About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 2011)
THE j'£*!tsa»i$ IHFIPeL IZtdM* :r.;i?K*c a£r : Monday 8:30] February 21st Synday 12:30 February 20H Opening FdfTTggfl Saturday 8:30 M February 19th m Monday 4:00^, ' rSunday 4:30] .February 20th KSj Tuesday 4:00 I ^^■o^bruary 22nd „ It*.. February F I L MSF/E S.Til V A fl i|FEBRUARY*19^23 mTCineArtHaus! ||H rialto'clubII Athensijf.org) > $9.00 REGULAR TICKET */ ¥ $7.00 SENIORS/STUDENTS 4% Special ticket PACKAGES AVAILABLE '&M IE GIRL! NTHETRA1I Tuesday 6:00 j February 22ndJ (Sunday 6:15' February 20di . Miv. Moskowitz HieCats^^" l Sunday 8:45| February 20th] Sk- ML [Tuesday 6:j5] ■ ,'J :: r Tuesday 8:30 February 22nd Monday 6:15 j February 21st ISunday 2:30j February 20th FIVE HOURS • KQM PARIS AUSTIM.TX ^MARCH 11 —£0.2011 SOUTH BV SOUTHWEST The South By Southwest Music Conference S Festival Hegister to Attend Go lo sxsw.com/attend now to register tor SXSW2011 Next discount deadlino£eb. 11.2011 Hundreds of Bands Announced! Bob Geldof to keynote March 17.2011. Loarn more at sxsw.com/music sxsw.com gfson/chidr CHEVROUETC 5, IK @pepsl f•*** mm flagpole THIS. THAT AND THE OTHER In the six years it was on the air, I never watched an episode of "Lost." Not one. People at work would talk about it with the sweaty fervdr of snake-handlers on an arsenic buzz, and truthfully it seemed like the kind of show that'd be right up my alley, what with the mysterious island and the sentient death- cloud and all. but I never turned it on. Once I ascertained that it was the sort of show that if I missed an episode I'd be, well, lost, I decided not even to dip a toe in the water. I don't do "appointment" TV, and the idea of penciling in hours of the week specifically to watch it just irks me. If I find myself caring, I'll rent the DVDs and watch on my own sched ule. Just in case, don't tell me how it ends. Maybe I'm just ornery that way, but it's the same reason why. diehard geek though I am, I stopped reading comic books a long time ago. If you're a funny- book reader, God bless you, you have way more dedication, stamina and disposable income than I do, but I just haven't the will to spend three or four bucks a pop to gather enough issues, tie-ins and crossovers to decipher the convoluted continuity that informs mainstream comics. From what I understand, Batman has died at least three times since the last time I saw him... That's not to say I'm down on comics, only that it takes something very special to get me to that section of the book store anymore. I want a self-contained story, preferably something that affords me something more substantial than the endless adventures of hyperthyroid cases pounding the snot out of each other illustrated by guys who draw every woman with 44DD breasts but never learned to draw feet. I'm looking for a graphic novel, and I don't mean that in the air-quote sense geeks use when they don't want to say "comic books." Matt Kindt does graphic novels, stories • told with sensitivity and pathos about what happens to ordinary people in extraordinary situations. In 2009's year-end wrap-up I blurbed about his remarkable book 3 Story, about a guy who starts growing and doesn't stop, told through the eyes of his mother, wife and daughter as they witness his growing (npi) and tragic isolation from humanity. In his recent book, Revolver (DC/Vertigo, 2010), Kindt takes a "Twilight Zone"-ish plot and imbues it with the kind of depth and gravity one rarely sees in any medium. Sam is a slacker on a slow careen toward a dead end. He works a BS job at an alterna tive newspaper (not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you), cropping photos of the Chicago party scenp for the fluff pages. Unmotivated, perpetually late and subjected to the venom of Jan, his no-nonsense harridan editor, Sam keeps his anger and self-loathing in check with his record collection, his ossi fying relationship with his girlfriend and a heroic intake of booze. His is a wholly unre markable life. Nothing to see here. Until one morning he wakes up and finds his morning commute passing buildings with smoke billowing from the windows and bod ies falling from the upper stories—shades of 9/11. The newspaper has been hit and Sam wades through the panicked, fleeing mob to pull a shellshocked Jan out of her office and down to her car, where the two of them emerge into an America that has been nuked, terrorized and plunged into apocalyptic chaos. Martial law is in force, armed vigilantes and rioting looters swarm the streets and high ways, and Sam the slacker is forced to become Sam the man of action. That is, until the morning after that, when Sam wakes up again in his old world with all of the memories of the hellish day before but with none of the scrapes and scars. He is plunged into a nightmare of alternating days between the two realities, both of which appear utterly real. As the knowledge of the hellscape America awaiting him tcmorrow begins to render his ordinary life meaningless, Sam must discover whether the slip between realities is actually happening or a descent into madness. And if the apocalypse is hap pening, how can one ordinary guy, even one with his special knowledge, stop it? Kindt's style is sparse, even stark, manag ing to convey both the mundane and post- apocalyptic worlds with evocative bleakness that matches the economy of his writing. Here his pictures do what excessive verbiage won't, which is the unique beauty of the true graphic novel. Revolver is more than a comic. It's a book, and one worth reading. John G. Nettles 12 FLAGPOLE.COM-FEBRUARY 2.2011
