How to Make Money Like a Porn Star (Paperback)

by Neil Strauss (Author), Bernard Chang (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Strauss's first graphic novel—named after his Jenna Jameson collaboration How to Make Love Like a Porn Star—could be called a well-intentioned failure if its intentions weren't so hateful. A desperately unfunny satire of the porn industry, it follows the rise and fall of generic skin-flick queen Claudia Corvette through a convoluted time line littered with guns, knives, violent perverts, fiendish Middle Eastern types and breast implants. Strauss's plot makes almost no sense, and it's soggy with insiderish gags, rape jokes and sneering contempt for every one of his characters, whether they're the (inevitably venal) producers or (inevitably pathetic) consumers of pornography. Whenever the story threatens to develop some parodic bite, he spoils it with a batch of fizzled gags or, worse, overwrought scenes of degrading violence. The book runs through a catalogue of formal tricks, letting Chang cleverly switch his art style scene by scene—there's a "Dark Knight"–style video-screen montage, a big-head comic strip, some spoofs of X-rated video boxes, a mangafied high school scene, a mock centerfold, a sketched-out storyboard for a movie and (naturally) a whole lot of slick titillation. But even Chang's versatility and smooth, graceful line can't clarify the book's garbled storytelling or redeem its ugly attitude. (Oct.)
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Review
"For anyone who fantasizes about or romanticizes the industry of pornography, the resulting comic is like a cold shower." (Kirkus Reviews )

"This is it: The best graphic novel of 2006....scathing, profoundly honest...An instant, post-modern classic." (Todd David Schwartz, CBSTodd David Schwartz, CBSTodd David Schwartz, CBS )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: It Books (September 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060884053
• ISBN-13: 978-0060884055
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #122,084 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How Not to Write a Graphic Novel, August 6, 2007

By	Andrew Shaffer "www.PrintisUndead.com" (Davenport, Iowa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After reading Strauss's riveting Jenna Jameson autobiography (How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale), I thought that I'd find something of value in this companion graphic novel. Not the case, unfortunately. The "plot" here is barely cohesive and, quite frankly, disgusting (the main character, a gun-wielding porn star, is kidnapped and raped by her own brother...). Some reviewers have called this book "laugh outloud funny." Maybe if you're in junior high, all of the naked boobies will make you giggle? While I give Strauss's Jameson autobiography my highest marks, this book is at the other end of the spectrum.

27 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Quite a Departure from The Game.., September 26, 2006

By	StraightRazr.com: A Comprehensive Lifestyle C... (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I had a chance to sneak peek some of the contents of the book before its release (he released various portions on some private BBs), and was quite surprised at the departure in content from previous material he's released.

Though in a way, I guess I shouldn't be.

Strauss has a writing style/persona that gives him the best of both worlds - to roam among the world he observes and writes of while never quite being OF it himself - able to distance himself from the subject matter, stay above the fray, to remain professionally unscathed.

It worked, to a point, in his last book, The Game. Though strange to some observers - the undertone of that book read like a morality play, and yet he went on to teach and discuss pickup techniques in mainstream media outlets.

I'm not sure he will remain as unscathed with this release. Already the book's subject matter - juvenille at best, (a graphic novel with the artwork done by Bernard Chang, who's work added visual affect in The Game), a patronizing insult at worst - his bifurcation simply doesn't hold up this time around.

Like Pete Townsend's lame claim that he posessed child pornography 'for research purposes,' trying to convince us that this is a high-minded expose squeezed in between silly, obnoxious artwork and titilating characters simply doesn't wash.

Reminds me of those cheesy late night programs on cable TV, showcasing rude/crude sex acts in the form of a documentary. Be a man; pick your path.

Most should see right through it. Save your money and pass.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Somebody's Going to Make Money from This, but it's Not You, October 28, 2006

By	John O. Espinoza (Bay Area, CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"How to Make Money Like a Porn Star" is a rich concept, but poorly executed. The origin of this idea comes from Neil Strauss' interactions with porn stars from his Jameson project, who all shared their heart-wrenching stories to him as how they came into the idustry. Apparently, he rolled them all into one character, Claudia Corvette. The trouble is the Corvette character becomes more archetypical than fresh--her story (the road to the porn industry, not after) as sad as it may be, is nothing any viewer of "Dateline" (or other journalistic programming) doesn't already know, or can't already guess.

If Strauss set off to show us an unimaginiable underbelly to the pornography industry, he overcompensated with such an over-the-top plot. It is difficult to distinguish between what a porn starlett suffered through, or what is the creation of Strauss' imagination. Would a sultan train women in sexual technique for his harem? Yeah, probably. Could a women crunch a man's penis with her kegel muscles? Maybe. Could there be a "family reunion" as coincidental as this book's ending? I don't know. And what about Corvette's mother planting a butcher knife in a 3rd grader? I would place my money on this actually being fiction, so why wouldn't we believe the rest is also?

Bernard Chang's artwork and diverse styles shines through here, considering the script he had to work with--too fast-paced, sloppy flashbacks, and confusing backstory (Was the "Body Shop" a strip bar or really an autobody shop?).

Not all is lost though. Strauss' stength comes in the mock advertising inserted between acts. The "Porn Nuts" comic strips in the book are gems, particularly "Dirty Laundry" and "Scarred for Life." I would have preferred a "Porn Nuts" collection instead of "How to Make Money."

This is a work of satire, though the themes and messages in the graphic novel would have benefitted from a realistic approach. This would have meant a longer project, and more characterization (The reader feels distant from the characters). Otherwise, it is what it is--satire and fiction.

If you're a fanboy or a Style-monger, then go ahead and make the purchase. If you're not, borrow a copy for half an hour.