THE DEVIL'S GRIN

The lives of two poets and a cartoonist intersect in fantastical, horrific, and explicit ways in the first book of Graham’s graphic novel set mostly in 1970s Idaho and brimming with sex, drugs, and demons.

Yet another “sewer poem” from womanizing drug user Robert elicits groans from the audience at the local open mic, much to hotheaded Robert’s irritation. While he won’t talk about his fixation with sewers, a prologue shows how Robert’s aspiring-artist mother flushed Robert down the toilet as a fetus before demons claimed him and tossed him into a cage where he grew big and strong off the milk of a matronly rat. Adult Robert drinks, screws, works construction, leeches off others, loves his car, occasionally cross-dresses, and frequently writes in his notebook. He also has sexual tension with Dandelion, the “pretty and weird” girl down the hall who is also a poet—and haunted by an otherworldly presence. Dandelion works in a nursing home and seems constantly distressed. Her father torments her with repeated calls espousing paranoid conspiracies that may be connected to her inexplicable experiences. Robert and Dandelion’s neighbor Gary is an African American cartoonist who knew Robert’s mother and has the supernatural ability to direct real events via his cartoons—sometimes with deadly results. While Gary contends with racism and personal frustrations, his cartoons give him godlike powers—and he keeps his attention on Robert and Dandelion. The artwork and subject matter echo underground comix (R. Crumb is name-checked), with cartoonish effects like bulging eyeballs and thumping hearts deployed in extensive and graphic sex scenes. With this as only Book 1 and no resolution to be found in these pages, Graham’s ability to bring these wild elements to a satisfying conclusion remains to be seen. But the energy and tapestry of the work is intriguing.

Artistic smut.