Gonzo: A Graphic Biography Of Hunter S. Thompson (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
This was a captivating sort-of-biography. It was by no means all-inclusive. It was a quick, overall view of the career of Hunter S. Thompson, with a bit about his early childhood and state of mind towards the end. The art was FANTASTIC, incidentally. It worked very well with the writing style, which tended to be short, self-analytical and philosophical sentences. It was not written by HST, but they captured his attitude and style quite well.One thing I really, really enjoyed about this was the way that they didn’t dwell on the drugs. They were there, both pictured and mentioned, and are given as a reason for his wife/girlfriend (wasn’t clear which) to leave him. But more than anything else, it focused on HST as a social activist and critic of the political machine. This side of him, though incredibly important to his work, is often overlooked in the rush to make lurid depictions of drunk-and-disorderly HST. His image as a grumpy and irascible drug user is of course a permanent fixture in culture. But we must be careful not to disregard his brilliance and dedication in the process. “Throughout history, art and politics have always shared a very close relationship. This is because art describes a nation in a way that pure politics cannot. Artworks, folk tales, songs, whatever…creates a common language, the neighborhood if you like – the cultural framework of a nation. Inside which everything, all national events and all politics, occur.” Hunter S. ThompsonHunter S. Thompson in recent years, with the emergence of new generations, has become a cartoon, a figure of fictional fantasy, drug addled and almost inorganic in form due to his showcased excesses. His true nature and the point of his own referred existence have been tainted. That is why a biography in the graphic format, superbly done by Bingley and Hope-Smith, is the perfect way to display to these new generations, these inquisitive onlookers and late blooming fascinated children, and those who may have forgotten that Thompson was much more than a psychedelic reporter jumping from pills, to women, to the bottle and back again. He was a writer whose strength of wit and structure was built over time, of which this span of time was an extremely tumultuous era between peace and war, hippies and hawks. Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsburg, the Hell’s Angels, Richard Nixon, the ’68 Democratic Convention in Chicago, he was there for all of it. These people and events are meant to be recalled when present and future decision making is on the line, and Thompson lent his pitch perfect voice to those past events that were just as hysterical. ‘Gonzo’ alludes to this fact in a way that I don’t believe set prose could do as properly. This biography can be read for the historical context, a curiosity of Thompson, the graphic quality, or just for a good story. A reader that opts to engage in this graphic novel receives all four, with their money and time much better spent than watching, ‘Rum Diary’ or ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’. I understand that ‘Gonzo’ is Bingley and Hope-Smith’s first full length project. Keep an eye out.
What do You think about Gonzo: A Graphic Biography Of Hunter S. Thompson (2010)?
Homenaje bastante fiel al padre del periodismo gonzo en una biografía amena y digerible.
—mine
As cluttered as some of Thompson's later work. It is entertaining.
—Patroklos
Love the writing. Love the art. Love Hunter S. Thompson.
—Kadeem
I cataloged this. It was NOT FREAKY ENUF.
—wallerrob
