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Everybody Is Stupid Except For Me And Other Astute Observations (2009)

by Peter Bagge(Favorite Author)

3.55 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1606991582 (ISBN13: 9781606991589)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Fantagraphics

review 1: I found this book while surfing Fantagraphics’ most recent catalogue. The title of this book pretty much sums up the content. Peter Bagge pretty much thinks everybody sucks except for himself. He is appropriately self-deprecating at times, but then it seems like he lets himself off the hook by citing laziness as his sin. He admits to being a Libertarian, yet he never really explains anything about what he actually believes in. He quickly pokes fun at every other political ideology without providing better alternatives. Most of his “political comics” consist of cheap caricatures of ideological extremists that he seems to think represent entire subsections of the American population. In his comic about attending an Iraq War protest, he picks on the easiest targets, and... more never seems to talk to a real human being. In the piece about sex conventions, he laughs at “alternative lifestyles” and while he stops at denouncing them, he hardly tries to see any good in them, or even explore them beyond their perceived absurdities.This book isn’t a lost cause, however. There are some really good pieces, like his personal tale of riding Amtrak, pointing out its inefficiencies and explaining why the government doesn’t cut the program. The comic about Christian rock exposes the hypocrisies of religion and how religious “values” shift with modern culture. The illustrations are good and get his point across, sometimes saying more than his words. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, but I also wouldn’t NOT recommend it. If you really want comics with a political bent, try Tom Tomorrow instead.
review 2: Bagge is a cartoonist I love from his work on Hate, and I liked this book a lot. I don't agree with all his premises, but he certainly makes libertarianism a lot more appealing than the nutbag Ron Paul does (BTW, he takes on Ron Paul in one of his pieces). He is critical of the left, critical of the right, and critical of himself, and that's I think ultimately why this collection works so well. He's funny, well-researched, and smart. Worth picking up. less

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