Monsters By Ken Dahl: Reviewed

So, I'm always a fan of indie comics. It's nice to get away from all that sellout superhero crap. That a lie. I love that crap. My pull list at the comic shop is Batman, Batman and Robin, Batman, Inc., Batman Confidential, Detective Comics, and the Teen Titans. I fucking love mainstream comics.

That being said, I got this from a friend, after loaning her Atomic Robo, the Goon, and some other stuff I figured she would enjoy. After months of having fewer books in my long boxes, she returned most of them to me, along with this:

This is written by someone she had correspondence with through the internet over the years (remember myspace friends that you didn't know but somehow felt a connection with? God, 2003 was a long time ago), and had been working on this book. It's a quick read, but well worth it for the $18 it's listed for.

To start out; this book made me uncomfortable. In a big way.

To follow up; I feel like everyone should read this story.

It's the story of a man, living his unspectacular life. Had a girlfriend, a job, and really was just kinda you or I. He notices that he has a cold sore that is driving him nuts and won't go away.

You guessed it, kids! It was herpes. He passes it along to his girlfriend, things fall apart. He then spirals downward into a pit of self-loathing, believing that love and physical contact has reached an end for him forever. Hell, you even see him with women after he knows he has the disease. I'm not going to ruin the book for you, because I honestly do want you to read it (I can say "you" because I think everyone should read it, so "you" is both specific and general, in this case. Wordplay, bitches).

As mentioned before, a lot of this story made me squeamish, and that means something. I'm a horror movie fan, I love gore, violence, over-the-top action, hell, I can read a decent amount of Walking Dead without wanting to kill myself due to depression. Do your worst, the grosser, the better, says I! Nope, not this time. This one made me feel very uncomfortable. Upon reflecting on why this book made me so uncomfortable, I realized something. It's something real. It's not a Wolfman ripping off some dude's head. It's not Rambo unloading on some nameless bad guy. This is a common disease that shakes me to my core. I don't want herpes. You don't want herpes. However, this book takes you on a journey of not only a man's life, but a journey of knowledge. The writer/artist of Monsters is the main character, this all actually happened. Monsters cites a lot of statistics and science fact about the disease, and what it really means to have it. I personally feel like some of the stigma behind the word "herpes" has diminished having read this, it's become just another disease, no scarier. I still don't want herpes, by the way.

There will be some awkward parts, understand that. This book pulls no punches with showing genitals, both infected and not, and blatantly shows the main character actively masturbating. If you're not comfortable with things like that, I won't hold it against you if you choose to pass, but you're missing out on a rich, real, and overall (surprisingly) heart-warming story of a man, no better or worse than you or I, just a man.

-P