Sunday, December 1, 2019

Derf Backderf

Well...ComiXology Unlimited just saved me another $20.

It started earlier today @ Half-Price Books. I was looking for a birthday present for my son, so I was checking out the graphic novels and comic book collections (there's a difference, y'know). And I happened to see a large book entitled Trashed, and something about it looked familiar, though I couldn't put my finger on it.


That ugly, frenetic style of drawing...where had I seen it before? I took a glance at a couple of pages, and yep, it was a True Story kind of thing...about a guy who worked on a garage truck. Of course I had to buy it. And then I saw that it was a Slave Labor Graphics production, which made me think that it would be good, because I always thought highly of SLG's books. And then I saw that it had been marked down to $1. Say what? Well, there  you have it.

And then it hit me: the artist / writer (Derf Backderf) was the guy who had done a strip that used to run in L.E.O. way back when. I didn't remember liking the strip very much, but when I got home I started reading Trashed anyway. And? Yowza. It was very gross at times, for sure, but it was also laugh out loud funny several times. And it was strangely touching, too...in a "you don't always end up where you think you're going to end up in this fuckin' life" way. So when I finished, I decided I needed some more Derf Backderf in my life, and I went over to Amazon to see what I could see.

And Amazon had quite a few things that interested me. Including a much longer version of Trashed. How much longer? Well, the version I bought was a respectable 48 pages long. The Amazon version was listed as being 256 pages long. And a mere $10 in the Kindle edition. Remembering that ComiXology often had the same stuff for a cheaper price, however, I went over there to check on it and...there it was on ComiXology Unlimited. I could borrow it for free, man. And what else did I spy by the light of my eye on CU? Derf's 270 page My Friend Dahmer. So I will soon be reading some more Derf. And if these books are as good as the thing I read earlier today, then I'm going to be needing some more of his stuff, too, and it looks like it is there to be had. Amazon lists a couple of other interesting looking books.

More news as it happens, but for now, I definitely recommend checking out Trashed. You know, you can get a one month free trial of ComiXology and read a bunch of good stuff before you have to decid whether to shell out the bucks or not. It took me awhile to come around, but I finally committed and have been really happy with it. There are tons of things I've wanted to read. Definitely a good deal...especially in these $3.99 per issue comic book days.


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