. Sammy takes it upon himself to expose them to the "seedy underbelly" of their town, an experience that includes visiting parties at the local gay bar and a club primarily for blacks. It seems that Sammy has many friends in these circles, and Toland, Mavis, and Riley quickly become friendly with the new crowd. It is at one such party that Toland meets Ginger, a student at the local college and an advocate for racial equality. The pair quickly begin to date, and as the Civil Rights movement begins to gain momentum in their corner of the world, Toland becomes immersed in issues he never before gave thought to.
More and more Toland finds himself separate from him own town and community, an "extremist" championing a cause that isn't even his own. Or is it? As the violence and injustice escalate, Toland is forced to turn an introspective eye on himself, and come to terms with identity issues long repressed.
This was a breathtaking graphic novel. Toland is so human, shielding himself in a bubble of normalcy in order to cope with the fear of being different. The sense of conflict within him, between safety and honesty, emotion and reality, responsibility and freedom, is superbly done, and you find yourself wonder what you would do in his place. SRB was instantly engrossing, I read it from start to finish in one 3 hours sitting. In scope and writing skill, it is on par with great novel, graphic or otherwise. The art is painstaking, a real labor of love. For a person who's interested in cultural changes of the '60s, SRB is a gem.
Too many realistic fiction graphic novels get lost in day-to-day minutiae, almost forgetting that they're supposed to be telling a story! Realism should not equal boring. Too many interesting things have happened throughout history for that. So, I salute Stuck Rubber Baby for being a shining example of what a realistic graphic novel should be. In short, just read it!
No comments:
Post a Comment