The Cabbie
Book One
Checking Availibility...Description
Sergio Leone's retooling of classic westerns for his "spaghetti westerns"... Stieg Larsson's striking take on the serial killer/mystery thriller in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo... And for that matter ABBA's fiendishly catchy appropriation of American pop music. Sometimes it takes Europeans to make gold of tuckered-out American tropes. Add to those instances of inspired global cross-pollination the Spanish cartoonist Martí's eye-popping The Cabbie, which spins off Martin Scorsese's sordid urban-justice drama Taxi Driver with a graphic style that unapologetically appropriates and even refines the brutal slabs of black, squashed perspectives, and grotesque approach to human physiognomy (and its ability to withstand punishment) that define Chester Gould's Dick Tracy. And as Art Spiegelman (who was the first to publish Martí's work in English, in RAW magazine) notes in his introduction, while "Gould's graphic black and white precision and his diagrammatic clarity live on in Martí's work," he points out that "more interestingly, perhaps, so does Gould's depravity." Indeed, if anything, The Cabbie is even more savage than the legendarily brutal Dick Tracy, with its pimps, whores, petty thieves, corrupt businessmen, all swirling around the ingenuously violent "Cabbie" whose self-administered "upstanding citizen" status entitles him -- in his view -- to even more shocking acts of violence -- especially on his quest for the stolen coffin of his father, which he's told includes his entire inheritance!
About this Author
Reviews
"An intriguing throwback to the days of heroes with worldviews defined in terms as rigidly black and white as the panels they battled their way through, this visual and thematic love letter to (and simultaneous critique of) [Chester] Gould's tropes is highly recommended for grownups with a taste for refreshingly lurid pulp fiction."
"Initially published in the '80s, it mimics the basic comic strip format... but is supremely screwed up.... It is a really uncomfortable experience from cover to cover, and I am stoked it exists."
"The Cabbie is one of the few crime comics where you can say it is great and attach no signifiers. Most of the time, liking comics is about liking one or two aspects about a strip. Rare is the long form comic that is just plain great."
"Pure evil genius cartooning: and fun to boot."
"The page. . . where the cabbie brings his father's sewage covered remains home andp uts them in what's left of the coffin and then puts the coffin on top of his mother's recently deceased body tells you everything you need to know. . . . Impregnable would be the best word, EXCELLENT! will have to do."
"This is a harsh and uncompromising tale of escalating crime and uncaring punishments: blackly cynical, existentially scary and populated with a cast of battered, desolate characters of increasingly degenerate desperation. Even the monsters are victims. But for all that The Cabbie is an incredibly compelling drama with strong allegorical overtones and brutally mesmerizing visuals."
If the product is in stock at the store nearest you, we suggest you call ahead to have it set aside for you, or you may place an order online and choose in-store pickup.
