Justin Green (1945–2022)

A short but interesting autobiographical account of a young man stumbling through Catholic religious dogma while suffering from some form of OCD. Being raised in the Southern Baptist tradition myself, I can relate somewhat to the bizarre things my parents encouraged me to believe in and how they conflicted with reality. Although I can't say that I ever imagined erotic beams shooting out of my trousers, I certianly remember worrying about demons and evil spirits causing every little bad thing show more that happened to me.
Reading Binky Brown was great because it was like seeing this developmental thought pattern mainfest in a similiar system of parenting and believe but all in a comic book format. A lot of those feelings I had forgotten but were reminded of when reading Binky's struggles. A word of warning however: if you can't handle drawn penises, don't try exploring this book. They're practically on every page. show less

This is a reprint of the 1972 comic. I have the original in the garage, and when I first read it I was kind of put off by it. It's an autobiographical story of a young boy and his struggles with sexual urges and Catholicism. Now I find his scrupulosity and neuroses interesting but then I just thought he was kind of weird. I just didn’t get it – I was thoroughly in the late 60s – 70s mindset of sex is groovy, guilt is for squares, if it feels good do it, and couldn’t understand the show more shame and conflicting urges he’s portraying here. I’ve come to feel differently about these things. Art Spiegelman wrote the intro to this edition and worshipfully opines that Green invented the autobiographical comic. I don't think so – Robert Crumb was way ahead of him - but it's a great personal story.
Green has an odd, boxy style that I wasn't sure about but have come to really like. Again, it's very personal. And, we're Facebook friends and he’s commented on flea market photo finds that I've been posting! show less

A charming book that's part history of signpainting, part how-to tutorial, and part amusing little comic. Every artisan field should have a historian as personable as Justin Green.

The deluxe McSweeney's edition is an oversized book that reproduces the original art pages exactly as they are. White-out, tanning, and all blemishes are printed onto the page exactly.

Binky Brown is the original graphic memoir - it inspired Art Spiegelman to author Maus as Spiegelman noted in his introduction. Justin Green retells the story of struggling with his OCD as a child, especially when he was being raised Catholic. Explicit art - penises are literally on almost every page of the show more comic itself.

The story itself is what is considered a traditional memoir about growing up - heartbreak, struggling with adolescence, and then it adds the extra layer of attempting to reconcile Catholic taboos with his OCD. The OCD manifested into beating himself senseless while saying his prayer every night as a child, then gradually morphed into some strange condition where he believed that his penis emanated sinful rays 2 miles long, and if it struck a church or holy statue, he had sinned. The world that Justin Green lives in is a strange one.

Originally written in 1972, Justin Green has written an afterword nearly 40 years later for this edition. He still struggles with OCD, but has married and has had children. He explains his life and struggles with OCD.

I would neither recommend nor criticize this work, and award it three stars out of five. It's worth examining to see what inspired Maus and the entire genre of the graphic memoir. Other than that, it retains no value for me and as such, I haven't kept it in my personal library. show less