Customer Reviews

Why I Hate Saturn

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very impressive `talk-comic' in the style of `Strangers in Paradise' and "Box Office Poison', which I think is even better than the aforementioned titles. It's (mostly) about everyday life and all the views a society-critical person has on it, brought with subtle humor.

Main-character Anne is a columnist for some obscure magazine. While she makes her way through life she gets into all kinds of Seinfeld-esque situations, meaning she overanalyzes things we all come across so that everything gets to be a point of either insecurity or humor. Especially the do's and don'ts in relationships are points of discussion. Accompanied by Ricky, a guy who seems to have women all figured out and comes off as verbally unbeatable, she comes across things that are wrong with her (or at least she thinks so), men, and not being able to do anything without valid I.D. And as if her life isn't troubled enough her seemingly crazy sister comes to live with her, claiming she's the `Queen of the Leather Astro-Girls of Saturn'...

One of the best things I've read in a while ... and I do read pretty variable. A smart, well-written continuation of dialogues with many moments that make you think `been there'. The good-looking art is black-and-white with a tone of gray. It's best considered as a cross between Bachalo's art (Death: High Cost of Living) and Sale's (The Long Halloween). Also, the art is nowhere interrupted by text-balloons. All the dialoguing is written under each panel instead of in it. This book is not for those who're looking for an action-packed story with art blowing of the pages, but for those who're into witty dialogues and slightly sarcastic views on everyday life it's one of the best choices you can make.

I'm not going to tell you what I think of this book. Or rather I am, but not in the usual I-love- this-book sort of way. I first read this book when my ex-girlfriend made me read it as a "growth experience." Several years later I saw it at a comics convention and immediately purchased this fine pulp product. I then lent it to one of the local ultra-hip coffee house vixens, who promptly dropped off of the face of the earth, never to be seen agian. I'm sure these two events are completely unrealated. Needless to say,I've been searching for it (and her) ever since.

I have never read a comic like this before. Most Vertigo books seem to have an Alan Moore feel to it, but this is completely different! Funny comics tend to be silly, surreal or corny, but this isn't! Its firmly grounded in the real world, despite its strange title, except for an unrealistic ending.
The story follows a New York columnist's quest to find herself and her relationship with her sister. It doesn't sound like much, but trust me, you'll love it. Some parts of it actually had me laughing out lound, no easy feat.

I have liked his art for a long time, but this is my first exposure to Kyle Baker as a writer and I am impressed. There are no flashy fight scenes or splash pages or anything like that. Although the art is pleasant, the book is carried on the strength of the writing alone... no gimmicks whatsover.

It took Amazon four weeks to locate a copy of this brilliant, eccentric totally insane masterpiece from Kyle Barker. GET IT NOW, before they run out. Witty, insightful, and brimming with rude (but brutally honest) observations about the world we live in -- blessed with some of the snappiest writing I've ever seen. WARNING: Do not read in public places -- you will earn annoyed stares from strangers as you try and contain your laughter from one or another bizzare passage.

"I hate abusing women, but it beats the alternatives." -- Ricky

This is really lots of fun, a book you'll wanna talk about with your friends. From the physical perspective, it's a very nice comic book, one of the coolest ones published by Vertigo in the 90s. Kyle Baker is responsible for both the argument and the drawings, which are specially expressive. The text that supports it all is absolutelly solid - catchy, funny, as intelligent as all good humour manifestations should be. The characters' somehow orthodox view on the modern society, the groupies' tendencies, interpersonal relashionships (love, sex, friendship, family) is f*** surreal, yet very centered and amazingly logical, and the whole development of the story leads to unexpected, delightful happenings which aren't as important as the dialogues in the middle of it all. It's hard to begin it and not to finish it in one take. Try it and you'll love Saturn.

This is the ideal book to read after a breakup, which is odd because it doesn't deal with breakups much. It's pithy observations on life as told by Anne, an alcoholic writer for a Details-esque magazine in New York who gets involved in all kinds of adventures because of her sister, Laura (who thinks she's from Saturn). There's a punchline at the end of every page, but the book isn't just superficial fluff. Very much worth reading - why hasn't he written anything since

My husband and I have a rather respectable graphic novel library, so when I say this is one of my favorite graphic novels, that means something. This is one of the ones I will loan to other people in an effort to convert those who think that comics are just for kids. "Why I Hate Saturn" is flat out funny. It is a difficult balance to create something that is witty, a bit snarky, and yet has characters that you are actually interested in. Kyle Baker has pull it off.

I'd been reading comics for nearly twenty years when I first read Why I Hate Saturn back in the early 1990s. Shortly after that, I stopped reading comics because I felt I would never read anything better within the medium. It took me nearly ten years to return to comics, and to this day, I still feel Why I Hate Saturn ranks among the best the medium has to offer.

Kyle Baker, Why I Hate Saturn (Vertigo, 1990)

Kyle Baker is one of the granddaddies of the American graphic novel movement; one only has to look back at Why I Hate Saturn, published eighteen years ago, to see that. Now that the graphic novel has become a much more accepted medium, it's time for us all to go back and check out Baker's work and see that literature-quality graphic novels have been there for us all along; we just didn't realize it.

The story: neurotic New York hipster's life is taken over when her crazy sister, who believes herself to be from Saturn, moves in claiming someone is attempting to kill her. Things get weird when neurotic New York hipster realizes that, perhaps, the "someone trying to kill her" bit is not all in the sister's head.

It can get a little on the talky side now and again, but that doesn't affect the story's pace, which is frenetic in a sort of lazy way, and Baker's characters are exquisitely rendered from a psychological perspective; seemingly shallow, but there's a lot there to explore. It helps, of course, that the book is laugh-out-loud funny more often than one might expect. This one's a keeper. ****

A fun read. The main character (who is the least self-aware of the bunch) is set as the observer which makes for a style of story telling that feels very chaotic and random but yet really works well. The artwork is great.....very frenetic but also very playful.