Dylan Horrocks

In Hicksville New Zealand cartoonist Dylan Horrocks has created a loving tribute to the art of the graphic novel, injected a mystery and wrapped it in an enigma.

The story has many threads, the main one being the arrival of American comics reviewer Leonard Batts in the NZ hamlet of Hicksville, where everybody is massively into comics, yet nobody wants to talk about the town’s most famous expatriate, comics giant Jack Burger. Leonard gets frustrated when he can’t make any progress on the show more article he wants to write about Burger, and his bafflement increases when he keeps finding scraps of a cartoon about Captain Cook and a Maori chief speculating on the nature of maps and the changing layout of the land.

Horrocks has worked in lots of tributes to classics of the genre, especially in a sequence set at a costume party, and he clearly is a big fan of Herge and Winsor McCay. (I have to admit that I probably missed a lot of his references).

This is a moving story and Horrocks leaves room for the reader’s imagination to fill in much of the detail, which adds to its charm. it’s also an intelligent tribute to an art form that Horrocks loves, and the place of creativity within it. show less

Really torn on this one - it tries to recreate the same mysterious, esoteric nature of comic book as in Hicksville but it just doesn't feel as authentic or true. I found the first few chapters of Sam Zabel to feel like a completely different book compared to the rest. There's a lot of great stuff in here but it gets so bogged down and mired in the heavy handed messaging about the nature of writer's block, the responsibility of artists and creators and the nature of graphic fiction itself. I show more guess considering how much I LOVE Hicksville, maybe my expectations were too high for this. I think this is really a 2.5 stars for me. show less

Non so bene cosa pensare di questo libro, ho delle perplessità, forse lo dovrei rileggere più in là.
Sam Zabel è un fumettista in crisi, non so se lo sia anche Horrocks, di certo la storia è l'apoteosi del metafumetto.
Autoriflessione sul mezzo fumetto, sulle possibilità della fantasia, sull'opportunità di certe fantasie, sulla visione maschile della maggior parte dei fumetti, ecc. È anche pieno di riferimenti alla Nuova Zelanda, la patria dell'autore.

Leonard Batts a reporter for a comice review journal goes to Hicksville in New Zealand to do research on Dick Burger, a famous comic book writer. When he gets there he meets tons of quirky people, many of whom are very angry at Dick. Over the course of the story you learn more about the town, Dick and the people that he used to be friends with, eventually finding out just what Dick did that was so bad.

I really loved this. Watching Leonard try to figure out how to interact with the town was show more funny b/c he just couldn't wrap his head around everyone hating Dick in the beginning. Sam Zabel's Star strips were a great way to convey what happened between him and Dick and I really liked Moxie and Toxie. They were a great way to show what was going on in Sam's brain.

I loved Mrs. Hicks and her library and if I could live forever in the Lighthouse, I would b/c the idea of what resides in the Lighthouse is just AMAZING.

It just killed me (in a good way) that we never found out who drew the comic that Leonard was recieving. Although there may have been hints and I just totally missed it.

I also loved that the author's Introduction was written as a comic strip, it felt really appropriate.

Honestly I could go on and on about all the things I loved but I think that I am going to stop here. show less