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April 22, 2008:
CWN and the Grand Finale! -

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In Conclusion - David ends his CWN run with Tezuka's MW from Vertical

February 2, 2008:
Acting Like You Have Nothing to Prove -

February 2, 2008:
The Shoegazer Returns - A New Year Begins, And Our Narrator Makes A Pledge

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Tim's Reviews -

September 13, 2007:
Wizard World Chicago Loot, Part One - Stykman, Empty Chamber, the Ztarian Saga, and yes, Little Bunny Foo Foo

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I Come Not to Bury Nick Cage... - But to mourn the death of my punchline

November 20, 2006:
The End - Rich's last Chicks & Romance

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Joann Sfar's Klezmer - And a Front Racks Hiatus

October 4, 2006:
This Month's Guest: Dave Gibbons - From the pages of Elephantmen!

September 18, 2006:
Back in Berlin - or How I spent my summer

July 29, 2006:
KICKING UP A STORM - An interview with David Lloyd

June 19, 2006:
You Ain't Never Had A Friend Like Me. - Graeme looks at Spidey's "genies"

December 18, 2005:
Disappointed - Sad news for fans of Busiek's CONAN, Stephen King, and others

December 13, 2004:
JUSTICE UNPLUGGED 2 at last !!! - By Fabrice Sapolsky & Xavier Fournier

December 2, 2004:
THE TWELFTH AND FINAL STEP - Say it ain't so, Dan.

November 23, 2004:
The importance of editing -

September 29, 2004:
Mystery and Conundrum indeed! - Where in the world is Jason Pomerantz?

September 13, 2004:
Hello and Goodbye and Hello Again - Change is in the air at CWN and it smells sweet.

August 12, 2004:
The Rise of the Web Toon - New Business Model or Dumb Luck?

July 30, 2004:
The Name Says it All... - Spin Doctors revamp Boomerang.

July 27, 2004:
Bigger Isn't Always Better -

June 8, 2004:
Pre-emptive Strike: MoCCA Arts Festival - Looking forward to the con, rather than looking back at it

The Layer Method
Our top Secret time-saving technique for creating and merging balloons and tails in Illustrator.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Pizzeria Kamikaze

Review by Michael May

Written by Etgar Keret
Illustrated by Asaf Hanuka

Published by Alternative Comics
$14.95

The best way to give you a feel for Pizzeria Kamikaze would be to quote from it.

�Two days after I killed myself I found a job at some pizza joint called �Kamikaze.� My shift manager was cool and helped me find a place to live. The job�s not so hot, but it�ll do for a while.

�And this place, whenever they used to talk about life after death and go through the is-there-isn�t-there routine, I�d always imagine these beeping sounds, and people floating around in space and stuff. But now that I�m here, it reminds me of Allenby Street.

�My German roommate says this place could just as well be Frankfurt. I guess Frankfurt�s a dump too.�

And so we�re introduced to the afterlife as experienced by suicides. Keret tells his story through the eyes of Mordy, a slacker who killed himself after being dumped by his girlfriend. Once Mordy realizes that the afterlife is no better than what he�s left behind, he does his best to try to settle into a routine. At least until a friend from his living years tells him that Desiree, his ex-girlfriend, also killed herself shortly after Mordy�s funeral. When Mordy grabs his best friend, a womanizer named Uzi, and sets out in search of Desiree, the two of them learn why their afterlives are basically a repeat of their lives.

I don�t want to spoil anything about the story and whether or not Mordy ever finds Desiree, but I will tell you that the message, poignantly told, is about life and contentment and second chances at happiness. It�s effective because, though Mordy�s had some hard luck and made some bad decisions, he�s a very nice guy and anyone who�s ever had a broken heart can relate to him. We want him to be happy. He�s actually got a sense of humor about what�s happened to him and that helps us to root for him to.

For example, when Mordy first arrives in the afterlife, he and Uzi spend a lot of time in bars. Mordy complains about a particular experience at one of their regular hang-outs: �Last night really sucked. Uzi brought this friend of his, Kurt. Thinks the guy�s really cool �cause he was a rock star and everything, but the truth is, he�s a big-time jerk.

�I�m not sold on the place either, but this guy, he wouldn�t stop bitching. Anything that comes up reminds him of some song he wrote. I guess there�s this thing that after you off yourself, the last thing you give a shit about is somebody singing about how unhappy he is.�

Pizzeria Kamikaze isn�t a comedy, but it is funny in a morbid, honest way. That humor not only connects us to the main character, it also puts us at ease in the setting and helps us buy so completely into it that we start to hope that maybe happiness can be found here.

Asaf Hanuka also plays a large role in connecting us to the story. His lines are thin, very clean, and laid down with such a natural ease that you can practically watch him draw the pages in your mind. His style is realistic and detailed, but uncluttered. He uses ink beautifully � breaking up the page and creating focal points without muddying anything. Because of all this, he draws us in and creates characters that are even more real, and even more funny.

Hanuka�s got the same, believably morbid sense of humor that Keret�s script does. People in the afterlife have to walk around with the effects of however they killed themselves still evident on their physical bodies. Mordy�s lucky, having used pills to do himself in. Uzi, though, has to walk around with bullet holes in each temple. Other characters have necks that are still broken, heads that are half missing, or bug-eyed expressions that reveal that they were somehow very surprised by some aspect of committing suicide. Hanuka also draws a great Kurt Cobain.

Touching, funny, romantic, mysterious, and unforgettable, Pizzeria Kamikaze is a reading experience that pulls you into its world even as it�s making you reflect on your own.