GRAPHIC NOVELS

Bad Gateway

Fantagraphics. Aug. 2019. 176p. ISBN 9781683962076. $29.99. Rated: Mature. Tr. f
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Witch Megg and cat Mogg are perpetually broke, eternally stoned lovers and roommates who drift through life, completely incapable of getting their acts together. Early in this fourth volume of their latest exploits, Megg takes desperate action to avoid losing her welfare benefits, while Mogg is forced to hunt for a job after his father cuts him off following the discovery of his secret Tumblr account. Later, they spend a day wandering around with their friend Werewolf Jones, looking for someone willing to buy an old pair of Megg’s roller blades so they can afford drugs. Their misadventures begin hysterically funny but turn increasingly dark as their actions become more transparently self-destructive, climaxing with a flashback to their teenage years and revelations about Megg’s mother that highlight the tragic origins of her inability to cope with reality.
VERDICT Hanselmann (One More Year) is a phenomenally talented, internationally renowned cartoonist who switches between laugh-out-loud absurdist humor and startlingly raw scenes of extreme sadness from one panel to the next, and this is his finest, funniest, and most mature work to date
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