'85 [Paperback]

Danny Simmons (Author), Floyd Hughes (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 5, 2008

Inspired by the widely praised novel Three Days as the Crow Flies, Danny Simmons and Floyd Hughes present a richly illustrated graphic novel set in the gritty underworld of New York City circa 1985 -- a time and place when street culture and the fine arts scene came together in strange and often predatory ways.

Crow, a junky and the son of a deceased police officer, steals a few paintings from his friend Danny, which he hopes to sell and make a few dollars off of to pay his landlord and cop some powder. Before he knows it, he's drawn into the surreal dreamland of "do-as-you-please," a hazy, hedonistic world of sex, drugs, and cold-blooded commerce. Filled with evocative black-and-white imagery and crackling with authentic, street-smart dialogue, Simmons and Hughes capture and bring to life this haunting urban tale.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Simmons (Three Days as the Crow Flies), art dealer, poet, painter and denizen of New York's art world, tells a story of the seductive sex and drugs scene in New York in the capitalistic 1980s. Brooklyn hustler Crow just needs enough money to buy some drugs. So he steals a few paintings from his friend and tries to make a quick sale to tourists in Washington Square Park. Much to his surprise, he is discovered by a chic art dealer who wants to sell not just Crow's paintings but his rough, primitive image. Crow feels a bit of guilt at the ruse, but ignores even that when he meets a luscious art groupie. Over a down-the-rabbit-hole few days, Crow takes full advantage of the name-dropping, posturing, hipster art lovers to get as much sex and drugs as he can before his theft is revealed. The psychedelic drawings lovingly portray New York's freaky side, showing a variety of characters from a straight drag queen to an eccentrically bohemian patroness. After 60 pages of over-the-top indulgence, this comic stumbles when it tacks on a Frank Capra–style moral epiphany at the end. As a portrait of a hedonistic lifestyle, this comic is a triumph, but as a morality lesson it leaves a lot to be desired. (Feb.)
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About the Author

Danny Simmons, a renowned painter of abstract-expressionist oil works, owns the Rush Arts Gallery in Manhattan and Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn. A poet and cofounder of the Def Poetry Jam performance series, he heads the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation with his brother, Russell Simmons. He lives in Brooklyn.

Born in the East End of London, England, of Guyanese parents, Floyd Hughes has been a professional artist and writer working in illustration, film, television, fine art, music, and, of course, comics since 1980. He is an associate professor at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, where he has taught since 1997.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books; Original edition (February 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743297814
• ISBN-13: 978-0743297813
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,169,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A little too self-reflective for its own good, September 7, 2011

By 

Tim Lieder "Founder of Dybbuk Press" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: '85 (Paperback)

Danny Simmons certainly knows about the 80s art world and he uses this tale to make some very clear points about the racism and the dirtier-than-thou aesthetics of that time period when contrasted with the actual danger of the Lower East Side. However, his tour guide through the art world is Crow, a junky and thief (although we don't get to see much drug use on his part) who talks like a blaxploitation character. Dialogue is hard and it's not always easy to make a character sound natural, but I wonder if Simmons is even trying. Crow spends most of his time being insulted by white art dealers or freaking out over transvestites. Instead of an amoral creep, he's a blank slate for Danny Simmons to show the story of the art world.

The story is pretty simple. Crow steals his friend's painting and instead of selling it on the street corner, he ends up getting noticed by art curators. For three days he rises in the art world to the point where they are holding showings and selling his painting. He sees many people in the art world and they tell him their perspectives.

What makes this title interesting is Danny Simmmons' strange decision to place himself in the narrative. He is the friend who is being stolen from. His cousin is Russel Simmons who shows up at one point to decry the lack of black representation in the art world itself - which is a roundabout plug for his galleries. Although the narrative itself feels false, the actual people and galleries is most likely genuine and even if it's a guided tour through 80s art scene, the tour is fascinating in its own right.

1.0 out of 5 stars Kindle Edition - forget it, March 10, 2011

By 

ASHG (Niedersachsen) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: '85 (Kindle Edition)

Kindle in general appears to be useless for graphic novels, unless Amazon decides to deliver them in MUCH higher resolution. With this issue, you get stamp-sized pages, which, if you magnify them, are so low-res that it is virtually impossible to read the text. Other users have filed similar complaints about other GN.
I would strongly advise against buying ANY graphic novel for the Kindle until Amazon has fixed this problem.

5.0 out of 5 stars Such a Powerful and Evocative Tale, November 24, 2009

By 

GraphicNovelReporter.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: '85 (Paperback)

Crow Shade, a junkie and a thief, is our guide to this tour of the Manhattan art scene during the Reagan years. As the book opens, Crow has just stolen some art from his friend Danny's apartment. Danny is a talented painter, and Crow has the idea of selling his works on the street to get some money for rent and drugs. He passes the paintings off as his own and gets his first taste of the bizarre bohemia of the art world.

A friend introduces Crow to the beautiful Candy, who agrees to represent his artwork. This is the time of rampant street art, mixed in with a pre-Giuliani cleaning of the city, and Simmons and Hughes have a lot of fun making sure they recreate the scene in '85. The city comes alive in all its hedonistic, savage glory, a debaucherous cauldron of earthly delights and decadences. But Crow is no stranger to the city's seedy underbelly himself, even if he comes at it from the less rarefied air of Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuy. All in all, he spends just three days there, but it's enough to send him on a new path in life. In three days, he manages to go from art thief to artist, and the luck that has gotten him this far in life manages to pull him somewhere new and unexpected.

Crow as a protagonist is tough to dislike, even though he gives you so many reasons to resist him. He's a con and a cheat, but he's honest about his dishonesty, in his own way. The son of a police officer who committed suicide in the early '70s, he's engaging for his flawed view on life, his sense of entitlement and his offbeat ethical side, which still manages to shine through. He's no role model, and this is no morality play--but still he's someone with a nature that is imminently relatable.

Simmons and Hughes have based '85 on Simmons's novel Three Days as the Crow Flies, but familiarity with that previous work isn't needed to enjoy '85--although maybe a crash helmet is. It's a rocky landing back in time nearly a quarter of a century, but Simmons and Floyd capture it all well. Making your way on the streets of New York in 1985 was hardly easy, and there's no reason a book about it should be any less tough. That it's such a powerful and evocative tale is an extra treat.

-- John Hogan