BY THIS SHALL YOU KNOW HIM - JESSE JACOBS BASQUIAT: A GRAPHIC NOVEL - PAOLO PARISI

Two comix I picked up to read on a flight. I’ll take the second one first. BASQUIAT, the comic, is something of a disappointment. Basquiat had an incredible, Zelig-like life. He knew everyone important in a very important time in NYC history. Currently, because macroeconomic forces have remade New York into a sort of boring cruise ship for the global hyper-wealthy, there is a lot of nostalgia (of which I am certainly guilty of as well, not this specific NYC strain but a preference for cities with a level of unpredictability and/or chaos) for this earlier NYC where hip-hop and punk rock rubbed shoulders with art and apartments were so cheap you could buy one with an 8ball and so spacious you could create art. Also, unlike nowadays, you didn’t need to work at all times to pay for the “right” to live in the city, you could fuck around and do graffiti and play in bands and go to parties that Andy Warhol was at. So the book is somewhat successful in capturing this world and mode but it undercuts this with biographical information about Basquiat. Sadly, there isn’t really much there in either category. No more Basquiat info than one could gleam off of Wikipedia, no more stuff about 80s NYC than one absorbed through cultural osmosis. Artwise, it was wise to not seek to replicate Basquiat’s unique splatter-y style. It uses some of the same bold colors but arranged in cleaner, more geometrical shapes. It’s an alright overview but doesn’t go deep enough in the copious text, it should have just been a biography, and the drawing is also not unique enough to justify it being a comic. I will give it credit for reminding me of my favorite SAM0 slogan: AN END TO MINDWASH RELIGION, BOGUS PHILOSOPHIES, NOWHERE POLITICS. 88 of the Same Old Shit

The Jesse Jacobs thing I adored. It is similar in style to Safari Honeymoon, with lots of twisty, interconnecting lines and elaborate shapes. The palate is mostly black green and this wonderful muted purple. The story concerns Gods or god-like figures creating planets and fighting with one another. It managed to be cosmic and trippy without ever being confusing or preachy. This thing really is wonderful to look at and reads quickly so you can spend most of your time with it just looking at the drawings. Keep it up Jesse Jacobs. 99 Space Cubes