Stuffed! [Paperback]

Glenn Eichler (Author), Nick Bertozzi (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

When Tim and his wife inherit his father's museum of curiosities and find therein a taxidermied African warrior ("The Savage" -- or so the museum's placard labels him), Tim's quiet suburban life starts spiraling out of control.  In this dark comedy about family, race, and politics, Glenn Eichler and Nick Bertozzi explore what's buried under the surface of middle-class America. 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The first graphic novel written by The Colbert Report's Eichler is a light comedy about racism, with a hint of retooled movie proposal about it. It concerns a pair of half-brothers—square family man Tim Johnston and a spaced-out, trepanned loose cannon who calls himself Free—whose inheritance of their father's museum of curiosities includes the preserved, stuffed body of an African man in a loincloth and bone necklace, holding the remnants of a spear. Naturally, they want to get rid of the Warrior, as Tim prefers to call him—but getting rid of human remains turns out not to be as easy as driving them to a museum. Naturally, all kinds of uncomfortable associations about race and history burble up. Naturally, hijinks ensue. Bertozzi's artwork—a slightly cruder, much less detailed variation on the look of his graphic novel The Salon—unobtrusively whisks the story along; there's also a nuttier, bolder style for a series of dream sequences in which the Warrior becomes the focal point for all of Tim's anxieties. Even when the plot seems a little too formulaic (will everyone learn something by the end?), Eichler's crisp, snappy dialogue keeps it percolating. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Tim, a health-care administrator, is struggling to get along. He’s determined not to be the kind of father his father was, and he provides his wife and daughter with the kind of stability that wasn’t available to him. When Tim’s father dies, Tim is left to find his half-brother Free, an ex-hippie still living a hippie lifestyle, and to settle his father’s estate. While rummaging through his father’s things, Tim comes across “the Savage,” a life-size statue of an African that used to frighten him when he was a child. Tim is intent on donating the statue to a museum, but his plans go awry when he learns that the statue is really a taxidermically treated African man. His efforts also bring closure to his relationship with Free. Eichler has provided a thought-provoking morality play that Bertozzi realizes in claustrophobic, effectively colored illustrations that echo Tim’s confusion. Not to be missed. --Stephen Weiner

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: First Second (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596433086
• ISBN-13: 978-1596433083
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,847,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars OK but lacking, October 19, 2011

By 

Andy Shuping (Macon, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stuffed! (Paperback)

Tim, a health-care administrator, gets a call one day that his father has had a setback and is in the hospital. Which surprises Tim, since he didn't know that his dad was sick. Dad quickly passes and Tim is left to care for the estate, such as it is, and find his missing half-brother Free. The estate mostly consists of the museum of the weird....of which the most notable pieces is "the Savage," a life sized African warrior. Tim wants to donate the statue, but is stunned when he finds out its a really taxidermied African man! Tim and Free set out on a journey to right wrongs and ensure that the "the Savage" finds a proper home at long last.

To be honest I'm not quite sure what the overall theme of the story is supposed to be. It mixes together so many different themes--brothers reconnecting, brothers overcoming screwed up family, coming to terms with absent father, racism, life, death--that I'm not sure which one is supposed to come out on top. I think part of the problem is that the author has so many different ideas of what he wants to cover that he tries to cram it all into a relatively short book. If it was something longer or done over a series of books then that many different themes might work, but as it is it just feels jumbled together in some places. Which is a bad since parts of the story are decent, such as Tim trying to do the right thing with the African man, but overall the mix of themes just don't quite work. I think if it had left out the brother component the overall story would have worked a bit better.

The artwork isn't bad. They do an excellent job of capturing the human form and capturing the expressions of the character so you can almost image that they're real people. You can see their anger, their exasperation with the turn of events and so on. Even the stuffed warrior is drawn in such a way that it looks real, but without being to fear inducing. In a few places they've overused the black line, such as on page 45 where Tim suddenly looks like he has two black eyes. It's a bit weird considering that in the rest of the book they do an excellent job of creating semi-realistic colors.

I don't want to sound so down on the story, but taken as a whole it doesn't quite work well together. If you see the book at your local library go ahead and pick it up to read, but it wouldn't be one that I'd recommend to buy for your selves at home.

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent but Not Great, September 7, 2010

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stuffed! (Paperback)

The editors at First Second are pretty consistent at putting out interesting graphic stories, so I try and pick up whatever they publish, regardless of the content. Here, the story is a rather strange take on the theme of sons trying to come to terms with their difficult father. Tim is a middle-aged professional with a wife and kid, leading a regular middle-class life. When his estranged abusive father dies, Tim and his hippy-dippy nomadic brother inherit their father's museum of odd artifacts. One of these is an eerie life-size statue of an African man clad in some kind of pseudo-traditional costume. It used to terrify Tim as a child, but as an adult he wonders if it has historical value, and decides to donate it to a museum.

From here, wacky complications ensue as (A) the true nature of the statue is revealed, and (B) Tim's estranged free-spirit brother shows up to throw a spanner in the works. The story that follows attempts to handle issues of race with a light comic touch, and for the most part is successful. The thread of Tim and his brother trying to reestablish their relationship and come to terms with their dead father tends to veer into more cliched turf. In fact, the whole thing has the feel of a formulaic comedy -- think Paul Rudd or Ben Stiller in the Tim role, with someone like Jack Black playing the brother with a self-trepannation wound. It's all perfectly entertaining as you go, but unlikely to leave much of a last impression.

The artwork is perfectly pitched -- realistic enough to work with the material, but not overly so, with some good sequences into anxiety-induced nightmares. As with all First Second books, the color work is very nice and the production values are top-notch. Overall, worth checking out if it's sitting around, but probably not something to go out of your way to get a hold of.