Entertainment feed
Local news e-mail
Mobile
Home
>
Entertainment
>
Theater & Arts
BOOK REVIEW
News-Sun writer’s first graphic novel inspired by failed bid at comic strip
Hot Topics
By Vick Mickunas,
Contributing Writer
3:09 PM Thursday, April 29, 2010
“The Legacy — a Graphic Novel” by Andrew McGinn and David Neitzke (DragonFish Comics, $10.95)
Andy McGinn grew up in a small town in Iowa. Every week a shipment of new comic books would arrive at the grocery store. If you wanted to keep current with the exploits of your favorite superheroes you had to be there when they arrived. Andy often was.
As he got older he stopped reading comic books. He went away to Morningside College in Sioux City where he met a kindred spirit, a fellow comic book lover named David Neitzke. Once again he began reading comics.
Over the last 10 years News-Sun readers have gotten to know Andy through his coverage of the entertainment scene. Regular readers appreciate his encyclopedic knowledge of music and his rather offbeat sense of humor.
Little did we know that McGinn has harbored secret aspirations. He wanted to create comics. A few years ago he decided to team up with his old buddy Neitzke to try to create a comic strip of their own with McGinn writing the story lines and Neitzke doing the artwork.
They called their comic strip “Monster on the Loose.” It featured a cast of classic monsters like Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman and the Loch Ness Monster. These monsters worked at regular jobs but often scared people. They submitted their idea to several companies that syndicate daily comic strips for newspapers.
It didn’t go well. They had not realized how tough it could be. McGinn described it: “The first rejection letter we got was two days after I’d mailed the packet ... that’s not even time for them to have read the thing.
To add insult to injury, it was a form letter, but it was a photocopy of a form letter.”
They could have just given up. The odds were certainly against them. But they regrouped instead. McGinn explained: “I don’t think space has ever been tighter in the newspaper. We realized we were never going to get our strip syndicated. It seems like there’s just no room anymore for anybody new.”
They determined that the proliferation of so-called legacy comics is preventing most new strips from ever being published. This irks McGinn: “I look at the comic section on a daily basis — I see ‘Beetle Bailey,’ ‘Blondie,’ ‘Dennis the Menace’ and ‘Family Circus.’ They are like family heirlooms ... I torture myself by reading these things.”
McGinn saw their problem turning into an opportunity instead: “I suggested, why don’t we make fun of the very people who just rejected us?
If you can’t join them — make fun of them.” Thus, the idea for their graphic novel, “The Legacy,” was born.
McGinn and Neitzke suddenly had a new project: “It unfolded from there.
‘‘Let’s take one of these squeaky clean family friendly comic strips that you just love to hate — I can’t not read ‘The Family Circus’ — I just have to see it every day just to see how stupid it gets. Let’s take one of these things and completely sabotage it.”
Their graphic novel, “The Legacy,” has just been published. It is the story of a comic strip called “Simple Pleasures.” The creator of the strip is dying and he begs his son to take it over. His son is reluctant to agree but he decides to grant his father’s dying wish.
“Simple Pleasures” follows the exploits of little Dougie Riggle, a 9-year-old in perpetuity. Dougie has been that same age for 50 years. McGinn and Neitzke exact a delicious revenge on the legacy comic industry in this darkly hilarious tale.
Chas, the son who has taken over the strip, chooses to go rogue with “Simple Pleasures.” He turns what had been an innocuous family comic strip into a bizarre distortion of the original created by his father. Suffice it to say that it is no longer at all suitable for family newspapers.
McGinn believes there is an audience for their brand of twisted humor. And he can justify making fun of the cobwebby classics: “ ‘Family Circus’ and strips like that are just so unbelievably simple and so dumb that they are just begging to be made fun of ... for every person who likes to read ‘Family Circus’ there must be two or three people who hate it.”
“The Legacy” is an auspicious debut. McGinn and Neitzke are a talented team. The artwork is distinctive and brilliantly rendered. McGinn’s writing is clever, sarcastic and very amusing. This graphic novel is definitely a comic book for adult readers. The pair has already begun working on their next collaboration.
Andrew McGinn has several events planned to celebrate the publication of “The Legacy.”
1 to 5 p.m. May 8 — a reception at Main Street Comics and Games, 2031 E. Main St., Springfield.
2 to 4 p.m. May 15 — a book signing at Barnes & Noble at the Lennox Towne Shopping Center, 1739 Olentangy River Road, Columbus.
5 to 6 p.m. May 21 — a book-signing at Barnes & Noble/Ohio State University Bookstore, 1598 N. High St., Columbus.
Contact book reviewer Vick Mickunas at vick@vickmickunas.com
Share this article
Breaking news by e-mail
Start your day with top headlines in your inbox and get breaking news e-mail alerts at any time by subscribing to our Headlines e-mail newsletter.
See Sample | Privacy Policy
Latest Entertainment Blog Posts
About our ads
About our adsCopyright © Fri Sep 03 09:54:01 EDT 2010 Springfield News-Sun, Springfield, Ohio, USA.All rights reserved.
By using this site, you accept the terms of our Visitors Agreement and Privacy Policy. About our ads. You may wish to note our other business policies.
11:57 AM, 5/5/2010
Frank Cho from "Liberty Meadows" made more money in comic publishing than with his syndicated strip, so this is a great step. I'm a South Carolina resident now, but my parents live in Springfield. I'll definitely order a copy.
Congratulations, Andrew and David!
5:11 PM, 5/4/2010
9:26 AM, 4/30/2010
LOL
6:43 AM, 4/30/2010
6:30 PM, 4/29/2010