Customer Reviews

But I Like It

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Joe Sacco mentioned that there's no such thing as a sacco completist but here i am, i'm a sacco completist and i'm proud of it. i'm just one book away from collecting all his books. This book is really funny the art is great and the additional stuff added like the tour sketches and the CD is very very lovely. I just don't recommend this to be your first Sacco book to read as it might give u the wrong impression about his work. i loved palestine and its one of my favorite books and i just got safe area gorazde and i know i'll love it. What is really good about this book really that it shows u some of the personal things about sacco the artist and sacco the person. How he suffered to reach what he has reached now. How he tried to do stuff with his art, not to focus much on the rock n roll industry though his opinions are quite interesting. He's got a great sense of humour i cracked up on several occasion whilst reading. Great work sacco, looking for more from you.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm eventually going to contradict myself at least once if not several more times in this review, but I both love and loathe this semi-offerring, if you will. I whole-heartedly admit to being what the author calls a "Sacco-completist," the type of person this book is specifically designed to cater to, but that didn't stop me from devouring it in one sitting, either. What I really enjoyed about But I Like It is Sacco's self-deprecating, sometimes morbid sense of humor yet sharp, sarcastic eye for the incongruities in life, which were on display much more so than in any of his previous offerrings. This type of collection could only be published when an author's popularity has reached a point where fans (like me, mind you) will salivate at the prospect of anything new and even vaguely Sacco-related - sort of like one of his one-page comics, The Record Collector. The inherent irony of the music industry Sacco portrays and his status as an artist in his own right is almost too much, however, it just may be my favorite thing about this book. The show posters are cool (I guess), the one-page pieces are great (no, really)...but seriously, Joe...sketches???

It's true that this book is full of sarcasm and cynicism; Sacco is obviously a young lad tossing himself about in the waters of life, trying to find himself. Why he jumped on-board to tag along with a rock band is inevitable, when one considers his overall lack of direction in his life (at that given point in time). Sacco's work is good, considering his age during the writing, and given his level of journalistic and comic achievement when he created But I Like It. I have read Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde; those are two highly different books in regard to But I Like It. I bought the book to include this peculiar work in an essay about Sacco that I am writing for a graphic novel class I'm taking. My overall opinion of But I Like It, is that it is a great book to read for those of you who have been in rock bands at one point or another in your life. I was in three rock bands when I was in my early twenties, and a lot of the material was predictable for me while reading the book. A few times, Joe's humor lends a sense of empathy for the guy; I have to say that I love Sacco's sense of humor, hidden as it may be throughout his work. If this book serves any purpose, it is to give the reader a peek into Joe Sacco's experience as a third-wheel while on the road with a rock band.

I checked this book out from the library becasue I like Joe Sacco. I like Joe Sacco's warmth and his artistic style. One of the things that I always use to recommend Sacco is the fact that I'm an unapologetic Zionist and yet I find his heavily biased Palestine: The Special Edition (Anniversary) to be a great work of art and I appreciate his attempt to give everyone a voice and discuss human foibles without falling into stereotypes.

So this awful thing is even more of a disappointment. It's basically a take down of everything in the music business from groupies to celebrities to rock critics. Every comic is mean-spirited and nasty without any of the empathy that would later characterize his works. There's one particularly amusing contradiction where he slams on "old rockers" and then has a series of comics about The Rolling Stones where he repeats his same "they're a bunch of fossils" attacks from the early comics at himself. Portrays himself as a crucified fanboy too. Of course, the Rolling Stones comics are from his current artistic phase and the old ones are from his snotty phase but neither comic is very interesting.

There are worse sins this thing commits including Sacco going wild with his "no borders" style without any of the control that would characterize later work and a lot of sketches to fill out the page count. But really, the main problem is that there's just nothing in this book that's not a series of snotty cartoons by a young cartoonist who just hates everyone. Also, he's basically doing the same shtick Peter Bagge did in Buddy Does Seattle (The Complete Buddy Bradley Stories from "Hate" Comics, Vol. I, 1990-94) but not nearly as funny. Ironically, Bagge is now doing political cartoons and while Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me: And Other Astute Observations is not nearly as mature or developed as Sacco's later works, he is still on the level. So Political Bagge is just as good as political Sacco (even though both have their distinct voices) but Seattle Hipster Sacco is worthy of kissing Seattle Hipster Bagge's backside.

Anyhow, just forget this comic. It's too expensive and even if you can get it for free, that's still a good 20-30 minutes that you won't get back.

I loved both "Palestine" and "Safe Area: Gorazde," but this compilation is a bit of a mess. You'll find a better and funnier snapshot of grunge-era rock and roll in Peter Bagge's "Hate" series.