Late last year I had the great pleasure of meeting Jim Mahfood when he did a signing at Forbidden Planet, London. Fantastic chap, very friendly, and genuinely grateful of the enthusiasm people had in his artwork even if we were all greasy-looking nerd types. I’ll buy anything with his name on, because he’s just that good.

Which, to be honest, makes this review a little hard to write.

The thing is, when Stupid Comics started, however many years ago, it was occasionally political, occasionally comedic, occasionally autobiographical. Mahfood played with the boundaries of what he was given. Sometimes you’d get one picture and a veritable essay’s worth of text. other times, you’d got 30 wordless thumbnails crammed onto a page. Stupid Comics was so good that even when they released a collection that was about 25% new material available nowhere else, I was willing (if not happy) to pay £10 just to get what was around one comic’s worth of new material.

Mahfood’s latest release in the Stupid Comics line is this: Stupid Comics: Phoenix Edition - 96 pages of newly-reprinted Stupid Comics taken from the local paper, based in Phoenix, Arizona, that currently housing Stupid Comics: the Phoenix New Times. I was looking forward to it.

And here’s the “but”.

Even though, as the blurb says, you don’t have to be from Phoenix to get the universal politics discussed within it… it would damn sure help. The problem, whether it’s just because that’s what Mahfood’s currently interested in, or because that’s what the publication wants, is that the book contains absolutely nothing but (usually Phoenix-based) political commentary. Strip after strip of it - and if I’m being honest, the politics and satire are often a tad shallow and usually involve two stereotypes screaming opinions at one another - it stops well short of mocking Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, but it’s got still got some really easy shots in it. Set against the considered, deep and nuanced politics of DMZ, it verges on embarrasing. I can identify with his left-wing liberal slant, but it feels less like he’s got his own insight and more like he’s just giving the lefties what they want to read.

Mahfood’s diversity is one of his strengths - with this, I feel I’ve paid to see Mozart perform and he spent 2 hours repeatedly hitting a single note on a piano. It’s still a genius at work, but you couldn’t help be a little disappointed at the results. Admittedly, if you were reading one of these a week, they’d probably be a welcome distraction, but as a collection it’s a little wearing. There are a few times when glimpses of the Mahfood style I love come to the forefront, but they’re few and far between.

I’m almost sorry to say that I was disappointed. I won’t let it sour me to Mahfood’s talent, nor will it even make me think twice next time he’s got a comic or artbook out. I will, however, lower my expectations of what a Stupid Comics collection is going to look like, and hope that his next release is more along the lines of his fantastic 40oz Collected minicomics compilation. There’s a Mahfood book that’s genuinely worth its weight in gold.

Tags: Jim Mahfood, Stupid Comics
Publisher: Image