Customer Reviews

The Boulevard of Broken Dreams

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One of the very best comic stories I've ever read. The art is amazing. The layouts from page to page are staggering in their creativity. The story itself is meshed so much with historical elements from early animation that you don't know where the fiction begins. The story is quite compelling, and very dark. Reads like non-fiction, if it were possible. This book will stay with you long after you put it down. Highest recommendation for anyone, comic fan or not.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams is a fascinating comic about the steady decline of an animator named Ted and the industry into which he breathed new life. An animation company of the '30s era creates "Waldo the Cat" shorts, but with the rise of Disney, the company tosses originality in favor of the cutesy watered-down style that has become so popular. New bosses, scandal, and tragedy rides the degradation of the cartoons all the way into the '90s. And all the while, Ted is tormented by hallucinations of the cartoon cat he created. This is the twisted story that Deitch has woven.

And it's a good one, to be sure. From Ted's mind springs a popping, psychedelic world brimming with confusion and madness. While Ted is engulfed by his delusions, the people around him, his shifty brother Al, his uncertain romantic interest Lillian, and the aging great Winsor Newton all face the harsh realities of a business that loses its heart. The story makes references to classic animators, so cartoon history buffs can enjoy a few in-jokes. Tension and mystery abound, and it's a wonderful story for those who understand alienation or like a bit of bizarro reading.

Sometime when I was in university and looking for a break from the dense and exhausting curriculum of the English major I wandered into the on-campus comic store and bought the thickest book available. That was "Bone: One Volume Edition" by Jeff Smith and since then I've been like a junkie. I'd discovered this intricate, wonderful, seemingly bottomless world of art, that I was, until now, totally ignorant of. And beginning with D.C.'s Vertigo imprint, I was slowly initiated into the society of Comic Geek. We're supposed to call them "Graphic Novels" now so that they can be reviewed by the likes of "Time Magazine" and allow the critics to give a guilt free review of kid's stuff in the latest issue. Well whatever, however society chooses to embrace this art I'm just glad the age of "by a minority for a minority" has passed.

Which brings us to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Kim Deitch. I had never heard of this book before I bought it, nor had I heard of Kim Deitch or Waldo the Cat. I had heard good things, though, about this book and as I flipped though it I thought it looked a bit like R. Crumb and imagined it as some sort of surreal pseudo-psychedelic nightmare detailing repressed sexuality and high-school embarrassments. That was what I thought. What I found was a wonderfully intricate and ambitious story that jumped through time and chronicled the various lives of the people affected by the insanity of Waldo, the epitome of creative idealism.

What's great about this book, and why it would appeal to anyone interested in modern art or animation is that at its core it's about the integration of the artist into The Machine. The artist's work is praised then decried then bastardized; it's reborn and sold as kitsch then condemned as a sell out. It's about the struggle of a vision to be told; of a dream to be remembered. It echoes, in many respects, the struggles of Max Fleischer and deals with the impact of the Comics Code Authority and the general, let's not say "Disney-fication" let's just say "Cute-ificaton" of comics. The marketing of a developing art; the loss of control of a dream... the birth of a nightmare...

This is a brilliant book with an involved and fascinating story. Every page is crowded with art, characters break through their frames; a light from one panel illuminates another. But more than that this story fits into a continuum of art. It marks the progress of a past age and comments on the popularity of the current one. I think all comics are inherently meta-fictional but this one combines the feverish artistic impulse with the need to sell in a way that is unique to this form of art.

I encourage anyone who's made it this far in the review to read it. It's wonderful. And Waldo, well - he'll haunt you. He'll be there the next time you strike out in front of a girl or say the wrong thing to your boss. Oh yes, he'll be there, and he'll laugh and laugh and laugh and -

Kim Deitch is one of the great "underground" cartoonists, one of the artists whose groundbreaking work in the sixties and early seventies broke taboos against adult subject matter in comics. His work, though, always stood apart from that of contemporaries R. Crumb, Jack Jackson, Richard Corben and others. First, his visual style was never an attempt to mimic reality. It has always been, for lack of a better term, "cartoony". Second, though sex, drugs and rock `n' roll figure in his comics, they're usually in service of an actual story.

