WHY I HATE SATURN

"Why I Hate Saturn," the first edition by Kyle Baker, is a clever and engaging graphic novel that combines sharp humor with a distinct artistic style, making it a unique addition to the comic genre. Its scarcity adds to its allure, attracting collectors and readers who appreciate innovative storytelling and wit. Baker's work showcases his talent in crafting a narrative that is both entertaining and thought-provoking, establishing him as a noteworthy creator in the comic book world.

Baker being a tremendously skilled artist, can mix illustration styles as easily as any of his contemporaries, like Bill Sienkiewicz, but prefers to put his efforts into telling the story in the least flashy way. He keeps his layouts simple, and concentrates on filling each frame with expressive characterization, superbly rendered body language and very funny drawings that are beautifully pared down while still dynamic. Unlike a lot of other comics creators, Baker also has excellent design skills, and he chose not to use speech balloons in Why I Hate Saturn and instead placed all the text in captions beneath the images. It’s a device not used much since the days of Prince Valiant and Rupert The Bear, but it has the effect of opening up the images and making you pay attention to the characters’ faces. The final piece of his formidable arsenal of talents is an ability to write hilarious dialogue. Anne, Rick and Laura feel like believable characters and their casually funny and mean conversations pull you in with a zippy rat-a-tat pace that makes every page quotable. The two protagonists, Anne and Rick are late twenty-something writers in New York City. Petite, big-haired Anne is a columnist for a lifestyle magazine and a borderline alcoholic drowning her insecurities in booze, while Rick is an artist dissatisfied with most of the options open to him as an intelligent, sophisticated young black man who isn’t a street kid. The two spend most of their time trading very funny quips with each other in bars around the Lower East Side until Anne’s sister Laura arrives to interfere with her carefully numb and chaotic lifestyle by injecting some real emotion into it. But if Laura is so mentally unstable that she believes herself to be ‘Queen of the Leather Astro-Girls of Saturn’, then how come she seems to be in many ways more together than Anne? Out of Print. Condition: Fine. Slight edge wear and bumped corners.