From Publishers Weekly
From the pages of the venerable comics institution Love and Rockets come 11 stories that loosely revolve around the emotional and sexual misadventures of psychoanalyst, sci-fi fanatic, and heroically voluptuous grade-Z film star Rosalba Fritz Martinez. Originally a minor character in Hernandez's expansive Palomar universe, Fritz doesn't exactly take center stage in her own book, either. In fact, we're introduced to our ostensible heroine as merely the fourth of world-famous motivational speaker Mark Herrera's six wives. The ensuing leaps in chronology and POV can be jarring for those not familiar with Hernandez's episodic style (not to mention the daunting mythology built up over 25-plus years of
Love and Rockets), but the stories' offbeat humor and manic sexual energy make the adjustment more than worthwhile. Fritz's hypersexuality, bizarre fetishes, rampant vanity, and burgeoning alcoholism provide many of the volume's finest comic moments, but the ample sex on view is rarely sexy. Rather, the characters' libidinous pursuits are tied into an affecting strain of loneliness and regret that pervades even the most outlandish panels. Add to that Hernandez's characteristically thick, expressive line and character design that owes an acknowledged debt to Archie comics, and the result is a charmingly incongruous, occasionally titillating collision of poignancy and pulp.
(Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“This book is incredible... The world in this book is one I wouldn’t want to live in but I can’t stop thinking about the story of Fritz.” (Nick Gazin -
Vice )
“
High Soft Lisp has its share of tender moments and tragic ones, although it’s relatively buoyant with humor throughout. ... This is the stuff of soap operas, minus the melodrama.
Lisp comes loaded with palpable emotions and heaps of honesty, even amid a cartoony backdrop.” (Rod Lott -
Bookgasm )
“Without a trace of sentimentality, Tardi's richly detailed and grimly rendered vignettes depict the horror, illness, cruel manipulations, and stupidity of this giant black spot in human history.” (Mark Frauenfelder -
Boing Boing )
“
High Soft Lisp is brief, razor-sharp and ferocious, a black-hole-black Almodovaresque comedy about a self-destructive, sexually obsessive actress/psychiatrist and her ex-husband, an over-the-hill motivational speaker.” (Douglas Wolk -
TIME/Techland )
“The most riveting, chilling graphic novel I've read so far this year... a great, shockingly dark piece of work.” (Douglas Wolk -
Comics Alliance )
“The quality of Hernandez's cartooning is unassailable. … It's not for nothing that Gilbert Hernandez is considered one of the greatest cartoonists alive.” (Jason Michelitch -
Comics Alliance )
“The... leaps in chronology and POV can be jarring for those not familiar with Hernandez's episodic style..., but the story's offbeat humor and manic sexual energy make the adjustment more than worthwhile.… a charmingly incongruous, occasionally titillating collision of poignancy and pulp.” (
Publishers Weekly )
“Hernandez treads familiar turf to produce work of undeniable power.” (
Entertainment Weekly )
“Ultimately, ...despite the refreshing sexual frankness that Hernandez proceeds with, there is much sadness and heartbreak throughout. ...[O]ne wonders if the lingering bittersweetness at the end makes more sense in middle age, than it would in youth... Good stuff, of course.” (Mark London Williams -
The SF Site: Nexus Graphica )