Deitch's best-known character is Waldo, a cat, and Waldo is a featured character in the graphic novel, Boulevard of Broken Dreams. The book is a thinly-disguised history of animation focusing on artist Ted Mishkin's slow decline as Disney comes to dominate the industry. Deitch's art is astounding. He's one of the few comics artists who can bring the qualities of animation to the printed page. At first his art appears crude and one-dimensional. But as you look at it you realize there's so much more going on than talking heads in front of a sparse background.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams is a fascinating comic about the steady decline of an animator named Ted and the industry into which he breathed new life.

erf aka Jon Backderf has a talent for depicting people at their crazy obsessive best. His comic My Friend Dahmer / Young Jeffrey Dahmer was a classic in the genre of books with the theme of "should have known" while his book about the Cleveland bar where his friends would go in high school to see all the new wave and punk acts is memorable for the way it captures the sheer energy and enthusiasm that comes with find a place that is so outside your normal surroundings that it feels magical.

I mention Derf because Deitch has a similar style. A little cleaner with the lines and more classic as befits a story about a Disney-like animator who makes a living out of a cartoon cat that doubles as his evil imaginary friend. Ted is at times romantic, lost in his dreams, drunk and mentally ill. This story includes scenes of a vaudeville that never was (complete with elephants), animators hunched over their desks, mental illness, red baiting and the mysterious deaths that turn into legends or footnotes depending on how they happen. There's a love story in the middle of this tale between the animator and Lillian, a fellow animator unrecognized for her talents and at the mercy of the rest of the men who use her, forget about her and in one case dies on her. She's not written as a slut thankfully so much as a woman who lives in a time when she's not really allowed to make the kind of bad choices she's making and still hold onto her career, reputation, etc. These two main characters don't exactly end up together because they are meant to be together (as implied by the opening when he's helping her with her animation while unwittingly talking about her affair with his brother) so much as they are the only two survivors after all this time and they come to each other as broken individuals that need to take care of each other.

However, I'm more impressed with the depiction of artists as craftsmen grinding out animation cells while creating some of most innovative art without realizing it. The story relies on the way this kind of grind can drive you crazy or make you even crazier and the cartoon cat only makes the whole thing that much more psychotic. In the art world, there are respected artists and great artists and often it takes death and nostalgia to merge the two.

It's got a great in-depth story. Wonderful drawings and just so unique. It's one of my favorite comics(not sure if graphic novel is the right word) of all time and I'd recommend it to anyone!

Kim Deitch is telling a deep and dark story of how the life of a comic artist turned out. As said, it's a dark story, not only because of the heavy black penciling but especially due to the story itself. The main carater is Waldo, the subconsciouns cat, poping up next to Ted - Teddy - the human lead carater in this graphic novel, providing him with different perspectives to life and occasionally advising him on what to do. A very rich multi-layer story which gains from being read, re-read and discussed with fellow comic book readers.

I picked this up for I was very excited in my new enjoyment of graphic novels, but when I read this from front to back in one day (not using that as a major complaint) I felt unfulfilled, and that I really wasted my time. The story seemed interesting but the play-out didn't do it for me, too bland and felt like it almost tried too hard.

The characters were flat, the only character I felt was really evaluated on was Waldo who was interesting, but still didn't reach what I saw as the potential he had. I think that basically sums up the book, doesn't live up to its potential.

Maybe it's just the change of times, and if I'd read this when it was first released, then I would've enjoyed it more, but this book really didn't do it for me.

Deitch's work was relevant in a different era, but today, it is as irrelevant as the music and silent movies he loves. It's superficially interesting, but ultimately flawed work. While he takes great care to show his knowledge of animation history, his lampooning of Walt Disney comes off as sour grapes.

Buy the book if you've got the money to throw away. You'll read it once and never pick it up again. It'll end up as a thrift store donation or a 25 cent item in your garage sale.

Better yet, buy something by Crumb or Spiegelman. After all these years, they're still creating fresh, engaging work, and you'll own an object that can be enjoyed with repeated readings.

Ultimately, Deitch is a one trick pony. Don't walk with him down this lonely road.